the split between movement/combat actions as well as reaction moments.
finally, dwarf fortress takes another giant step away from traditional roguelike combat...
Quite a few Roguelikes have adopted variable-energy action cost systems of one sort or another, as a way to better organize the old "multiple blows", "multiple shots", "extra attacks" and "increased speed" systems into something more unified. This helps allow for the aforementioned "cheetah" case (runs very fast, but doesn't attack much faster than typical), the "hydra" case (large, slow-moving creatures with many attacks if you're unwise enough to get within its range), and a wide variety of other interesting possibilities. I'm quite pleased that DF is getting something along these lines, as it opens up both better simulation and more interesting game possibilities.
This can also be a useful input into weapon balancing. Even with the simplest of fixed-energy system (single value in weapon raws, for instance), hopefully we'll finally be able to have slower-firing but more powerful
cranequin-equpped crossbows and the like. Historical siege defender crossbows evolved for longer range and better armor penetration at the expense of easy portability and rate of fire; given the sort of besieging monsters one can get in DF and dwarven mechanical aptitude, it's been an obviously missing part of the balance.
Once you have a variable energy system, there are even more interesting possibilities. The energy required to attack with a melee weapon could well be derived from a comparison of the wielder's size and the weapon's size, a comparison of the weapon's weight and the wielder's strength, whether it's being used multi-grasp or not, and possibly some sort of "wieldiness" or "balance" constant from the weapon raws modified by the weapon's quality. This would allow for much better and more natural handling of oversized weapons (sure, your adventurer can lift that minotaur-scale great axe, but are they strong enough to swing it quickly enough to be useful in combat?), sufficiently large & strong creatures able to dual-wield two-handed weapons of lesser creatures with ease, and so on.
Toady, how does the movement/combat split affect creature, weapon, etc. raws?
Are weapon attack speeds entirely based on raw constants, calculated based on a mix of raw constants and internal code, or entirely generated from internal code?
Does weapon quality affect attack speed?
My hope would be that the quality of actual weapons would help their attack speed somewhat (one of the most common positive descriptions of superior-quality real world weapons is some variant of "superbly balanced"), but the quality of non-weapons used to bludgeon things should not make a difference. This might help with "beaten to death with a sock" problems, as purpose-crafted weapons of any reasonable quality would be distinctly better at being a weapon, and hopefully at some point creatures would be aware of that.
Will creature movement speed be variable by caste, gender, etc.?Near-sessile queens and fast-moving drones would be the obvious natural example here, but there are many uses.
Will movement speed for dwarves be affected primarily by the existing Agility attribute, or will there be a split so that dwarves have differing attributes that control how fast they move and how efficiently they accomplish actions?
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 3841943 times)