Black Powder
Black powder (aka Gunpowder) would be a late game resource with a complex manufacturing tree, but many powerful utilities. Black powder would need sulfur to be crafted. Sulfur is a material found near volcanoes, magma lakes and of course near the magma ocean. Sulfur would then be processed by "Powder monkeys", a profession dwarves can learn and master. Low quality black powder is a dangerous substance. It can have a dangerously low ignition point or burn slowly. This can make low quality black powder a dangerous substance, which can easily do more harm than good. However high quality black powder can make a wide variety of utilities and weapons.
Black Powder Weapons
Munitions
Bullets
Bullets are an ammo type made by a powder monkey at a forge. 10 bullets are made with 1 metal (does not have to be weapon grade) and 1 black powder. Bullets are used by most black powder weapons. They are small round pellets, which are great at high speed penetration damage. They can easily penetrate armor and internal organs, leading to internal bleeding, organ failure, and death.
Cannon Balls
Cannon Balls are an ammo type made by either a blacksmith at a forge, or a stone mason at a masonry. Cannon balls are used by the cannon siege weapon, or by catapults. They are heavy round spheres, and are good at dealing high force blunt damage to any targets they hit.
Grenades
Grenades are a high power thrown weapon which can be used by soldiers. They are made by powder monkeys at a forge, needing 1 metal bar and 3 black powder. They can be thrown, before blowing up and throwing out a cloud of small metal pellets in all directions, dealing good penetration damage to anything nearby. Ideal for crowd control.
Handheld Weapons
Rifles
Rifles are a long 2 handed weapon, which uses bullets for ammo. They are slow to load, but have great accuracy and range, and deliver the most armor penetration for it's ammo type. They excel at long range, and can easily kill an opponent by penetrating vital organs. However their long reload time makes them terrible at crowd control. Rifles can also be equipped with a bayonet. Bayonets add an additional melee combat option to stab opponents with the bayonet, also dealing considerable penetration damage at close range. Be warned, low quality Rifles can explode spontanously, causing considerable damage to nearby dwarves.
Pistols
Pistols are a cheaper 1 handed weapon, which uses bullets for ammo. They are faster to reload than the rifle, but lack range and accuracy. They can still very easily penetrate armor and vital organs, but not nearly as well as a rifle. Pistols are good for medium-short range defense, for example tight corridors or caverns. Be warned, low quality Rifles can explode spontanously, causing considerable damage to nearby dwarves.
Seige Weapons
Cannons
Cannons are a heavy, high power weapon which need black powder and cannon balls to fire. They shoot heavy, fast moving balls which can knock down lots of small targets, or penetrate larger targets. They are also great at offense, being the ideal weapon for taking down enemy bases thanks to it's heavy shells, ideal for taking out walls, doors and so on.
Utilities
Explosives
Explosives are constructable devices which, when triggered by lever or ignited, explode and destroy a massive amount of nearby terrain, and will likely kill anything else nearby. They are expensive as hell, but brilliant at taking out large chunks of space or killing megabeasts.
Firecrackers
Firecrackers are an interesting one. Firecrackers will need paper, string and black powder to make, and serve a very powerful utility purpose. Historically, in eastern cultures, firecrackers were used to scare away monsters as part of a celebration I can't remember the name of. In DF, they would serve a similar purpose. Firecrackers would scare away ghosts, undead and night creatures incredibly efficiently, since all these creatures have a spiritual significance. Often enough the creatures will run off the map, provided they see the firecracker while it is activated. Firecrackers scare normal invaders too, but not enough to send them running for the hills. Firecrackers give a powerful happy thought to any citizen who sees them being set off. Since firecrackers are single use, and expensive/time consuming to make, they make an interesting albeit powerful utility for any fortress.
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Topic: Black powder and additional tools/weapons (Read 814 times)