Choosing quality weapons. I have tens of high quality steel axes lying in my storage while the champions run around with normal iron axes.
Yeah, and of course there's the opposite, which is using sparring weapons instead of *Adamantine Short Sword*s.
Yeah, we're going to go after getting dwarves to have the weapons and armor you want when you want them to have them. This was originally going to involve assigning squads to groups of weapon racks/armor stands, possibly including training weapons, and other settings, but I haven't settled on anything. It's still stewing a bit, and is on the list of problems that will be less major problems on the release.
Great to hear you've thought about it. I was specifically referring to the how the military weapon menu doesn't have options to order units to carry anything but dwarf weapons. I guess that'll be irrelevant, since I assume the entire military menu system is being rebuilt?
Yeah, that's right.
I've got some pitchable ideas. For Fortress Mode, the Animal menu could mark animals for Available For Mount in the same way as pets (probably after they've received mount training at a kennel), and the squad or equipment menu could order a unit to Use Mount. Then they just run off to grab a creature, and from then on they're linked as mounts (and I guess infants?) already do. It's imprecise and a little clunky, but as functional as it needs to be.
Yeah, I imagine it would go through that menu, if that menu survives.
1. A rider performs most actions based on their on speed, but moves across tiles at the mount's speed.
I think this is already the case -- of course, pretty much all creatures have the same speed, so it doesn't really matter. When move/attack speeds are split, I can do more with faster animal speeds. That move/attack split was a combat arc goal.
2. Mounts can be enraged or spooked by training and nearby combat, fighting or running depending on raw tags (probably existing ones).
I wonder which domestic animals spook. Just animals that are used to be preyed upon and used to being able to run away from it? Does the herd aspect matter at all? I usually hear it in terms of cattle stampedes.
3. Attacks made on the rider have a chance to hit the mount, based on size. (This of course raises questions of barding armor, which I couldn't imagine how to approach.)
There's a giant thread on this, if I remember, complete with pictures of cat armor.
I like to play with a set of Gate Guards - at the moment these are assigned individual positions (which are alcoves in the entrance passages) because I like the idea of bearskin-and-redcoared sentries standing to attention (for game months on end LOL). At the moment, to achieve this, every alcove needs a pair of one-dwarf squads assigned to it (a Spring/Autumn and a Winter/Summer shift).
It would be nice if the new system went someway to making this easier (perhaps the 'formations' mentioned could mean that a particular squad has multiple position points assigned to it, and fills them as best as it can) but my main worry is that this behaviour won't be b0rkened, since not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it's also very handy as an anti-thief/snatcher technique (I'm not a big fan of traps ATM).
Yeah, one of our initial concerns with going to a system with commanders and their soldiers was that people that are used to using the military system with individual squads (ie a lot of people, because figure out the 'm'ilitary screen is annoying, so people just activate dwarves). You'll be able to give dwarves individual assignments and positions even within a squad. The larger squad structure will be more for sieges or larger military matters, as well as for a notion of command and organization and responsibility. Hopefully most everything that people used to do will still be possible and in fact easier under the new system.