0006870: Bolts, crossbows and other ranged weapons have excessive SHOOT_FORCE values, leading to ranged combat issues

Dwarf Fortress Bug Tracker - Dwarf Fortress

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Category

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Date Submitted

Last Update

0006870

Dwarf Fortress

Combat -- General

public

2014-07-09 14:09

2014-07-24 15:20

Reporter

harmand

Assigned To

Toady One

Priority

normal

Severity

tweak

Reproducibility

always

Status

resolved

Resolution

fixed

Platform

DF 40.01 and earlier

Windows

OS Version

7 64 bit

Product Version

0.40.01

Target Version

Fixed in Version

0.40.05

Summary

0006870: Bolts, crossbows and other ranged weapons have excessive SHOOT_FORCE values, leading to ranged combat issues

Description

As described in http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=115448.0 [^]

SHOOT_FORCE appears to have had 2 extra 0's appended to it needlessly, causing the well known issues with ranged combat that do not match with the rough balance and physical properties armor and weapons share with each other as regards every other form of combat in the game. SHOOT_FORCE of 1 has bolts being stopped by a dwarf's skin, while SHOOT_FORCE of 10 causes the bolt to penetrate leather armor, tear the skin, and break the bone underneath. An expected outcome. SHOOT_FORCE of 30 seems to simulate expected performance against armored targets, with weaker material bolts deflecting and same material bolts penetrating or bruising, breaking bones underneath.

Thus it is demonstrated that SHOOT_FORCE of 1000 is clearly an oversight as such power scaled as such would be appropriate for simulating modern artillery, not the force or expected results from hand-held crossbows/bows.

Steps To Reproduce

ARENA MODE: 2 dwarves, steel armor, bone bolts then steel bolts. With vanilla settings armor is useless against even bone bolts.

WITH MODIFIED SETTINGS: same test, results much more in line with what would be expected based on the laws of physics. scales appropriately with different materials and armor types. Chain armor much less effective than plate as expected.

Additional Information

RECCOMENDED RAW TWEAKS:

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_CROSSBOW]
[NAME:crossbow:crossbows]
[SIZE:400]
[SKILL:HAMMER]
[RANGED:CROSSBOW:BOLT]
[SHOOT_FORCE:27]
[SHOOT_MAXVEL:200] This is just to make sure a near-weightless object doesn't go faster than the string could possibly go.
[TWO_HANDED:0]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:15000]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:3]
[ATTACK:BLUNT:10000:4000:bash:bashes:NO_SUB:1250]

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_BOW]
[NAME:bow:bows]
[SIZE:300]
[SKILL:SWORD]
[RANGED:BOW:ARROW]
[SHOOT_FORCE:27]
[SHOOT_MAXVEL:200]
[TWO_HANDED:0]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:15000]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:3]
[ATTACK:BLUNT:10000:4000:bash:bashes:NO_SUB:1250]

[ITEM_AMMO:ITEM_AMMO_BOLTS]
[NAME:bolt:bolts]
[CLASS:BOLT]
[SIZE:150]
[ATTACK:EDGE:5:1000:stab:stabs:NO_SUB:1000]

[ITEM_AMMO:ITEM_AMMO_ARROWS]
[NAME:arrow:arrows]
[CLASS:ARROW]
[SIZE:150]
[ATTACK:EDGE:5:1000:stab:stabs:NO_SUB:1000]