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Author Topic: Kill tracking and weapon titles  (Read 985 times)

piecewise

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Kill tracking and weapon titles
« on: May 23, 2009, 02:16:06 pm »

What would be neat, in my opinion, is if individual weapons could track their kills. Like say I have this spear I've used to kill a dozen people and a dragon or two. The weapon would keep track of who's been killed with it, and if enough people have died by its blade then it would gain a title. I think it would be pretty cool to wander into an abandoned fort and find the sword that an elite swordsdwarf used and be able to look back at its history. I don't know about you, but in adventure mode I become attached to my weapons, so it would be nice to see them gain a rep as I do as well.

Janizary

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2009, 02:28:15 pm »

Sounds like how in some cartoons weapon's gain power by killing X number of Ys to gain demonic power.
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Neonivek

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2009, 02:32:52 pm »

Sounds like how in some cartoons weapon's gain power by killing X number of Ys to gain demonic power.

I think it is quite a bit more common in videogames then cartoons.

I do think that a weapon with a title should at least be Masterwork. Otherwise it would be the person who is exceptional and not the weapon. (Ignoring possibly killing Worshipped beings)

Though yes I do realise that isn't how real life history works... I just don't want to see Title explosions for objects.
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Silverionmox

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2009, 02:40:48 pm »

One could turn that around and say that a weapon that has killed so many creatures while only being average quality or worse is definitely something special and deserves a title. The kills should be culled at regular intervals though. Whenever it is inherited, only the number of creatures killed per species should be kept, excepting notable kills of course. Most weapons will either not kill that much, or be destroyed before doing anything remarkable enough to a title. It's a matter of setting the right treshold.
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piecewise

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2009, 04:26:32 pm »

Yeah, the restrictions would have to be well done. Non-named animals don't count. I'm just thinking that, with our real legends, not only is the man famous but his weapon is as well. Wouldn't it make sense that people would name and remember both a great hero/villian and their weapon? I should think that to get a name a weapon would have to either kill a megabeast or quite a few people.

Something like a 100 human/elf/dwarf limit for a title

I just imagine a senario were you look into the legends and see "Dwarfy mcstabsalot struck down Firenads the dragon in 3 using the Ax Silverkitten." and then, while out questing you find an axlord who is actually weilding the same named ax.  I feel like it would give a feeling of greater history to the world, not to mention opening the possiblity to go out looking for one of the lost named weapons.

Neonivek

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2009, 04:29:27 pm »

Quote
not only is the man famous but his weapon is as well

Yeah but they usually make his weapon exceptional somehow in the history books.
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piecewise

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2009, 04:48:17 pm »

Yeah, but limitation would lead to one of two solutions.

1.Only master weapons could gain titles.
yeah they're well made but not exactly "magical", plus it would feel a little off putting if you slay 45 dragons with an iron pike and get nothing only to have your masterwork steel sheild gain a name after you bash a cyclops to death with it.

2.Gaining a title increases the quality of the weapon.
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Footkerchief

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2009, 05:01:58 pm »

A lot of this already came up in the named weapons thread.
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Creamcorn

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2009, 05:06:43 pm »

How about having Master Piece weapons retain the names of their creators?

Ex: This is a Steel Urist Ogrebrain Battle Axe, all dwarfsmanship is of Masterpiece quality. It was crafted in 209 in the fortress fortress by the legendary Weapon Smith Urist Ogrebrain.
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inaluct

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2009, 05:10:03 pm »

I think that titles should be available to all weapons. I mean, your first copper hammer could have much more history behind it than just another masterwork iron battleaxe that your champion gets a handful of kills with.
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Leafsnail

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2009, 05:18:52 pm »

How about you can engrave it with notable kills?  Like a special option "Engrave notable kills" (yeah, creative) where you can keep a hitlist of notable kills.

I know what you're going to say.  "Leafsnail, every single frickin' goblin counts as a notable kill.  You could rack up hundreds".  In which case, it could only count as very notable if:
1. It's a semi/ full megabeast
2. It's a creature (such as a goblin) that has killed a notable beast.
3. The creature has gained a title from your dwarves.
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irmo

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #11 on: May 27, 2009, 04:10:56 am »

I think that titles should be available to all weapons. I mean, your first copper hammer could have much more history behind it than just another masterwork iron battleaxe that your champion gets a handful of kills with.

Speaking of that, production of masterwork stuff needs to be much less frequent. There should never be "just another masterwork iron battleaxe".
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Aquillion

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Re: Kill tracking and weapon titles
« Reply #12 on: May 27, 2009, 05:12:52 am »

Disagree.  Masterwork =! artifact.  Dwarf Fortress simply uses 'masterwork' to mean the work of a master craftsman; a legendary dwarf should be able to churn out what other people would call masterworks (by the standard of lesser crafters) on a regular basis.

Of course, if you asked him, that dwarf would probably consider his artifact to be his "masterwork".  But in terms of quality, masterworks make sense the way they are now.
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