Bolas

[Anonymous]

Ok, I just got a new bola.  I've been playing around with it a little bit, and it seems to be less effective at knocking my pray down than my dagger.  Is this true, and if so, could bolas do like 0 damage, but be super good and knocking down enemies?  I don't think it makes much sense that they do damage, but they should be awesome at knocking down foes.  I haven't tried this to see if it works, because it would be way ooc to do so, but I would assume you could throw a bola at a hawk.  Is there a way you could make bolas only able to attack humanoids or legged creatures too?  This last request really isn't that important, just something I was thinking about.

[mansa]

Perhaps this should be emailed into the mud account at mud @ armageddon . org ?  They would answer your question a lot better than us players would.

[moab]

I don't think the bola / hawk think should work (if it even does).  When was the last time you pegged a crow with a rock?  The generally see that stuff coming.

The reasons arrows / blowguns work so well on birds (if they don't jump at the sound of the bowstring) is because arrows are _damn_ fast compared to bolas or other thrown weapons.

Btw - did you know that experienced deer can move fast enough to avoid an arrow if they hear the bowstring?  Sometimes enough to cause you to miss?  They will (if they've learned) will jump backwards a little, so a typical chest shot will skim their front-upper legs (or, I guess a belly shot will get them in the chest - it ain't foolproof).  Amazing reflexes.  That's why some bow-hunters (think we have some on the GDB, actually) use silencers on their bowstrings.

(I'm referring most to RL stuff here and hope the game mirrors that.)

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I agree that bolos should do no damage but should tangle up foes ... ie: Knock them down AND give them a little lag to represent getting tangled up.

[spawnloser]

...so bash in a thrown weapon?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Pretty much. If you know what a bolo is, you know that this is the only thing they are actually good for. Natives use them to snare flee antelope and gazelle, then run up on the animal while it is down and spear and club it to death.

The bolo itself does no damage.

[Larrath]

I went to Google and other websites and found out this nifty fact:
A bolo is a machete, which is a sort of a knife.
A bola is the round balls on a string contraption thingy.

Also, while a bola is generally used to tangle, it can also crush bones.

Hopefully we can get code for entanglement and snares using bolas, ropes, nets, traps and a few spells, and then it could be added for this objects.

[diealot 2L2L]

Btw - did you know that experienced deer can move fast enough to avoid an arrow if they hear the bowstring?  Sometimes enough to cause you to miss?  They will (if they've learned) will jump backwards a little, so a typical chest shot will skim their front-upper legs (or, I guess a belly shot will get them in the chest - it ain't foolproof).  Amazing reflexes.  That's why some bow-hunters (think we have some on the GDB, actually) use silencers on their bowstrings.

(I'm referring most to RL stuff here and hope the game mirrors that.)

Very true, the deer can hear and run..  Also, if you've ever tried to thrown anything at a deer, it just doesn't work.  Even bow hunting is incredibly difficult, because; arrow velocity < bullet velocity.

Also.. is there any word -at all- about the setting up of traps?  Is it a coded skill that I've somehow missed in all my Rangers.. or is it just a code-impossibility right now?

I'm talking about a snare, or pit-trap (hard in sand), or any number of other clever things.. bury a set of hard bone spikes in -just- enough sand to cover them..  Let them sit, and have them echo -You just stepped on something sharp!  And drain like.. 2 health, and 30-50 mv.. its hard to walk with a hole in your foot.  Also, boots could protect against it.. blah blah blah.

Sorry to derail a bit.

[Maybe42or54]

As a sidenote, the bone spike trap wouldn't be made to pierce a boot made of leather or chitin in most cases. It would be made so the feet go between the spikes and the spikes go into the leg. It is easy to walk on a foot, even after you had stepped on a nail. It really fucking hurts when you step into a pile of wood and nails dig into your leg muscles.

[diealot 2L2L]

Makes much more sense then.  Maybe make only 'knee-high boots' protect from the traps.

Anyway.  I still want traps!  I want to be able to set a trap, and use a ranger-only, or ranger/hunter 'chase' skill to chase the auto-flee animal into my trap.. Or a waiting ambush..

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

A bolo is a machete, which is a sort of a knife...A bola is the round balls on a string contraption thingy.

...yeh. You know perfectly well what I meant...

....a bola ... can also crush bones.

Nice. I suppose it's either the stone revolving so fast or the torque of the rope being tightened as the stone revolve around the limb. Good info.

[Aldiel]

...so bash in a thrown weapon?

Throwing weapons already do this.  I think the poster is just saying bolas should do this more.

[JRB]

That's cool and all but we as a human race survived before there was a Super Walmart down the road from us too though.  How did men 125,000 years ago kill deer?  More than likely they threw spears at it and such.  Did they have the accuracy of men that do today?  Mabe.  Are characters in armageddon stronger, more agile, and tougher than people today?  I'm betting many of your characters could probably throw a spear a little better than normal humans could.  From seeing things that my character is able to do I'm suspecting he could bench press probably 900 lbs.

Edited cause I read it after I typed it.