Suggestion about Arrows

[Salk]

Hello!

 

First of all congratulations for your Mod, David! I have a small suggestion for the future you might think interesting enough to consider. I think it would be best to deprecate the component "Make Protection from Normal Missiles affect magical projectiles" and extend the component "Replace many magic weapons with fine ones" to magical arrows, making them just fine (and just keep few rare magical ones through the game, perhaps as spoils of war from hard encounters).

 

Could it be a good solution ? In that case the spell "Protection from Normal Missiles" won't need to be tweaked in order to be effective.

 

Keep it up!

[DavidW]

Cute idea.

 

Yes, I'll definitely think about that... the awkwardness with this sort of thing is always working out how many magic arrows should be available while keeping balance (this is the sort of balancing-treasure decision that I always find very hard to do without really extensive playtesting, which is why SCS usually shies away from it). But yes, it sounds a more elegant solution than mine in some respects.

[Gorilym]

I like this idea. PfNM giving immunity to magic arrows is too much of a tweak for me to use, but I'd definitely use this - IMO there are way too many +1 arrows etc. available in the game currently.

[Salk]

Glad to see that my idea has got your attention.

 

Yes, I realize that my proposal would require good care about implementation as to keep the game balanced but since you had gone through a similar process in regards to magical weapons I thought you might be pretty much accustomed to keeping the game balanced while toning down the amount of magical arrows throughout the game.

 

After all, like Gorilym said, there are way too many magical projectiles available in the game.

 

Yes, not only arrows...Bullets for slings as well would definitely benefit of a change from "magical" to "fine"...

 

Hope you will consider it for the next versions!

[sturmvogel]

I'd go for both a reduction in the numbers of magic arrows/bolts/bullets in the game and a change in how they're handled in the stores. Buying 10 at a time is a pain, change it to the normal 40. Perhaps a price increase is in order as well. Another route is to ensure that any magic arrows carried by enemies are used by them; I made a reference to that in another thread, but it might do to cut down on the numbers looted.

 

I'd also reduce the money in the game somehow. I'm running around with about 140,000 gold right now and have bought the +3 leather for Imoen and a Robe of the Archmage for Dynaheir. A lot of this is selling treasures that I don't want or need and I'm not sure how to reduce that portion.

[Salk]

I am just wondering if any kind of decision has been made about it, DavidW ?

[DavidW]

I am just wondering if any kind of decision has been made about it, DavidW ?

 

I haven't done this in v4 of SCS. To be honest, the reason is that I became doubtful that it passed the cost/benefit test: I would be reproducing something operationally identical to the existing component (i.e., you still can't shoot past PNM) except with respect to a very few magic arrows available in Durlag's tower or something), but it required me to find a bunch of BAMs, write lots of (admittedly fairly short) new descriptions, and then get them translated into Spanish. Not a massive amount of work, but I was running up against a time budget anyway getting SCS v4 out before term started again.

 

I still think it's a good idea in principle though. If I have a chance at some later point I'll incorporate it.

[Salk]

I still think it's a good idea in principle though. If I have a chance at some later point I'll incorporate it.

 

I understand very well your reasoning, DavidW! Cheers on Version 4 out!

[Miloch]

...it required me to find a bunch of BAMs...

(Um... why? )

...write lots of (admittedly fairly short) new descriptions, and then get them translated into Spanish. Not a massive amount of work, but I was running up against a time budget anyway getting SCS v4 out before term started again.

I don't think that would be necessary, or at any rate, you could accomplish it via regex replacement pretty easily (I think the BG2 Tweak Pack 'use old BG1 style proficiencies' component does the same thing).

I'd go for both a reduction in the numbers of magic arrows/bolts/bullets in the game and a change in how they're handled in the stores. Buying 10 at a time is a pain, change it to the normal 40. Perhaps a price increase is in order as well. Another route is to ensure that any magic arrows carried by enemies are used by them; I made a reference to that in another thread, but it might do to cut down on the numbers looted.

I'm working on a mod that sort of does that - reduces the powerful arrows available in places like Durlag's Tower. But they're still there. And I agree that in would be appropriate for a mod like SCS to make sure enemies use powerful arrows (particularly things like arrows of detonation) if they have them, even at the expense of 'sniper' tactics (run and shoot until the arrows are gone).

I'd also reduce the money in the game somehow. I'm running around with about 140,000 gold right now and have bought the +3 leather for Imoen and a Robe of the Archmage for Dynaheir. A lot of this is selling treasures that I don't want or need and I'm not sure how to reduce that portion.

There is a mod for this (again, 'sort of') - Store Prices or something, I think at PPG. Though I haven't tried it, and by the description, I don't think it solves the problem at the source (reducing the amount of GP gained).

[DavidW]

...it required me to find a bunch of BAMs...

(Um... why? )

Because Salk's suggestion requires the magic versions to hang around (only be much rarer). That means the original BAMs need to be kept for the magic versions, ergo, new ones are needed for the nonmagic ones. (That's how the main "replace magic weapons with fine ones" component works).

 

...write lots of (admittedly fairly short) new descriptions, and then get them translated into Spanish. Not a massive amount of work, but I was running up against a time budget anyway getting SCS v4 out before term started again.

I don't think that would be necessary, or at any rate, you could accomplish it via regex replacement pretty easily (I think the BG2 Tweak Pack 'use old BG1 style proficiencies' component does the same thing).

I think we're at cross purposes here. I need a bit of text for every single fine-quality ammo item (there are about a dozen) saying why it's fine quality. (example, from the existing component:

 

This halberd was made with special care: from the carving on the pole to the mirror brightness of its axe blade, it is as fine a weapon as you could hope to forge without enchantment.

 

I'm used to underestimating WEIDU, but I doubt it can do that with REGEXP! Of course we could go with something generic like

 

This weapon is an unusually fine example of its type

but that breaks my quality standards for seamless integration into the game.

[Miloch]

That means the original BAMs need to be kept for the magic versions, ergo, new ones are needed for the nonmagic ones. (That's how the main "replace magic weapons with fine ones" component works).

Ok. Personally I'd be fine with using the same BAMs for both, but fairly easy to do additional ones just for arrows (as opposed to all weapons) by running existing BAMs through a PS colour filter or something.

I'm used to underestimating WEIDU, but I doubt it can do that with REGEXP! Of course we could go with something generic like

This weapon is an unusually fine example of its type

but that breaks my quality standards for seamless integration into the game.

Depends on how high your standards are. Mine are pretty high (though admittedly, possibly only in my own opinion ), but I'd be ok with:

The flight arrow, as its name implies, is built for distance. These are lightweight arrows and are often used for hunting. Most of these arrows are made of ash or birch and are 30 to 40 inches long. These enchanted arrows will fly truer, and thus have a greater chance of striking their target and doing more damage, and have the ability to strike opponents that are immune to normal weapons.

...and simple regexp replace the 'enchanted' with 'finely-crafted' or something. Again, we're just talking about arrows here (or I guess all projectiles) so probably not too tough even to write something unique.

[i just actually read this Arrow +1 description - has anyone ever heard of a 40 inch arrow? Nevermind... for a longbow arrow, I guess that wouldn't be too far off...]