March 6, 2024: Dwarf Fortress 50.12 has been released.
News: February 3, 2024: The February '24 Report is up.
News: February 4, 2021: Dwarf Fortress Talk #28 has been posted.
News: November 21, 2018: A new Threetoe story has been posted.
Forum Guidelines
But seriously, giving them sickles and scythes as a standard weapon skill rather than the generic sword hammer axe thing would make them much more interesting. Nunchaku might be pushing it, but you get the idea. Exotic weaponry. Those punching things with blades on them too. They would be cool.
As far as small weapons over large go, I think some weapons should benefit more than others from ambush skill. In fact, I think ambush really needs sorting out. How many people can really sneak up on someone else across a stone floor while wearing full plate and carrying a giant hammer in each hand? None, thats how many.
Attacking with a large weapon from ambush should be (at least) twice as likely to fail as using a small weapon. Thats because you need more room to make the attack, so you're more likely to be spotted. In addition, you would hear someone making a hammer or axe swing. So, in my opinion bludgeoning or slashing damage should be even more likely to fail there, or at least be partially blocked.
On the other hand, I think you should get bonuses if you aren't moving before you attack them. If you're chasing someone and you attack them while you're running after them, they should have a good chance of hearing you. On the other hand, if they walk around a corner and you're expecting them, you would very well have your hammer ready for their face, and they wouldn't have much chance if they weren't expecting it.
Also, the idea of being able to use ambush and become instantly invisible is ridiculous. Ambush should only remove sound from your movements. Once lighting goes in (and crossbow damage goes down) I hope this gets sorted and only lets you become invisible in the dark.
Small bladed weapons could also offer some cool extra moves in wrestling (slit throat, nail hand to table, shave etc). THAT would make them worth having.
quote:
Originally posted by Momaw:
<STRONG>Dragon: "Give me 3 diamonds, or I will terrorize your trade routes!"
Dwarves: "Here, take these."
Dragon: "Nice doing business with you."</STRONG>
More mandates? Awww man...
[ May 06, 2007: Message edited by: TotalPigeon ]
The great Dwarven Emperor fears his days are drawing to a close. In a bid to protect his wealth and ensure his legacy is never forgotten, he commisions a number of miners, mechanics, building designers, engravers and metalsmiths to design and build him a beautiful but deadly tomb that will allow him to rest undisturbed with his riches for all time.
The dwarves must build a fortress designed to keep out thieves and plunderers, while protecting the wealth deposited each year, and each year adding more rooms of royal quality to the tomb.
Food/clothing is supplied yearly, and a number of guards are allocated for protection.
Each year the king comes to check the forts progress and deposits some of his wealth for the dwarves to store.
A noble overseer is present, who is responsible for making the riches secure, so each year he gives increasing demands for the overall depth of the kings tomb and quantity of traps.
The Kings tomb (assigned through the menu) must be of both the depth required by the overseer, of a royal value when the king arrives for his check, and guarded by enough traps, or the King will issue hammerings. This also applies if any of the Kings valuables are stolen once they are dropped off, or if the work is going too slowly (not enough rooms of royal quality added since the last visit).
The more important thing, by far, however, was that my fortress crashed, destroying the ridiculously extravagant aqueduct system spilling water out of the mountain at six points into artfully designed ponds, with block aqueducts, not channels, leading all the way back to the river, smoothed underneath and cleared of stone, and just about to be tested that I had spent five of the last six hours designing and building. I didn't even get to see it in action! It was sooo close... 
an autosave would have saved me much stress that night. I lost a lot of other work I'd done at the same time, and a couple of years of leveling up dwarves. I actually couldn't bring myself to continue that fortress, I was so pissed off at it.
Nowadays, I tend to save all the time. I've kept backups of every save I've made using it - around 18 saves worth so far, and its only 1060. If anything goes wrong, I can get back to an earlier save just like that. An autosave would be good because it would save me ever forgetting about it, and if it is implemented it would save anyone else the pain of losing so much time.
