This mod gave me a reason to make an account, thank you.
Also here are a few suggestion that i have fleshed out somewhat (spoilered for the size of them):
1. Ponies have been show to inexplicably manipulate objects, and hold them with their front hooves. Perhaps this could be applies to the crossbow. Alternatively, you could just include just include repeating crossbows, that would either A.Have varied ammunition cap depending on its quality (a normal one would cap at 3, and an artifact could be around 20) along with the quality affect on damage. B. could have a standardized cap, i personally suggest simply having that cap be 10.
The repeating crossbow would require a normal crossbow, which ponies aside from unicorns could not use (perhaps "advanced" creatures with digits could also sell this as a trade good), would then go to a bowyer workshop to become a mounted crossbow, which might take the spot of chest armor, making for a decent trade off in the long run. The mounted crossbow would require a crossbow (obviously), mounting (it can either just require an ingot at the bowyer shop, or require it be pre-made at a forge), and a mechanism, as well as the schematic for this, as this seems a bit complex for something right off the bat. Now the mounted crossbow can be used as is, but be immensely ineffective due to it's constant need to be reloaded by a non-unicorn. unicorns who use this, get one free grasper, the other grasper (the horn) is being used to fire the weapon. that free gasped could be used to hold another item, such as a shield. Everypony else takes longer to reload. And for this reason, the next step in the crossbow hierarchy has reason to exist. The repeater crossbow could be built in two ways:
1. upgrading an unmounted crossbow into a repeater crossbow, which requires one or two mechanisms, and maybe an ingot of weapon-grade metal just make it a bit more costly to make, and then it would need to be mounted in a similar manor as the normal mounted crossbow, the only difference here being that you are using a repeating crossbow in place of a normal crossbow.
or
2. Simply upgrading a normal mounted crossbow with one or two mechanisms, and perhaps an ingot of weapon-grade metal, for the same reason as before.
It is worth noting that:
A. Mounted crossbows could no longer be used as a melee weapon, so if your crossbow-ponies get into a melee fight, and they all use only the mounted crossbows, they are screwed
B. Unicorns could also use repeaters, to save time a little more time between shots, but again lack a free grasper.
Thank you for reading that.
Edit: That is to say that they could use the individual repeater crossbow with the lack of a free grasp, but they could also use the mounted repeater
2. Perhaps you should think about turning down the number of research points gained from studying, as i have 88 stacks of 250 research points, each of which are worth 1 dwarfbuck (or should it be called a bit?) a piece, making them a decent trade good from just 2 libraries and no dedicated ponies. Just a thought.
3. Perhaps you should make apple bucking a tad bit more worthwhile. As it is, i am better off with my one 9x9 plot used for dandelions in 2 seasons, that fully supports my outdoor fortress tower city. Perhaps you allow apples to eaten as they are individually, rather than as an entire basket of 10 apples. Perhaps the baskets could be used both for storage purposes, and for cooking purposes, while plain apples can be eaten as is. Or perhaps your ponies could receive a good thought from eating a quality checked apple. Though with this improvement, you would have to refine the needs for the apple trees to be planted, meaning that they would have to be planted on soil, and in the light.
It might also be worth making it so they can only produce apples during the warmer seasons, rather than year round.
4. ROCK FARMING!
Ok, i know that this one is more fan speculation and all, but the tittle of mod is "Fannon is Magic", so please give me some lenience here:
A common belief as to the point of rock farming, is to expand the amount of a mineral inside a stone, increasing the yield of metal , whilst lowering the effect on the environment. Supposedly it does this with magic currents in the air increasing the amount of a mineral in an entity, somewhat like weather system. You can apply that into this mod by creating "rock plots", which can be placed anywhere, so long as they are outside. Then you can select any stone you have mined, and that plot is dedicated to that stone. When the stone is matured, it shall be duplicated, giving you another stone, of the same type. Now i know this seems a bit over powered, but the catch to all, this is that the base value of the material is determines how many in game months it will take for the stone to mature. So you can grow as much native copper and cassiterite as you want, if you really want to kick off your bronze industry in only a few months time, but if you get your hands on some "CANDY", and you want to grow some more without having the chance of opening the "CLOWN CAR" and then having to deal with the horrifying "CLOWNS", it will take you just under 21 game years to get your first fully grown unit of "CANDY" from the rock farms. Hell, it will take you 5 years just to grown a black diamond, so those are also probably out of the question. Perhaps the major metals could have their grow time increased a bit, though aside from that, it seems fairly balanced.
Thank you for reading this . Have a fluttershy: