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[Dakkan]

Been a long time since I've suggested anything, but seeing the latest update made me think of how my parents harvest some local trees. Just a pole with this claw basket on the end. http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE3-5726564enh-z8.jpg I've no idea how an item extending reach would translate into DF programming, but in real life it is a lot more practical than a stepladder. Although I am excited for modelling "reaching" when standing on tables and statues and stuff.

[smjjames]

The stools might have been the easier thing to code, plus he might be thinking about potential future applications.

[D34dlock]

Harder to code or not, a fruit picker would be nice. It could also be weaponizable. Just have the basket removable & replace it with a blade & you would have a pike or a lance. I don't think using a bayonet ring for a fast switch would fall in the tech range allowed, but it's simple to make if you know what to make. If you don't want to remove the basket it should be possible to have the blade on the other end & have it sheathed. How much would weaponizing the tines of the claw decrease the noncombat effectiveness of the tool? Yet another dual use tool if it got in.

[Dirst]

Harder to code or not, a fruit picker would be nice. It could also be weaponizable. Just have the basket removable & replace it with a blade & you would have a pike or a lance. I don't think using a bayonet ring for a fast switch would fall in the tech range allowed, but it's simple to make if you know what to make. If you don't want to remove the basket it should be possible to have the blade on the other end & have it sheathed. How much would weaponizing the tines of the claw decrease the noncombat effectiveness of the tool? Yet another dual use tool if it got in.

Tools can have attacks defined in their raws.  But the game doesn't define the "shape" of a tool in any meaningful way, so it's never going to infer on its own that a long pole could be used like a staff or that an anvil can be used as an improvised chair.

[GavJ]

Not sure how it's "harder to code" -- the stool already has to grant dwarves the ability to reach beyond where they normally would. A picker is the same ability granted... without having to also code a separate item/furniture thing sitting there. Almost necessarily simpler.

However, despite it being way less of a pain in the ass in real life, I don't really see how it would make much gameplay difference either way, so stools seem fine. And probably easier to visualize and more intuitive for somebody who doesn't have the benefit of your expert long form description like in this thread.

[Dakkan]

Like I've already said, The stool coding he mentioned has cool value elsewhere for simulating the act of standing on a table or statue, so it seems a better choice to code in anyway since it'll have value down the road.

I suppose an issue is how the stepladder code works. Will the dwarves simply automatically decide where to place the stepladder, harvest, pickup and repeat? I doubt he'd have us constantly have to designate a stepladder area for them. But then how efficient is it to scan for areas which would yield obtainable fruit above the square as opposed to just increasing the range around a dwarf for picking? On a steep slope you could have situations of reaching horizontally outwards to obtain fruit.

Also unsure if you're poking fun at me with "expert long form description," but I don't know how else to describe a pole with basket on the end, and a convenient picture attached.

As for affecting gameplay, you're right, it wouldn't affect much. Maybe depending on how they're created and carried, which workshop they come from, material they're made from, amount of material required for construction, speed of harvesting maybe. Overall not much changes from one to another in that regard.

[smjjames]

Didn't Toady One say something at some point about things like pikes or spears having reach? I think it might have been mentioned as something planned for DF 2014, but it got shelved.

[GavJ]

Not really seeing why we should have to designate anything at all.  My stonemasons find stones without me designating them for a table. Why can't my fruit pickers find their own damn fruit?

Path to nearest fruit as if you could fly 2 squares high. Then after choosing target, wield stepstool appropriately.