Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Arrows


grim

Recommended Posts

So a really heavy arrow, like one holding a coil of thin rope inside, would leave the bow with something like 1/5th the velocity of a broadhead, meaning these arrows would fly like crap...

Heeeeeeeyyyy..... good point. Maybe that would give some purpose back to the Broadhead arrows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

REDEEMER ARROW

 

Seriously though, it might be possible to damage a guard's hearing. I'm not making any promises, but it may be possible to lower a guard's hearing when a fire arrow just exploded next to him or something like that, to simulate the ringing in your ears from loud noises.

 

I don't see how that really helps you though, because the noise from your fire arrow explosion would probably alert half the guards on the map.. quite a cost just to reduce one guard's hearing for a couple seconds :)

Edited by Ishtvan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

anti gravity arrows!! whatever it hits falls upwards. Good to get things out of the way. If you do it outside you get a nice fading scream from the guards as they fly away....

how about key arrows. You need a twisted feather on the back so it spins so it will turn in the keyhole and open a door. then you could also have homing arrows that seek for people...just a few extra ideas.

Oh I almost forgot, healing arrows, it's just a little difficult to shoot yourself though to get healed.

Edited by grim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Water arrows - Any object that can hold enough water to put a torch out from bursting above it will likely be sort of bulky...

 

Moss arrows - this is obviously magical moss. However, putting it on an arrow is really odd. Pulling out the bow combined with the arrow striking any surface is probably a lot louder than someone creeping across the surface real slow. Most noise people cause when trying to sneak is made by rustling clothes, anyhow.

 

I'm fine with fire arrows. Good against zombies.

I'm fine with gas arrows. My favorite.

Noisemakers are good too... kind of. Just not thief 3 noisemakers. Fireworks!?! I'd prefer to distract with more common methods. I.E. throwing and hitting something noisy into another room.

 

I'd rather see a grappling hook than a rope arrow... I'd never trust a 1 cm diameter piece of wood(Or any metal light enough to fly to any useful distance and still stick into wood) to hold me up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are a couple that would really make Dark Mod a HIT! Mark my words...

 

LOOT GLINT ARROWS

-------------------------

Shoot an object and it gets a loot glint twinkle. This upgrades the object's value by at least 50 gold pieces.

 

 

BLUE ARROW ARROWS

--------------------------

Shoot an object and it puts a bouncing blue arrow above it (a la Thief 3's tutorial) and identifies it. This will let you see what an object is from afar and will serve as a reminder marker as you make your way across the room to collect it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd rather see a grappling hook than a rope arrow... I'd never trust a 1 cm diameter piece of wood(Or any metal light enough to fly to any useful distance and still stick into wood) to hold me up.

I'm all for the grappling hook. I think Rope Arrows would be pretty useless unless your charaters weights about 50 lbs. Then again, they are much more versatile when trying to attach your rope and climb. I'd say that a rope arrow would be more 'fun', but less realistic (which almost balances out the fun factor).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So everyone complains about rope arrows not being in TDS, and don't want them in DarkMod? :D

I think the arrows are part of the uniqueness of Thief. They shouldn't be removed for nostalgic reasons! Certainly, they should be available to FM makers. Incidentally, grappling hooks are said to be ridiculously hard to use - just think about trying to get one of those to hold onto a tiny ledge... On the other hand, in certain contexts, they would be more useful, since they can get to non-wooden places.

 

Anyways, I think essentially, this is a fantasy game. Does it matter really that there are some things that are "impossible?" Zombies? Glyph Magic? Naaaa!

 

I think noisemakers are a great idea. But noisemaker arrows I didn't like them. Mainly because they caused a level 3 alert - I always try not to get people on L3 alert, although those blasted tiled floors make that difficult. (Easier in TDS, naturally) chucking pebbles would be far preferable when wishing to distract guards.

--

Somethin' fishy's goin' on here... Come on out, you taffer!

 

~The Fishy Taffer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We plan to support both noise arrows and throwing rocks, so FM authors can decide which they prefer. In terms of coding, a rope arrow is infinitely easier than a grappling hook--in fact, our rope arrows are almost done. A grappling hook would be much trickier to implement, since the rope doesn't just hang straight up and down like a rope arrow. But some of our coders are interested in trying to get this in game as well, so you never know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

What about releasing small animals to distract guards (this is an old Ninja trick, so it is based in reality)? Also I would like it if AI responded to animals being disturbed - say you've just mantled over a wall, only to disturb some pigeons... Oh shit, did the guard notice? Maybe the guard gets a bit suspicious, but after a while thinks nothing of it, and goes back to his patrol or whatever. I like surprises and unpredictable things that force you to react on the fly. One of the things that limits the replay value of most FPS games is that enemies are usually in the same spot every time you play the game, which makes it way too predictable.

 

And while arrows were cool enough in thief, they are totally unrealistic for a thief that travels light and leaves no trace, other than the absence of a few valuable items, to give away his presence (A bow and arrow would be realistic for an assassin, though). Go the grappling hook I say, sure it may be difficult to implement realisticly, but it is a hell of a lot more realistic than rope arrow which couldn't possibly support the weight of even a tiny thief (unless it is made of some high tech carbon nanotube fibre). And don't say it is a "magic" rope arrow, that is a cop out.

 

Anyway I think the best option is for FM authors to give players a choice of weapons and inventory at the start of each mission, or the option to buy gear with loot, so that people who would rather have a grappling hook or climbing gloves can do so, people who like arrows can do that too. It is very obvioous that some people like to play thief without being detected at all, while others like to empty their quiver of every arrow by the end of the mission, and I guess there should be the option to cater for differences in thieving styles... However, if you can't shoot your way through a map because you have no arrows, it will force you to be more creative, which I like... :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the things that limits the replay value of most FPS games is that enemies are usually in the same spot every time you play the game, which makes it way too predictable.

 

That won't be too much of a problem for us. The AI are always going to be following their patrols from the very start of the map. They never "go to sleep" and get activated by the player whenever the player crosses a certain trigger area in a scripted like manner like in some other games we won't mention.

 

We're also planning a lot of randomness in the AI actions, so they might decide to switch to a different patrol route, or look over their shoulder randomly so you can't just assume that because they're moving away from you it's safe to cross a lit area behind them. In other words, even if we still have them start in the same place at the very beginning of the map, by the time the player gets over to where they are, the player may encounter somewhat different AI conditions every time.

 

Go the grappling hook I say, sure it may be difficult to implement realisticly, but it is a hell of a lot more realistic than rope arrow which couldn't possibly support the weight of even a tiny thief (unless it is made of some high tech carbon nanotube fibre). And don't say it is a "magic" rope arrow, that is a cop out.

 

First of all, it's not a cop out, because we've agreed that our setting includes magic. We're making a toolset, as we have said again and again, and making a strict toolset is not really about removing options and imposing a strict setting on everyone who uses it. Some like magic or woo, some don't. Some have no problem with rope arrows, some do. If FM authors want to make a completely "woo-free" FM and put in the grappling hook but no rope arrow, that's fine, but we still want to support the option of magic rope arrows in our toolset.

 

Side note:

Even if the arrow shaft could support that amount of torque without breaking, like if it were made of some strong yet light material like graphite epoxy composite (I wouldn't use nanotube fiber for the arrow shaft in this case because you're bending the shaft down when you climb on it, not pulling it in a tensile direction. I wouldn't think a fiber composite would be strong when bent rather than pulled, but could be wrong), the weakest part of that whole system is still where the arrowhead is sticking into the wood. It's going to pop out pretty easily, either by torquing up and tearing thru the small thickness of wood it penetrated, or by popping out if there is any lateral force on it (which there would pretty much have to be when someone was getting on a rope).

 

As for alerting animals, that's an interesting idea. It can be done right now with scripting for specific cases, and making alerted animals emit sounds that are suspicious to guards so they'll come investigate, but a general method is usually better.

Edited by Ishtvan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, as far as magic arrows go, I always liked the vine arrows in T2 - how about vine arrows?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about an EidosArrow, you shoot it and everything sucks?

 

 

I like what Ishtvan said to the effect of using the toolkit to do whatever the heck you want. Some FMs that are loaded with bizarre new equiptment are waaay fun, once again Island of Iron 2 comes to mind. I replayed it more than any other FM, cause there were a million ways to kill all those beautiful new undead and demons. I led them into fights with bots and Mechs, bottled necked em with explosive barrels and killed like 7 with one fire arrow, or sniped em with those groovy flasharrows.

 

But sometimes an FM that gives you lockpix, and maybe a rope arrow, and thats it are a lot of fun as well. Each FM style is as valid as the other, like oysters or snails.

 

I would like to see really weird new magical tools, very rare and expensive, injected here and there. One idea I had was based on the scouting orb. If I can toss this orb and then see through it and move it around on an axis, then why can't I move it around like its actually rolling along? Why you ask? Cause then the Thief can have a familiar, a rat to be specific. Dig this:

 

The Thief finds a scroll in a witches den he's rolling. The scroll is an incantation to bind a familiar. What the heck he figures, cant hurt. He has to go find a rat and frob the scroll. Now the rat appears in inventory. It is deployed like the scouting orb. The Thief sees through its eyes, but theres more. The Rat has a light gem too, cause if a cat sees ya or you get too close to a guard, splat! The Rat can scale some surfaces, like wood or cloth, and can carry up to one small item at a time in its mouth (key, gem, coin).

 

FMs could be developed along the lines of a dual storyline. I think I mentioned this on ttlg, the Thief gets caught and manages to toss the Rat into a trashcan as he is dragged off. Now, the Rat must make its way into the prison or dungeon, find the lokpix or key, get it to the Thief.

 

Now, the Thieve's adventure begins. He must make his way back over the terrain the Rat did, but this time its a completely different play experience as a human.

 

Or another theme idea, the Rat goes one way and the Thief goes another, say in some ancient tomb where the safety switch for a booby trap is down the hall. The Rat goes down to the switch, then the Thief takes over and completes the loot haul. Then both must meet up at the exit. Ah, early morning Thief ramblings...

Edited by Maximius
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...