Cataclysm-dda: Throwing full stacks of "Throwing sticks" vs. just one

[Dunqann]

The new change to having to wield thrown weapons before throwing them appears to have introduced a bug.

Throwing individual sticks works fine for a while, but at some point they are getting thrown as a stack.

Not sure if it's form auto-pickup (set to pick up throwing sticks) or switching from my quarterstaff (using a spear sling) and then back again to the throwing sticks. Either way - after a few combats I'll all of a sudden throw all 12 at once.

Creating a new stack of throwing sticks fixed the problem for a few combats but then I threw the whole stack again.

Using latest version 7910 on Windows with tiles

[Dunqann]

After some further study it appears maybe I'm confused with how the new throwing works - I thought I had to wield the thrown weapons, but perhaps I just need to un-wield my current weapon without wielding the thrown weapons.

When I throw an un-wielded thrown weapon the behavior appears to be normal - throwing single items. If I wield the stack, then it throws the stack. This still seems to be a bit strange as I would have expected it to throw single items (why would wielding it change the behavior vs. non-wielded?)

[alanbrady]

So I actually knew about this but I wasn't sure how to handle it. The way it works now seems to make sense to me but I'm definitely open to other interpretations.

In my mind this gives you the option to say "I want to throw this giant stack of stuff" vs "I just want to throw one of the stack". If you wield the stack you'll throw the stack, if you just press 'T' and then choose the stack, it'll automatically just wield one of the item.

Now this presents the problem where if you want to 'pre-wield' an item to prepare to throw, which will save you some moves by prepping the object, you can't really do that as it is right now. Actually as I'm writing this I'm regretting not fixing this.

The solution is to fix manually wielding a stack of items to only wield one instead wielding the whole stack and it should be straightforward enough to fix. This would also make wielding a stack of items impossible I think, which may have other detrimental effects. I'm open to other ideas.

[alanbrady]

As another example, aspirin behaves similarly, where if you wield the stack of aspirin you throw the whole thing, but if you use 'T' to throw it you'll just chuck a single aspirin.

[alanbrady]

Here's an idea that just occurred to me, what if I added a prompt such that when you're choosing to wield something, if it's a stack, it'll ask if you want to wield the whole stack or just one? It adds extra keypresses but this gives the best of both worlds I think. Then additionally, counter to that, when choosing to throw something, if it's a stack, ask to throw the whole thing or just one, as well.

Another idea, add a new flag to items that should only be thrown singly, like throwing sticks, otherwise default to always throwing a whole stack. This would prevent being able to wield an entire stack of throwing sticks however. Is being able to chuck a single aspirin or similiar item (cash cards, most drug items, etc) useful?

A third idea is just to make it so that when you're wielding a stack of items and you throw it, you only ever throw one. This is kind of cheap though because it sidesteps the move penalty for wielding something. I suppose however if you're already using throwing sticks though you don't care much about balance. Suppose I could also fix the move penalty thing but not easily.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[kevingranade]

Extra keypresses is not the best of both worlds.

I think wielding a single charge of any non-contained item is the best
option. Every item that is intended to be thrown will work correctly this
way, and I'm sceptical that throwing a handful of things is ever a useful
thing to do.

[alanbrady]

I think wielding a single charge of any non-contained item is the best
option. Every item that is intended to be thrown will work correctly this
way, and I'm sceptical that throwing a handful of things is ever a useful
thing to do.

That's a fair assessment. Somehow it seemed like it might be useful. Will fix.