Ranged Weapons

[jp2k43]

Hi everyone, yesterday while trying to fight klaus with my army of merms I was wondering what types of ranged weapons could be added to the game. Maybe we could start by improving the boomerang since, between us almost nobody uses them and then a significant improvement in darts. Well, I'd like to know what people think about this, if it's a good or a bad idea to have this "new" type of weapon.

sorry for my bad english :/ 

[Ardcrumb]

Blunderbuss 

[Copyafriend]

The main problem is that dont starve was not designed with ranged combat in mind. Any ranged weapon could be added fairly easily, but it would inevitably be fairly boring to use, because the enemys cant do anything about it. Itd just become a game of keepaway

[Well-met]

ranged in dont starve was always meant to be a novelty

fortunately it turns out we have a character built around ranged now

[Mysterious box]

Honestly I've been saying this for a long time but ranged combat and how mobs and bosses interact with it should be reworked if you play Walter you can see how jarring and how blatantly obvious that the game wasn't designed with ranged combat in mind at any level there are mobs who have a maximum aggro radius what this means is once you get a set distance from them they'll de aggro  nothing wrong there right? But here's the problem that means if you keep attacking them from that distance they'll stand there and watch you pelt them to death they won't leave because they've aggroed on to something but they won't come any closer because it's outside their activity range. Despite the slingshot not feeling like a good weapon to use being lackluster in both damage and crowd control ability using it feels like your cheating and using a mod weapon and that feeling won't go away unless the game is adapted to actually flow with ranged combat. However if we continue with the "ranged combat is fine as is" state of things then I'd hope Kiel just does not make more.

[ShadowDuelist]

If they remove Walter’s slingshot from Stunlocking enemies it would force him to move around just like it was at the forge. It’s entirely doable, and could allow the slingshot to be buffed so it deals a decent damage/shoots faster

[jp2k43]

I thought about the possibility of bows and arrows but I don't know if it would fit in the game

[Cheggf]

3 hours ago, jp2k43 said:

Maybe we could start by improving the boomerang since, between us almost nobody uses them

Boomerang is a very cheap tool which is good at what it does. Draw aggro from cowards, kill birds, hit yourself with it, etc.

3 hours ago, jp2k43 said:

I was wondering what types of ranged weapons could be added to the game.

None. Ranged combat is boring. As demonstrated with blow darts if you have a ranged weapon that does good damage you just turn combat off and automatically kill things. Ranged is balanced right now with the most powerful ranged weapon being difficult to amass and the rest of them being more tools than weapons. 

[. . .]

a bow and arrow using force is special blowdart aiming mechanic would be great and balanced since you actually have to aim instead of having aimbot like current ranged weapons

[Mysterious box]

58 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

Ranged is balanced right now

1 hour ago, Cheggf said:

if you have a ranged weapon that does good damage you just turn combat off and automatically kill things.

59 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

Ranged combat is boring.

I see these as perfect reasons why ranged combat should change even more so with a character who specializes in it and is designed around it despite his being quite lackluster on both fronts.

[00petar00]

@Mysterious box When Walter was first introduced, i knew that it would be bad for the game. Either the ranged weapon is too weak or too strong with how safe you can be. Turns out they made his slingshot weak and now people that play him, don't pick him for his slingshot and don't use it as much.

I don't think there should exist ranged character in DST with how the combat is currently. If klei wanted to change combat it would be a huge undertaking and they would need to stop with these new content updates for quite a long time since majority of creatures don't have any range attacks or interactions, bosses would need a lot of work too.

Also it isn't a good idea to put that much effort just because of one character unless ranged combat is going to be major part of the game like how melee combat is currently.

The point i am trying to make is that improving ranged combat isn't a simple decision to make and it would require a lot of work.

[Mysterious box]

1 minute ago, 00petar00 said:

@Mysterious box When Walter was first introduced, i knew that it would be bad for the game. Either the ranged weapon is too weak or too strong with how safe you can be. Turns out they made his slingshot weak and now people that play him, don't pick him for his slingshot and don't use it as much.

I don't think there should exist ranged character in DST with how the combat is currently. If klei wanted to change combat it would be a huge undertaking and they would need to stop with these new content updates for quite a long time since majority of creatures don't have any range attacks or interactions, bosses would need a lot of work too.

Also it isn't a good idea to put that much effort just because of one character unless ranged combat is going to be major part of the game like how melee combat is currently.

The point i am trying to make is that improving ranged combat isn't a simple decision to make and it would require a lot of work.

It's not that I don't understand that it would take a lot of work but Walter's downsides were designed with ranged combat in mind so if the choice is to ignore it because it would take a lot of effort to fix then I think his downsides need another look or something.

[kirihime]

1 minute ago, Mysterious box said:

...but Walter's downsides were designed with ranged combat in mind...

Do you have a source or a quote from Klei for this?

I'm asking because the "Walter is designed to be a ranged character" is an extremely common take from the forums but I've not seen much evidence for it mechanics-wise or from klei themselves

[Mysterious box]

1 minute ago, kirihime said:

Do you have a source or a quote from Klei for this?

I'm asking because the "Walter is designed to be a ranged character" is an extremely common take from the forums but I've not seen much evidence for it mechanics-wise or from klei themselves

I mean giving him a personal ranged weapon that doesn't pull aggro, pellets that drop aggro only from himself and nothing else, his sanity loss modifier from taking damage, as well as a round that's only purpose is to slow down a mob's and boss's movement speed seems to imply this but no they haven't come out and said this as far as I know but his perks and downsides seem to heavily imply this so I think it's reasonable to come to that conclusion but we could be wrong.

[kirihime]

Just now, Mysterious box said:

I mean giving him a personal ranged weapon that doesn't pull aggro, pellets that drop aggro only from himself and nothing else his sanity loss modifier from taking damage, as well as a round that's only purpose is to slow down a mob's and boss's movement speed seems to imply this but no they haven't come out and said this as far as I know but his perks and downsides seem to heavily imply this so I think it's reasonable to come to that conclusion but we could be wrong.

I'm just not seeing it

when i played him the slingshot just seemed like a tool he had rather than the main focus of his character
and it didn't really feel like it was ever intended to be otherwise

[Mysterious box]

Just now, kirihime said:

I'm just not seeing it

when i played him the slingshot just seemed like a tool he had rather than the main focus of his character
and it didn't really feel like it was ever intended to be otherwise

I've never really seen the reasoning behind the tool argument myself the tool uses for it are completely replaced by a boomerang.

[kirihime]

2 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I've never really seen the reasoning behind the tool argument myself the tool uses for it are completely replaced by a boomerang.

none of the things you mentioned apply to boomerangs, which are also relatively expensive to craft and can hit you especially when lag is present

in almost all cases the ice staff is a far more practical ranged tool than the boomerang

[Mysterious box]

1 minute ago, kirihime said:

none of the things you mentioned apply to boomerangs, which are also relatively expensive to craft and can hit you especially when lag is present

in almost all cases the ice staff is a far more practical ranged tool than the boomerang

Boomerangs aren't expensive in the slightest it's 1 silk, 1 board, and 1 charcoal not even close to expensive. Also I was talking about in terms of using the slightshot as just a tool in the sense people usually bring up which is the slingshot's use is for farming birds or drawing the aggro on cowardly mobs. Poop pellets has no use for a non ranged fighter and slow down rounds is more or less in the same camp the mob/boss moving a bit slower isn't going to effect things much unless your trying to keep away from them. Freeze rounds are just not worth it because it's a worse ice staff due to the slingshot's attack speed when most people refer to the slingshot as a tool they don't mention the crowd control rounds so I guess I misunderstood your point tho.

[Cheggf]

26 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I've never really seen the reasoning behind the tool argument myself the tool uses for it are completely replaced by a boomerang.

Boomerangs can easily kill certain enemies like tentacles, quickly freeze enemies, cause enemies to lose aggro... An excellent understanding of the game from people who want ranged to be reworked into "???" because "???".

[Mysterious box]

22 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

Boomerangs can easily kill certain enemies like tentacles, quickly freeze enemies, cause enemies to lose aggro... An excellent understanding of the game from people who want ranged to be reworked into "???" because "???".

 

44 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

Also I was talking about in terms of using the slightshot as just a tool in the sense people usually bring up which is the slingshot's use is for farming birds or drawing the aggro on cowardly mobs.

I think it's easier to just quote this.