Making the Bow a primary Weapon

[MrChocodemon]

I was thinking that i would be nice if I could play with the bow as my main weapon.
Not starting with the bow, or bow only, but as a main weapon. With skills and stuff.
So i propose now a little conzept of bow mechanics.

All Skills cost MP and min 1 Arrow
Skills:
1) Multi-Shot: Shoot multiple arrows in front of you. Leveling increases dmg and the higher charges shoot more arrows (what a shock).


2) Vigilant Archer: Shoot also behind you, and later everywhere.


3) Ghost Arrows: Level 1 is a homing arrow. Level 2 is a homing arrow that pierces the first enemy and hits another. Level 3 hits two enemies (or more), but is actually two arrows... if that makes sense.
Basically the normal arrow and a ghost of that. The first arrow could look a little a normal one but with a a purple aura, and the second looks totally ghostly.


I had some thoughts on how the homing would work and my first thought was a parallel range

But then too many arrwos would not home in and homing wouldn't be satisfying at all.
Making it like a Linear Range would be better, but still not perfect.

So i thought about two ways of Exponentional Ranges. The top half starts growth after the arrow flew a little bit, while the bottom half starts immediately.

But then when you have multiple enemies, which to choose? Shortest distance from the player in relation to the direction he/she looks? That seems like a good idea. If you look at following picture you can see that A is nearest with a distance of ca. 10.7

But then it would hardly be archery. I'd prefer if i'd hit C/D. So if you calculate the "distance" with 'a'(length) + 2'b'(height) the points A, C and D are all "18" away. For (a/2)+2b It would be A=13, B=18, CorD=11. This seems good, but what with C and D? If there are two or more enemies the same distance then the one with the smaller 'b' gets chosen, if those are the same like C and D are then and just then it would be cool if you'd shoot 2 arrows while using only 1.

4) Fast shooting
Shooting arrows is lightning fast, but what if the fastest you could shoot would be limited by the attack speed. This unlocks or increases the speed, but not attack speed just the arrow shooting.

5) Passive: sorry no cool idea for a name
A small chance of saving 1 arrow. Increases % per Level.

The Quiver
Is an equipable item that you get together with the bow which can be filled with different "potions" for different effects. So you can go to the alchemist and get a poison which, filled in the quiver, makes the tip of the arrwos poisonous. Effects could be poisons, explosive(nitroglycerin?), freezing(or slowing), knocking back etc.


Finale: This is not a guide, but i hope some you think like me and would like to see the bow more in a primary weapon place. I'd like to play an archer. Of course you'd need still a sword(, or carrot), but i'd could be a secondary. You can be a fast Rouge, a strong tank, the mightiest sorcerer, or just spawn multiple NPC that make dmg and run in circles, but even with the few items that make the bow better i can't be an archer

 

[Teddy]

This is an impressive write-up, but it pains me to simply say that making the bow a primary weapon is very unlikely. We used to have a bow as a primary weapon (with skills and all), and it simply either ruined everything else by being so strong that it was silly to play with anything else, or it had to be nerfed so much (because range is very, very strong) that even players that liked bows didn't find it satisfying. The way it works now the bow serves a purpose, whether it's for quick spam damage like some use it for, or assassination like other use it for.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm not even considering this. We have considered it a lot, and there have been much discussion about it in the old beta forums. But at the end of the day, the game became better when we turned the bow into a secondary weapon, and while perhaps a primary bow could have a place in our game it would take so much work to fine tune it we'd rather put into creating new content.

 

[MrChocodemon]

Thank you^^ I'm a never ending source of ideas.
What about the quiver? Even without the skills a nice slowing effect maybe useful for tactics in combat. Or quiver upgrades for a little more arrows? There was a 5 arrow upgrade, but i wasn't able to obtain in the current version so i think it was removed (correct me if i'm wrong).

 

[GarlicJelly]

If you score over 10 000(?) in Robin's minigame then you are awarded the quiver. You probably just need another try to get it.

 

[MrChocodemon]

Was the score lower before?

 

[GarlicJelly]

Nope, as far as I can remember it's been that the whole time. But it's been a while so I might be wrong.

 

[ark626]

For real or are you just kidding?

 

[GarlicJelly]

For real or are you just kidding?

Ummm, are you talking about the score to get the quiver or something else?

 

[ark626]

im talking about the score to get the quiver

 

[GarlicJelly]

It's a pretty high score considering the max (at least my highest score) is 13125 so you're actually not that far off the maximum score. But once you get a hang of it you'll find that it's easy.

 

[MrChocodemon]

Got it. Took a while and if found a bug with that XD.

 

[GarlicJelly]

Got it. Took a while and if found a bug with that XD.

What's this bug you're talking about? Can I crash the game with it?

 

[MrChocodemon]

No, it's just if you press a button before you go into a conversation, in this case holding the bow before you end the game, the bow is still held if you released the button mid conversation
but i think that was already posted... or not?

Sometimes techniques on B get stuck when you end conversations with B

 

[GarlicJelly]

Yeah, If you spam the shoot button for the bow in the mini game you can even make the sound and animation trigger but no arrow is used ot fired. Not really a problem but yeah, I guess you could call that a bug.

 

[Tylerthedragon]

Maybe nerf the bow? I see the only way we could make the bow a primary weapon is make it have some reload time, where you have to wait between uses so you can make the bow a primary weapon. It makes sense, since we can have weapons as a primary weapon, so why not the bow?

You've probably got this sorted and decided to not make it a primary weapon, but it would make more sense if it was one, and you wouldn't have to nerf it that much if you add recharge times...

 

[Aurophobia]

I prefer how it is. I like using my bow and the midst of combat with close range combat.
Magic and other skill combinations work just fine for long-range.
(Maybe a more spammable and low costing spell like shooting out single Ice shards, and a charge version makes a shorter range shotgun effect)

I wouldn't mind a Flail or Spear/Staff main weapon. that provides a some sort of mid-range combat...but even then I feel like 2H keep a good distance away from enemies.

So I think if they want to make a long-ranged main weapon, make something else, and let me keep my bow.

 

[Tylerthedragon]

I prefer how it is. I like using my bow and the midst of combat with close range combat.
Magic and other skill combinations work just fine for long-range.
(Maybe a more spammable and low costing spell like shooting out single Ice shards, and a charge version makes a shorter range shotgun effect)

I wouldn't mind a Flail or Spear/Staff main weapon. that provides a some sort of mid-range combat...but even then I feel like 2H keep a good distance away from enemies.

So I think if they want to make a long-ranged main weapon, make something else, and let me keep my bow.

FLAIL! Do this Devs! I would marry you if you added a short-ranged melee Flail that does more damage the further you fling it. Flails have always been my favorite weapon since the old Runescape (I loved the flail in that game) and I would marry each and every one of the devs if they did this.

 

[MrChocodemon]

What about introducing a Crossbow? It shoots slower and has a little refill animation but is stronger.

 

[Dulled]

What about introducing a Crossbow? It shoots slower and has a little refill animation but is stronger.

It is exactly what I thought! It wouldn't be spammable like the bow as it is now and could still be strong to use it as the main weapon! One could have the current rapid version, the bow, and the realistic one, the crossbow! This would make both sides happy!

 

[Donald]

This is an impressive write-up, but it pains me to simply say that making the bow a primary weapon is very unlikely. We used to have a bow as a primary weapon (with skills and all), and it simply either ruined everything else by being so strong that it was silly to play with anything else, or it had to be nerfed so much (because range is very, very strong) that even players that liked bows didn't find it satisfying. The way it works now the bow serves a purpose, whether it's for quick spam damage like some use it for, or assassination like other use it for.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm not even considering this. We have considered it a lot, and there have been much discussion about it in the old beta forums. But at the end of the day, the game became better when we turned the bow into a secondary weapon, and while perhaps a primary bow could have a place in our game it would take so much work to fine tune it we'd rather put into creating new content.

I suppose you can see why Wizardry Online held off on adding bows in. Range is just too powerful or unsatisfying.