Add support for specialized required ST adjustments to weapons

[mfilz]

I just noticed that the there are two errors calculating braced firearms:

1. According to B270/B412 weapons with a bipod have only 2/3 the ST requirement. This is ignored and instead the normal ST penality is applied. One could argue, that the value indicate standing pose, but in practice those weapons are never fired without, especially when ST is in question. (Bipods also give a +1 to Acc, but Acc seems not to be calculated at any rate.)
2. Firearms profit from Lifting-ST. I think that's likely a missing feature in the data files rather than a bug, though. FYI this has been confirmed by Kromm: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1182696#post1182696

[richardwilkes]

For item 1, there is no support in GCS for such a capability. The expectation is that you'll either directly adjust the weapon entry to match the method that you use to fire it, or you'll do so mentally when needed. In particular, there is no reason that said weapons couldn't have multiple weapon entries with appropriate stats for each mode of operation -- this is the way all other multi-mode weapons are dealt with, such as thrusting broadswords, which have slightly different stats depending on whether you thrust or swing with them.

For item 2... that's a rather complex ruling that has no reasonable way to be reflected in the current data files. Again, you could adjust the entries for your particular lifting ST should it apply to the weapon, but a general facility isn't likely to be made any time soon. That said, I can see ways to implement it -- just currently have many other things that I'd rather spend my time on.

I will leave this open because I do think both can and probably should be addressed at some point.

[mfilz]

Adressing it at some point sounds good to me. I guess the first one would mean updating the library files for quite a few entries. A somewhat menial task, but not necessarily any program changes.

If I may make a suggestion for the second one, extending Features to give an attribute bonus applicable for a certain skill (as addition to the "for throwing/lifting/striking only" list) should do the trick. Maybe even for other attributes than ST. I don't know if that was one of the ideas you had.

[richardwilkes]

In the upcoming v5.19 release, a tooltip is present when the mouse is placed over the ST field of the weapon display that shows the calculated adjustments when used with the bipod.

However, as noted before, a better way to reflect this would be to create a separate 'usage' entry.