Tools, weaponized tools and shields.

[BlessedHeretic]

After playing around in the current patch (Which I can't remember what model it is.) and using all the industry buildings I thought it might be nice to have real tools be added, shovels, sickle and pickaxes in particular.

If these items were added and became needed to do tasks such as farming or mining whilst taking the primary weapon slot, it'd give more a realistic feel to the game in my opinion, as generating tools out of thin air kinda left me with a sour taste when my sabre wielding sociopath just started flailing his arms onto the mining pit.

They'd be poor combat weapons and thus would give the current secondary slot for weapons a good use as they be auto selected as the highest damage weapon.

I also thought about how many tools were turned into military weaponry in the past.

Military picks in particular are pretty brutal weapons that would fit nicely on the Hacker tree, maybe even little text noting how miners got fed up with bandits and started mining their faces instead.

And with ranged weaponry coming soonish, shields would be a great addition to a squad's arsenal as they would be one of the few valid ways to block it without going into the realm of kung fu movies where they catch the arrows or blissfully dodge the volley coming. not i'm not saying a person can't dodge a arrow, but multiple arrows at the same time all being dodged is highly unrealistic.

Making shields a primary that takes up space on the combat bar would easily allow 1 hand weapons to be used in conjunction with it via the secondary weapon slot, or adding a whole new inventory slot for off hand equips (smaller weapons, dual wield?). All it'd have to do to work is be given a shield block chance, probably starting at 35% for basic shields to block projectiles, and work off melee defense else wise (With a bonus to defense for all shields, probably around +3 for basics.).


Anyway those are my feature requests/suggestions,

[Clawdius Talonious]

A reason for the lack of implements, both of the destructive and tool variety, is a lack of animation. With the recent influx of funds I am certain Chris is looking into making the best use of additional animations. Of course a pickaxe might be nice even if it was just rendered when people were mining, since the aforementioned lack of animation has people on all work stations using a sword swinging placeholder animation.

I'd like to see more diversity in tools, and after all many weapons have their origins as tools. The tonfa for example is wielded by law enforcement to this day, but what we call batons now started out in mills, and was a simple removable peg used to turn a millstone and grind rice. There are more classic images, medieval peasants armed with torches and pitchforks is a good example, but a large crowd of civilians armed with rudimentary weapons can be a force to be reckoned with.

If something like this is implemented it would be nice to see the citizenry that become aggressive when sacking a town armed with more logical weaponry, rather than the rusty katanas they currently utilize.