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Author Topic: Slippery, sticky, spikey, and sinkable/collapsing surfaces  (Read 679 times)

Mr Crabman

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Slippery, sticky, spikey, and sinkable/collapsing surfaces
« on: August 31, 2021, 06:00:36 am »

Slippery

Tiles can be either innately slippery (like ice for example), or become slippery by the addition of some splashed contaminants (water for example), and dwarves/other creatures can sometimes slip on these surfaces (maybe falling over, or stopping themselves in time and being in a bad stance momentarily), depending on how fast they're traveling over it and how aware they are of the slippery surface being there (and their kinesthetic skill presumably).

Some creatures may have an innate resistance to slipping (for instance, polar bears have a great grip on ice IRL), though it might make sense for this ability to vary depending on why the surface is slippery (I have no idea if polar bears can slip on wet marble floors for example).

Slipperyness however can also apply to objects or creatures tissues themselves, like some creature with an oily skin making it hard to grasp/grapple them for example, or items covered in grease being harder to pick up properly.

Sticky

A tile can be innately sticky, or be coated in something sticky (don't know if there is any such thing right now in the game, but honey would be a hypothetical example), which makes it hard to move across quickly (hampering mobility all-around), and depending on how sticky it is, one may even be completely stuck and require help (or a lot of time/effort) to get out.

Kind of similar to the ingame thick webbing I guess. Both webbing and other sticky surfaces difficulty in escaping may depend on the strength of the creature being stuck/slowed down.

A creature's skin being sticky could make it harder to escape their grasp, or to let go of them if grasped, or in extreme cases one might get completely stuck on them without having to be "grasped" per say (imagine a sticky forgotten beast swings its tail, and dwarves literally are stuck to the tail). Sticky items/objects presumably are harder to let go of and more awkward to handle in general.

Spikey

Spikey surfaces are distinct from spikes traps in a way; they are always spikey, and depending on the size of the spines (as well as their other material properties like sharpness, strength etc), may be more or less harmful if stepped on (or fallen on). If they are densey packed together enough, unlike spike traps, it would be physically impossible for larger creatures to avoid being hurt by the spikes if standing on the tile, though if they are strong/heavy enough, the spikes may either fail to puncture the creature, or in fact be broken by their sheer mass/force!

Creatures like hedgehogs and porcupines would have parts of their skin be spikey; attempting to do something like bite or punch these body parts (with bare flesh anyway) could cause harm to the assailant, though again, if a creature is physically tough enough, the spikes may fail to damage the skin, and with enough force may even be broken off or broken in half (or alternatively, if the spikes do get stuck but enough force is used to pull away, a creature may end up with spines stuck in them).

Items that menace with spikes presumably would be safe to use though, since dwarves aren't going to be crafting unusable swords with hilts covered in spikes right? Myth/magic might introduce the likes of magic that cover items in spikes however, and these presumably wouldn't be properly usable/possible to pick up (unless either resistant to the damage or willing to ignore it; I can't imagine a zombie would be bothered if their sword was suddenly poking holes in their hand).

Sinkable

This is similar to sticky surfaces, but the idea is that you could actually sink deeply into these tiles and potentially suffocate in them if it's possible to sink that deep, kind of like very, very viscous liquid. This would be stuff like deep mud, or quicksand.

This doesn't really apply much to anything but tiles, though in principle creatures made of such materials could maybe envelop or trap people inside them, but that's kind of discussed in this thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=178483.0.

Collapsible

These are just fragile tiles/constructions that may break when sufficient weight is placed on them; this would include presumably normal constructions or tiles in a limited sense (a trapdoor would probably break if something heavy enough sat on it), but also specifically built traps like leaf-covered spike pits for example, or maybe naturally occurring tiles that are just so weak not much can walk on them without falling through.