I’ve searched the discourse and found a few topics tangentially related to this suggestion, but this is more about the engine/modding potential than the particulars of how the “vanilla” game might handle the topic at hand.
Like many Stonehearth backers, I’m a Dwarf Fortress veteran. While I don’t expect this game to match its insane level of detail (which is honestly a good thing), there is one aspect worth mentioning; the injury system. The engagement and story-telling potential that stems from a more detailed wound system is exponential when compared to the dull HP bars we see in other games, even with the band-aid of status ailments added on top. Marrying such a system to a game with more immediate visuals would be incredible beyond words. Having more interesting mechanics to work with in respect to the Physician and other health-care classes is also useful, to say nothing of combat.
However, I don’t suspect most players want the darker side of DF’s wound system; that is, the hideous carnage and blood-splatter that accompanies the detailed vivisection of your precious settlers, their livestock, and (if you’re lucky) enemies in the world. I say most because… well, I like painting with red.
A simple compromise (both mechanically and stylistically) would be tracking arm and leg damage, with accompanying animations; settlers cradling their injured arms/legs and shouting with red “Ouch!” marks, then walking around in an arm sling or with a crutch after a trip to the doctor. Depending on how deep you want to go, you could see an entire cute little triage ward with your soldiers hobbling around with head bandages, eye patches and so forth after a particularly harrowing battle, or even subtler effects like settlers hopping around on one foot after dropping a stone block on their toe. Again, visual immediacy paired with a more detailed injury system has tremendous possibility, so it might be worth looking into!
At a deeper level, however, it might be useful to have limb severing as a mechanic used for not-so-bloody enemies like skeletons and golems. Having this capability in the core engine makes it easier to expand for modders and for vanilla uses. It could be an easy way to handle modular body parts, such as having young deer/etc. start with a “severed” set of horns that grow back in after maturity, or sheep that can have their wool cut off. It’d also give modders a doorway to more… “meaty” applications, but that’s another story.
So, what’s the consensus, if any? Should some form of limb damage be present, if only at an engine level? Are injury subtypes too bothersome to faff about with when HP bars work perfectly fine? I’d love to hear what everyone thinks, especially the devs.
