So, how does the new archery work?

#16

There seems to be something odd going on with the shortbows low damage rating. I wasn’t able to get arrows to get more than a few tiles, despite having a listed max range of 12. If you repair your bow it might fix itself, since damaged ranged weapons lose damage value and that seems to be the cause of whatever is going on.

EDIT: When I play, the shortbow has a listed range of 12 tiles. Yet the game has it listed as a range of 4 in the code. What does the game list for your range when you go to fire the shortbow?

#17

Alright, I’ll try making a new one and report back. FYI I just examined my current bow - it’s reporting a max range of 6 and a damage rating of -2. :rofl:

So… -2… *70%… carry the 1… yep, seems like a healing arrow. Lol

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#18

The damage rating of -2 is definitely the problem. Projectiles with 0 damage (No idea what negative damage projectiles do, but it can’t be good) don’t fire at all. That said, something funky is going on with ranges.

#19

For what it’s worth, the arrows are always consumed btw.

#20

Yeah I worked out. See, there’s this archaic flag called STR_DRAW which is attached to most bows. Basically, it checks your strength against the minimum strength for the bow, and gives you bonus range proportional to how far you overshoot the minimum strength requirement. HOWEVER it does not work properly, and only increases the range you can aim at without increasing the range the projectile can travel. A shortbow has a range of 4, having strength above the minimum of 4 (I’ll assume your character has 10 or so) makes the game think you can shoot further than you actually can.

In your case, your bow is too broken to actually fire. Repair it and shoot at things within 4 tiles and it should work perfectly. I’m aware 4 tiles is pathetic, and will probably fix it soonish.

#21

Interesting! Well thanks for checking it out, and yeah I have STR 8 at the moment. Thanks man!

#22

I’m glad to hear all of that! Will we be able to make knapped arrowheads? I ask because you can make them in RL out of pieces of glass - like the shards that are everywhere from broken windows.

I look forward to your work and you have my thanks for all the effort you put in.

  • Shane
#23

I’ve got no plans for glass arrowheads as it stands. The game doesn’t differentiate between different types of glass, and i can only assume you need partivular types for arrowheads.

That said, there’s already recipes for stone, ceramic, and bone makeshift arrowheads. You should have absolutely no troubles making arrows.

#24

Cool if you don’t, but any glass will do. Beer bottles, window glass… really any glass that isn’t super thin can be used. Winds up close in performance to flint.

Ceramic, OTOH, you need the right kind of. :wink: One thing to note is these arrowheads break (all the stone/ceramic/glass ones). They are fragile. It’s why compound arrows were used with them - that and you can swap the sharp for a blunt anytime you wanted.

Compound arrows are probably beyond the scope of what you’re doing, though.

  • Shane
#25

I have used tin-cans to make fairly reliable arrowheads. They aren’t much better than knapped glass, but they are hella easy to make and one can yields about four heads, so they make great DIY heads.

#26

Not sure what you mean by compound arrow.

I’ve had the “glass arrowhead” suggestion about 4 times in as many days now so I guess I’ll stick glass in as a possibility for the makeshift arrow if it bothers people that much. I don’t think it will help anyone though.

#27

the only way it would help if it has the AOE effect of throwing a glass shard, or bleed.

#28

First off… don’t let my comment bother you. If I can’t use glass that’s fine by me. It’s one of those if you can, cool, if not there are other options and it being cdda, lots of other options! :wink:

As to compound arrow. Basically you have a shaft with a socket in it and then a variety of heads each with a small shaft that fits in the socket of the shaft. The reason being twofold. First, the arrowhead tends to break, but the fletching and shaft tend to remain OK and this means that you can just make a new arrowhead and socket it. Second you can carry more than one kind of head and swap them on the fly. The classic being a sharp stone head and heavy wood blunts. So if you’re hunting a grouse and a deer shows up you just keep the arrow knocked and swap the head.

Look up “Ishi Arrows” They are fascinating, but as I said probably out of scope for this game.

  • Shane
#29

While swappable heads are pretty much the norm for modern arrows, looking at some pictures of Ishi arrows they seem to have the head bound with string. Do you have anything that suggests how they swapped them in the field?

#30

It’s mainly from the accounts by Saxon Pope. If you’re interested look up “Yahi Archer” by Saxon Pope on Open Library and you can read a pdf.

Otzi the iceman - the 5000 yr old mummy found in the alps - also had compound arrows. Actually, he had both kinds, several unfinished arrows and an unfinished longbow. And an arrow in the back. :face_with_head_bandage:

  • Shane
1 Like
#31

why not one piece arrows?, like kind of molding the material, like an arrow made from rock but carved in shape, same with glass and metal, not just the tip

#32

Arrow shafts have to flex a lot to fly properly. An arrow made entirely of glass or steel would shatter, damage the bow, be too heavy to fly, etc.

I’ll look into that. We used to have a system where arrows were put together piece by piece and you could easily switch heads, but it was clunky and people hated it. I’d have to come up with a decent way of handling it if we wanted interchangeable heads.

2 Likes
#33

Well, “clunky and people hated it” are good reasons not to go back to it… :grinning: It is kind of a specialist thing and there are lots of other things on people’s plates - like the aforementioned work on bows.

I may have wandered into the trap of thinking it’s cool because “I” think it’s cool. Anyway, I found it a fascinating read but then again I’m a nerd. (nerds are still cool, right?)

  • Shane
#34

Some necroing, but what’s the status?

#35

the same, it hasnt been updated at all, and as far as a i can tell of what the author had planned, it isnt complete per se