[DEVBLOG#250] Tribal weapons and new structures (Patreon)

Hey there everyone!

Last time we discussed the new research system for the wild men in Vanilla Factions Expanded - Tribal. This time, I'd like to explain to you what new weapons, apparel and structures we're adding, and how I believe they will fit right into your early tech playthrough.

Since Vanilla Factions Expanded - Tribal has you start with basically nothing, we had to ensure that there are still some combat-ready tools you can craft from just the most basic materials.

THROWSPIKES

Throwspikes are short sticks sharpened on both sides. They take a while to throw, but can do reasonable damage when they hit. This weapon represents a bundle of throwspikes and can be thrown over and over.

Throwspikes are your first ranged weapon, and they are nothing more than a stick sharp on both ends, that your colonists quite literally just yeet at animals hoping to do damage. They can be made on a crafting spot and cost 15 wood to make. They have a very short range, low accuracy, take quite a while to throw and deal puny 16 damage. Pila, once researched, is so, so much better.

Throwspikes can also be used in melee, but they're not great.

STAKE

A sharpened wooden log. Can deal substantial damage, but is prone to breaking and deteriorates fast. Good at killing sanguophages.

Stake is a decent early game melee weapon, once again crafted from just wood. It is, more or less, just a sharpened long stick, but everyone has to start somewhere.

While it has quite a high damage output and even some armor penetration, Stake loses 2% of its HP with every hit - meaning after 50 hits, it breaks.

Guess what: Stakes deal 5x damage if the enemy is Deathless. You can use it to easily kill those pesky sanguophages!

CHUNK

A chunk of rock, carefully picked to have the highest smashing potential.

Chunk is a weapon quite literally made from a stone chunk. It deals substantial blunt damage, but takes a long time between attacks. Rust players: rejoice.

Weapons aren't the only new thing you can craft, of course. Tribalwear research will also unlock the following options:

LIGHT TRIBALWEAR

A torso-only garment crafted using neolithic tools. While it may look primitive, it is very effective at insulating against heat temperatures.

Very basic and light tribalwear that provides good insulation against heat, but not so much against cold. Provides very little damage protection.

HEAVY TRIBALWEAR

A full-body garment crafted using neolithic tools. While it may look primitive, it is very effective at insulating against cold temperatures. Provides slightly more protection than the standard tribalwear.

Thick tribalwear that requires more resources to craft, but provides the wearer with significant cold insulation. Due to the fact that it's a full body garment, it also provides more damage protection to otherwise unprotected body parts.

WAR TRIBALWEAR

A upper-body garment crafted using neolithic tools. While it may look primitive, it is very effective at protecting against sharp and blunt damage. Provides little insulation.

War tribalwear is a new type of tribalwear that provides little to no insulation, but provides the wearer with some degree of armor that other tribalwear doesn't. Can be worn on top of tribalwear.

That's it for apparel, but we're not done yet. Lets take a look at new 'furniture', aka buildable objects, coming on this mod.

SITTING SPOT

A spot on which to sit. Not very comfortable, and only marginally better than nothing. Can be used at tables, work stations, and elsewhere.

As the description states, this is just a designated sitting spot, for when you can't build stools or chair. Pawns can sit on it, but it provides negligible comfort.

ANIMAL TRAP

A large, sharp spike under tension, connected to a touch-activated trigger. If an animal touches the trigger, the spike springs forth and strikes it. Since it is hidden in the surrounding terrain, it cannot be placed adjacent to other traps. Animals do not sense these when calm, but they are quite obvious to humans and will be avoided by them.

A new type of trap, the Animal trap triggers not on manhunting animals, but on calm animals instead! That's right - normal spike traps can't really be used for hunting, as calm animals are not affected by them. Animal traps on the other hand will spring as soon as any animal walks over them, potentially dealing lethal damage. This lets you pick up and devour that sweet sweet carcass. Yum!

LARGE FIRE

Produces large amounts of heat and smoke, and burns out after a quadrum. The light from a large fire is visible from afar. As long as it’s burning outdoors, there is a higher chance of wild men wandering in, as well as raids. As with all heat sources, it must be placed indoors so it has a closed space to heat. Refuelable. Due to the size and instability of it, it may eject sparks around itself that may start a fire.

• Large fire has two big uses. Well, technically three.
• It can be used as a defensive measure, as lit large fire ejects sparks that set the area around on fire, while also generating huge plumes of smoke that will blind enemies.
• It can be used to attract wild people who will arrive in the local area if it has been burning for long enough when outside... however, it may also attract raiders!
• It can be used to heat up a room, if you're brave enough.

FLOOR PAINTINGS

Floor paintings are a new form of art available in this mod. It can only be done if player has started as either Wild men start or Tribal start. Similar to how game of Ur is only available to tribals, the way to do Floor Paintings is not available to anyone at higher tech levels.

In fact, the moment you enter medieval era via tech advancement, you will be unable to construct more cave paintings.

But don't feel bad about it. They have a unique mechanic that I'm sure you will appreciate, and I think it resonates well with the whole 'advancing through eras' aspect of the mod:

Floor paintings are only craftable in animal and neolithic eras of the game. They do however increase in beauty as the player advances through tech eras. Below are the modifiers to beauty based on what tech era it is:

• Animal - 1x
• Neolithic - 1x
• Medieval - 2x
• Industrial - 8x
• Spacer - 16x
• Ultratech - 32x

This modifier is applied on top of any other beauty modifiers given by for example quality.

This means that an excellent floor painting would have 45 beauty in Animal and Neolithic tech era, then 90 beauty in Medieval, then 360 in Industrial era, 720 in Spacer era and 1440 in Ultratech era.

This means that your old cave paintings will become extremely beautiful by late game. You want to keep them, you want to defend them, you want to ensure nothing bad ever happens to them.

That's it for this development blog. I think next time we will cover the cornerstones. The mod is on Beta 3 right now, so it won't be long before we get a release candidate ready!