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[Ωmega]

Isn't it just sad when legendary Urist Mc axedwarf looses his arm to a goblin commander and cant use his weapon anymore? i think there should be a feature that allows surgeons with a high level of skill the ability to sew freshly severed parts back onto dwarves. if a dwarf looses a part he would (after he is done fighting or nearly dieing of course) attempt to take the limb with him to the hospital zone and request that it be put back on before its too late. smaller parts like fingers can be reattached easily and have a greater chance of becoming useable again than larger things like arms.
another neat idea would be higher experienced surgeons ability to sew other dwarve's body parts to a dwarf if its still fresh. if a surgeon is of a very high level, he can even attempt an organ transplant from a recently deceased body with a fresh organ to saved a damaged one in a living dwarf.
how epic of a story would it be if Urist Mc axedwarf recovered his best friend's arm after a goblin commander strikes him down and gets it sewed onto him where his missing arm was. the goblin siege returns later and near the end of the battle, after a long and epic duel between Urist and the same goblin commander, he strangles the goblin to death with his new arm.
i know dwarf fortress seems to take place a very long time ago and dwarves don't seem like the creatures capable of connecting nerve endings, muscle tissue, etc. but come on, giant poison mist breathing snake ostriches, ferment 10 barrels of wine in a day, digging thousands of feet down to mantle without being crushed under the pressure and cooked in the heat, how? its dwarf fortress. that's how.

[Kipi]

Please use search before posting a new suggestion. Necroing a old thread is encouraged as long as you provide something to the thread.

This has been suggested several times before. There is even a thread about it in the first page already:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=122257.0

[CaptainLambcake]

the thread you linked to talks about getting parts from iron men and bronze collosi.  this is a new idea.

[Kipi]

the thread you linked to talks about getting parts from iron men and bronze collosi.  this is a new idea.

Yeah, the link I included apparently wasn't as good as I originally thought. My bad.

Still this ain't new idea:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111721.msg3382385#msg3382385

Besides, the way I see it, this suggestion is actually a specific iteration of "replacing lost limbs", which has dozens of threads about it.


Now, about the suggestion itself. When we consider the technological era of the game, the cut being around year 1400 in real life, I don't see how the dwarves would be able to reattach the limb and even hope it becomes usable again. The first known such procedure was performed in around year 1960, way after the year 1400.

Of course, the limb could be reattached for cosmetic sake. But how would that be different from artificial implants (hooks for example), which have already been suggested and planned, according to old devlog?

[Naryar]

Very unlikely that 14th century medical tech can do this, link the nerves, muscles, tendons, and all that back together.

No to mention cellular death, lack of oxygen/nutrients, natural decay, etc, etc.

This could be done with hydrae (who do regenerate, just not lost parts at the moment) though.

[NAV]

This would never happen without magic. Once magic is in the game then reattaching limbs should be possible, though rare and difficult.
Dwarves would most likely just tie an axe to the stump.

[Neonivek]

This would never happen without magic. Once magic is in the game then reattaching limbs should be possible, though rare and difficult.
Dwarves would most likely just tie an axe to the stump.

It really depends. A creature with enough regenerative ability would easily be able to reattach their limbs just by... reattaching it. So long as the lost limb hasn't suffered total necrosis it should be fine.

As well with all "Rare and difficult" statement I think it should just depend on world generation and not universally enforced. There is always this idea of making anything that doesn't fit into the current formula of Dwarf Fortress this impossible task.

[GreatWyrmGold]

A couple of reasons why I'm against this:

1. It's bad for gameplay.
A defining aspect of DF has always been how unforgiving it is. Flooded your dining hall? You probably lost a lot of good dwarves, and there's likely not an easy fix. Your favorite dwarves are dead? No bringing them back. Your adventurer took on a titan before he had a helm? No respawning, sorry, but you could pick up his corpse with your next guy. If you could mitigate such a major injury without notable cost, it would harm the "feel" of DF.

2. It's impossible.
This isn't exactly simple in the 21st century. How would 15th-century, tops, medical tech do this?

-----

Regenerating creatures could, of course, but regeneration in the sense we think of it doesn't exist in DF at this time.

[Neonivek]

A defining aspect of DF has always been how unforgiving it is. Flooded your dining hall? You probably lost a lot of good dwarves, and there's likely not an easy fix. Your favorite dwarves are dead? No bringing them back. Your adventurer took on a titan before he had a helm? No respawning, sorry, but you could pick up his corpse with your next guy. If you could mitigate such a major injury without notable cost, it would harm the "feel" of DF.

Flood gates exist.

It wouldn't harm the 'feel' at all. No more then having a shield block an sword ruins the "feel".

2. It's impossible.
This isn't exactly simple in the 21st century. How would 15th-century, tops, medical tech do this?

I am trying to find when reattachment became possible, however everything I am finding suggests that it is outright impossible to do through surgery.

---

Now of course the question becomes if the "epic" nature of Dwarf Fortress applies.

I don't think so. While I have heard of physicians, epic physicians, bringing someone back to life... Limb restoration isn't one of them

---

Regenerating creatures could, of course, but regeneration in the sense we think of it doesn't exist in DF at this time

True but as said there is nothing wrong with suggesting something before it happens.

Heck I could imagine the Bronze Collosus just pressing his broken arm to the joint and it fixing itself.

[GreatWyrmGold]

A defining aspect of DF has always been how unforgiving it is. Flooded your dining hall? You probably lost a lot of good dwarves, and there's likely not an easy fix. Your favorite dwarves are dead? No bringing them back. Your adventurer took on a titan before he had a helm? No respawning, sorry, but you could pick up his corpse with your next guy. If you could mitigate such a major injury without notable cost, it would harm the "feel" of DF.

Flood gates exist.

You can't install them in the middle of a flooded area, and you then need to drain the dining hall.

It wouldn't harm the 'feel' at all. No more then having a shield block an sword ruins the "feel".

Shields help prevent injuries. This would allow you to take the single worst kind of injury, short of death, and reverse it. This should cost much more than a little time and some thread.

2. It's impossible.
This isn't exactly simple in the 21st century. How would 15th-century, tops, medical tech do this?

I am trying to find when reattachment became possible, however everything I am finding suggests that it is outright impossible to do through surgery.
[/quote]
All the more reason against this.

Regenerating creatures could, of course, but regeneration in the sense we think of it doesn't exist in DF at this time

True but as said there is nothing wrong with suggesting something before it happens.

Well, yeah. My point is, we don't really know what creatures will even have regeneration. Hydras, probably; others, we don't know.

Heck I could imagine the Bronze Collosus just pressing his broken arm to the joint and it fixing itself.

That makes one of us.

[Neonivek]

This should cost much more than a little time and some thread

Believe it or not, I wrote half my original post before I saw it was "through surgery" which I was like "What?"

Though I thought I made it clear that I was against the idea in terms that it doesn't make sense for the DF setting and not because of some quasi Dwarf Fortress philosophy of difficulty that people use as an excuse to exclude any fantastical element that DAARES even come close to clashing with what is already in the game.

That makes one of us

The Bronze collosus already has quick healing. Meaning that it smoothes out bumps, fixes cracks, and glues gashes.

It having regenerative ability that allows it to reattach limbs seems related.

we don't really know what creatures will even have regeneration

There are really two kinds of regeneration to care about. Fast and Slow regeneration.

[GreatWyrmGold]

This should cost much more than a little time and some thread

Believe it or not, I wrote half my original post before I saw it was "through surgery" which I was like "What?"

...
You really should have gone back and fixed it.

Though I thought I made it clear that I was against the idea in terms that it doesn't make sense for the DF setting and not because of some quasi Dwarf Fortress philosophy of difficulty that people use as an excuse to exclude any fantastical element that DAARES even come close to clashing with what is already in the game.

Both are true enough.

That makes one of us

The Bronze collosus already has quick healing. Meaning that it smoothes out bumps, fixes cracks, and glues gashes.
It having regenerative ability that allows it to reattach limbs seems related.

I don't see the connection. One has to do with the BC's motive ability, in my Bronze Colossus Schema. Sure, according to my BCS if a BC could somehow melt the stump and the end of its arm, it might be able to attach it, but otherwise, not really.

we don't really know what creatures will even have regeneration

There are really two kinds of regeneration to care about. Fast and Slow regeneration.

...Yes, there are?

[NW_Kohaku]

Just for the record...

It's basically impossible to reattach a limb in real life largely because the nervous system basically doesn't heal... ever. And modern science doesn't really have a way to make it do that.  (But with enough stem cell research, hypothetically...)  This is also why "soft tissue damage" or degenerative nervous diseases leave people like Stephen Hawking in a wheelchair for life. 

(Incidentally, in DF, nervous tissue also doesn't regenerate at all unless modded otherwise.  Any nerve damage is permanent.)

You can sometimes reattach a finger that has been kept on ice and prevented from getting necrotic because loss of nervous control isn't as bad on just a finger, and you can kinda-sorta keep it wired together enough to make it work.

[Neonivek]

Yes, there are?

Well a creature with regeneration fast enough that you can see their parts regrow with your own eyes... reattachment makes sense.

[10ebbor10]

Yes, there are?

Well a creature with regeneration fast enough that you can see their parts regrow with your own eyes... reattachment makes sense.

Still, as said above, the nervous system doesn't ever heal. Since that dies of rather quickly, any reattachment would be purely cosmetic.

Except for magical creatures without nervous systems, of course.