# Activatable weapons
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671
**Category:** The Drawing Board
**Created:** [August 12, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671 "2013-08-12T13:56:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kalrog](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Kalrog)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/1 "2013-08-12T13:56:55Z")
i always liked the idea of activatable weapons. the way it would work would be that every weapon would have a standard attack (knife -\> slash, halberd -\> wide swing …) and some special attack that the player could 'A’ctivate (knife -\> stab, halberd -\> far stab, far swing…) stabing would reduce your chance to hit but if you hit you would do more damage a far swing would he a ranged attack with a 1 tile radius but because you are holding the the weapon in a very unbalanced way the chance of dropping it would be higher swords could have wide swings that would hit multiple targets but they would take longer maybe even overhead swings or something like that which would do much damage but doing them takes long and makes your dodge and block chance 0
please give some feedback if you like the idea i’m sure it would need some balacing but i think it’s possible
(I hope my english is not too bad 😃 )
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### Author:  [@FunsizeNinja123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FunsizeNinja123)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/2 "2013-08-12T14:14:34Z")
Yer engrish is terribru. Just kidding.
Well I love the idea, but have it as one of the firing modes, I mean you can’t stab then shoot, right? Waitaminute.
GlyphGlyph does not like the idea of melee weapons using the fire key though… Or just reach weapons in general.
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### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/3 "2013-08-12T14:46:20Z")
GlyphGryph has a long-term project to add tactical options to fighting, where you’d indicate the kind of action you want to do, and a different action happens based on a bunch of factors, details here: [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/1565](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/1565)
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### Author:  [@Kalrog](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Kalrog)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/4 "2013-08-12T15:09:22Z")
nice 😃 i have a question will the character have to learn the different combat styles and patterns (like in the current martial arts system)? also how much controll will the player have for example if i want to cripple an NPC would i be abled to choose disarm or something else that would cripple the NPC ( like hitting his eyes) or would it just do a random one ?
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### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/5 "2013-08-12T15:49:26Z")
> [@Kalrog](#):
>
> nice 😃 i have a question will the character have to learn the different combat styles and patterns (like in the current martial arts system)?
Yes, the styles will be things you learn in-game, but there will be a default style everyone knows that has various techniques. Generally the harder to acquire styles will be better in some way.
> [@Kalrog](#):
>
> also how much controll will the player have for example if i want to cripple an NPC would i be abled to choose disarm or something else that would cripple the NPC ( like hitting his eyes) or would it just do a random one ?
There’s a strong focus on streamlining, so for disable, it’d pick automatically from the techniques you have available. For example, you might have a sand kicking attack (targets eyes, causes blindness), box ears (hits ears of course, causes deafness), and a hamstring. If you don’t have a blade or the target doesn’t have legs you can’t do the hamstring, if the target is already blind you can’t do the sand-kicking, and if it can’t hear you can’t box ears. And probably if you had already blinded the target you’d be less likely to try the blinding attack again.
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### Author:  [@FunsizeNinja123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FunsizeNinja123)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/6 "2013-08-12T16:08:44Z")
Well I don’t think zombies rely on their eyes that much… I wanna slice their necks and chop their limbs off.
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### Author:  [@i2amroy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/i2amroy)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/activatable-weapons/2671/7 "2013-08-13T00:17:22Z")
Definitely an interesting idea. I seem to remember someone else talking about using a whip as a long range attack in another thread recently.
> [@Kalrog](#):
>
> (I hope my english is not too bad 😃 )
It’s not too bad. There are 3 simple things you can do to improve it a ton though.
1)Capitalize the first letter in a sentence.
2)Capitalize the word “I”
3)Use commas and periods a bit more. The easiest way to figure out where they go is to say something aloud. If you pause/breathe at any point then a comma or a period goes there. If you pause/breathe for a short time use a comma. If you pause/breathe for a longer time then use a period. It can be a bit difficult to get the hang of, but once you do your writing becomes much clearer to read.