Devlog: Crossbows & Quivers
Hello everyone!
In today’s devlog we’ll tell you about multiple new features meant to make ranged combat more varied.
Let’s start with the main addition - crossbows. As you may have already noticed, some existing enemies are armed with crossbows, however those aren’t available to player characters and function essentially just like bows. This situation will change with the release of the Bolt Thrower update, which will become available on June 2-3.
Crossbows are now a separate type of weaponry. Just like in reality, they are much easier to learn than bows, so they have less significant penalty to their accuracy. They also have higher damage and armor penetration, which is achieved at the expense of their rate of fire - crossbows require a turn to reload between each shot. Just like bows, crossbows make use of the Ranged Weapons skill tree, it won’t be altered in this regard.
We’ve also introduced certain changes to bow and crossbow mechanics. Both these weapon types now occupy both hands with an option of placing arrows or quivers in the offhand, but not other weapons. Quivers are meant to make ammo management easier, as they can fit 2-4 stacks of arrows.
Additionally, they allow to quickly swap between different arrow and bolt types through the context menu. As a side note, crossbow bolts use their own quivers, since they occupy one less slot than arrows.
And finally - arrow types. There are now three arrow and bolt types in the game: leaf-shaped, broadhead, and bodkin.
- Leaf-shaped arrows are the default ammo type. They don’t have any special modifiers, offering standard damage and range values.
- Broadhead arrows were historically used mostly for hunting. They are heavier and wider, making them more damaging to both enemy health and their body parts. As a trade-off, they struggle with piercing armor. Their accuracy and range are also lower.
- Bodkin arrows are fairly light, so they have higher range. They are also good at penetrating armor and provide better accuracy, but are less effective against unarmored flesh than other arrow types.
In the future we also plan to implement additional arrowhead types to further improve bolts and arrows variety. Still, fantasy style explosive, ice, or magic arrows aren’t planned, as they fit poorly with the game’s setting. With the introduction of alchemy, there will also be an option to poison arrowheads, but it’s way too soon to talk about it.
That’s all for now. Until next time!
