Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Self Defense  (Read 1271 times)

Ass_Kraken

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Self Defense
« on: July 27, 2012, 01:02:55 am »

I was thinking of the ability for the captain of the guard to meet every once in a while with randomly selected civilians, not soldiers, to train their fighting/dodging/wrestling skills in short bursts dependant on the noble's teaching skill and the civilians student skill. It should also be capped eventually, I was thinking at 3, but it should just be so slow it would rarely reach that point.

I've realized dwarves with 0 combat skill can be easily pummeled to death by thieves/snatchers, but dwarves with even dabbling in fighting skills have been able to beat 5-man swordgoblin ambushes singlehandedly without a scratch and my main loss of dwarves is due to civilians getting murdered while the military is assembling. I've just been cycling dwarves through military training to about novice skill and thieves and snatchers aren't a problem at all and ambushes are nearly solved. It'd be nice to have a more organic feel to this process and giving a use to the captain of the guard noble seems like a good thing.
Logged

Phlum

  • Bay Watcher
  • Above Is my true form, no mortal shall see it!
    • View Profile
    • Idontwanttowork
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2012, 09:18:29 am »

Maybe when groups are implemented this could work. Groups of civilians form self defense groups that train fighting skills at about half speed of the military.
Logged
So I have spoken, may this thread live long!!

I don't share my age online, no one takes horny 14 year olds seriously.

"dwarf fortress is autism in a game"  -a guy named rick

Bohandas

  • Bay Watcher
  • Discordia Vobis Com Et Cum Spiritum
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2012, 03:34:58 pm »

I like this idea.

It sounds useful, not unnecessarily complicated and not improperly unrealistic.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, 04:01:23 pm by Bohandas »
Logged
NEW Petition to stop the anti-consumer, anti-worker, Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement
What is TPP
----------------------
Remember, no one can tell you who you are except an emotionally unattached outside observer making quantifiable measurements.
----------------------
Έπαινος Ερις

Urist McCheeseMaker

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2012, 04:24:27 am »

I think this should use the same mechanism, whatever that is, that would be required for a civilian equipment set. Maybe put the civilians as a sort of military squads that you can't assign individuals to, but which you can schedule for and set uniforms to anyway.

A schedule of having x dwarves train each month, and having them all equip at least leather and silk armour.. that would be really really nice. Better than having to form massive lists of squads for that. AAAAND additional bonus: if things get really bad, you could send the civvie-squad at your enemies and hope they manage to achieve anything.
Logged

Moonshadow101

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2012, 03:10:59 pm »

On the subject, why not give us the ability to have all of our civilians carrying knives or daggers? You'd think in a medievalish world with goblin child-stealers skulking under every rock and hordes of mad badgers screaming through the countryside people would have the sense to arm themselves. Even the human civilians in Adventure Mode are almost always carrying some kind of knife.
Logged

LightlySpartan

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2012, 07:36:59 pm »

It'd be neat to have one, and I think should be easier than the military to set up. Much simpler, maybe even include the basic gear for them with the embark. Might help new players fend off things like weak animals so they don't cause much trouble, but still be steamrolled by any real enemy as they'd just be civilians in clothes with a light weapon.
Logged

ed boy

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2012, 06:13:36 pm »

Also, this could potentially be implemented as an order type for a military squad - If a squad is scheduled to 'Train civillains' for a given month, then each soldier on the squad will grab a random idler and instruct them.
Logged

Bytyan

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2012, 02:38:36 am »

I think this should be something that the player has an option of doing, but is not pushed into, and that the captain of the guard is the wrong choice of instructor. Maybe an (o)rders (civilians train and civilians arm).

Civilian (t)rain means that a new noble position of trainer is opened up. trainer can overlap with any military or non-military noble position, but is more or less full time for large forts. options are never, optional, mandated, available. Optional provides free classes to whoever care to come for a good thought and some new skills, mandated cycles everyone, whether they like it or not, complete with associated bad thoughts, and provided opens government classes that need to be paid for (once the economy is back, naturally).

Civilian arm (w) can be set to none, mandated, optional, or private.  Mandated requires everyone or all appointed individuals to carry whatever arms and armour you say they should (bad thoughts), optional lets you put unused military supplies in a stack, and anyone who feels the need can go take what they like, and private lets you open a military supply store for individuals to buy from.

Government subsidies can be put in place to make steel and training little more realistic for the common underpaid dwarf.

Edit for formating
Logged

Fortress Calling

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2012, 10:29:44 am »

Captain of the Guard definitely needs something to distinguish him from the generic militia commander/captain because for now he is that with a fancy name.
Ok there is justice but most players avoid it by not appointing him (except for catching vampires), the whole Fortress Guard need more civilian/legal related stuff to do since at the moment they are not living up to the name (standard army also guards the fortress).
« Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 10:31:36 am by Fortress Calling »
Logged

Owlbread

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2012, 01:33:41 pm »

Captain of the Guard definitely needs something to distinguish him from the generic militia commander/captain because for now he is that with a fancy name.
Ok there is justice but most players avoid it by not appointing him (except for catching vampires), the whole Fortress Guard need more civilian/legal related stuff to do since at the moment they are not living up to the name (standard army also guards the fortress).

I think when we see proper Dwarven criminals (guys who kill other dwarves for laughs, not the local glassmaker who was asked to make a glass throne in a sandless map) the Captain of the Guard will become much more useful. However, I do think that we need to think of more interesting civilian-orientated services he could perform, along with his guardsmen.

I've always thought that fortress guard should get special bonuses for guarding, making them a better choice than the standard army for patrolling your corridors. If you were ever in a human town pre-2012 you may have noticed the sheer lack of standard soldiers where you would expect them. Rather, the fellows guarding positions were actually "guards".
« Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 01:35:26 pm by Owlbread »
Logged

GreatWyrmGold

  • Bay Watcher
  • Sane, by the local standards.
    • View Profile
Re: Self Defense
« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2012, 08:15:14 pm »

Personally, I think that something like this could be an outgrowth of civilian squads. You could set them to have certain skills, perhaps, and perhaps being able to tell various dwarves to do the training would make sense. That would allow for this as well as, say, having your legendary miner explain how to mine quickly and well to newb miners.
Probably shouldn't be automatic, though. "Dammit, miners, you can defend yourselves with your picks if you need to, stop training with the CoTG and get to mining out the bedrooms!"
« Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 08:16:56 pm by GreatWyrmGold »
Logged
Sig
Are you a GM with players who haven't posted? TheDelinquent Players Help will have Bay12 give you an action!
[GreatWyrmGold] gets a little crown. May it forever be his mark of Cain; let no one argue pointless subjects with him lest they receive the same.