Ranged ammo updates/tedium-reduction

[Rias]

Per the changelog:

- In order to reduce tedium with ranged launcher ammo management, ranged weapon ammo will no longer actually be moved when loaded or fired. Firing the ammo will simply reduce the durability of the ammo as normal but leave it in its same location (within a quiver, etc). Gathering ammo from the ground after firing from a launcher will no longer be necessary. (This update does not affect hurled weapons.)
- Firearm shot is no longer considered a single shot per item, but several. For instance, instead of "a copper shot" it is now "some copper shot". Weights and crafting steps have been adjusted accordingly.

Ammo management and retrieval is never much fun, so hopefully this cuts down on those woes! There's bound to be some wonkiness with an update like this, so please report bugs via the BUG command and feel free to give feedback here in this thread. In the case of shot, previously-existing bundles were replaced with the new shot items, in quantities based on how much were in the old item bundle.

I want to apply this to multi-throwables eventually as well, with a single "some throwing knives" or "some throwing axes" etc. items soon! Imagine hurling your barrage of knives over and over without worry of running out (and suspending a little disbelief). That's a character type fantasy I'd love to live out with an update making it more viable. Javelins will likely remain hurl-and-retrieve, as they're so powerful (and still probably in need of some tuning).

[Gorth]

Does it feel too game-y to play a ranged character from horseback, since we never actually have to suffer the ill effects of having to mount and dismount, anymore?

[Maina]

Does it feel too game-y to play a ranged character from horseback, since we never actually have to suffer the ill effects of having to mount and dismount, anymore?

I do this already with my Warlock. I only dismount to loot the bodies.

Love this change, and extremely excited for when it applies to hurlables. I've been struggling with it on my alternate character.

[artus]

I'm very, very happy to see my request for shots being bundleable taken to the nicest edition ever. As a player of chars who are primary range, this will make the combat much, much smoother with less commands to type. Thank you for being awesome!

[ThresherAle]

Stashed the clunky crossbow and got my pistols out again. Rootin tootin ready for shootin!

[Volinn]

I want to apply this to multi-throwables eventually as well, with a single "some throwing knives" or "some throwing axes" etc. items soon! Imagine hurling your barrage of knives over and over without worry of running out (and suspending a little disbelief). That's a character type fantasy I'd love to live out with an update making it more viable.

Used to play a now-defunct game that did this and it was indeed much less tedious and preferable to the current. If only I had more skill points to dump into ranged! One reason I'm looking forward to the future skill changes, as well.

[Bork]

Just a question, how does the game output when a piece of ammo is exhausted, lost or destroyed now?

Or is it on us to check regularly?
Thanks

[Navi]

Great idea. Couple pieces of feedback though after a little while of testing.

1. Iron shot takes a significant durability hit when used against nethrim. I had a set go from 51% durability down to 34% when used against a phantom darkwood with a single shot. According to this math, that would mean each set provided me with 6 shots, 5.88, to be a bit more exact.
Each set of shot weighs about .8 pounds. I'm guessing this is the maximum number of shot, as it split my stash of 1000 iron shots into 12 sets, and each one weighed .8 pounds. The math is a bit off, since .4 pounds of iron shot gave me 25 shots before this change, so I should be getting 50 shots per set, and would mean that I should have received 20 or so sets. Since I only received 11 or 12 for the stash of 1000 I had, this would mean that direct exchange would be between 90 and 83 shot per set. I do hope this is clear. I tried to share as many numbers as I had access to. I might also be misremembering the previous weight per shot ratio. I just know that carrying 100 shots was extremely heavy, which is why I only ever carried 25 shots which was definitely a pound or less.

2. Currently, when ammo breaks, you can still load it into firearms. No idea for anything other than firearms, but I'm assuming it won't matter.

3. Please flag these NoSteal. With the system before, it was possible to steal partial bundles, but it would take multiple attempts to steal an entire bundle of shot or sling bullets. Currently, it seems that an entire stash of shot can be stolen in one go. For someone who's weight conscious like me who relies on dodge, this is a bit much. Besides, have you ever tried grabbing a fist full of marbles, golf balls, grapes? It's not easy, much less so if you're just reaching into a pocket or pouch.

[Rias]

Per the changelog: Fixed a bug that was causing some types of ranged weapon ammo to disappear after a single shot.

Just a question, how does the game output when a piece of ammo is exhausted, lost or destroyed now?

Example: ** a copper-headed pine arrow has broken! **

1. Iron shot takes a significant durability hit when used against nethrim.
2. Currently, when ammo breaks, you can still load it into firearms.
3. Please flag these NoSteal.

Regarding requests 1& 2, per the changelog:
- The base durability of firearm shot has been increased.
- Weapons made of ferrous materials will now suffer less durability damage when striking noncorporeal nethrim.
- Ranged launcher ammunition that has been reduced in durability to the point of being broken will now be deleted. (This does not include hurled weapons.)

Regarding request 3 ... yeah, that seems like a pretty cheap way to take a ranged character out of a fight. So they're unstealable for now, pending some other potential better solution.

[Jilliana]

[quote=Rias
Regarding request 3 ... yeah, that seems like a pretty cheap way to take a ranged character out of a fight. So they're unstealable for now, pending some other potential better solution.
[/quote]

One thing I thought of as a possible partial solution to this is to make ammo unstealable in a MOB zone.