[A16] Blowguns - Lethal & Nonlethal [22/02/2017]

[O Negative]

Blowguns - Lethal & Nonlethal


I like snakes, biological warfare, and different ways of approaching problems.

So, I threw this together real quick.

Summary


With a bit of wood and some snake venom, you'll be able to produce your very own lethal or nonlethal blowdarts in no-time!
Getting wood is easy. The trick is getting the snake venom! You'll have to tame some cobras, and "milk" them for their venom.
Obviously, this is risky business, but the payoff is well worth it.

The blowgun is an incredibly short ranged weapon, that can prove useful or catastrophic for your colonists. It does minimal damage (literally), but applies one of two toxins to the target on-hit.

The lethal variation of the blowgun fires darts with concentrated snake venom on the tip.
The result is the same toxic buildup that occurs when bitten by a snake, only much more severe.
A few hits can kill even the largest beasts.

The nonlethal variation of the blowgun should only be used to hit a human target once.
Results are not immediate, but over time the tranquilizing properties of the dart will cause the target to slowly go temporarily blind and paralyzed.
The effects can last anywhere from 12 to 16 hours.

The rate and cap of each toxin's severity is determined by the body size/meat amount of your target, as well as how many darts hit your target.
You'll find this information useful if you ever find yourself wanting to tranquilize an elephant or thrumbo.

NEW - Antivenom

Antivenom is a form of modern medicine that will prove useful to your colony.
It rapidly slows, and eventually stops the progression of both forms of toxic buildup.
You will want to have a vial or two of this lying around, just in case.

Production

You can produce blowguns at any weapon production station in the core game.
Aside from the easily obtained wood you'll need for the basic "tube" of the blowgun, you're going to need some venom for the darts.
Venom can be obtained via "milking" tamed cobras.

Antivenom can be produced at a drug lab once medicine production is researched, and you have a colonist with basic familiarity in crafting and medicine.

Applications


Both of these weapons are incredibly tactical, even for the simplest AI. And, yes, tribal raiders do spawn with these from time to time.

Lethal
Quickly puts victim into a disadvantaged position, which is only exacerbated by multiple hits.
Multiple consecutive hits are guaranteed to kill, if left neglected.
HINT: Try not to get hit with a lethal dart if you don't have some antivenom lying around!

Nonlethal
Best used as a hit-and-run weapon.
Great for bringing down large/dangerous animals and other beasts.
Be careful when using it on quick predators, such as the panther.
Also useful in ending the mental breaks of colonists you don't want to risk permanently damaging.
Just remember the effects are not instant.

Toxic Fallout
Antivenom will not prevent the progression of toxic buildup entirely.
But, it can prove incredibly helpful in keeping your colonists and livestock alive until you can get the proper roofed setup ready for the duration of the event.

Colony Economy
Snake venom can be sold for a decent price, making your cobras worthy of keeping around.
Further investment of time and resources into crafting antivenom will prove even more profitable!

Feedback
The textures are rough, and I apologize for that.
Make sure to leave feedback, though! I know the mod isn't perfect, and probably never will be.
I am, however, always interested in ways to improve upon my work.

Recommended Supplement Mods
No RNG Death

Download | Steam Workshop

[Canute]

Nonlethal
Best used as a hit-and-run weapon.

I didn't use this mod yet,
but it is like the blowgun from kapun ?
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=27744.0

Then a hit and run tactic will be impossible do the long aiming time.

[Thyme]

Subscribed. Now I just need to get a snake in -50°C tundra!

Is there a chance you will make a gun version with higher range?

[O Negative]

I never used the other blowgun mod. Didn't know it existed, actually

Anyhow, when I say hit and run, I literally mean "Hit them once, and run away" lol.
Especially if it's a predatory animal or Thrumbo.
Its stats are pretty much on-par with a short bow. It's fair, I think.

You can also pick them up from tribal raiders every now and again!
I don't think I'll be making a gun version, just because I feel like that would be a bit harder to balance.
Part of the fun in using these is the fact that you have to get pretty close to your target

[Thyme]

Part of the fun as I see it is to "infect" raiders while they prepare themselves (or siege me) (less distance carrying the corpse back to base). This requires sniper range =)

It's still good enough to un-brake my colonists, thanks for that.

*PS: How about a tranquiliser mortar? :D

[O Negative]

Part of the fun as I see it is to "infect" raiders while they prepare themselves (or siege me) (less distance carrying the corpse back to base). This requires sniper range =)
*PS: How about a tranquiliser mortar?

Now, the mortar is a very interesting idea, indeed
Or, even traps

[Canute]

Cobra/wasp mortar, throw a basket full of trained cobra/wasp to infect anything inside range with sleeping poison ? :-)

[FreyaMaluk]

Can you change the word "milk" for "extract," please?
Milk is just so weird..... 

And are these really non-lethal? do they bypass the lethal chance value for all guns?

[O Negative]

Can you change the word "milk" for "extract," please?
Milk is just so weird..... 

And are these really non-lethal? do they bypass the lethal chance value for all guns?

I know, I wish I could lmao
(((maybe i can, i just haven't looked that hard into it)))

Unfortunately, I can't do that with a specific weapon. There is a mod in existence that removes RNG death altogether.
It works well with nonlethal weapon mods of all sorts
Just creates a balance issue.

I can't seem to find it again, though. Hmmmm....

[Thyme]

Assuming that you're talking about the job "milking cobra", you might have a look into ShadowTanis mod Chemicals & Neutroamine which adds a new job type "drain boomalopes/-rats" for neutroglycerin (can be refined into neutroamine).

[fledermaus]

No RNG in Death is from Mazacik. Great mod.

This mod looks good too. I'm playing with the Hardcore SK pack right now, and it includes the Blowgun mod that uses Healroot to construct. The idea of using cobras and allowing the creation of lethal and nonlethal version are really awesome! I'm def downloading for my next vanilla run. Thanks for this!

IMHO "milking" is what it should be called. In the U.S. that is the correct (or at least the common) term for safely acquiring snakes' venom. Check out the caption for the picture at the Wikipedia antivenom article. "Extract" sounds permanent or like something done to a snake's corpse. Butchering a cobra for its venom glands could be a thing though...

[O Negative]

UPDATE!

The blowdart mechanic has effectively been reworked entirely.
Severity increase and cap of both forms of toxic buildup are now determined by two things:
1) Body size of your target
2) Number of darts hit

Larger animals are a bit harder to bring down, and take a while longer to affect than a human.
The inverse is true for smaller life forms.

Also, antivenom! You can make this stuff now, and you're probably going to want to have a vial or two lying around.
You know, just in case a tribal raider manages to land a lethal dart on one of your people.

Check the updated description for more details!

I've added the No RNG Death mod as a recommended mod in the description

[Sebastian Cigar]

Body size of your target

YES. Thank you so much for that little tweak!
We can now safely farm bug jelly.
I've just tested it, and megascarabs aka the hive maintenance drones go down in seconds after being shot, which means you can just leave them be (or enforce some population growth control easily) and deal with the larger buggers; spelopedes and megaspiders go down in 30 and  40 seconds real-time on 3x game-speed, respectively. I'm probably wrong on my calculations.
By the way, blowgun's shots don't seem to aggro the animals, is that intended? It leaves cut scars on their eyes, you know, that's kind of a thing that wouldn't go unnoticed.

[O Negative]

The minimal damage(1) causes behavior I'm not particularly fond of, sometimes.
I've seen (((stealth))) used as an argument
Not really a whole lot I can do with the hard coded systems in place, unfortunately

[Sebastian Cigar]

Hey again,
I've had a pod drop of a small batch of antivenom and while my colony's surgeon was playing around with imprisoned raiders' intestines, I noticed a strange thing; you can use antivenom as a medicine for surgeries if you click "Doctor care, but no medicine" in the health tab of a prisoner or a colonist. It cannot be used to treat injuries, however.
https://puu.sh/uHbZq/c53cd3d977.jpg - here's a screenshot of my second doctor installing a power arm on that surgeon using a vial of antivenom. She performed successfully, by the way.
That whole thing was not supposed to happen, right? Could this be an issue of mods conflicting with each other? Because I have a lot of them. Among them, there are only a few that affect surgeries: the latest version of EPOE, Glittertech, Less Arbitrary Surgery and A Dog Said.