Medium Priority Making Better use of Indian Weapons

[Pieter Boelen]

Upon starting a new game with Assassin:

WARNING!!! Item id = pistoldart not implemented

I think that doesn't actually do any harm as we've already seen that with @Jack Rackham's Woodes Rogers.
But how was that fixed?

 

[Jack Rackham]

I gave those missing items to the characters in the start of WoodesRogers\ StartStoryline.c.

GiveItem2Character(characterFromID("Brthug5"), "bladep2");
EquipCharacterbyItem(characterFromID("Brthug5"), "bladep2");
GiveItem2Character(characterFromID("Brthug5"), "pistolb1"); 
EquipCharacterbyItem(characterFromID("Brthug5"), "pistolb1");
GiveItem2Character(characterFromID("wr_voy"), "bladep6");
EquipCharacterbyItem(characterFromID("wr_voy"), "bladep6");

etc etc

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So:

   TakenItems(characterFromID("Indian Chief"), "pistoldart", 2);
   EquipCharacterbyItem(characterFromID("Indian Chief"), "pistoldart");

If I recall, that doesn't actually prevent the log message, does it? Didn't you have a trick for that too?

 

[Jack Rackham]

I have run out of tricks but the chief will at least get his darts.

 

[Levis]

With the new apothecary quest you are able to find a bow and arrows and I will add a quiver to that loot too.
I might have found out how to give the Indians nice Equipment too but Need to look into it a bit more.

 

[Grey Roger]

What would be nice is if you can tie a rope to an arrow and then shoot it into a wooden object, e.g. a window frame, a suitably placed wooden crate, someone's ship, etc. A pirate, agent or assassin could probably make all sorts of use of that - or at least, a quest for such characters can probably make use of it. The player then has a reason to want a bow and arrow, which otherwise is generally inferior to firearms, which is why armies with firearms tend to win wars against armies with bows and arrows.

 

[Levis]

What would be nice is if you can tie a rope to an arrow and then shoot it into a wooden object, e.g. a window frame, a suitably placed wooden crate, someone's ship, etc. A pirate, agent or assassin could probably make all sorts of use of that - or at least, a quest for such characters can probably make use of it. The player then has a reason to want a bow and arrow, which otherwise is generally inferior to firearms, which is why armies with firearms tend to win wars against armies with bows and arrows.

Still it's nice to be in the game first. Later we can think more about how to make it appealing for user to use.
For example what we could do it the ability to retrieve your arrows from enemies once you killed them. That would make it more intersting already if you are using the ammo mod because you wouldn't get out of ammo that quick. Also with a quiver you can cary more ammo already then for most guns (I believe).

 

[Jack Rackham]

The Bow has an advantage compared to firearms: it's silent. We could add
that it doesn't alarm other enemies when used or something.

 

[Levis]

The Bow has an advantage compared to firearms: it's silent. We could add
that it doesn't alarm other enemies when used or something.

I've been looking into the Group Relations a Little bit already, and this could be very difficult (wait read on I might be wrong on this) XD. If the other enemies are in the same Group ist very hard not to get them also attacking you, except it you:
Before hitting lookup the relation Group of the character and set the hear radius and other radii to 0.
After the hit is complete Change it back. I believe that should only make 1 attack you. But maybe he will still inform the others lateron.

You could also:
Before hitting move the character you are going to hit to an other relation Group so he wont get help from others. But this might cause Problems lateron. He could start attacking his old companions if you do start attacking them while he is still fighting you. But Setting the Relations with his old Group right should prevent this, you are able to set Action depending on the state, and if you just Keep them friendly always with this Setting it should work...

I think Option 2 would be better to execute it and looking at it again it might even be faily doable .
It would be a nice use of the bow.

We could also have the bow negate armor. Bullets normally aren't armor piercing, especially in those times. But bows where because of the higher mass and pointy design. So the armor you where carrying wouldn't help at all. I think that would be a nice Addition also. Especially because higher Level characters can wear armor also (They can right?)

 

[Levis]

Also trowing this out:
What about poisoned arrows
And flaming arrows (I'm liking this idea already and probably going to add it soon XD. Imagine the oponent catching fire if you hit him ).

 

[Grey Roger]

Having bows negate armour is silly. One reason bows went out of fashion is that bullets penetrated armour better than arrows. It's also the reason heavy plate armour went out of fashion. If anything, bows should have less penetration than guns. A really powerful longbow might do well against armour, but that wouldn't be available from Caribbean Indians.

Poisoned arrows are much more reasonable. Make them hard to get - you won't get them from even the Indian trader, perhaps create a side quest with the Aruba Indians which earns you some poisoned arrows, or perhaps you only get poisoned arrows if you survive being attacked with them and take them from the dead attackers. Flaming arrows should perhaps be less accurate and even less penetrating than normal arrows, do more damage, and also be potentially useful in quests. They weren't normally used for setting people on fire, but wooden buildings are another matter...

 

[Jack Rackham]

Poisoned arrows I have already in game for the blowgun. Flaming arrows I like that.
And maybe not so compliicated to add.

So when/what makes your arrows burning then. A perk or simply a tinderbox (which I have added) or something else... Like another type of arrows. Would mean another shottype but that's doable.
Or both special arrows + something to lit them with.

Piercing armour is also good.

The Bow already has one huge advantage. It reloads very fast.

The quiver is sort the first improvement/upgrade for the Bow. Special arrows could be the next or another one.

Poisoned arrows could require a small bottle of curare.

 

[Jack Rackham]

They weren't normally used for setting people on fire

No but that effect will look good in game I think and also possible to do. I would always prefer
things that look good & are fun compared to historical accuracy.

 

[Levis]

I could make a "poison" item which you can use to poison the arrows. But i think a new shottype would be best. Same for burning arrows, we can always later make a way to combine the items to generate the New type of arrows.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed the reload time should be quite a substantial advantage for the bow and arrow.

Anyway, before we get carried away, we should probably make them more available.
Which means we need that Oranjestad Indian Trader to actually sell Indian Stuff!

The Bow has an advantage compared to firearms: it's silent. We could add
that it doesn't alarm other enemies when used or something.

Doesn't the following line already do just that?

itm.stealth  = 0.75;  // doesn't alarm victim

That isn't hard at all.

 

[Levis]

Indeed the reload time should be quite a substantial advantage for the bow and arrow.

Anyway, before we get carried away, we should probably make them more available.
Which means we need that Oranjestad Indian Trader to actually sell Indian Stuff!

I think this will be moved to after the public release tough.

Doesn't the following line already do just that?

itm.stealth  = 0.75;  // doesn't alarm victim

That isn't hard at all.

I have no idea if that actually does anything XD. Haven't seen a reference to it yet at places where I'd expect it.

 

[Jack Rackham]

I wonder how to add 3 different shottypes to the Bow.
Maybe instead still use one shottype and split it up into 3 cases in LAi_events.c under the current shottype "ar".

 

[Levis]

I wonder how to add 3 different shottypes to the Bow.
Maybe instead still use one shottype and split it up into 3 cases in LAi_events.c under the current shottype "ar".

Giving the shottime a Attribute like "flaming" and/or "poisoned" and if it has a Attribute like this something "extra" happens.

Does that sounds Logical?
I will let that to you .

I do also like the idea of you being able to reuse your ammo, and that should be very easy to add right? If an character is hit by an arrow and is not bAllies then give an arrow to the character.

 

[Jack Rackham]

I do also like the idea of you being able to reuse your ammo, and that should be very easy to add right? If an character is hit by an arrow and is not bAllies then give an arrow to the character.

Yes that sounds easy. I thought that was already the case. I remembered wrong.

Maybe I should start with this situation.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have no idea if that actually does anything XD. Haven't seen a reference to it yet at places where I'd expect it.

PROGRAM\Loc_ai\LAi_events.c in void LAi_CharacterAttack() .

I wonder how to add 3 different shottypes to the Bow.
Maybe instead still use one shottype and split it up into 3 cases in LAi_events.c under the current shottype "ar".

Or we make these weapons more available FIRST and THEN worry about making it more fancy.

If you really want to add more weapon stuff to the game, I'd reckon this here would be much simpler and also more important:
Planned Feature - Improve Effectiveness of Grenades | PiratesAhoy!

I do also like the idea of you being able to reuse your ammo, and that should be very easy to add right? If an character is hit by an arrow and is not bAllies then give an arrow to the character.

I definitely like that one!