Piercing Arrows

A thought came to mind after taking a break from KAG, and thinking about ballista bolts.

Piercing arrows for the Archer

These arrows would 'fly' either until they hit a block or pass through 3 enemies. The arrow would do .75 hearts of damage, taking 6 arrows to kill a knight, 4 arrows to kill a builder, and 3 to kill archers (On the first hit, of course). Each enemy the arrow passes through decreases the damage by .25, so the max amount of enemies passed through would be 3.

If they hit a block, they'd do damage to wood (2 pick-axe swings) and stone (2 pick-axe swings). Then, they'd stick in the block and act like a normal arrow (arrow ladders, etc). An arrow that passes through an enemy (Even two) will only do 1 pick-axe swing of damage. Shields would stop the arrow, but the knight would take .25 hearts of damage. These arrows would have very low knockback and would not stun (Unless fired upon a shielded knight).

They'd cost 25 coins and come in stacks of 10, so with one stack, an archer could destroy ~3 wood blocks or ~2 stone blocks. They'd appear to be field arrows, with a single, small point. Possibly a shiny metal arrowhead.

This concept has many variables that could be altered without consequence, such as the pierced enemies, block damage, cost and stacks, etc.

I suppose these would have the archers be able to sway large groups of enemies, as a legolas shot could potentially go through the front men and hit valuable builders.

 

I've always wanted to play around with the idea of piercing arrows..

 

It's certainly an neat idea, but it sounds unpleasant.

Let's say that your using these while supporting kinghts in combat, if you land all your shots (they hit through shields) and half of those shots hit two enemies. That's ~15 hits per purchase, at 5 coins of income per hit (vanilla) you're bring in an extra 25 coins per stack effectively making them free. While the dps upgrade would be enormous it would be significant, and you'd probably find these arrows kicking around on the battle field (from dead archers).

But beyond that there are two traits of these arrows that make them exceptionally annoying to knights. First off, they're great for camping (a bad sign) as no matter what the enemy does they will always be noticably damaged when they get past a tower. This makes it hard for knights to hold ground long enough to allow their builder to secure it, which draws games out longer and promotes stalemates.

The next issue is chasing archers. Normally risky, it would now become hazardous. Rather than having to be careful while chasing a faster enemy until they slip up, you are now chasing a faster enemy while on a timer because when playing optimally you're still taking damage.

Beyond that the idea just doesn't seem finished. How do the damage and mechanics of undrrcharged arrows work? What happens to an arrow if it breaks a block? If there are already more cost effective ways of damaging structures as archers why was that tacked on?

 

I like this post. Well written with a focus on adding new gameplay dimensions for low effort.

But I'm not so sure this would be so good for actually implementation. It does help against entombers, and it gives archers more terrain destroying power, but in the end it really gives archer more of the same without fleshing out its gameplay.

First of all, the archer already has a lot of options for ranged block destruction. I mean sure this would have a niche due to its reduced cost but you're trying to cram another finger (game mechanic) into an already strained orifice (crowded design space).

I also don't like how it works with combat. This arrow is good for doing a lot of minor damage to big crowds of enemies. Thing is, archer is already good at doing that- what it needs now is the ability to work in smaller combats and to actually kill people. The current arrows are trivial nuisances already, something that does less damage is basically useless.

So yeah, this doesn't add much to the game. It keeps archer in the same boring role of spamming arrows and it only really helps it do things it's already good at. That said I'd like to see more suggestions from you in the future.

 

So I was thinking on this while I was eating and hitting through shileds is really the only issue that seemed all that significant to me. Looking back at the OP this statement feels like a throw away sentence. Beyond that my main objection is that adding *another* arrow type just feels aesthetically clunky. Not important by any stretch of the imagination, but while overly focusing on it a slightly different idea came to my mind so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Now before I begin, this idea is partially built upon my concept of archer v. knight combat... which isn't a topic I'm very knowledgeable on. Since trumble wumbles seems to have decided to involve himself in this thread I'd appreciate it if he could correct any of my dilusions (and probably nip my misguided idea at the bud).

• Triple shots are used when you have a fair distance from the enemy or their shielding.

• Undercharged shots are used when the enemy gets to close and you take what you can get before losing all of your charge to a grapple, as well as what you use while you grapple away (because they're still in range and actively chasing you). Additionally they're used to disrupt enemy slash charging if they enemy started prepairing a slash at a bad time.

• Charged shots are used when you can get charging in, but don't quite have the time to get a triple shot ready.

So my idea is simply make charged, non-triple shots pierce as more or less as described in the OP (sans damaging blocks and through shields), but without any reduction to theinitial hit's damage. While soloing multiple knights this would add depth to decision making on charging, and it would encourage to lower echelons of pub archer to do things besides spamming triple shots. That said, it would be a straight buff to archers.

Moving back to the main topic, block damage on the piercing arrows feels unnecessary... archers already have ample (niche) block destruction! Bomb arrows punch a man sized hole into most walls *cough*withoutplatforms*cough* and fire arrows teach new builders to avoid wood blocks like the plague as well as being able to punch a man sized hole into blast resistant surfaces *wheeze*platformswith*cough*stonebackwalling*cough*cough*. The damage you were suggesting just doesn't seem useful in comparison and the risk of hurting your own buildings while defending with arrows that are primarily meant to attack players seems like it could get annoying ("shit collapsed the tower oops").

While writing my previous post I got so caught up in complaining about hitting through shields that I didn't even look at the possible merits of the res of the idea (whoops). Now then, in a slightly different direction I figured I'd throw some speculative points out in favor of piercing arrows. It encourages aknowledging teammates ("he shielded the last three piercing shots that came our way, so I can count on him to shield the next one"), requires that enemies be more thoughtful of their surroundings while archers are supporting a push ("if he triple shots, worse case scenario xXxFwibleFwamblerXxX dies and I eat his heart while I slash forward... but if that archer pierces I'll take a double slash during the flinch"), and makes archer's *slightly* more useful in water (unless surfacing for a speed boost before a slash most enemies will be waiting in a cozy line).

Everything thing I just said aside, I can't help but agree with Contrary's final point. *shrugs*

 

Quite honestly, I didn't expect this to actually be successful. I knew I'm not the best at making damage values and potential tactics. Of course, the values, block breaking, and VS shield mechanics could be altered. KAG is a pretty well-balanced game in my opinion, so adding things would really be pointless.