Using both hands

[ChrisW]

Hello!

I thought a whole lot about it and this is what I've come up with..

Why don't the colonists get 2 handheld item slots?
They would be conditional and called left hand and right hand.
(Sidenote: Ambidextrous trait, default hand when picking up weapons, later.)

Now, say I want to equip a stage 1 guy..
Bow - would use both hands (disabling non-default slot)
Spear - dito
Longsword - would use default hand
..leaving other hand for e.g. a wooden/steel shield (I envision a small round buckler and a greatshield like the knights used - or the wooden variant, viking - and a tower shield like the romans used - or for wooden tower shields, the Zulu variant)

Stage 2 guy
LMG - both hands (disable nondefault slot)
Pistol - default hand
..leaving the other hand for other items, like a steel riot shield (values see tower shield, just looks more modern with a window) or a fire extinguisher (spray thingie, one-time use throwaway, researched together with the foam popper) OR a one-handed melee weapon.

Now, one-handed melee weapon in secondary hand? Yep. They would be less effective, but you could finally give your hunters both weapon types, and they would automatically default to ranged weapons (default hand), checking the nondefault hand for useable stuff as soon as they got anything in melee range (shield, knife, fire extinguisher). It would be slightly less effective there, but a lot better than your fists.

Also I would like to see a baton for stage 2 people, with a higher chance to KO than kill your opponent - nondefault hand wielded, this could enable your soldiers to be given the order to charge forward and capture someone using the melee order, effectively telling them to not use their guns but still get that guy down. This could be very helpful to deal with berserk own colonists as well. Knock out to calm down without cutting their limbs off and making them useless later.

Refined, this would result in lefthanded, righthanded characteristics and a rare ambidextrous trait, which eliminates the nondefault-hand-penalty for that character, making them ideal hunters or riot police officers.

Of course if a colonists lacks an arm, he would only have the other slot active, maybe resulting in a penalty for weapons use if it is his untrained arm and not allowing him to use a bow, LMG or other two handed weapon at all.

So, what do you say?

PS: Water bucket. Made of wood. For stage 1 firefighting.

Cheers,
Chris

[Bastobasto]

A long sword would be two hand ...

[Boston]

Spears can easily be used in one and two hands, actually

[firescythe]

A long sword would be two hand ...

Depends on physical buildup. A longsword can be used in different ways. European medieval fight styles used almost exclusively bashing style, so it was the weight of the blade that counted, however samurai katanas were possible to use single-handedly (but ofc they used it two-handed due to fight specifics) because of hilt-focused or well-balanced design. Just to give an edge, a very style-focused person can even use broadsword with one hand, having average body type.

[BetaSpectre]

I would support a simple two slot system hands disregarded, you can sling items on your back IRL. So having something in your pack would serve to be the same.

Right now its kinda like that isn't it?