As of right now, in order to make a decent archer, you have to use up two of your skill slots: one on the archery tree, and one on tinkering so you can make bolts. I'd like to see a new craft device implemented that lets you craft bolts (and bows, maybe), based on your archery level.
Makes sense.. I am pretty sure that crafting bolts takes 0 Tinkering skill though.. Maybe just make it so that bolt crafting scales with Archery (pretty sure you get more bolts per ingot with higher crafting skill) instead of adding an arrow crafting device. You would still have to invest in Tinkering to reliably get the best crossbows, and the advanced bolts (you could even make the advanced bolts if you find the Tinkerer's Goggles as well).. although I would like to see more advanced bolts in Tinkering. So giving free bolts to the Archers sounds reasonable to me. Is that a better compromise? Edits are blue
I think that it would be better to simply add a supplementary skill tree that gave some bonuses to archery and 2 (or something) tinkering levels - that way with bonuses provided by Megacrafts you could easily reach 4 points of tinkering in the late-game, which would allow you to get most of the stuff made (said skill tree could very well be called Bowyer).
Would it be balanced to be able to make most of the Tinkerers gear, without even taking the Tinkering tree?
It would only be a +2 bonus from the skill tree, and it might just as well be a +1 bonus if that's too much for you. And considering that "most" isn't really accurate as with Megacrafts the really important recipes are all level 5+ (most of them even 6+), it's not that imbalanced; without Megacrafts, on the other hand, said +2 bonus would only bring your tinkering to a total of 2, meaning you would be able to make basic bolts for yourself in amount that can't be called "pitiful", but you still wouldn't be able to make anything really potent. And changing the amount of bolts made to be dependant on the level of archery/crossbowery doesn't sound balanced, as you already get a higher chance to retrieve bolts out of that, especially that in real life knowing how to shoot an arrow doesn't necessarily mean knowing how to make it.
I hadn't looked at the megacrafts mod, and I probably won't use it since it could make crafting items a bit easy.. A Bowyer tree doesn't sound that bad, I just don't think it should effect crafting recipes that have nothing to do with Archery/ bows. If the Bowyer tree added actual bows to the game, then an additional crafting device doesn't sound as bad. The crafting device could make arrows and bows then.. maybe something to do with furs and all the meat you get from the Big Game Hunter tree; But not bolts, since there should be some reason to take Tinkering as an Archer right? Although I have no idea how different bows should be from crossbows (besides different bolt/ arrow effects) though.
Yes I realize that.. but the main reason I take Tinkering is just to get the crossbows and bolts, I never even look at the traps or flasks. I guess all the Archery related gear could be moved to Bowyer, and then new clockwork items could be added to Tinkering. To me it seems more likely that someone that makes bows alot, would be the most likely to know something about meat and hunting.. and there really needs to be a reasonable use for all the meat a Big Game Hunter gets, Afterall Veganism is very similar to BGH, and works well with the Alchemist tree. All they need a little bit of rust.. and they have near infinite potions . I'm getting a bit off topic.. but I don't see why there can't be two separate crafts that are useful for Archery, each with separate alternate crafting options, making each useful for different reasons. I mean, if the crossbows are moved to the Bowyer tree, and out of Tinkering; Then there is almost no reason to max it out, unless you are going for the clockwork axe build. There would have to be a good replacement for those.
What I meant is for "Bowyer" to be a mixed skill tree, giving you that small crafting ability (which would be enough to make bolts for oneself) as well as some crossbow buffs/skills, so that it would be a viable alternative to either crossbow skill, or tinkering skill, for those who took those two previously. Your variant also works, I just pointed it out that this is what bowyers specialise in (and, in fact, ability to make things out of fur and meat would probably be a better addition to Big Game Hunter, seeing as that skill tree isn't that interesting for most people now), but it's not like it can't be done your way.
