Battering Ram

[Nick]

Perhaps a new "lock picking" tool could be made, the Battering Ram. It could be made out of wood, and would require more people to use it, but it shoudl be effective. While the game is great there are a lot of logic problems I have spotted. There should be more power to the masses, even if they cant afford steel.

[Pirog]

I support this, but I also think people should be able to knock a door down from sheer force. (especially if many people work together).

There could also be ways to strengthen the doors, making them harder to breach.

[Spider]

Like iron and steel doors?.....how about more doors, i love when some guys works hard to break on door then see another in his way......that could just be another room.

[Pirog]

Well, they don't have to be made completely from iron or steel...just being reinforced with iron could be enough.

I would like to see the doors as a separate project from the rest of the house...

[thingnumber2]

Another way to reinforce doors could be to push against them...maybe it could even work as a temporary lock, but you can't do anything else while your doing it though...

[Nick]

Another way to reinforce doors could be to push against them...maybe it could even work as a temporary lock, but you can't do anything else while your doing it though...

But enough people could certainly break through one person.

[Doug R.]

I wanted to bump this. It struck me today that masses of the poor/weak should always be able to overthrow few numbers of the strong. A prince might live in a villa behind a locked door, but arm a few hundred peasants with torches, pitchforks and a battering ram and he's toast.

Currently, the only methods available for the weak (i.e., characters without access to iron) to overthrow the strong (i.e., those with access to iron) are deception and begging.

With deception, a weak character has to spend a considerable amount of time gaining the prince's trust, earning responsibilty, and gradually gaining in strength over many years before they are in a position to overthrow the prince. Most players simply don't have the time or energy to devote to such long-term deception. With begging, a character has to run to the next town and beg the strong characters there to do something for them. Most of the time, the strong characters there have "better" things to do, are sleeping, or are friends with the prince the weaklings want overthrown.

A battering ram would be made of wood or timber, and would either need multiple people to use, or would just go really slow with only one person. I would suggest that it would have a max of 4 people, and 4 people would complete the project in one day, (one person in 4 days, etc). If having multiple people sharing one tool is problematic, just quarter the construction cost and have each person have their own ram.

The weak should have some recourse over their tyrannical or sleeping masters.

[SekoETC]

It would be useful if multi-user tools could be programmed, that would allow things like the two-man saw which would be far more efficient in cutting wood and timber than an axe. Maybe things like that could be portable machines, one person could carry it but has to set it on the ground to start the project, and then several people can engage on the project. The tool couldn't be taken away from the spot while any people were working on the project. Also I think it would be good if people would still be marked as participating on the project even after it had finished, since who would toss a battering ram on the ground in the middle of a battle? (The same thing happens when you're dragging something and then the target walks out, the project remains.) So only after people ended their participation manually, the battering ram would "fall down", allowing it to be picked up or a new project started.

Then again, people could be dragged away from the project one by one if someone wanted to steal the ram or to use it for their own purposes. But this would require a lot of strength so power to the masses again.

[Yo_Yo]

Hmmm... Maybe treat it like a bike or whatnot. To use it, you have to basicly get it in. Then whomevers in charge basicly sets up a project with the door.

Or for the two man saw, the two hop in the saw and one selects to start cutting wood.

[sem]

Also I think it would be good if people would still be marked as participating on the project even after it had finished, since who would toss a battering ram on the ground in the middle of a battle?

Er... Anyone who wanted to fight their way in through the breach they'd just made rather than standing around waiting for the defenders to repair it?

[Piscator]

A battering ram doesn't necessarily need more than one person to be operated. I would prefer the smaller kind, simply because it should stay portable. If you are going to implement large battering rams, they should definitely weigh more than 15 kg and that would make things a little complicated. At least there would be no way to simply pick them up.
Anyway, using a whole battering ram for a single door of normal size seems a bit like an overkill to me.