# Needful things (simple additions to improve the game)

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [March 23, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570 "2014-03-23T22:36:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 168

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**Author:** ![Pantalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@Pantalion](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Pantalion)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 8:20am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3341 "2016-08-31T08:20:37Z")

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Add “Unarmed Weapon” to leather belt, and amend the following description:

A leather belt. Useful for making your pair of pants fit, or maybe wrapped around your fist as a makeshift knuckleduster.

Wrapping your knuckles with the belt will allow you to put more power into punches without fear of damaging your hands, as well as potentially insulating you from electric discharge.

Add “Shillelagh”, partly because we need more clubs, partly because they have actually have a fairly decent chance of appearing in the North East USA, thanks to Irish-American culture.

Skill used: fabrication  
Required skills: 0  
Difficulty: 3  
Time to complete: 4 hours  
Tools required:

> 1 tool with cutting quality of 1  
> 1 tool with Wood Sawing quality of 1  
> Nearby Fire

Components required:

> 1x log  
> 2x lard OR 2x Tallow OR 2x Tainted Tallow OR 2x Cooking Oil OR 250x Lamp Oil OR 2x Pine Boughs

Material: Wood  
Bash: 16  
Cutting: 0  
To Hit Bonus: +3  
Volume 6  
0.9 kg  
Moves per attack: 111  
Does not conduct electricity.  
Techniques: Parry, Disarm.  
DURABLE\_MELEE

A shiny black walking stick carved from treated, smoke-hardened oak, and a classic Irish self-defence tool. The knob on handle is heavy and strong, suitable for parrying blows and disarming unwary opponents.

Techniques: Parry, Disarm.

Shillelaghs would be found rarely in the possession of select military personnel, private citizens, museums, and antique stores.

Compatible combat styles: Silat, Eskrima, Fencing, (Medieval Swordsmanship).

Combat Shillelagh

While traditionally reinforced shillelaghs used lead, gold is far denser and more effective.

Skill used: fabrication  
Required skills: 0  
Difficulty: 6  
Time to complete: 1 hours  
Tools required:

> Welding Goggles  
> Welder (50 charges) OR makeshift welder (75 charges) OR integrated toolset (75 charges) OR electric forge (20 charges) OR acetylene torch (1 charges)  
> 1 tool with drilling quality of 1  
> Crucible  
> Metal Funnel

Components required:

> 1x Shillelagh  
> 4x Gold

A shillelagh with a heavy metal core. While the added weight makes it slightly more unwieldy, the weapon now strikes with devastating force.

Material: Wood, Gold  
Bash: 32  
Cutting: 0  
To Hit Bonus: +2  
Volume 6  
1.8 kg  
Moves per attack: 112  
Does not conduct electricity.  
Techniques: Parry, Disarm, Brutal Strike  
DURABLE\_MELEE

Combat Shillelaghs would be found rarely in museums.

Compatible combat styles: Silat, Eskrima, Fencing, (Medieval Swordsmanship).

Both recipes would be found in The Historic Weaponsmith.

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**Author:** ![cuckold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@cuckold](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/cuckold)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3342 "2016-08-31T21:33:25Z")

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Have things like Sunrise/Sunset be graphically represented in-game.

As in, have a pink/orange hue to the little @'s during early and late hours.

Yeti’s and demon-possessed snowmen in winter.

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**Author:** ![pisskop](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/pisskop/32/1327_2.png) [@pisskop](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/pisskop)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3343 "2016-08-31T22:49:15Z")

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If were going to live in a world where being grabbed is more fatal than being downed, could we have an obvious indication when grabbed? Maybe inverting the characters color or something?

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**Author:** ![iceball3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c89c15/32.png) [@iceball3](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/iceball3)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 9:47am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3344 "2016-09-01T09:47:36Z")

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Make it so standing still with the wait action counts as attempting a grab break maneuever, like moving a way from a zombie is.  
Make it so that units who get their grab broken (say, a zombie who fails the roll to keep ahold on what they are fighting) will also lose turn points, about half a turn give or take.

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**Author:** ![Rot](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/rot/32/454_2.png) [@Rot](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Rot)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3345 "2016-09-01T12:37:56Z")

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[quote=“cuckold, post:3342, topic:5570”]Have things like Sunrise/Sunset be graphically represented in-game.

As in, have a pink/orange hue to the little @'s during early and late hours.

Yeti’s and demon-possessed snowmen in winter.[/quote]

Maybe slight orange, yellow, and red hues on the ground at the edge of the player’s reality bubble, and when night sets in it follows the edge of the remaining light, closing in with it.

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**Author:** ![Slax](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/slax/32/5385_2.png) [@Slax](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Slax)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3346 "2016-09-01T14:02:37Z")

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Shower curtains. So much plastic! Or maybe even something fancier?

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**Author:** ![Slax](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/slax/32/5385_2.png) [@Slax](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Slax)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2016, 10:53am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3347 "2016-09-06T10:53:48Z")

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A different kind of hybrid.

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**Author:** ![Pantalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@Pantalion](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Pantalion)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 5:37am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3348 "2016-09-07T05:37:45Z")

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Make “calories” a vitamin, found in high amounts in sweet and fatty foods, particularly junk foods.

“Nutrition” based deficiencies should give malnutrition penalties as they include miscellaneous dietary needs, while Calorie deficiency becomes fatigue, starvation and death.

Make Hunger cause pain.

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**Author:** ![tarburst98](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/tarburst98/32/1355_2.png) [@tarburst98](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/tarburst98)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3349 "2016-09-07T13:32:25Z")

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god no, i already always use the simple nutrition mod.

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**Author:** ![Pantalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@Pantalion](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Pantalion)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3350 "2016-09-07T13:40:44Z")

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> [@tarburst98](#):
>
> god no, i already always use the simple nutrition mod.

Then why, precisely, is your opinion important to the suggestion in any way whatsoever?

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3351 "2016-09-07T13:54:59Z")

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[quote=“Pantalion, post:3348, topic:5570”]Make “calories” a vitamin, found in high amounts in sweet and fatty foods, particularly junk foods.

“Nutrition” based deficiencies should give malnutrition penalties as they include miscellaneous dietary needs, while Calorie deficiency becomes fatigue, starvation and death.

Make Hunger cause pain.[/quote]

Calorie is just a measure of energy, a potato is full of calories but is neither fat nor sweet.

Plus, that would just duplicate the “nutrition” stat. I’m all for the hunger being more annoying though.

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**Author:** ![Pantalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@Pantalion](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Pantalion)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3352 "2016-09-07T14:18:05Z")

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[quote=“Sheb, post:3351, topic:5570”][quote=“Pantalion, post:3348, topic:5570”]Make “calories” a vitamin, found in high amounts in sweet and fatty foods, particularly junk foods.

“Nutrition” based deficiencies should give malnutrition penalties as they include miscellaneous dietary needs, while Calorie deficiency becomes fatigue, starvation and death.

Make Hunger cause pain.[/quote]

Calorie is just a measure of energy, a potato is full of calories but is neither fat nor sweet.

Plus, that would just duplicate the “nutrition” stat. I’m all for the hunger being more annoying though.[/quote]

100g of a typical potato contains 77 calories. “Fat” matters.

A baked potato, therefore, is 210g, ~160 calories. Nutrition value: 20.

100g of Walkers Brand Potato chips contains 525 calories. 1 serving in CDDA is around 80g, so the three serving bags of chips you find are 1260 calories. Two bags of potato chips is more energy than a healthy adult male requires per day.  
Nutrition value: 24 for all three.

“Nutrition” of a potato is high, because a potato is actually quite a healthy foodstuff, but if there’s one thing which sweet, greasy junk food is really, really good at, it’s having tons and tons of calories despite having virtually no nutritious value. Nuts and seeds are also extremely calorie dense, 100g of pumpkin seeds has even more calories than potato chips, 100g of pine nuts has 20% more calories per gram than that.

100g of Lard, incidentally: 902 calories. Two helpings of lard in the size that they exist in the game is enough for an adult female. Nutrition: 18

Don’t get me started on chocolate.

Your body needs roughage and a lot of different things, there’s obviously a limit to how much you can eat, and you need a wide variety of vitamins and minerals that are actually common to most “decent” foodstuff, but nutrition really doesn’t correspond very well to how much energy you’re getting from food, and in a survival situation that’s often the most important thing to consider.

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**Author:** ![RAM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@RAM](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/RAM)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3353 "2016-09-07T21:10:10Z")

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I kind of feel as though “hunger” is already calories, and nutrition is about accounting for other things. I mean, sure, it is possible to have a low-calorie diet, but the average survivor’s food seems as though it wouldn’t coincide…

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**Author:** ![Taberone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/taberone/32/515_2.png) [@Taberone](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taberone)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3354 "2016-09-08T00:42:25Z")

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![](http://i.imgur.com/fsbhXy8.png)

Being able to mug these kinds of guys right away would be more convenient than having to accept the mission first and THEN mug them. I absolutely despise these kinds of NPCs.

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 9:33am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3355 "2016-09-08T09:33:34Z")

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Can’t you just shoot them?

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**Author:** ![Taberone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/taberone/32/515_2.png) [@Taberone](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taberone)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 1:35pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3356 "2016-09-08T13:35:54Z")

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> [@Sheb](#):
>
> Can’t you just shoot them?

No, because either my character doesn’t have the Psychopath trait and will get depressed as hell for “killing an innocent” despite the fact that you can freely murder people without penalty through making them hostile via dialog or if they’re already fleeing, or my character has the Psychopath trait and I want to try to disarm the NPC with the M4A1 (By intimidating him into dropping the gun) before filling him full of lead and looting his corpse.

I could go through all those damn extra keypresses to accept the mission and THEN lie to them, but that’s not always a good thing. Like when I’m in the middle of the forest and I get yet another mission to kill a Jabberwock from a passing NPC, and accepting it before lying to the NPC causes the Jabberwock to spawn a few map tiles nearby anyways. It’s slightly tedious, too.

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:23pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3357 "2016-09-08T15:23:50Z")

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Well, but then shouldn’t you get some morale penalties when trying to mug someone?

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**Author:** ![Tawarochir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Tawarochir](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tawarochir)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3358 "2016-09-08T23:47:05Z")

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I concur.  
[hr]  
How hard would it be to make the Leather Belt’s description accurate? You know, so that it actually makes your pants fit if they don’t already?

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**Author:** ![Taberone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/taberone/32/515_2.png) [@Taberone](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taberone)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3359 "2016-09-09T01:01:28Z")

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> [@Sheb](#):
>
> Well, but then shouldn’t you get some morale penalties when trying to mug someone?

For some reason, you only get morale penalties if you attack unprovoked. Mugging someone out of the blue and shooting them while they’re either in the “Fleeing” state or “Hostile” state doesn’t count. This also applies to NPCs that you don’t even try to mug, like the ones that spawn already fleeing from you or the ones that flee from you after you try to convince them that you’re friendly. It’s kinda weird.

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 6:32am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/needful-things-simple-additions-to-improve-the-game/5570/3360 "2016-09-09T06:32:11Z")

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You should probably get the penalty for fleeing NPCs.

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