One advantage of the current system I hadn't been aware of before is that with the generic "Plate Mail" label, everyone is free to imagine whatever sort of heavy armor they feel is appropriate for their dwarves.
Do your dwarves look more like knights, or Romans, or Greeks, or TIE fighter pilots? Do I have to picture my dwarves the way you picture yours?
Behold the power of ASCII, eh?
That's a really good argument for why armour shouldn't consist of "suits" at all, but rather specific pieces, that (depending on the piece) would or could be put on in a specific order (padding and leather items first, then chain mesh, then larger pieces of plate, then smaller ones, then items like helms, gauntlets, footgear, and finally things like tabards, capes/cloaks, and decorative pieces.)
Maybe it would also be good if you could assign different dwarfs an "armour priority", which would then tell the computer who goes for what?
You could have different scales for this, one of which would denote overall armour *quality*
(so that a high "quality" priority would tell that dwarf to collect and wear items of Masterpiece/Artifact quality, and down from there),
while a second scale would denote armour *protection*
(high "protection" means that dwarf puts on pieces for the basic protection they offer, choosing from heavy to light, disregarding quality and the material the pieces are made from-so they'd go for an iron breastplate of average quality over a masterpiece steel maille shirt),
a third scale could denote *value* (with a high priority telling the dwarf to go for the items with the highest material modifier first, but disregarding both the quality and protection those items offer--so adamantium, then steel, then iron, then bronze, etc.),
and finally a fourth scale could denote armour *completeness* (with a high priority telling that dwarf to just go for as much overall coverage as they can).
You could then adjust these four scales to whatever levels you wanted, and the dwarfs in question would then dress themselves accordingly.
There could be settings for single dwarfs, and for squads, allowing you to fairly easily and quickly assign armour to your dwarfs.
Coupled with individual ownership of armour items, this would allow you to quickly and accurately select who got what, especially if you could then choose between whether individual assignment, ownership assignment, or squad assignment took precedence, on a moment-by-moment basis.
You could then quickly and efficiently change the setting for that dwarf from individual/ownership/squad, allowing that dwarf to meet different needs for different circumstances, and opening up things like Ceremonial Uniforms/Armour for special events/duties, light gear for scouting missions, heavy shock items, for when you're expecting the roughest trade, and on from there.
There could even be a more in-depth system to go along with the more general system above, that would allow you to set precisely what a given dwarf and/or squad puts on-and never puts on-by specific piece.
And, by using such a system, you could-as you suggest, Felblood-decide for yourself exactly what your Fortress's units look like, and have your units reflect that.
This might even lead to demands-not from Nobles, but from elite squads, who insist on specific gear and/or a minimum quality level, or even demand the same types of gear as their beloved squad captain.
Instead of a clueless Noble, in this case it would be your Fortress's
Military Tradition itself making the demands.
(Example: The 23rd light infantry "Mole-Marauders" have a tradition of excellence that goes back 100 years, and any new recruits into that particular squad must be issued gear of no less than Superior Quality. If any of their gear gets destroyed, it gets replaced only with Superior or better items. They've earned the very best, and it's up to you to provide it--not that you have to pay for it, the cost for the better gear comes out of the soldiers' pay and expenses ration, but it's up to the player to ensure the proper items are available for sale, or that particular squad does without, which could affect their numbers, effectiveness, *and* morale.).
Yes, it's micromanagement at it's most intricate. Gloriously, unappologetically so, but I think it would be really entertaining, for those of us who want to indulge in it.
And there's always the gravitas of prepairing your dwarfs for mortal combat, that would alleviate a lot of the silliness that might otherwise be present in such an elaboration.
After all, nobody (nobody intelligent, anyway) laughs at a Marine in full dress uniform, despite the sword, and the buttons, and the hat. It's not playing "dress-up", or a waste of time, it's a matter of pride in the uniform, and what it stands for.
And nobody laughs when that Marine's out in the field, at all the specialized gear they're carrying, and all the effort and money and careful consideration that went into deciding exactly what that Marine needs, and what that Marine gets. If anything, they probably could do with more/better gear than they actually get.
I think it would be great if we had a great deal of control over those kinds of decisions, if we want it.
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Topic: Very minor semantics suggestion (re. "plate mail") (Read 12309 times)