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Author Topic: Psychological Weapons against enemies?  (Read 1377 times)

Thomasasia

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Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« on: March 31, 2015, 04:33:46 pm »

So, do invading goblins/elves get nervous when they see too many corpses of their own people? What if you dropped from a large height a goblin onto a catapult, causing it to explode on impact, then launched the severed pieces at the invaders? Could that damage their moral, or even make them flee? Personally, i love the idea of sending a few dozen goblins worth of gore at invading goblins!
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i2amroy

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2015, 05:02:23 pm »

In short... no. None of that is currently simulated.
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Ruhn

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2015, 06:07:41 pm »

What actually causes goblins (or any faction) to break and flee during a siege then?  Purely a % losses threshold?
Or, if it is a factor of troops injured, perhaps a minor injury to everyone would do the job.

i2amroy

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2015, 06:14:09 pm »

AFAIK it's a weighting of both. Injuries and deaths both push them towards fleeing, with deaths contributing a much higher number (and as such usually are the main driving force). That's just from observances and experience though, I haven't done any actual !!SCIENCE!! on it yet.
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vjmdhzgr

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2015, 06:14:22 pm »

I'm pretty sure it is simulated actually. At least Toady has gone on record as saying that you'll be able to dump goblin corpses on a goblin siege and if any of those goblins knew each other watch the attackers cry.
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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2015, 06:19:58 pm »

I'm pretty sure it is simulated actually. At least Toady has gone on record as saying that you'll be able to dump goblin corpses on a goblin siege and if any of those goblins knew each other watch the attackers cry.
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The Bard

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2015, 06:25:53 pm »

They don't have discipline breakdowns anymore? When emotions first changed, they went nuts seeing even dwarf corpses.

I took to releasing animal men from cages to break their morale via 'oh no, I saw this thing I killed get killed'.
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Dunamisdeos

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #7 on: March 31, 2015, 06:28:31 pm »

Yeah, hang on, I distinctly remember when this whole emotion thing got reworked that villagers and even animals would straight panic at the sight of corpses or body parts from their own race/species.

I think that's been toned down, but shouldn't it still be simulated? If you dropped a few sieges worth of body parts on goblins, maybe it will have a cumulative effect?
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Ganb

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2015, 08:27:08 pm »

I remember a while back in one of the temporary versions I stockpiled/forbid a giantess corpse outside my fortress and it made some of the goblins go WTF during the siege.

When the giant attacked it actually did a U-turn and started running away screaming "somebody help me!" while my dwarves hit it with their socks... so yeah that build definitely needed some tweaking.
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utunnels

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Re: Psychological Weapons against enemies?
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2015, 08:32:41 pm »

I'm sure I saw goblin human recruits and trolls running away like flies, with a blue exclamation mark over them.
Maybe they don't have discipline skill?
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