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[StagnantSoul]

I think a tag should exist that allows you to add a description to an item. Which sounds like a better description of a short sword to you?
"This is an iron short sword."
Or
"A sword made of iron, with a small length, but is versatile, with a very deadly slash."

[Sergarr]

I support this suggestion.

[Aslandus]

Indeed, this might even make it easier for people to learn the game if the descriptions describe what objects do, for example:
"This is a battleaxe made of copper, with a sharp chopping edge. It can be used to chop trees."
"This is a large pot made of basalt. It can store food or booze."
"This is a boulder of cassiterite. It can be smelted into tin."

[Putnam]

The cassiterite thing would have to be procedurally generated, though, since all boulders are the same item with different materials.

Also, it would be kind of awkward if you replaced "iron short sword" with "short sword made of iron", especially since, for example, the "unbreakable katana" in Fortbent would be described as "katana made of steel folded 50 times".

Actually that's not that bad...

[Aslandus]

The cassiterite thing would have to be procedurally generated, though, since all boulders are the same item with different materials.

Also, it would be kind of awkward if you replaced "iron short sword" with "short sword made of iron", especially since, for example, the "unbreakable katana" in Fortbent would be described as "katana made of steel folded 50 times".

Actually that's not that bad...

Naturally, adding all those descriptions would be a huge amount of work if it's not done procedurally, since there are hundreds of items that all share the same type such as meats and milks for every type of animal...

[Deboche]

I thought the suggestion was for the user to make descriptions if he so chose.

[UnicodingUnicorn]

I distinctly remember reading something like this before, but this would be great for modders to add more flavour to their mods/vanilla.

[Dirst]

I distinctly remember reading something like this before, but this would be great for modders to add more flavour to their mods/vanilla.

Here are three.

And an honorable mention from 2008, requesting descriptions for creatures.

[miauw62]

Also, it would be kind of awkward if you replaced "iron short sword" with "short sword made of iron", especially since, for example, the "unbreakable katana" in Fortbent would be described as "katana made of steel folded a gorillion times".

FTFY

[Ngosp Umbabok]

Even if descriptions were added in solely for weapons and armor it would still be a big improvement. Right now you have to access the DF wiki to see what the functional differences between different weapons and pieces of armor are. You should at least have enough information in-game to be able to make informed decisions about what to equip in adventure mode/fort mode.

Not every single detail of the item would have to be listed but at least listing the general purpose of an item along with something specific pertaining to the exact piece. For breastplate or mail shirt there could be a brief sentence describing it as a piece or armor worn on the upper-body, the specific areas it covers and then what the functional differences are between a breastplate and a mail shirt

With something like a scimitar or longsword it would be helpful to have a sentence describing how the physical characteristics of a weapon make it differ form other weapons of the same type. For example a scimitar would likely have a more effective slash and less effective stab.

A good reason for implementing this stuff is because most people will have some general knowledge about the purpose of an item and can infer its purpose and what makes it differ from other items. However it can be annoying to not know if your suspicions are confirmed or if you are mistakenly using a wrong item by thinking it has an effect that it really dosnt.

Having short sentances describing the characteristics of weapons and armors would allow the player to feel confident in deciding what to use based on the situation instead of not knowing anything about the items besides there names.

[vjmdhzgr]

Even if descriptions were added in solely for weapons and armor it would still be a big improvement. Right now you have to access the DF wiki to see what the functional differences between different weapons and pieces of armor are. You should at least have enough information in-game to be able to make informed decisions about what to equip in adventure mode/fort mode.

Not every single detail of the item would have to be listed but at least listing the general purpose of an item along with something specific pertaining to the exact piece. For breastplate or mail shirt there could be a brief sentence describing it as a piece or armor worn on the upper-body, the specific areas it covers and then what the functional differences are between a breastplate and a mail shirt

With something like a scimitar or longsword it would be helpful to have a sentence describing how the physical characteristics of a weapon make it differ form other weapons of the same type. For example a scimitar would likely have a more effective slash and less effective stab.

A good reason for implementing this stuff is because most people will have some general knowledge about the purpose of an item and can infer its purpose and what makes it differ from other items. However it can be annoying to not know if your suspicions are confirmed or if you are mistakenly using a wrong item by thinking it has an effect that it really dosnt.

Having short sentances describing the characteristics of weapons and armors would allow the player to feel confident in deciding what to use based on the situation instead of not knowing anything about the items besides there names.

Actually scimitars are exactly the same as short swords except I think maybe the contact area on the pommel strike is different. It might be good to just have the raws shown when looking at the item, but I think making a [DESCRIPTION:] token would be better. Then for all those examples that specified the material you could have a [MATERIAL] token or something similar to be placed in the description meaning it says whatever material the specific item is made of in that spot.

[Sirbug]

"A short, sharpened contraption fond of stabbing and cutting."

I think we could use some in-game description, especially for tools. I don't think it needs to be procedurally generated with inline mentioning of material or so. Raw material should have brief description of what it is (Especially for fantastic material like evil/good wood). The rest should have description of what it can do.

[Dirst]

This is a fine-quality bronze scimitar.
This single-edged sword has a long, curved blade.  It can be used for a slash attack, and a stab attack.  It can also be used for a slap attack with the flat, and a strike attack with the pommel.

The first sentence shows the item name, quality, and material (basically what we have now).  The second sentence is the item description from the raws.  The remainder is generated from the attacks defined in the raws.  Getting any more detailed would require parsing the attack parameters, and that is probably beyond the scope for introducing the feature.

[Aslandus]

This is a fine-quality bronze scimitar.
This single-edged sword has a long, curved blade.  It can be used for a slash attack, and a stab attack.  It can also be used for a slap attack with the flat, and a strike attack with the pommel.

The first sentence shows the item name, quality, and material (basically what we have now).  The second sentence is the item description from the raws.  The remainder is generated from the attacks defined in the raws.  Getting any more detailed would require parsing the attack parameters, and that is probably beyond the scope for introducing the feature.

I like it, +1 to these kinds of descriptions