Torch as a(n admittedly poor) weapon

[Carduus]

My character is holding a torch here, and I'm looking at its desc, and frankly, it doesn't seem too bad if I ever cared to use it as a weapon. Yet when I fight with it in my hand, my character never uses it. Like the old trick of fire keeping wolves at bay, I would think that a lit torch would be a somewhat effective deterrant against flammable predators that attack. Obviously, it would suck as a weapon compared to something made for the expressed purpose of clubbing something's head in, but I could see myself using it as a last defense to be sure, and possibly if it would have a chance of protecting me against certain predators.

Now that I think about it, it may be more work than it's worth, but you could certainly craft mobprogs that gave a small chance of smaller scavenger/predators fleeing if hit by a flaming torch so many times. I'm not looking for some huge advantage here, just looking for realism. And to give myself more creative options than either fighting something that attacks me or fleeing.

Just like belts being able to be worn about the waist as well as as a belt, could torches be wielded as a crappy weapon?

[John]

This has sort of been talked about before but I like the idea of fire keeping animals away (which has also been talked about before).

I think it'd be pretty easy to create a script that would make certain animals have a fear of fire. Some animals would care less, other animals would stay away if there was a fire/torch in the room. Other animals would have a large percentage of staying away if your carrying a torch while others would have a delay on attacking you and it would throw out some emotes like "the gortok warily circles you, before lunging at your throat". I think this has been talked about before, and I don't think this would be much more difficult then giving animals hunger scripts (which certain animals do). Not too sure about the "getting hit by a flaming torch" bit for animals because of the previous discussion.

I like the belt wielding weapon (for certain belts) because they do make excellent whips. However having said that, I'm not too sure it would be codeable to have a piece of clothing also be a "weapon" type or to give "belts" weapon properties as well as clothing properties. What would most likely have to happen is a new item type be coded which I imagine wouldn't be easy.

[Carduus]

I'm sorry, I didn't see that previous post. Whoops.

As for the belt thing, I think I didn't make myself clear. I meant that just like the fact that a belt can be worn about the waist AND as a belt, depending on what you type, I think a torch should be able to be wielded as a weapon depending on what you type.

[John]

Don't worry about re-suggesting old ideas. Sometimes something new crops up (like in the Subdue thread which I get the feeling has been talked about before). People tend to link to old threads just so others can see what pros and cons were thought of and if the Imms said anything about it