Spear Chucking

[LalartuAkhkharu]

I would like to be able to throw the Speer to hunt.

It should do less damage & Use up more durability. Or perhaps there is a possibility that the spear will break with each throw.

It would be fun to have this designed in a way where you have to be quite desperate to actually throw it.

On the brink of starvation wildly throwing your spear at rabbits who can now run faster and change direction.

Your thoughts?

[mobius187]

Well you're not alone in this request, as I've seen it posted once or twice by other forum members who also wish they could throw their spear. Personally I'm not against it, but at the same time I support creating ranged weapons, like the bow and arrow... so I'm not sure what impact this would have on gameplay balance when you factor them in.

On the flip-side, it does make sense to throw a spear.

[LalartuAkhkharu]

I also like the idea of the bow, but think it should come late game.

The spear would be early on.

I think they will implement ranged weapons at some juncture, but currently you could stand in a field and shoot 30 rabbits in a minutes. There will have to be other changes take place too.

[mobius187]

I also like the idea of the bow, but think it should come late game.

The commonly suggested formulas for crafting the bow and arrows are:

Sticks + Silk = Bow

Flint + Stick + Feather = Arrow

While these resources wouldn't make the bow and arrows difficult to craft, besides being an alchemy machine tier item, the key factor here is that feathers would require catching birds and I also suggested that, in order to prevent spam-firing, the bow needs the player to select the target and hold the RMB to draw back the bowstring before firing. Otherwise the arrow falls short or simply drops to the ground.

The spear would be early on.

True.

I think they will implement ranged weapons at some juncture, but currently you could stand in a field and shoot 30 rabbits in a minutes. There will have to be other changes take place too.

Well actually there is a ranged weapon already, the blow dart. Only it doesn't kill enemies. Then again, if you shot a rabbit with one it would let you kill it easily. The other note is that currently if a rabbit is killed, by any means, all nearby rabbits flee to their holes. This would affect the bow/arrow and spear when hunting rabbits.

[LalartuAkhkharu]

Personally I would rather see more challenging materials to construct the bow to push it later in the game.

As an example, Native Americans used a material from deer to make their bow strings. You could make an elusive, skittish & creative mob which you would have to successfully hunt to harvest this.

Although at this point you would need some way to control the game stage at which this could be done. Which could potentially be a whole "skill tree" revamp. That might be too much of an overhaul.

[mobius187]

Personally I would rather see more challenging materials to construct the bow to push it later in the game.

well another user suggested that the formula should replace silk with string, and that the difference is that string would be refined silk, similar to how grass is refined to rope. Doing so would place an additional requirement on unlocking the bow if string replaces the bow's current silk crafting resource requirement. Furthermore, as a tier-2 invention the player would also need to unlock/craft the alchemy machine... so that's 3 unlocks required to gain the bow.

Also, now that I really think about it, I assumed the bow and arrows would stack, similar to how the blow dart and blow pipes stack... but the blow pipe is the reed required in every crafting of the blow dart item. In the case of the bow and arrows they were suggested as two different recipes, so that would mean they would require two unlocks, one for the bow and one for the arrow.

Other than that it's a matter of balance. There are no enemies that have ranged attacks, for example, but if such creatures were introduced then a bow would be helpful in countering them at range as well. Or maybe there will be an opponent you should not engage in melee... maybe a creature that spreads disease.

As an example, Native Americans used a material from deer to make their bow strings. You could make an elusive, skittish & creative mob which you would have to successfully hunt to harvest this.

You're certainly free to suggest another crafting formula.