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[Lightningy]

sorry if a post like this exists(at which point you can link me to it) but i was wondering if this can be modded or planed for a future version.
point being is it feasible considering the game engine.

[Urist Da Vinci]

...
point being is it feasible considering the game engine.

At the moment, body parts are more likely to be hit (as opposed to the ranged attack hitting a different body part) if they are relatively larger. Other than that, it is purely random. It is totally possible for the enemy to move out of the way, dodge, or for the attack to miss and hit the other enemy standing behind him. Even grand master crossbowmen can miss by +/- 1 tile to either side when shooting out to a 20 tile range.

DF projectiles remember who shot them (for friend/foe purposes), a velocity and direction of flight, and a "to hit" number that affects accuracy/squareness. The "game engine" currently doesn't support targeted body parts, or even any kind of "target lock" on an enemy (you are aiming in a direction). Toady may eventually add support for targeting body parts if he feels it is a good use of his time.

This is not something that modding can change, sorry.

[random_odd_guy]

Are you trying to give people arrows to the knee?

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

you are aiming in a direction

This. So much this. When firing a bow/crossbow you are not necessarily firing at the target as much as you are firing at a location where the target happens to reside.

[Lightningy]

...
point being is it feasible considering the game engine.

At the moment, body parts are more likely to be hit (as opposed to the ranged attack hitting a different body part) if they are relatively larger. Other than that, it is purely random. It is totally possible for the enemy to move out of the way, dodge, or for the attack to miss and hit the other enemy standing behind him. Even grand master crossbowmen can miss by +/- 1 tile to either side when shooting out to a 20 tile range.

DF projectiles remember who shot them (for friend/foe purposes), a velocity and direction of flight, and a "to hit" number that affects accuracy/squareness. The "game engine" currently doesn't support targeted body parts, or even any kind of "target lock" on an enemy (you are aiming in a direction). Toady may eventually add support for targeting body parts if he feels it is a good use of his time.

This is not something that modding can change, sorry.

This. So much this. When firing a bow/crossbow you are not necessarily firing at the target as much as you are firing at a location where the target happens to reside.

thanks for the swift reply. that really cleared things up.

Are you trying to give people arrows to the knee?

Well the closest thing that dwarf fortress has.
thanks for your replies and help

[peasant cretin]

I guess better to necro, than start anew.

Recently took another look at ranged targeting for DF 0.43.05. Targeting is mainly affected by facing, or what you could call sidedness. When you have ambusher on, you'll see an NPC's vision arc and thus their facing direction (if the arc is a cone). There's still randomness in what gets hit, but by using facing, it's a good deal more dialed in toward the side you're firing at. Useful for achieving suffocation versus organics or disarms on melee/ranged units.

If an NPC is facing south and you want to hit right side and hopefully increase your odds of hitting right lung, you'd want to have a line of fire that's going eastward/northeast. If you want left lung, you'd want to fire westward/northwest. Same for disarming a melee unit, identify weapon side, fire toward that side.

Sorry in advance for the crappy diagram:

goblin facing south
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,g,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,\,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,\,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,@,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,@,,,,,
firing NE,,,,,,,,,,,firing NW

While not perfect, it works a good deal better than firing from whatever position.

For those of you who want to test the idea of sidedness, the best test target is something with a tail. Shooting a southward facing NPC from behind hits its tail more often, than say firing frontal; aiming toward a side more often hits that side, etc.

Note: Handedness when squared up has a similar, but lesser influence that's more noticeable with strikes: if you want left lung damage, punch with your right. Holding your bow/xbow with right hand when firing to get left side/left lung kinda nudges damage a bit more toward the desired result.

[Melting Sky]

Impressive research.

[peasant cretin]

Something I noticed recently for organic NPC targets —in regard to killshots, upper spine/dual lung damage (to produce suffocation), or major artery ruptures— in terms of shot economy, is that it's preferred these occur before a standing target is grounded.

Grounded targets log higher occurrences of limb shots, which is just wasted ammo until you get either one of the above or a bleed out by a thousand cuts. And cumulative damage resulting in bleed out is as inefficient as it gets.