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[Girlinhat]

I'm slightly upset that the eastern equipment is so much better than western - katana outclasses broadsword, same for 2h and the armors.

[Mephansteras]

I'm slightly upset that the eastern equipment is so much better than western - katana outclasses broadsword, same for 2h and the armors.

That is a bit odd. Quality of the item matters much more for swords and armor than style.

Although, to be fair, a katana would be better than a broadsword for most zombies since it is designed more for slashing while a broadsword is more designed for penetrating armor on a thrust. A high quality scimitar or sabre would be equally effective, though.

[Silfurdreki]

Wait, eastern armour? As in Samurai wooden armour? How on Earth could that be better than a breastplate?

I used to swear by bows until I tried the pneumatic rifle from mechanics. I think I'm hooked on guns now... Still won't give up a nice nail board or combat knife for emergencies, though.

I do like how the different weapons are balanced, though. Just need to live long enough to get some decent rifle practice in...

Also, is it just me or has the inventory letter assignment been more lax about giving out duplicate letters, lately? One of my characters in a previous nightly build kept getting plastic bottles confused with a hammer and vaporizing his clean water in a blind rage.

Oooh, I need to try me one of those. Gotta get my hands on some mechanics books first, though.

And yeah, I've experienced the multiple letters thing myself. What gives?

[Girlinhat]

There's samurai-style full armor suits.

[Robsoie]

Is there some way to toggle the sprites off? I feel like it makes navigating rather confusing, especially navigating the interiors of cars.

In the options -> Interface , set the Tiles to False (default is True).
Escape and confirm the saves then quit the game.
At the next relaunch you'll be back to ascii

[Darkmere]

I was under the impression that the balancing factors for samurai armor and the like was weight, bulk, noise, encumbrance, and what you have to go through to be able to fabricate all of it. I haven't seen the stuff in pawn shops, though. They tend to be rare in my cities and always have mostly junk.

Also, you can train mechanics by taking cars apart, if you have a hacksaw and wrench. Depending on what's available, it may be fast enough to just save up a few days' food and water and clear the road of a few wrecks, piece at a time.

[Silfurdreki]

Oh yes, that's true. I always forget that you don't need a welder to take stuff apart, only to put things together.

[Darkmere]

Yeah. Dead in the first week. Awesome.


So... how do funnels work now? I've tried dropping a jug and placing the funnel, placing the funnel and dropping a jug, doing either of those in the rain, and having a funnel/jug out while I wait a few hours in the rain. Nothing ever fills the container. The only option I get when activating the funnel is disarm instead of a fill dialog like it used to be. What do?

[Girlinhat]

Drop an empty container on the same tile as a deployed funnel, and wait.  It's somewhat tricky to make it work, I usually have to wait with the | menu, or by holding 5 or . to progress time.  Sleeping and crafting seemed to disable funnel filling for that time...

[Knight of Fools]

Here's a couple of articles that discusses katanas vs. longswords and knights vs. Samurai (He discusses armor, too, where European plate armor wins hands down). It's an intriguing read, since he pretty much just ignores materials used (IE, steel and iron) and looks at the broad strokes rather than nitpicking with anecdotes. He points several times at the bias against long swords that developed with renaissance ideas about swords, which were based around the idea of flimsy sporting swords.

Basically, the katana's curved blade makes it slightly better at cutting (More damage when cutting), long swords' point makes it better for thrusting (It's faster and does a lot more damage than the katana's thrust), the long sword is better for defending (More parrying).

I felt he was unfair on the Speed judgement, since the katana mostly won out because it's designed to be quick drawn and is shorter.  In a real fight, having a weapon you can attack with from three points (Both blades and the tip) would make a broadsword quicker for consecutive strikes and combos, but the katana would probably be faster on the first strike. It might be a bit more complicated to code, but it'd make for some interesting combat mechanics where the katana would be great for quick one-hit-and-he's-dead fights, while the long sword would be better for prolonged fights and brawls. He touches on this when discussing versatility, which the long sword wins easily.

He leaves the matter of durability at an ambiguous tie, but I think the broadsword would win out in a contest. Katanas can be brittle along the blade, and while they do fine against soft targets they can chip if use improperly. Mechanically, I think this would translate to the longsword having higher durability and being easier to repair, while the katana would require a lot of skill to keep from damaging it and be harder to keep in good condition. We don't have item damage implemented (yet?), so that's kind of a moot point.

So, both have their strengths and weaknesses, and neither is superior to the other in all situations. I do think that it's significant that while the broadsword was a stable of European warfare and dueling for centuries, the katana was often just a side-weapon in war and a dueling weapon outside of it.


Reading through his article on rapiers, I think I'd like to see the rapier receive a little buff. I didn't realize they dominated broadswords so hard in duels. The last time I came across one in-game I was unimpressed.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Reading through his article on rapiers, I think I'd like to see the rapier receive a little buff. I didn't realize they dominated broadswords so hard in duels. The last time I came across one in-game I was unimpressed.

I think we need to have weapons scale with skills at different rates. So some weapons are better for beginners, but other weapons would surpass them as you became more skilled. So a rapier would be a crappy weapon in the hands of beginner since they wouldn't be able to hit vitals reliably, but when you get really good at melee weapons you'll be criting zombies left and right. Pistols and shotguns would also be easier to use at first than rifles, but later on they'd be less attractive due to lower damage/range. Just a thought.

[Darkmere]

Drop an empty container on the same tile as a deployed funnel, and wait.  It's somewhat tricky to make it work, I usually have to wait with the | menu, or by holding 5 or . to progress time.  Sleeping and crafting seemed to disable funnel filling for that time...

Ah. So, basically any time it would be really useful and handy doesn't actually work (including acid rain, which melts containers). Well then....

[USEC_OFFICER]

Drop an empty container on the same tile as a deployed funnel, and wait.  It's somewhat tricky to make it work, I usually have to wait with the | menu, or by holding 5 or . to progress time.  Sleeping and crafting seemed to disable funnel filling for that time...

Ah. So, basically any time it would be really useful and handy doesn't actually work (including acid rain, which melts containers). Well then....

Aren't steel and glass containers immune to acid though? Never really played around with acid, but I'd be surprised if glass ones melted too.

[Aseaheru]

I had a steel jerry melt in acid rain...

In other news, I am in the process of uploading some bad videos of cata! Prepare to be assaulted by nightmares of failure!
Who whats a link to my page so they can cry when they are up?

[Darkmere]

Glass maybe, but I know it's melted a steel jerrycan.

It doesn't really matter, as apparently 2 servings of water take multiple hours to collect so... I dunno. Maybe if you had 3 or 4 funnels going for a few days I guess. Or you could just go to a pool/river/collect from bathrooms and take far less time.