Slingmod

[Endoperez]

I tried adding Jotun Sling to the Jotun Hurler unit, and the sling replaced his axe, leaving him with Fist, Jotun Sling, Boulder. I might've done something wrong, though; I'm not that experienced with editing existing units' weapons.

I'd really like to see this old idea actually work in the game, and it'd be really great if you completed the mod.

[Sombre]

Here's the Slingmod I came up with. You get range 33, damage = str -2, ammo 15,.. everything else is normal.

All the units with slings in the game now have these strength based slings instead. They haven't lost any melee weapons (you were right, you have to put them in manually for some crazy reason, but it still only took 5 minutes so I can't complain)

It's attached. Enjoy y'all ;]

[Shovah32]

Time to go play MA Mictlan

[HoneyBadger]

I've been thinking about this one. It might be possible-depending on how their bodies are put together-that Jotuns simply don't have the ability/dexterity to use a sling.

Throwing a spear is a little bit different-and requires a different set of motions from-using a sling. The whirling around required to hurl a stone from a sling might be something Jotuns just physically can't do. I've heard speculation along these lines about Neanderthals-that, because they were put together differently than humans in their shoulders, they were unable to use ranged weapons, and so humans were able to massacre them from a distance.
Jotuns-with their far heavier skelital structure, might suffer from the same handicap as Neanderthal-man.

In which case, the Jotuns could still use atlatls, grenade-weapons, harpoons with lines, "lawn-dart" type weapons, shurikens, and ofcourse crossbows. They also would probably not be able to use ball-and-chain weapons, but they'd be likely to use flails with several heads and various types of maces and nets, because of the area-effectiveness of those weapons-they're big enough that at times they could put themselves at a major disadvantage trying to use only precision-weapons, like axes and spears, against small enemies.

[Sombre]

Think you're going a little over the top with the 'realism' there.

By the way, have you released any of the 12 or so nations you said you were working on? Just wondering if I missed them on here.

[Foodstamp]

It wasn't ranged warfare that wiped out the Neanderthal. It was a 4000-6000 calorie requirement and a birth to death ratio that was .01% worse than Cro-Magnon.

Scientists come up with theories everyday about things from the past. I would be willing to bet that Neanderthal could and did probably use projectile style weapons (very primitive).

[Edi]

Regarding slings, they are nostrength for a reason: The power of the slingstone is not related to the actual physical strength of the slinger the same way the power of e.g. an axe blow is. The power is provided by the whirling motion and it requires more manual dexterity than strength to use the sling more effectively. A slingstone hurled by a man average strength will do more or less the same damage as a slingstone hurled by a very strong man simply because the mechanics of how the sling works and how fast you can whirl it before you run against the laws of physics render the strength difference fairly irrelevant.

That said, a Jotun would be able to sling a larger stone, which would cause greater damage at same range, all else being equal, so you get a bigger projectile impacting for the same speed, so when you figure Ek=1/2mv^2, a slingstone five times heavier will have 5 times the energy. It'll also have more momentum, so having a Jotun Sling with greater damage is justififed. Making slings strength dependent weapons is not, in my opinion anyway.