Thrown weapons reworked

[b0rsuk]

Hi

I have some suggestions for thrown weapons. I think in B1 they're too similar to bows, and simply not fun enough (for me).

Please:
- thrown weapons skill should somehow impact Demon Oil. As far as I can make out, currently you don't need to be skilled at all to use Demon Oil very effectively, because it always hits the square you aim it at. This is a bit disappointing, because one of coolest thrown weapons doesn't promote skilled Thrown characters. I suggest that Demon Oil is less accurate at long range, and you can easily miss the intended square.
- make most thrown weapons retrievable. Some may occasionally break, some may be lost in bushes etc but they're generally more durable than arrows. It can be balanced in other ways - for example significant weight and/or volume (multiple squares in inventory ?). Shorter effective range/accuracy. It's really weird to lose iron and steel spears after 1 use. I think in this particular case realism adds to gameplay. If you decide that sturdy thrown weapons can be lost, please make it more natural, for example they may fall into water but are unlikely to be lost in the open. For example the weapon flies a few squares farther if it misses. This way player could control it and avoid using valuable thrown weapons in places where they may be lost.
- this way thrown weapons would be more for softening up enemies before melee combat, because you would always have to choose your targets carefully due to limited ammo. At the same time, player wouldn't feel bad about using his supply of thrown weapons. If you want to play missile boat, take bows instead.
- I don't see the point of darts, unless poisoned. I suggest more thrown axes, javelins, spears, stones. If you want something more exotic, chakrams, bolas, throwing nets, blinding dust, lasso to catch fleeing enemies.
- more on retrieving weapons: they may fall to the ground upon hitting target, but that could be a bit abused (running around monsters and collecting ammo sounds cheesy). So instead the weapons would be added to monster's inventory, for example.
- some enemies may pick up your thrown weapons and use it against you (humanoids, especially those skilled in combat like raiders or mercenaries)

While I'm talking about ranged weapons, it's worth to mention shields. I think currently they're just extra piece of regular armour. Sounds pretty dull. I think that:
- with good enough training, it should be possible to build a char relying more on shields (and perhaps dodging) than armour. Current implementation of shields doesn't allow that.
- shields should be pretty good against single enemies, but bad against swarms
- to further differentiate from other armour, shields should be good at blocking projectiles.
- I think right now bigger shields are strictly better than smaller ones. I don't like no-brainers. How about this: smaller shields are better in melee combat (because you can swing them faster; you can even bash enemies with bucklers), while bigger shields are better at blocking missiles. Additionally big shields may hamper stealth a bit.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Great suggstions b0rsuk. We'll add these to the ToDo list and see what we can implement into Book II.

[krisklef]

I second the suggestion that some thrown weapons be retrievable (with a percentage lost to breakage, lodging deep in an enemy's vital organs, etc.) As things are, I place no importance in the thrown weapons skill because arrows only weigh .01 lb., and I get the damage factor of the -bow- as a base. Steel spears, no need to try and carry a dozen of those around, even if I could find them.

The only possible advantage I can see, which I haven't tested, is whether a thrown weapon that hits alerts its victim to your shadow-hidden character. If not, then that's a big plus there. Anyone notice this effect?

[serenetempest]

The only real advantage that I see to them is they use Strength & Dexterity instead of Dexterity & Concentration, so if you were using missiles as a secondary focus you wouldn't have to worry about bumping up Concentration to get the most out of them.