Ranged Combat – Archery Skill

Ranged Combat – Archery

Archery is the first skill to use ranged combat on Aardwolf. The full details on each of the commands are below. We are very excited about the possibilities with this, including traps, bombs, spells that damage across multiple rooms, etc. But for now, let’s get this in and fully settled live:

Help Archery:

Archery is the skill that allows hunters to shoot using a bow and arrow. The full mechanics are explained below, but the short version is:

• Acquire a bow (several are for sale in the Rangers guild).
• Acquire some arrows (also for sale in the Rangers guild).
• Identify a target; for example, ‘target north bear’.
• Ready your arrows; for example, ‘ready quivver’.
• Type ‘shoot’.

Using ‘Archery’ simulates a round of combat from another room. Your skill in ‘archery’ is combined with your ‘bow’ weapon skill to determine the overall weapon skill in that round of combat.

There are several ways that archery can be used effectively – be sure to read ‘help ranged-tactics’ for some useful tips.

Help Shoot:

Syntax:  shoot [item]    : Shoot an item in inventory
         shoot           : Shoot a readied item.

Shoot is used by archers to attack a target from a distance using their bow and arrow. Once a target has been acquired (see ‘help target’), the shoot command is used to fire at them from a distance.

You cannot shoot through a safe room or a room that monsters are unable to travel through. Once you shoot a monster they will not just sit there and take the damage – they will start to track you down.

In order to use shoot, a bow must be wielded in either the primary or secondary wield position and the item being fired must be of type ‘weapon- projectile’. There is a selection of arrows for sale in the Rangers Guild. Each of these items can be worn in the new ‘readied’ position – see ‘help ready’.

To better understand how shoot works in combination with the bow and the arrow, it helps to think of a single ‘shoot’ as a round of combat from another room.

In this round of combat, the number of hits is determined by the attackers constitution, wisdom and dexterity. The ‘average damage’ is the combined average of the bow and the arrow used. The ‘weapon skill’ equivalent is the level of skill in archery. Shoot has no lag, but does have a small recovery time based on constitution and wisdom.

Whether or not a ranged attack can be dodged depends on the type of attack. Arrows fired from a bow can only be dodged by the ‘dodge’ and ‘shield block’ skills.

See ‘help ranged-tactics’ for some further notes on ranged combat and how it can be used.

Help Target:

Syntax:  target                : Display current target.
         target [name]         : Target a character.
         target [dir] [name]   : Target in direction <dir>
         target clear          : Clear current target.

The ‘target’ command allows you to acquire a target for the purposes of ranged combat. You can only target a character that is directly in a straight line from you. You cannot target outside of your current area and all regular combat restrictions apply.

You cannot target a character in the same room as you, but if there is a path back to the same room (for example, if 2N in a maze leads back to the same room) then there is a path for a projectile to follow and targeting will work.

Once you have a target acquired, you can ‘shoot’ and use other ranged commands without having to specify the target again. Your target will also show in the room and in ‘scan’ with a [TARGET] flag.

See ‘help ranged-tactics’ for some further notes on ranged combat and how it can be used.

Help Ready:

Syntax: ready [item]          : Equip an item in the 'ready' position.
        ready remove          : Remove a readied item.

The ‘ready’ command is used to equip an item in the ‘readied’ position for use with ranged combat.

Once an item is in the ready position you can use ‘shoot’ with no arguments to default to shooting whatever is in the readied position.

Note: Additional stats are not allowed on ‘readied’ items as this is a convenience wear location only.

Help Ranged-Tactics:

Ranged combat (currently Archery) can be used in a number of ways:

• There is no lag on shoot, so shooting a mob from the next room then instantly running in to backstab the mob is a great way to kill.
• Because the backstab is entered from outside the room, this technically runs against the letter of the rules in “help stacking”. This is an allowed exception and part of the way ‘shoot’ was designed. See ‘help stacked’ for more information.
• Many mobs will track you down when you shoot at them. This can often be used to help reduce the number of aggro mobs in a room.
• Mobs will usually not track as quickly as you can move. A great way to finish them off in a pinch is to flee/retreat and immediately shoot.
• It is completely ok to find one way exits that mobs cannot track you through and sit there and shoot them, although in most cases on a regular mob just killing them will be faster.

Some other relevant details about ranged combat:

• Ranged combat works fine in PK, but does not work in clan halls.
• If you shoot from outside a room and kill the mob while grouped, you will still get experience and anyone in your group in the same room as the mob will also get experience. If you are out of the room and someone else in the group kills it, you will not get experience.
• When you kill a mob with ranged combat, any death mobprog on it will still run, but there may be errors with you not being in the same room if the mob tries to transfer you on death. We have identified most of these and flagged them up front but some are likely to have been missed, please post them to the bugs board.
• If a mob is wandering through an area trying to find you or you are fighting it from several rooms away, there is a much higher chance of someone engaging that mob in combat via charge or area spells. It is going to happen and is part of the down side of using ranged combat.