Composite bow with makeshift arrows bringing down skeletal jugs. Intended..?

After doing some testing of new and improved composite bow with makeshift wooden arrows it turns out that thing can easily bring down skeletal juggernauts and Kevlar hulks.

Obviously, it can bring down pretty much anything else as well (without insane regeneration). Just mentioning juggernauts and Kevlar hulks because you would expect them to be hardest to kill.

To clarify: composite bow is crafted from some sticks, strings and bones with a stone knife. Makeshift arrows are also crafted from components easily obtainable in the nearest forest. Both recipes are automatically learned at or below archery (3). So you can realistically craft this weapon literally from sticks and stones within the first couple of days.

And yet it can take down the most protected zombies. Which basically means that you don’t actually need any other weapons beyond that, because everything is already dying just fine.

And that really makes me wonder: is this intended?

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i don’t think that this would be intended. also a composite bow has a very spicific shape and characteristics so the knowledge and skill required to make one this powerful should be for way higher than archery 3. Maybe something like fabrication and 6 or 7 and archery 5 to 6. or you could just nurfe it.

edit: used wrong term replaced compound bow with composite bow

We are talking composite bow, not compound bow.
“Composite” here simply refers to the fact a few bones are used in it’s construction, not just wood.

a composite bow is not just a bow that uses a few bones in its construction, it is a type of bow with a very spicific structure to it that isn’t simpely a cuved piece of wood. the knowledge of what this shape exectly is and the skill required to make this is pretty advanced and if you want to make a good one that isn’t the equivelent of the self bow in the game you need to know what you are doing.

this is a compsite bow as it was used by the mongals you can’t craft something like this without spicific knowladge of archery and being a good craftsman.

afbeelding

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CDDA has unrealistically easy to craft recipes right, left and center. Nothing new here.
The question here isn’t really about how long crafting a composite bow should take.
It’s about the fact that auto-learned pre-industrial tech level bow can take down the most heavily armored zombies. Even if it required archery (5) and fabrication (7) the core issue would remain.

But can it kill armored zed? :grin:

The only thing that i may find a wee bit absurd is that normal arrows are capable of taking down such zombies, though if the arrow is made of some very rigid metal, i won’t be surprised that it kills them or even zombie hulks

some pre-industrial bows are cappable of getting through platemail therefor something like a longbow or a composite bow being able to damage heavely armored zombies if good metal arrows are used is within reality. what is a problem however is that such bows where at the time they where in use could only be made by skilled craftsman who had the required knowladge about them

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of course using wooden arrows to killed a skeletal juggernaut should not be possible regartles of the bow used

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Yeah, could not have said that better

the only zombie that is armored enough that is might be immune to arrows would be the armored zombie in powerarmor but that is about it.

Armored zombies in power armor hardly even exist, so it’s essentially a moot point.
Skeletal jugs and kevlar hulks are about as armored as zombies get among the zombies you will encounter somewhat regularly.

And here lies the problem: if even the most armored Z’s can be killed with a auto-learned bow, what’s really even the point of them having all that armor?
Since they are melee-only and relatively slow, they sure don’t pose too much of a threat offensively. Being vulnerable to arrows makes killing them safely also a non-issue.

the solution i’m getting at is making it so that such a powerful bow isn’t autolearned but can only be crafted with the help of books and making it a very difficult thing to craft that requires high crafting skills. and by possible nerfing it slightly so that you could only take down heavely armored zombies with a powerful bow and proper metal or even special armor piercing arrows.

By the way, this isn’t even the strongest bow.
Compound bows do exist. They are the “book only” ones. And they have even higher damage.

i don’t see the problem with powerful bows that can kill armored targets since this is very much true in reality as long as these bows are not easelly attainable in the game for balance reasons. althow i do see the problem about armored target’s being killed with wooden or even stone arrows. those things should break the moment they hit the armor regartless of what bow you are using.

then there is that archery would be so nerfed so much if it couldn’t kill armored targets that it would trow of the game balance and make archery form possibly a little OP to next to useless.

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Base bow damage was buffed too far recently, (arrows smashing brick walls! :face_with_monocle:) but it’s going to be brought back down a bit with Kevin’s latest PR. This kind of damage will still be seen, but only on crits, while regular/grazing hits will be nerfed a lot. High end bow users will be terrifying, but regular joes who just picked a bow up won’t.
It should be a lot more sensible.

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Now, while i love archery, and i love how the unintended balance/inbalance of a PR makes a good thread from it, i was shocked to know that there is the possibility of encountering a zombie in power armor, and me being all jolly using my compound bow with crude arrows, and switching to the good ones when i ride a lab or something,

And second, i thought the only bows with Opness problems where the great ones, those are basically sniper rifles

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It has been years since I actually saw one in game. So don’t hold your breath. )

Ironically, those have been mostly fixed.

Yes it’s not intended, but meeting all the different constraints the way I want has taken some thought, this is what I’ve come up with:


Essentially this does two things, bows require a great deal of skill and aiming to be effective, and they don’t do well at all against armor since damage is reduced by armor before critical hit effects are added.

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Good-good.

Will do an in-a-woods fresh run and report back the results.