More explosives

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_breath
Dragonbreath rounds are basically kind of an incendiary shot (pellets are made of magnesium). Wikipedia says the round isn’t made powerful enough to cycle the action in auto weapons, but for the sake of simplicity of implementation we can allow it do so.
An idea of an in-game mechanic is to make it ignite any burnable item in a cone; basically allowing your shotgun to become a kind of a short-range flamethrower.
Suggested places to find it: rare item in mansions (exotic ammo fits the theme), rare item in backs of gunstores (not sure on its legality), maybe found in police stations.
Reason to add: MORE FIRE and general awesomeness. Put these in a saiga for bonus points.

Magnesium powder: can be harvested from magnesium chunks with a hacksaw and lots of time; chunks should be rarely found at heli crashes (alloys high in magnesium are frequently used in aerospace applications).
Can be used for crafting said dragonbreath rounds, flares, flashbangs, used with oxy powder and a gun round to create dynamite (well, technically it’s ammonal, but whatevs), crafted into a firestarting kit, etc.
Reason to add: a way to create flashbangs, an alternative way to craft dynamite, an alternative incendiary source.

Fuse: an item that burns for a set amount of time, then explodes any COOKOFF-tagged item in its tile. Made from gunpowder and plastic chunks, for example.
Reason to add: really needed for the finer demolitions work. Sure, we have the radio dynamite and C4, but a low-tech version would be nice too.

Homemade rocket: made from sugar, oxidizer, cardboard and a grenade. Requires 5-6 fabrication, 3 cooking and a stick to craft. Essentially a smaller version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket.
Homemade launcher: a pipe with a piece of scrap metal for sights, used for launching homemade rockets.
Reason to add: more explosives! homemade! Also, a resource-intensive but low-tech way to deal with milspec turrets.

Anarchist’s cookbook: contains recipes on improvised explosives, radio bombs and maybe some more stuff like casting brass knuckles from lead.
Reason to add: themed book on improvised explosives and the stuff from radio mod.

Terrorist or Anarchist background: costs 3-4 points, starts with some explosives, Anarchist’s cookbook, lockpick kit, some kind of a knife, 4 fabrication and 3 cooking.
Background info: You’ve been on the way to bomb the town hall to finally prove your point to the ignorant masses. (Un)fortunately, the masses appear to be even more ignorant now, and your brain appeals more to them than your ideology!
Reason to add: explosives-centered profession.

2

Keep the last bit to “Anarchist” and we have a deal.

3

[quote=“incide, post:1, topic:7415”]Magnesium powder: can be harvested from magnesium chunks with a hacksaw and lots of time; chunks should be rarely found at heli crashes (alloys high in magnesium are frequently used in aerospace applications).
Can be used for crafting said dragonbreath rounds, flares, flashbangs, used with oxy powder and a gun round to create dynamite (well, technically it’s ammonal, but whatevs), crafted into a firestarting kit, etc.
Reason to add: a way to create flashbangs, an alternative way to craft dynamite, an alternative incendiary source.[/quote]
Fertilizer bomb IS basically ‘ammonal’ already, though. And won’t using magnesium instead of aluminium create a ammonia-powered flash-incendiary combo grenade?

[quote=“incide, post:1, topic:7415”]Fuse: an item that burns for a set amount of time, then explodes any COOKOFF-tagged item in its tile. Made from gunpowder and plastic chunks, for example.
Reason to add: really needed for the finer demolitions work. Sure, we have the radio dynamite and C4, but a low-tech version would be nice too.[/quote]
Agreed. Maybe use fuel-saturated long string as fiddly, not-guaranteed-to-burn-for-exact time version, and oxidizer with long string (add asphalt to taste) for precise version?

[quote=“incide, post:1, topic:7415”]Homemade rocket: made from sugar, oxidizer, cardboard and a grenade. Requires 5-6 fabrication, 3 cooking and a stick to craft. Essentially a smaller version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket.
Homemade launcher: a pipe with a piece of scrap metal for sights, used for launching homemade rockets.
Reason to add: more explosives! homemade! Also, a resource-intensive but low-tech way to deal with milspec turrets.[/quote]
That would be fun, especially if it could be launched from a construction as well (like laying siege to bandit camp). Also, why not full-on pyrotechnics addition? Roman candles which you need to hold and aim until they run out of charges (or drop and then they shoot in random directions!), fireworks attracting all the boys zombies to the yard, fountainspark traps! I’ve had a book on pyrotechnics archived somewhere, not in English, though.

[quote=“incide, post:1, topic:7415”]Anarchist’s cookbook: contains recipes on improvised explosives, radio bombs and maybe some more stuff like casting brass knuckles from lead.
Reason to add: themed book on improvised explosives and the stuff from radio mod.[/quote]
We already have Anonymous Anarchist’s Annual for that exactly. With added EMP grenades and noise emitters! Sadly no fertilizer bombs and the like, someone should add that. And Molotovs.
Suggest using ‘Recipes for Disaster’ name if you want to add a second book specifically for improvized explosives that don’t require much in the way of tools and technology (i.e. fertilizer bombs), orrrr just make a “Miner’s digest” sort of book exploring the explosives and tools used in mining, including fuses, impromptu explosive recipes written in the margins by previous owner in case factory delivery is late, etc.

[quote=“incide, post:1, topic:7415”]Anarchist background: costs 3-4 points, starts with some explosives, Anarchist’s cookbook, lockpick kit, some kind of a knife, 4 fabrication and 3 cooking.
Background info: You’ve been on the way to bomb the town hall to finally prove your point to the ignorant masses. (Un)fortunately, the masses appear to be even more ignorant now, and your brain appeals more to them than your ideology!
Reason to add: explosives-centered profession.[/quote]
Don’t think Cata’s zombies crave brains. Otherwise, why not?
Also, we don’t have ‘miner’ profession yet, do we? Could start with a box of fuses, some rudimentary explosives, a pickaxe and a shovel, and a drinking problem.

Speaking about mining, hand auger (for making holes, and to make well-digging EXTRA hard - as if it’s not problematic already) plus breacher explosives that can be put into a wall using said auger would’ve been nice. Faster mining with lots of noise (when noises start to propagate across z-levels, it’s going to be !!FUN!!), or not-as-rare alternative to C4 for blasting inside places.