Easier arrow collection

S

Sterl500

Refugee
I've been doing a few "ranger" style runs lately and I find that I am losing arrows way more often than I am finding them in loot. This is usually because actually finding their model in terrain is a real pain and looting them from the floor after a zombie body despawns is sometimes the last thing on your mind. It's pretty annoying to scrounge around for feathers all the time when I could be just picking them up automatically from the ground as I run near them. I think it could be a really nice QoL change to just auto return arrows when you get near them. Might also make it more tolerable to use steel arrows before you get a crucible.

Also it would be nice to have an armor set that improves your archery capabilities. Could be a good place to put a "magical" set bonus to return any arrows that don't just break or explode automatically like Ava's Attractor in Runescape.
 
It's weird that they're using feathers, when nowadays the fletchings are made of plastic or vinyl. Also the feather fletchings come from turkeys, not chickens in real life.
 
SabinSnake PS5#1 said:
It's weird that they're using feathers, when nowadays the fletchings are made of plastic or vinyl. Also the feather fletchings come from turkeys, not chickens in real life.
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Steel arrows/bolts use scrap polymer. I'm also fairly sure you can use chicken feathers in a pinch if you really need to. The feathers thing is always going to be an approximation anyway so that doesn't bother me as much.
 
Sterl500 said:
Steel arrows/bolts use scrap polymer. I'm also fairly sure you can use chicken feathers in a pinch if you really need to. The feathers thing is always going to be an approximation anyway so that doesn't bother me as much.
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Yeah, but they should give the option to use polymer/plastic, other than feathers for arrows, since polymer is more prevalent than feathers, if you're not going from A to B on foot anymore when you have the gyrocopter (like me).
 
zztong said:
I use vulture feathers. :)
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Ehhh.. If you mean in real life, its actually illegal to even have vulture feathers in your possession, much less kill, harass or injure the turkey vulture and black vulture without a federal permit, since they're a protected bird in the US.
 
When the spear was throwable, it would have a red glow to it as well as navigation sprite. Something like this could be done for arrows and bolts. Also, it's always bugged me that steel arrows/bolts break just as often as stone and iron, you'd think iron would break less than stone and steel even less than iron.
 
FranticDan said:
When the spear was throwable, it would have a red glow to it as well as navigation sprite. Something like this could be done for arrows and bolts. Also, it's always bugged me that steel arrows/bolts break just as often as stone and iron, you'd think iron would break less than stone and steel even less than iron.
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I have a feeling that one of the reasons arrows get lost in terrain is due to clipping into geometry. I don't think the glow and navigation sprite will be useful if there's no prompt to grab the item. It would be a good idea, but I think just picking up the arrows when you run near them will probably be just a nice QoL change than just making ammo more obvious to pick up.

The break chance on the other hand is baffling. That should absolutely go down as you move up ammo tiers. Arrow stacks should also probably be a higher default, but that might be a low priority change. Right now arrows are pretty annoying to deal with compared to other ammo types.
 
Not averse to but not a fan of automatic ammo return in video games in general myself. So, you can pick up ammo just by running across it? Those are some pretty sticky feet you have there. I imagine a lot would miss the interactivity or "realism" of manually collecting their spent arrows and bolts given how averse they are to all other abstractions in the game.
 
InfiniteWarrior said:
Not averse to but not a fan of automatic ammo return in video games in general myself. So, you can pick up ammo just by running across it? Those are some pretty sticky feet you have there. I imagine a lot would miss the interactivity or "realism" of manually collecting their spent arrows and bolts given how averse they are to all other abstractions in the game.
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I would guarantee this would be met with a bunch of complaining if ever implemented. TBH I doubt anyone (aside from me) actually goes out of their way to collect arrows after the first few days. I would almost bet that players mostly just make more instead.
 
I try and collect them from things I kill/doors I shoot. But I don't go chasing after missed arrows, ever.

Going through several hundred arrows/bolts for Horde Night 1 is always interesting. But I usually end up having thousands and thousands of feathers by the end of a playthrough.
 
Vaeliorin said:
I try and collect them from things I kill/doors I shoot. But I don't go chasing after missed arrows, ever.

Going through several hundred arrows/bolts for Horde Night 1 is always interesting. But I usually end up having thousands and thousands of feathers by the end of a playthrough.
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Same. And on horde night it is kind of entertaining when you don't kill them before they reach you, so you can harvest your arrows from their body and then kill them. :)
 
I thought about it, and came up with a simple solution.

I just pluck the feathers from Vultures now. I turned em
back on and I am amply supplied with feathers. Since I have
rocks and wood, problem solved.

I just have to kill the constant vultures now preferably b4
getting infected. Good Times.
 
Sterl500 said:
Right now arrows are pretty annoying to deal with compared to other ammo types.
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What's so problematic about arrows? I made them, shot them, made some more. They even removed the tape from the arrow recipe because so many people complained, and not every arrow requires feathers.
 
Suxar said:
What's so problematic about arrows? I made them, shot them, made some more. They even removed the tape from the arrow recipe because so many people complained, and not every arrow requires feathers.
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Compared to other ammo types, you get far less of them in loot. The last tier is locked behind the crucible and a recipe while more convenient weapons have the option available through just a recipe and increased material requirements. It's not so much that it's "problematic", that's your perception of what I said, it's just that bows are that much worse of an option thanks to the comparative ease other weapons have ammo options available. It makes using the weapon as a primary even worse than it already is in comparison which is obviously a blind spot in the game since other weapons have been boosted as problems with them have been pointed out.

I believe this could be remedied by just a slight QoL change while players build themselves up to mass production. Hence why I proposed that instead of removing other material requirements or trying to push replacement materials. I think my proposal is reasonable enough.
 
Sterl500 said:
Compared to other ammo types, you get far less of them in loot.
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At least they're available in loot. I've been playing my current game at level 300 for a week now. In all that time, I've found no more than 10 rounds of grenade launcher ammo. I understand that the grenade launcher is a late-game weapon, but there really isn't any ammo for it in loot.

In my opinion, bows and crossbows are weapons designed for stealth takedowns. For everything else, there's a pistol.
 
Suxar said:
At least they're available in loot. I've been playing my current game at level 300 for a week now. In all that time, I've found no more than 10 rounds of grenade launcher ammo. I understand that the grenade launcher is a late-game weapon, but there really isn't any ammo for it in loot.

In my opinion, bows and crossbows are weapons designed for stealth takedowns. For everything else, there's a pistol.
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Perhaps the 'nade launcher needs some adjustment too?

Pistol can be silenced for more effective stealth take downs in general, but I don't think forcing your own perception of a weapon is a good metric for determining whether this kind of change is warranted or not. Point is, bows represent a pretty large portion of the agility tree and some effort has been expended by TFP to at least encourage bows for general combat. There's a wide variety of pretty effective ammo, and the skill itself expects you to cripple zombies before you deliver the finishing blow. Ideally this means your ammo gets put into the ground if you miss, but most of the time there's really zero reason to aim for the legs when the head can just kill your target.

To be clear, I think this means that your opinion on the bow and crossbow is probably misplaced.
 
Sterl500 said:
Perhaps the 'nade launcher needs some adjustment too?
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No need. The grenade launcher is a very niche weapon. I only use it during the Blood Moon. It's extremely inconvenient to use during clearouts; you need distance, which I don't have.

I actually remember a time when ammo didn't drop in such huge quantities, when you had to constantly dig up saltpeter, coal, and lead to craft it. The game was more difficult, but at the same time, a lot of time was spent digging mines, which made it somewhat boring. Now the game has become simpler, but at the same time more fun and dynamic.
Sterl500 said:
To be clear, I think this means that your opinion on the bow and crossbow is probably misplaced.
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Maybe. I haven't played with a bow or crossbow in a while. However, I've been running around the server at level 300 for a week now, and I'm thinking of resetting my character and starting from level 1. I'm just thinking about starting with a crossbow; I'll see what it's like.
 
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