theworldofdreams.com

This probably won't be too popular, but why not

Make fire arrows/bolt frost arrows/bolts require a 70 or even 90 archery to use.

Make sure that archers have the greatest striking distance, I think true already though.

70 sounds ok to me but 90 would be too high- that would mean you'd have to have +10 buffs and the secondary slot or prime slot. I really dont think many players would be doing that. I have archery as a secondary skill. I really doubt there are many with it as a primary (well there are a few people with archers, but they only play them for group things) The new fire/frost arrows are great and I dont think it would be good to significantly limit their use with high skill reqs.
The arrows have gotten more people interested in archery as a support skill. Well it was always one, but I think it's getting more use now. I liked it enough to respec my char. (which now leaves me switching weapons constantly hehe)

I have an idea though- Would it be possible to change the skillcheck for applying the frost/flame essenses to be archery instead of alchemy?
An archer buys the potion from the alchemist and needs to pass a skillcheck of lets say 80 to apply the potion to the arrows. A person with unspec'd archery and no buffs(60) would have no chance to apply the potion. Just a buff would be a fairly high failure rate. A player who spec'd archery would have a fairly good chance of succeeding.

Since they don't actually do any more damage (if I read the description correctly) except maybe when using frost arrows against fire elementals or some such thing--not a daily occurence for every archer on the shard, I don't see why any change is really necessary to the skills required to make or use them. If these special arrows did their normal damage and then also did some additional flame/freezing damage to the target, I could see how their use and creation would need to be more limited. As it is, they're just kinda handy to have in your quiver, and the set up for creating and using them seems to work just fine as far as I can see.

If you need to get your hands on some of these arrows or crossbow bolts, let me know. I'll be glad to dig you up some.

Dell-Leafsong wrote:Since they don't actually do any more damage (if I read the description correctly) except maybe when using frost arrows against fire elementals or some such thing...

They do seem to do a little extra damage to most mobs, and significant dmg to certain ones. For example, frost against dragons or desert gargoyles or fire against forest spawn (titans, ents, etc).
I dont even carry regular arrows, just frost and fire.

And here I thought I was just a really good archer.


There is a cost associated with creating them (ruby, reagents, etc), and that is significantly higher than the cost for creating/buying regular arrows, so I really do think that the costs/benefits are pretty balanced.

IF anything, the PTB might consider reducing the number of arrows/bolts affected by each potion. It's 100 arrows per potion now, right? They could cut that in half, and I bet I'd still be pretty darn happy.

Pesonally , I don't think a skillcheck to *use* the fire/frost arrows is needed, nor would it be helpful. That would mean that unless you specced archery, you would *have* to find a perfect +10 buff (or combination totalling +10). I don't think your archery skill should have any effect on the damage from just the arrow types (types only, it still should affect the total damage in addition to the arrows, just as dex does). Taking as an example from real life (not always the best to compare I know:) ), if I'm hunting with a bow, it doesn't matter how good I am if I use a wooden tipped, or barbed tipped, or wooden shaft, or aluminum shaft arrow - my archery skill is still the determining factor for making the hit - even though the different types of arrows have different damage capabilities when they *do* hit. A 10 yr old with 'Rambo'-like explosive arrows would make just as big a hole in a wall as Legolas would with the same ammunition - assuming that his skill is high enough to hit the wall in the first place

As to the potions - here I think it might be OK to leave the skillchecks to *make* the potions, but it sounds appropriate that anyone should be able to apply a potion to the arrows/bolts (similar to tanks using wands, or anyone using a manastone, etc.). This would probably open a slight market for the potions also.

I suppose I'm just a little jaded on this point (and a few others). There's not going to be a market for this stuff, not a real market anyhow. We all have a master alchemist by now, right? Well, if we don't have one yet, we will soon enough with that gold we're earning from hunting with that one character we really like to play anynow. There's enough time, gold, and character slots to go around, so every archer who needs these arrows will soon enough be making his own potions as well. There's just no way around it. Brother Andune may need some help getting his magic arrows for a little while, but eventually, he'll have a master alchemist at his beck and call too, and a change in the scripts might have been implemented for no real purpose at all except to give the 1-day-old archer the same access to the full array of WOD's archery tools as the 4-year-old archer. I'm not sure this should be a goal.

There's been talk of a shard wipe recently, and if the point of that is to make the oldbies and the newbies flat-footed and equal, I just don't see the point. We are not equal and we cannot be. Some of us have access to years of successful UO game playing experience (not me). Some of us have lightning fast reliable internet access (ok, I have that). Some of us have free time out the wazoo because (1) we're 12, (2) we're unattached, unemployed, or willing to sleep only one night a week, or (3) some other reason I couldn't think of. Some of us have slow, intermittent access to the internet, or only an hour a day to play, or serious skill deficiencies that can only be improved with tactical practice (this applies to combat as much as it does to the strategies required to earn a living as a crafter).

We cannot be equal, brothers and sisters, but we can be in it together.

~ Reverend Dell the longwinded

Hmmm, Im thinking your reading my request all wrong. I'm not to concerned about acquiring these arrows, so to have them made the current way is fine. I was looking for a way to make archery more interesting as a skill to have. http://theworldofdreams.com/changes/upcoming.html

And with regards to archers on the shard, perhaps most people use them only for group hunts. However, I use my bow/xbow about 95% of the time, and in general refuse to draw a weapon. In fact the only reason I have a secondary weapon skill is for disconect purpose period.

And I most likely will never use a second slot, didnt the first 8 months and havent so far...[/url]

How does it increase the utility of a skill to restrict the cool arrows to those with high amounts of it? I just think archery is doing fine as it is. It's plenty interesting because of the fact that you have to stick and move (almost like a mage) even at high levels of skill. How much more interesting do you need it?

I'll probably drop a few more hair brains out in the future too. I'm just brain strorming ideas

I agree with Dell Leafsong regarding the shard wipe. Whatever equality the wipe created would be very short lived. As soon as the more active players (who are also the ones who give this persistant world depth and persistance, by the way) aquired more wealth and magics than the less active players, the inbalance would exist again. And that is fine; there is nothing wrong with being rewarded for playing. Also, when I and my entire group die in the depths of a dungeon, I am very thankful that a well-equipted 'oldie' is online, who is capable of coming in solo to salvage my sorry self.