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[Dvergar]

I have got three questions

Projectiles are imo broken, maybe restrain the Projectiles into just 11 directions (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, Up, Down) in Nethack-esque style?  I suppose more directions would be needed, but like I said I think that Projectiles are currently broken and far overpowered.  Are they going to be in the update?

Spears, As of yet spears are the worst weapons (all fall short of sword and axe anyways), would it be possible that spears could get some kind of bonus when there are multiple attackers, esp. megabeasts.  Is some kind of spear buff in the update?

[Arrkhal]

Easiest fix for projectiles is nerf the damage in your raws.  As it stands, arrows and bolts do 100 piercing, same as spears.  That means arrows/bolts do 100P when shot, thrown, or wielded for melee combat.

Make arrows and bolts do 40-50 piercing and spears do 120, and pikes 140, and you should get the effect you're looking for.

Though personally, I'd leave spears as they are.  They're bad in Fortress mode as I believe speardwarves will just twist the spear endlessly if it gets stuck anywhere, but in adventure mode they're great if you know the pros and cons of spear use.

[XSI]

A sort of nerf is planned as far as I know, it will be impossible for an arrow to for example, shoot several internal organs that are far apart, and then get lodged into the spine.

This is the most dangerous thing about arrows, just the damage is fine, but if you're going to make your own adjustments to it, you can try making it blunt damage(Like hammers and maces), blunt damage will not be anywhere near as lethal, but won't take away all their power either.

On good hits:
Axes/swords cut off limbs
Spears/arrows/bolts pierce the target(And may injure vital organs)
Maces/hammers will blow away the opponent(Axes too, but less)
Whips cause gore damage, which is to say, lots of pain, and a chance to rip off chunks(Lethal if it hits the neck/throat)

Besides that, you can claim the powerful arrows as realism, as a single arrow would drop an unarmored person wherever it hits, in fact, going by realism, arrows in DF are even underpowered, as a legendary dwarf can take several arrows and still keep fighting.

As for spears, they aren't that useful in fort mode, since the mentioned speardwarf behaviour, getting stuck in a target, and in general not being good against multiple targets(Like the 6+ groups of wrestlers in every kind of attack) With a fairly skilled user, a spear is very lethal, it's a close range arrow, and the twisting can and most of the time will cause targets with little toughness to faint. Besides that, it can easily pierce vital organs, which is a quick way to kill something.

Spears also cause more sparring injuries then normal(Especially fatal ones and spine injuries), so yes, in general, spears are bad to use in fort mode, but they can be extremely good weapons in adventure mode.
Besides that, a champion with legendary in his/her weaponskill can and most likely will destroy goblin sieges on his own, no matter the weapon, the only difference is how long it takes for them to do so.

[Vester]

Well, realistically it would be the shock from impact and pain that drops the dwarf, not multiple organs being obliterated.

Also, spears are ludicrously deadly against anything with organs in Adventurer mode. In Fort mode, the aforementioned problems apply.

[Tirin]

Would it be possible to adjust bone bolts to have a larger damage reduction? I don't have to many problems with iron bolts, when you arm your marksdwarves with them they're machine-gunning away your iron stores. Bone bolts though.. one invader's bones yield enough bolts to deal with a group of his friends.

[Dvergar]

My problem with Projectiles are its high penetration power, afaik armor simply gives a damage reduction and a bonus to dodging(blocking whatever) a hit

Imo spears should be the 3ft tall dwarf's answer to the multi-tile megabeast

[2xMachina]

Maybe some armor should have a Critical prevention stat too? That is probably better in sugg forum though.

[Shima]

The problems with spears in Fort mode are easily fixed, however, to the point of becoming overpowered.  Just give it [STICK_CHANCE:0] or another low number.  You can even make a secondary kind of spear, add it to the Entities, and use as you see fit.  Example:

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_BOARSPEAR]
[NAME:boar spear:boar spears]
[DAMAGE:100:PIERCE]
[WEIGHT:40]
[SKILL:SPEAR]
[TWO_HANDED:5]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:5]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:3]
[STICK_CHANCE:0]

They'll never stick again.

You can also try adding [CRIT_BOOST:0] to arrows and bolts and see if that keeps them from insta-killing as often.  I myself keep their base damage at 40 and 70, respectively.

[Albedo]

Spears, As of yet spears are the worst weapons (all fall short of sword and axe anyways)

Feh.

Every weapon has its strengths and weaknesses, and there is no one "best" weapon.  The advantage of spears is that they, more than any other weapon, can instant-kill anything with internal organs.  In the hands of a no-skill recruit, they have a better chance of taking out a large enemy than an axe, sword or hammer.  Axes maim on crits, hammers send 'em flying, but spears just remark "your heart - how awkward for you". 

Yes, any weapon has a chance for a crit - but spears have a larger chance, and when they do, it tends to be game over - no bleeding, no 2nd chances, no nuthin.

As for getting stuck, that's what the Strength attribute and Wrestling are for - and then they keep hurting the enemy, guaranteed, each round, until it does come out.  That's a bonus in my book.

[Overspeculated]

arrows in DF are even underpowered, as a legendary dwarf can take several arrows and still keep fighting.

That depends, if the bolts lack a head, a normally muscled human could realistically survive a couple of shots in non-lethal positions. One must also take into account that normal dwarves are much tougher than humans, and that an armoured champion might aswell be a tank.

[Arrkhal]

And mostly, I'd nerf the damage compared to spears simply because arrows and bolts are smaller.  They may go faster, but that's not going to magically cause a 1" wide arrowhead to make as big of a wound as a 2" wide spearhead.

[Jim Groovester]

I disagree with pretty much any discussion that spears are underpowered, or worthless, or what have you.

Some of the coolest things I've seen in DF is when I've got a legendary spear champion get surrounded by a bunch of wrestlers or whatever, and in a frame or two they're all flashing red crosses because they've had their throats ripped out or hearts punctured. They don't lose their spear, they don't spend all their time twisting it, and they don't get mobbed and taken down.

They're not even that dangerous during sparring. I've trained plenty of speardwarves, and they're no more dangerous than any other weapon. All weapons have a chance to do permanent spine damage, and I've never had a sparring injury I could contribute directly to spears.
I challenge all of you to train a few speardwarves, and see whether or not they're as dangerous or ineffective as you think they are.

If you take the same precautions that you would for all other weapon training, like training the soldiers to legendary wrestling first, not mixing new recruits and champions, full steel armor, etc., you'll find that they make a fine addition to your army.

[Dvergar]

Oh, I do train spearsdwarves, that is actually all that I train, and I don't have many sparring accidents either.  However, if you put a spearsdwarf and axedwarf of similar skill with similar weapons the axedwarf consistantly comes out on top...

Whatever, I guess I don't know, but the fact about whether or not they suck is actually irrelevant, I was actually asking if there was going to be some kind of bonus when several spearsdwarves work together, as in a phalanx (impossible without multi-tile range anyways right?) or some kind of a mega-beast poke-fest. 

[Viroath]

I sort of find Spears pointless.  Picks are trained by Civs, easily reach Expert Wrestler, don't lock them out from the workforce, can be cycled through a Pump Gym, Siege Training and a bunch of other useful purposes that only Civs can do.  Gets them done without putting any of the Workforce at risk and with a bit of planning can be quickly outfitted with Armor.  As long as you've got rock to cut into, you can continue to train them, and they give quick stat ups too.

Yeah, they do about 70% of the damage of a Spear, but they can be made of Steel as well.  The kicker of a Spear isn't the damage, it's the Pierce function.

And, if you notice them being forced weaponless, you have have them deactivated, running away from the combat, and if they make it back to the fort in one piece, then reequipping them and sending them out again.  And no bad thoughts for it all.

Then again, I make plans on plans, and for when plans fail.

[Dvergar]

I sort of find Spears pointless.

hehehe.......sorry