View/assess bow range

[Fnord]

What do people think of this...

If you have the archery skill, and view or assess -v a bow, it will say short, medium, or long range. Figure someone that knows their archery would be able to determine that once testing the pull.

[SRB]

What do people think of this...

If you have the archery skill, and view or assess -v a bow, it will say short, medium, or long range. Figure someone that knows their archery would be able to determine that once testing the pull.

I love this idea.

[Anonymous]

You can already -somewhat- do this. For instance, a short bow has a short range, a regular bow has a medium range, and a long bow has a long range.

[sacac]

I think it is pretty obvious in most of the descriptions and the ones that don't specify.
Long bows shoot farther then short bows,
The stronger the pull, the farther it will go.

[Delirium]

And you can always try the bow out in a proper location by using the

shoot <distance> <direction>

command.

i.e. shoot far east or shoot very far south

[SRB]

Or you could just apply this to assess -v and save alot of people headache.

It's not a world-changing addition to the game, but I think it will definitely allow things to run more smoothly.

[Fnord]

You can already -somewhat- do this. For instance, a short bow has a short range, a regular bow has a medium range, and a long bow has a long range.

I wish that were the case, but it's not.

You can buy the bow and find out how far it goes, true enough. But there's one little problem. You just bought the bow, and it might not do what you think. Again, true enough that bigger bows with stronger pulls have longer range. Very logical. But, those ranges are coded features of the Mud. My suggestion is we breech the gap between IC knowledge and code by allowing for a little extra information.

If we wanna BS it out... Let's say I'm an hunter going into K-Mart to get me a huntin bow. I look over various bows, short ones, long ones, composite ones. Since I'm a hunter and an archer I know that one bow will shoot roughly for X yards, the other Y, and this other one Z. I'm not going to blindly buy all three and go see how far they shoot, because I'd know.

[Anonymous]

I know that one bow will shoot roughly for X yards, the other Y, and this other one Z.

Roughly, exactly; you can 'roughly' estimate how far it shoots based on present information. This has never been a problem for me.

[Bestatte]

I beg to differ regarding descriptions giving the info away.

All bows will shoot one room distance. Many bows will shoot two rooms distance. Some of those 2-room bows have descriptions that *imply* that they will shoot at "great distance" compared with other bows - and they don't. They're just 2-room bows with descriptions that imply otherwise, nothing more.

I'm totally in favor of the assess -v for archers to have some idea of how far a bow will shoot. At the very least, you would be able to discuss, virtually, with the shopkeeper who is selling the bow, and he would TELL you the approximate distance of the shot. One would hope that a Salarr agent has some inkling of the things he's selling afterall. If not, then he probably has no business selling items with his company's brand plastered all over it.

Just my two sids.

[sjanimal]

I support this idea, to the extent that I support any idea that will further the freedom with which players can explore their game world.

[Angela Christine]

I think that the strength of the person attempting to use the bow might affect how far it will fire.  A bow designed for a mul might be capable of firing three rooms, but only when used by a person of truely exceptional strength.  When a buff human of good, but not exceptional, strength trys to use it then it only goes two rooms.  Likewise a weak human or elf might only be able to shoot one room with most two room bows, because they can not pull back the string far enough to get a long distance shot.

All bows will shoot one room distance. Many bows will shoot two rooms distance. Some of those 2-room bows have descriptions that *imply* that they will shoot at "great distance" compared with other bows - and they don't. They're just 2-room bows with descriptions that imply otherwise, nothing more.

Maybe they really do shoot farther, just not in a way that is detectable through code.  Like a regular longbow shoots things that are in the near edge of the second room, and a super duper longbow shoots things that are at the far edge of the second room:  Although you can't tell the difference through code, the super bow is firing nearly twice as far as the regular bow.  


AC

[Canadian Beaver]

Wow, I think this idea is great and wholly support it.*thumbs up*