Poison weapons

[Sombre]

Given that KO wasn't actually aware that poison missile weapons work the way they currently do, it might well be considered a bug and have nothing to do with balance considerations. I'm saying if it is then it's best to fix this before looking at balance rather than saying "If that bug/issue is fixed then it will nerf woodsmen blowpipes and they don't need a nerf so I'll leave it".

As to whether you'd have to wait between patches - there's no reason a bug can't be fixed and then the balance looked at, all ready for the next patch. Generally though the devs don't go into balance that much, leaving it more to mods like CBM.

[OmikronWarrior]

On another note, wouldn't the one damage thing really reduce the efectiveness of flaming arrows? I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing.

[Reay]

I think Flaming Arrows should be secondaryeffectalways? Flaming arrows should not need 1HP damage to be activated.

[Aezeal]

flaming arrows are strong enough as is thank you.

btw a flaming arrow caught in armor won't do much good either... actually a flaming arrow really isn't that much worse than a regular arrow anyway unless you are made of straw or soft wood IMHO

[Renojustin]

Says right there on the poison bow description, and I'm sure blowguns as well... anyone WOUNDED by the weapon will be struck by this effect.

EDIT: Just tried it, and it seems to me that you definitely don't need to take a wound to get affected by the effect. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that this might get looked at within the next few patches, but at the same time, there's good reasons to keep it as it is too.

[Reay]

So would this make flaming arrows less useful against high protection units? Since they would have to do 1HP damage before the fire damage is activated?

So #secondaryeffect is supposed to only be activated if they wound the target? #secondaryeffectalways seems to be activated even if they do not hit?
It would be better if there was a #secondaryeffectonhit so it can be activated if it hits but does not wound.

[calmon]

Yes it would! If this bug will be fixed in future illwinter should consider to rebalance the arrow hit calculation.

[Sombre]

Possible solution to the poison bow problem is this:

Create a new poison bow ranged weapon with poison as the damage type
Add the mundane damage weapon ie ‘shortbow’ as a secondaryeffect

This should at least allow people with shields to parry the arrows – you still have the problem of armour not helping against poison when it should though (ie when you’d expect the poison only to apply if the projectile actually causes damage). You would however if the poison damage wasn’t automatically armour negating, which could be the case. I need to test this. You could then make stuff like poison blowpipes into an armour piercing weapon with a secondaryeffect of 1 capped mundane damage, if you felt that they should be able to hit unarmoured spots more often than arrows etc

[Wrana]

As I remember, poison blowpipes just never got used in regions where medium armor was in common use... So if they'd become useless it wouldn't be far from truth. I agree they are useless enough currently but just can't see them on regular battlefield in any case. Probably should be replaced with something else?
And yes, if poison bows, etc. work regardless of armor & attack roll, it should be fixed.

[Forrest]

I like the way poison bows work. I don't think they need fixing. Just because you don't like that the fumes from the poison smeared on the shield is a enough to poison a person does not mean I don't. The fumes are not burning them to ashes just making them feel bad which is quite common in the real world.

The poison works so long as the arrow bounces off the armor and leaves a mark. Sounds a lot like the US army manual dealing with chemical warfare.