3.0 Can't poison boomerang!

[grrraaaa]

I found a VERY nice purple boomerang (steel-bladed, 3d10 damage) in the black market and dumped my gold to buy it. Sadly, my rogue ability to poison weapons doesn't work on it. The boomerang isn't a selectable target for my ability. Any ideas?


- gra

[Variaz]

Yes. I probably forgot to put boomerangs in the list of available brandable stuff.

[grrraaaa]

Is there a quick script way that we could? Or do we just wait for the next release?

[Variaz]

It could be done scripted, but might not be so simple.

Wait for the next upload, I'll fix it.

[grrraaaa]

One more thing I've noticed:

I've been hitting the black market for a while now, trying to buy up purple items to boost my stats that I might qualify for an advanced class. I've seen exactly 2 purple boomerangs so far, neither of which have had any special powers other than 'never depletes'. Granted, the one I'm using does 3d10 base, rather than the normal 2d6, but I've seen a plain old 2d6 steel purple with only (+1, +2) and NOTHING else.

These weapons are coded to be the red-headed step children of the equipment world, aren't they?

- Gra!

[challtdow]

It does seem that boomerangs get absolutely no love from the RNG at the moment.

Chall

[Variaz]

That's because you can't equip boomerangs anymore, so what's the point of giving them resistances or other bonus if they can't even be put to use?

Boomerangs can get regular damages bonus, to_h, to_d and brands, and they all have the returning ability. There's not much point in giving them anything else since you can't wield them.

[Gando]

Id say my biggest gripe (among many I know ) with the changes from .2.1 to .3.0 is the change to the way missile weapons work. I really dont understand the change and frankly it discomforts me enough that I shun the use of missile weapons entirely after a failed attempt to make a marksman type character....but that gripe aside I guess that is the fun of making your own band/game variant. You get to tinker with things to make them the way you envision them working (or not as the case may be). The rest of us just get to gripe about the changes and wonder what else is in store both positive and negative.

Anyway Boomerangs are the exception I think in that they work just fine without being equipable if you can spare the item slot in inventory which is the real dilemma in Port. What with souls, and scrolls and potions and food and light source fuels there isnt a lot of space left over for extra boomerangs unless you want to drop that nice iron/steel katana that you havent had a chance to id yet. And it will get even more important with the changes to housing coming up in .3.1 so that would be the main reason Id have to not using them. Not the lack of equipability or special +adds.

[Variaz]

There are several reasons why I wanted ranged weapons to work this way:

1. Pistols dual-wielding. With the new system, you can do things like dual wield pistols, or wield a sword and a pistol, which is nice! But why not just add a second ranged slot? Because characters would then dual-wield pistols not for the pistols, but for the bonus a magic pistol would give. And then there's the matter of checking for a shield with two sets of slots and all.... The current dual-wield system is already exploitable and a bit buggy, imagine how messy this would have been! (I don't even want to think about it... )

2. Most of my characters had a bow or crossbow. Did I use it? Nope. But hey, an additionnal +10 attacks is always nice! Well, yeah, but that's too much. Especially if we added a second ranged slot. With the new system, this issue is fixed. (as well as the issue of ranged characters wielding melee weapons just for the bonus).

3. Realistically, you have to wield your ranged weapon to use it. And if you take a look at most other RPGs, you'll see that it works that way. You wield a melee weapon OR a ranged weapon, but not both.

That's the main three reasons. I wanted to change the system to a "two hands" system, where there's no ranged or shield slot. In Vanilla, it's not a problem, since you can only ever wield one weapon and not dual wield, so have an hand and a shield slot makes sense. But Portralis is different, and thus needs a different system.

Also, there's some good sides to this too! If you wield a ranged weapon, you can perform melee attacks with them(they can be raised with the Fighting skill). This brings the potential of having stuff like Bladed Bows(I like the sound of this one! ), and if your ranged weapon has base AC, you can parry with it! (the bladed bow suddently gets really interesting! )

[Gando]

Bladed Bows? Ouch if you fumble :/
Seriously though...I tried and failed miserably to run a ranged character more than once...In fact I found that ranged attacks in general do not do well in .3.0. I think the concept of rebalancing things to work with dual weilding and particularly dual ranged weaponry is smart but I think the execution leaves alot to be desired. Same goes for the way shields are handled. Please do not take my criticism to heart though.

I recognize I have a very biased pov because of my particular playing style and do not consider my opinions to have any weight in terms of expertise. I am sure all the great players of this game would veiw the changes more positively. For me when I find things do not work well in my play style I get worried that further changes will make the game unplayable for me.

As far as the extra items bonus slots go...well I never had a bow with +10 attacks, nor do I think such a bow exists in Port (Ive never seen anything that gives more than 2 attacks as a bonus.) I think the main reason for people wanting to have these types of advantages is that bands whether they be vanilla or notsovanilla have a high death rate. With the lack of a meaningful save/load feature average players rely on what advantages they can eek from the game to keep thier chars alive. In Port that isnt as much of a concern if you can just find a way to afford the 12 or so Object Eternality scrolls (I think that name is a coining of a new term in english by the way so perhaps the lower number of slots isnt as harmful...

As far as realism goes...well rpgs are generally not realistic (spell casting? ok...where to begin?) But there has been a trend in game design that follows the idea you maintained...weild a bow? no weapon also weilded (this as a game master of p&p games strikes me as not only reasonable but recommendable.) However, the problem I see with this is the player of a computer rpg is handicapped by the limited 2d (or perhaps faux 3d) environment they perceive (hence I think 'fog of war' is fairly crippling when it is pervasive.) Like....how many people would run up to a foe that would return their attacks as 50% damage if they were sensible people? I mean fumblefingers Gando does because I hit a key sequence wrong and suddenly 5 hours of gameplay is over because I didnt see the hidden boss/elite etc, or instead of teleporting using my handy scroll I drop my weapon because I didnt see the ==more== come up.

My point being...taking away the bow slot sort of handicaps those of us who do not enjoy the acrobat-like ease of keyboarding some people seem to display as if we want to use both ranged and melee attacks we cant do so easily

an example of what I mean: turn 1 nock arrow monster closes, turn 2 shoot arrow (miss? darn it!) monster closes again (maybe by 4 spaces even), turn 3 (look at hitpoints and panic) drop bow monster closes and bites/swings etc...turn 4 draw sword monster bites/swings etc and kills you....grrr darn it...if only I had thought to put a strap on my xbow and carry my sword in a looser sheath! well truthfully it makes sense that this sort of thing would happen to someone irl in combat situations (hence most of us arent soldiers!!!) but in a fantasy setting where high heroism is expected we hope the system errs in our favor occasionally...

ALL that said....dont change anything on my account...Im just putting my 2.5 cents in the cookie jar.

[Variaz]

An item with +10 attacks could very well be generated later in the game. Two weapon slots, two shooting slots and then a shield slot? That's way too much slots! And of course, not being able to dual-wield pistols or dual wield at all wouldn't have been very fun.

I'll try out a ranged character, and see how it works. I know the sword + gun combo works rather well, but I'll try to make an Elf Archer, and see how bows turns out.

[Gando]

Im certain you will do fine with it...Its just my own clumsiness and inexpertise that gets me killed and frustrated.

[kipar]

Why not use ranged weapon to fire at close monster?
My guner wear pistol and mace but kill all monsters with pistol, because making melee weapon useful costs too much skillpoints for me. I think marksman character must not draw a sword to fight monsters, but shoot them at close distance and/or jump away.

[Gando]

kipar said:

Why not use ranged weapon to fire at close monster?
My guner wear pistol and mace but kill all monsters with pistol, because making melee weapon useful costs too much skillpoints for me. I think marksman character must not draw a sword to fight monsters, but shoot them at close distance and/or jump away.

I think you missed the point here... my experience with ranged weapons is that they delay too much to be useful. and how many guns can you find early on without serious scumming?. The thing is if you have 15 scrolls of teleport and have to teleport in EVERY combat situation you will soon run out of scrolls, so the backup plan does not work very well in a game where every monster can be lethal if you are unable to deal with them quickly. Im certain once you level a lot Gunner/marksman (30th level ish?) is a cinche but it is a (bad word here) to start.

[kipar]

Gun trader in Jindar is a real rescue for gunners on a lowlevel - just 1000 for pistol and 200 for 20 bullets.
And monsters can be lethal for melee characters in a same way. But i understand your position now, after some play for kobold crossbowman. Looks like Marksman need rogue\monster mage\or soul guardian abilities in addition to just shooting enemies down