This is my first time posting so apologies if I do something incorrectly.
As someone who has taught the use of, and regularly handles medieval-type weapons, I have naturally been unhappy with the behaviour of the weapons in vanilla DF. I sought to tailor their stats to better behave to my liking, however it appears that no matter what values I tweak, I still end up with small daggers severing arms and legs (and just recently cutting a human completely in half, but this has only happened once so far).
This is the vanilla DF dagger's slashing attack.
[ATTACK:EDGE:1000:800:slash:slashes:NO_SUB:1250]
It is my understanding that the first number value is the contact area of the attack and the second number value is how deep the attack goes. It is also my understanding that if the size of the limb being struck is less than these values then it is virtually guaranteed that the limb will be severed.
I figured reducing these values would be enough to solve my problem. Here is what I've changed them to.
[ATTACK:EDGE:100:500:cut:cuts:edge:1000]
I realise this has technically made the slashing attack a stabbing attack, which should make it even less likely to sever limbs, yet it still does.
I am left to assume that it might be the actual limb size that needs to be tweaked.
My questions are:
1. Is it my error or misunderstanding that is causing my troubles? If so, would you all please point them out to me?
2a. If it is not my error or misunderstanding, how do I change the limb sizes on creatures, and what would be the possible consequences of doing so?
2b. Is there a coherent list or such detailing the relative size of limbs on a human or dwarf (or elf, or whathaveyou), or otherwise where would I find such information in the raw files?