Learning ranged combat

[Jubal_Barca]

So, I'm slightly begrudgingly trying to put more effort into learning the combat system properly, which really isn't much fun but here we are etc.

I decided to try ranged combat. I've built myself a bow and quiver and got a stockpile of arrows, I'm on 18 marksmanship, decided to go try and hunt a bat. I got my first shot off well which did a healthy chunk of damage... then the bat closed with me very fast and I couldn't seem to get any more shots off? Is there some problem with shooting things that are too close, or was I just clicking the wrong tile, because I really was not getting any hits.

(Eventually I scooted out the cave, got my openings down, and rinsed and repeated on that a few times before coming in and hitting it with the regular combat cards - eventually it ran away and I beat it, but it destroyed my armour and helmet in the process which is definitely not a workable rate of resource trade-off.)

[DonVelD]

If you shoot your target point-blank it deals no damage whatsoever. IMO bothering with ranged combat is a waste of time because you'll get chased immediately making you deal less damage if you can't run away correctly and it costs materials for arrows. Normal combat on the other hand is really worth learning in the long run.

Also, bats have a very small bounding box which also could make it even more hard to kill it.

[Jubal_Barca]

Huh. That seems a pity if ranged is that badly designed so as to be useless Is it then even possible to fight e.g. bats successfully with ranged unless you can one-shot them? They're faster than you so surely they'll always close you down. Or is the ranged strategy just to somehow deal so much damage at range (or shoot from boats for things that can't fly/swim) such that it's never an issue?

[DonVelD]

I mean, it's not super bad but melee is more efficient. If the animal is faster than you the only option is to one-shot it or kill it from a boat, yeah. But you can do the latter with a sword and lose zero arrows at the end.

[Ukhata]

if you are in combat, you can also click the shoot arrow on the image of what you are in combat with in the top right.
it will shoot the opponent you clicked, you can also shoot secondairy combatants like this.

[bondowondo]

use ranged combat for weakening wildlife from the safety of a boat in the river. then chase after them punching them to death. punching > stabbing > shooting

[SlicingTheMoon]

If you can get a good enough bow / marksmanship x Perception / arrows, you can easily one shoot bats and other weak animals.
For people who don't bother too much with the combat system it is pretty nice.

[Reiber]

ranged combat is crucial for early game hunting imo, sure eventually people just slay bears and whatnot just by sheer cheese, and eventually you can just facetank it, but you wont get your ua/mc strg/agi up fast enough too kill an bear before your hunter can just shoot it an few times and have it bleed out.

bows are way quicker in progressing you towards the bearstage, and only really fall of because in pvp people wear armour like there is no tomorrow.
(you still cheese things rather than letting them hit you no mather witch way you hunt)