Tell me why YOU don't use Archery or Throwing

You can do it with buffs, just use the dubstep trigger mechanism.

 

Throw anything might still be interesting on some modded or future official skill though. It'd be cool to give certain items unique on-hit effects when thrown if the game allowed for it.

 

No, I mean there is no way for an activated ability to use Thrown damage or Crossbow damage instead of Melee damage.

 

Uhm, I want to spend two words on stances.
I know Essence is going into a stance frenziness, but let's analyze what are those: specialists' moves that litteraly expand the possibilities of one kind of fight.
In the past, someone who could be named "sword master" wasn't just a person who could hit his opponents with a sword. Different combat styles were the key of combat overwhelming. And long range weapon aren't just different from others, you have to adapt your style with what you know and discern different situations from one another. Obviously, no one here is saying that with one style you are going to pull the string of your bow with your feet toes, and with another one you are taking aim with the eyes closely shuttered.
And this is something Essence took into this idea: you don't shot differently, you shot different spots on the same target (btw, with crossbows). So, using stances with the distant weapon skills too is giving to the weapon specialization a different aspect: you can do special things only being a master of those weapons, and not being just a high level character.

What I was thinking about to give those two skills a little more appeal is: giving them skills which do different things for different stances.
An example: toss skill, the ability name is, for now, "Special Toss".
- Stance: Hulky Hurler - a stance about tossing things with violence and raw power.
Special toss create a target centered 3x3 aoe which knock out every enemy surrounding the target, and stuns him for one-two rounds.
- Stance: Fastball Special - a stance about tossing with SKILL, and maybe at the neck of your enemy.
Special toss try to hit the nearer (and maybe one more) enemy, using a "bouncy effect", and every enemy hit by the bouncy item takes good damage.
Or something like that. I'm going to university now so I don't have time to go into deeper discussion, for now.

 

This is kind of exactly what I was getting at. Sure, you can't do it with activated abilities, but you can use buffs instead for a similar, if not exactly alike result.

 

How so?

 

The attack="1" is mocked by making the user actually throw a softball or shoot a wooden bolt.

 

Obviously I'm stupid...how would you do that?

 

You would have a thrownBuff or crossbowShotBuff in the skillDB that has a requirebuffontrigger that requires some buff to be active for the effect to actually trigger. So you cast "Flesh-eating Ebola Bolt of Doom and Naysaying" on yourself, and then fire an arrow, and the thaumites trigger because you had the buff running.

 

So the 'actvated abilities' would require 2 turns to use?

 

Yes. Probably better to go all the way and have them be proper buffs, though.

 

You mean, like...stances?

 

Yes, exactly. Although honestly, why not make them have a timer, and stackable with each other?

 

Because that's less interesting. I like the idea of players making choices (and getting slightly better abilities because they are forced to choose) rather than being able to be everything all at the same time, even if that's paid for by a period of having neither ability later.

 

I'm connecting from a hotel, and I just wanted to say that this is the core of my actual thinking. Less jack of all trade and more specialization makes the game better.
That, and another thing: slovenia's keyboards are weird. Y is Z and Z is Y, ohmahgah.

 

I agree with Essence and Vitellozzo here - I prefer to have to juggle stances to get the optimal performance rather than just renew buffs every so often. Of course, if it was done well, making it work with buff juggling wouldn't be bad, but since weapon proficiency skills are already about specialities, I think making them work the same as the other skill trees of this sort is the way to start.

 

I don't know if it has been discussed and rejected but it might be amusing to link weapon crafting levels to weapon skill levels.

For instance, an ironmonger could not produce the best axes unless he also had a high axe skill nor a tinker fabricate a "most excellent" x-bow if he did not have x-bow experience.

It might end up doing little beyond increasing complexity but it would certainly add a whole new flavor to the crafting skills as well as making the weapon skills more desirable and set a basis for the creation of more focused characters.

 

Can't you cheat and paralyze everything else or is multibuff=1 relevant here?

 

Sounds clunky.

 

^^