No soldier besides professional wrestlers is really complete without their weapon, but out on the field of battle troops have been using tools to keep them versatile, safe, sheltered and ready to tackle cognitive as well as physical challenges. The Romans legions used to pave roads, build large camps and fortresses from scratch, carrying material over many miles and being as adept with a shovel and mortar as they were a sword.
Not that im asking Dwarves to build Rome in a day, but the capacity to use some of their body slots to carry tools would greatly increase the amount of things they could do and fit in with some development goals.
Changes to UniformsUniforms right now are kind of a mess, there are any number of erratic problems with setting the uniform so that dwarves simply pick up and use a axe to chop wood. This i believe would be greatly mitigated by the introduction of a purposeful tools secondary slot especially for both military and civilian roles.
Weapon slot and secondary tool are seperate concepts, however a tool can also have the properties of a weapon if least some basic value as a clubbing weapon when used in a improvised manner to make use of the improvised tool skill.
- Secondary weapon - Dwarves will use a standard weapon in the secondary toolslot providing it is not too large or encumbering for them to carry when they need to or feel it would be preferable, this would mean objects like knives/short swords would be suitable for archers, or even a custom modded weapon to please modders.
New civilian outfits - Instead of occupying a weapon slot, all civilian outfit tools (without nessecary exceptions) will have the relevant weapons of tools or picks put into a secondary slot, so they do not interfere with primary weapon allocations, though they will have to be unset from the role before applying another tool from the military screen. (or it will be grayed/set to red until they are un-allocated)
- Certain uniforms might have tools carried with them that can be used seamlessly in the user's hand in the workshop to substitute bringing a reagent explicitly there, this can extend to roles such as butchers for cutting up meat using availible cleavers/meatcarvers or boning knifes or hand-tools for other craftsdwarves like saws and hammers, perhaps producing better quantity and quality if the tool is present.
Below are some fresh examples I can think of where weapon & unique/exotic uses of tools can exist, bunched together in quotes if they are similar.
ToolsShovels - [TOOL_USE:DIG_DIRT] a shorthand digging tool for enemy invaders, in peace-time these might have been farmers or gardeners, but they will create a special traversible tile type of a 'Tunnel' through dirt that collapse back into normal soil over time, this is one of the overall development goals and i think it'd be a nice way to initially poke holes in a fortress's defences.
- Picks - This is a weapon with a tool-use similar to shovels, so races with one in the secondary slot might draw it if they are disarmed or have a ranged weapon, but will otherwise have it draw when they cut away rock for the tool purpose of a solid/block stone or wood wall
Ropes & Restraints - A stretch of ropeor chain to restrain and arrest yielding hostiles and criminals, all town guards should ideally have some rope to quickly subdue tantrummers, and special kinds of intruders (bandits, slavery inclined or tokened races) may be inclined to steal livestock or citizens by seizing and making off the side of the map with them.
- Under orders, a team of trained wrestlers with ropes and the most experience of hand to hand fighting could be tasked to force a opponent to yield, or simply wrestle the creature down by force to capture, then put in cage or jail.
- Like spider web, according to where it is bound normally targeting the arms (to disarm the grip) or the legs (to affect its stance) they will not be able to move that limb in general unless the creature is too large and strong, artifact restraints cant be broken though so are suitable versus problematic visitors.
Slinghooks - Another use for rope, though the entire rope is connected to a slinghook tool, goal in the devlog but to breifly outline, allows the user to create a "ladder" of ropes up vertical surfaces when they decide they want to path over steep or inaccessible terrain without climbing, travelling up to 2 or 3-4 z's at a time, allowing other creatures to follow after them. The tool might be consumed upon use
Additional Ammunition - Always useful to carry some extra bolts and slip them into your quiver when it's empty, this counts towards their normal bolt allowance so they will only take same-material bolts for whatever combat or training task they are doing.
Throwables - Not quite a "hand grenade", but vials of acid and other pungent or unpleasant things (threetoe's good work in storytelling lending to helping visualise this), training throwing skill and archer for how accurate in hitting the mark they are (if it matters depending on reagent) dwarves might feel inclined to throw these first (
hopefully not accidentally torching the entire area with fire snake extract). They may even prefer to throw random objects or specialised throwing ammunition (small stack of throwing knives) instead of engaging with some distance between themselves and the target.
Cloth (for bandages) and other quick medicinal objects - Useful for a dwarf to quickly self medicate themselves, they wont have time to sew themselves back up again, but quickly layering a bandage over a wound or injury can prevent infection, and splints can stabilize limbs so they do not get more mangled while help arrives for them. A vial of magic potion or very real medicine perhaps might be a useful, like vial of golden salve.
Fin:This is as much as i can think of at the moment, but i believe these would make a substantial improvement to the systems of the game.
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Topic: Military/Civilian Uniform Tools - Shovels, Restraints etc. (Read 463 times)