Fire Arrows (again)

This idea has undoubtedly sprung up multiple times, but I've come up with a straightforward take on the matter - especially so if we see implementation of armories and upgrades to be purchased with gold.

Fire Arrows for Archer
Finite resource like the Bomb for Knight
Must be purchased/upgraded - or perhaps the armory provides a larger supply (spawn with 1 or 2, armory allows for 4, something like that)
Armory restocks Fire Arrows
Used with the F key (finally Archers get to use it!)

Purpose: Destroying ladders (primarily) wooden structures (buildings in upcoming patch, catapults) and creating small, temporary area denial.

Effect: On hit, or on passing through a ladder block, that block is set alight.
Fire starts with a potential of 3 damage - losing 1 potential damage with every block that it travels. This is a -very- simple way to prevent endless propagation, and really emphasize the vulnerability of ladders above all else.
If hitting a ladder, which has 1 health for such consideration, the fire would be able to spread 3 blocks in every direction, destroying all ladders there.
If hitting a wooden block (to be implemented) and assuming something like 3 effective health, the initial block would be destroyed, neighboring blocks would take 2 damage, and those 2 blocks away would suffer 1 damage.

By keeping the fire propagation a simple damage vs distance, we can immediately account for hopping from wood blocks to ladders and vice versa.

A catapult would suffer partial damage - say half of its total HP from one Fire Arrow hit (Otherwise 1 flaming arrow is far too low-cost vs a catapult). This could be toned up or down pending the ability to repair catapults - which I believe is a feature to be added.

Hitting ground, dirt, rock, etc - the fire simply splashes a 3x3 block, before being affected by gravity. Burns for 3 seconds, doing 1 heart damage each second to enemies in the area, and spreading to wooden materials following the previous ruleset.

If an enemy is struck, apply the splash at the initial impact, and do 3 heart's worth of damage to the enemy over 3 seconds - a one-shot, horribly slow and painful kill. Can be blocked by the knights shield - but he must get out of the splashing fire on the ground!

Usage: On pressing F, the archer slows movement (maybe is unable to jump, or move at all) while preparing the arrow. He brings it out of his quiver, applies oil to the linen-wrapped tip, sets it alight, and readies it in his bow. Preparation takes 3 or so seconds. At this point assume the standard 'Drawn Bow' stance and movement, while the arrow charges up as normal.

If the archer is struck while preparing his fire arrow, he fumbles and sets himself on fire - as above. This gives prepping the arrows a distinct risk. If struck while the arrow is drawn, a misfire occurs and the arrow is launched at a random speed (or simply dropped by the archer). Again - emphasizing the arrow's use against fortifications rather than in the midst of combat as a cheap and easy way to score kills.

Drawn Fire Arrows will burn themselves out in 5 seconds - this prevents the archer from preparing far off in the middle of nowhere, then waddling into desired, easy range. This would also heavily encourage use of knights protecting the archer while he readies himself, as well as clever use of cover vs enemy archers. It also keeps the item very viable for defending your own fortifications.

To sum up:
Give the archers some utility in sieges (past murdering enemies and doing nothing at all to fortifications)
Deal with skyladders, or enemy ladders near your own walls (As it stands, building a ladder up and over a wall is usually faster and easier than fighting your way through it)
Given a skillful archer, arc the arrows down and into protected catapults/enemy areas.
Provide a small area-denial capability due to fire splash.

Using a simple points/ticks based fire like this could also be applied to the Boiling Oil suggested by others - and another excellent way to make fortifications and walls more difficult to bypass.

 

Everything else was fine except for this. Archers are good enough killers as it is, and now you want to give them something that will always kill a knight in one hit? (Even though it's damage over time, its still death in one shot) We're supposed to be either keeping archer the same or nerfing them..

 

Considering the built-in preparation time, the fact that the knight can block the arrow with his shield, and the sheer amount of danger presented to the archer while he's prepping/drawing the fire arrow, I think it balances out well enough for a 1 shot kill.
At any range from which a hit on a knight would be viable - the knight would be able to see the archer as well, and get his shield up. Archer just spends 5+ seconds preparing, making himself an easy target, and wasting a valuable resource.
At least that's how I'd picture it. Lobbing the things over the horizon? I think a random hit on people once in a while might be funny. Also - the arrows could well be made to fly slower - limit their range, make them easier to avoid, but that much deadlier for it. Basically skew them towards 'killing' stationary targets - i.e. wooden stuff.

 

It's the mere principal. Noobs will die even more like wildfire. All you'd need to do is catch a knight off guard for 5 seconds. Easy to do since they often dont look behind themselves when shielding off against another knight. If water is included in the game, and can douse the fire before the knights die, i'll agree with a potential one shot kill.

 

Infinite fire spreading has far too much potential to leave charred wasteland and no recovery.
I can picture it now - set a fire while your builders run on ahead making ladders, so that the fire has something to eat and spread so far as you want it.
That or lighting the trees ablaze - then the grass. Then all the people who light each other on fire. Then stone melts into lava and if becomes King Arthur's Hell.

 

In regards to flaming siege weapons - I would love to be able to load different sorts of ammo into catapults.
Burning rubble...
Bombs...
Corpses...
Live builders Orcs did it.. why can't I?

 

Copying Mods From Minecraft or Terraria?
just asking :P

Ok Dude I think we need fire in this game like wood burning on fire and we need Lava

 

With the archer, would it be like you press 'f' and a menu comes up for all his arrows, kinda like the builder?

You could have various skills and arrows to use.
Such as:

Regular Arrow
The type of arrow the archers already use.

Double Shot
Shoots two arrows. It would also take two away from your total arrows, and be longer to charge up.

Triple Shot
Like the double shot but shoots... You guessed it! Three arrows! This would be useful for quickly getting arrows onto a wall so you could climb it quicker.

Volley shot
Shoots arrows in rapid succession. They would probably be as strong as an arrow charged to red, so knights can just shield to protect themselves.

Fire arrows
These have already been discussed in many threads and you could maybe have gunpowder trails or oil things to make a fuse for a bomb.
Maybe these could be bought in a separate shop?

Water arrows
Arrows that create a splash of water to quickly put out fires, on wood or people.;) Maybe could wet people it hits helping to protect them from fire?

Ice arrows
Creates a chill that could freeze water, making it solid and slippy. It could harden ground, increasing fall damage. It could also chill people, which would slow them, or freeze them solid if they were wetted by either having a swim or from the water arrow. (see above) The wetness would probably wear off after a short while, though.

Acid arrows
Creates a splash of acid that could melt through people and castle blocks.

Explosive arrows
Basically a bomb strapped to an arrow, it could be heavier than a regular arrow and have less range than a bomb maybe three quarters? But it would still instakill anyone caught in the blast.

Well, there's all the ideas i've had for now.
I may add more if i get more ideas.
I hope people still look at this thread.
Thanks for reading.

 

Fire arrows are gonna be in the game soon, and there have been alot of suggestions about arrows already I'm afraid. I'm sure the devs have a decent idea of what they wanna do with it by now.

 

Ah well.

Still, no problem with brainstorming though.

 

Not at all, just do a bit of a search and find something in the suggestions forum to add to.

 

Yeah, I'll try that.

Thanks!

 

I like the bomb arrow i think to counter it, knights should be able to hit an incoming one away with their shield or a charded blow to hit it away.

 

Yeah, but they can already shield against it as it works just like the regular bombs but with a little less kick.
All it will do is fling shielding knights 5 squares or so into the air... as long as they're shielding the right way, of course.

 

maybe charged shot would be better then, that way, if they miss the charged shot on a bomb arrow, then they risk injury/death.

 

Contaron this is a massive necro. Please move your suggestion to another fire arrow suggestion thread in suggestion forums.

 

ok, i will.

 

What about a armor piercing arrow? in medieval times they had bodkin arrows (i think) that were made to pierce armor. They were heavier than normal arrows, and thus had larger arc and flew slower. We could make them pierce knights shield to do a little damage and if it his a knight right on it can do more damage than a normal shot. They can also last longer as ladders on walls because they would be stronger that normal arrows.