Do you aim water arrows at the torch or above?

[Goldwell]

So I am currently tweaking some things in my mission relating to dousing lights, I am curious how everyone puts out a light source playing TDM/Thief.

 

As far as I can tell there are two ways, either you aim for the light source directly to douse it or you can aim above the light source and let the water fall onto the torch/candle/etc which douses the light as the water comes down.

 

I personally do the latter because I find it is more accurate as the water has a wider spray range and it avoids sending mobile objects flying around the place. But what does everyone else do?

[Oktokolo]

I always aim above if feasible because hitting the light source directly often did not douse it.

Aiming above seems also to be the only method to douse a carried torch without alarming the AI.

[Goldwell]

Aiming above seems also to be the only method to douse a carried torch without alarming the AI.

 

Ah that is something I did not know! Is that with thief games or TDM?

[Bikerdude]

There is a 3rd option - both depending on the situation.

[Goldwell]

There is a 3rd option - both depending on the situation.

 

I suppose think of the question then as what is your most used method of dousing a light you use out of those two options given. Sometimes I shoot a water arrow directly at the light however I can't think of a specific situation that has required this it's just been where the arrow has landed, just about every time I will use the method of shooting above the light source and letting the water fall though.

[Bikerdude]

Fair enough, in my case its just slightly above the flame source, as most of the time its just wall torches I douse to give me pools of darkness to hide in.

[Oktokolo]

 

Ah that is something I did not know! Is that with thief games or TDM?

TDM. Never tried that in other games.

I really hope, they never nerf this game mechanic, because it always feels so boss and is funny at the same time when dousing a wandering guard's torch with a water arrow - inside a solid building - sprinking water all over the guard as well - without it giving any shit about it (just drops the torch and continues the route).

Not sure if i remember correctly, but i think i also used it on burning undead and fire elementals...

[Springheel]

I like to aim above the light source as it's usually a larger target.

[grayman]

Above

[chakkman]

Above, because TDM works that way. In the original Thief's, i always aimed right at the torch.

[stumpy]

at the wall behind the torch.

[chakkman]

I'm a bit surprised that there are several approaches. I was under the impression that aiming above the torch was the only way that works (also from experience, because i DID try to shoot right at the torches, which maybe worked 20% of times). http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Water_Arrows

 

 

 

Water arrows can be used to put out open flames like torches, fires and even candles. For best results, aim slightly higher than the flame you wish to extinguish.

[demagogue]

Ideally above, but often I forget and just shoot directly at it until I remember it doesn't work as often.

[duzenko]

Had not idea we can shoot it above the light

[Oktokolo]

Had not idea we can shoot it above the light

You can shoot at anything near the light as long as it is located slightly higher (depending on horizontal distance) so the falling stim sphere is big enough when arriving at the height of the flame.

By shooting on the ceiling instead of the actual flames, it is possible to douse multiple flames located on one chandelier (most mappers use the one-light version, but i saw entities with multiple actual flames in actual missions) with only one water arrow.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Abusimplea

[esme]

Both, depends on the situation, if there's a flat surface I can hit that's not to far above the torch I'll go for that, otherwise I'll go for the torch, I've done the chandelier thing Abusimplea mentioned above too

[Thiefette]

I usually aim at or slightly above (unless its a chandelier). Sometimes my aim is not good lol, so always do a quick save before.

[Sneaker]

I do both, with shooting slightly above a bit more I think, only because I read that somewhere when I first started. I will say, it is a bit annoying when a torch you directly hit keeps burning bright as day . Personally, I always felt this was "backwards"; a showering dispersed water from above I would think has more of a chance to "miss" the flame than a concentrated direct hit. It's not a big thing either way though. The tdm water arrow showering effect is definitely cool feature.

[SuaveSteve]

Thief G/2: I aim for the torch holder as it seems the game considers the water arrow hitting the holder directly as ok, but not sure . I treat Dark Mod as less forgiving and try to get the splash above.

[Darkness_Falls]

Above, only because TDM is unreliable when aiming directly at the torch. I wasted a fair number of water arrows (and/or did a bunch of reloads) early on because shooting at the source failed so many times. I didn't know for quite a while that aiming above could douse torches. Once I learned that, I thought it was cool and enjoyable to do so, but I still prefer direct hits. Seems like the torch holder or torch model bounding box gets in the way of the water doing its thing.

 

Dousing from above should be an option, as I like doing it sometimes, but not a near-requirement, imo. Sometimes there's no wall directly behind a flame, or convenient ceiling above, to pull off a water douse from above.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Darkness_Falls

[V-Man339]

It relates entirely to distance and proximity to AI standing next to the torch.

 

It should go without saying that if the torch is being held by someone I'll aim above the torch, though.