Spear (Survival damage modifiers)

[Juukin]

Disclaimer: I know it says not to post threads about more weapons. This is not just a simple "OMG MORE WEAPONS TO KILL PEOPLE WITH" thread, it's a newbie helping thread of sort.

Been thinking, in most of the games that brand themselves as "Survival sandbox" or sort of like that, you can in the early stages make a spear to defend yourself. It's not too efficient late game, but here we could make it for hunting only.
Say in Rust, you can pretty early make a spear. In ARK: Survival Evolved, the spear/pitchfork is one of your first weapons too. DayZ, get some sticks, craft a spear, you're good to go in terms of a melee weapon.

Now in H&H I'd recommend the spear to somehow have increased damage against animals, but be useless in PvP. Why so? Cause making the Spear's damage depend on Survival. New players out in the open, in the wilderness, they won't raise Melee Combat, or Unarmed Combat, they'll high likely raise Survival and Exploration first.

So I feel the weapon's damage should be determined by the Survival stat (and maybe even Exploration, but it makes no sense) and quality (Let's say you need 10 branches and a stone to craft it).

Only issue with this was, I couldn't figure a way around some sort of defenses for those same new players to be able to hunt foxes early and such with the spear, so maybe adding a parry mechanic into the spear and what not, it could work for them. Maybe give it some armor value, don't know.

It'd take quite a bit of gimping and balancing until it's done right, and not abusable by the developed characters for their hunting.

This was mainly an idea for new players to be able to hunt some wildlife early without "wasting" points.

[Granger]

I like the general idea, hunting with a character that dosn't have a horse to ride around and is able to one-chop wild animals currently is no fun.

[Juukin]

I made a new character and started developing it in a way that would seem most fun to new players (hunting, building, boat building to explore and such) and hunting seemed like an issue, that's why a weapon that bases its damage off Survival (or Exploration, or both) seems like a good thing, cause it's a waste to invest stats into other.

I know slingshot hunting and all works, with some marksmanship and perception, but I was just thinking, it was always boring. I'd love to be up and personal sometimes. Idea came from playing Far Cry Primal recently lol... But yea, I'd like to have a newbie spear to help me hunt foxes at least early on. Maybe later with a lot more survival you can take on other stuff, but never more than say a bear. By that point everyone should be able to have a shield and sword. Or go the oldschool way of archery.

All I want is some early game melee way to take down animals for food (to raise more combat stats) without spreading points into (at that point) useless stats.

[sMartins]

Totaly agree, better survival and better AI and hunting system...in short better PVE is something that could add a lot of fun to the game and attract many people.
Add a stealth option to approach animals, give them stamina, add tracking to follow them and non aggressive animals should flee and fight back only when their stamina is zero.
So you can wound them using stealth and ranged weapons then finish them once their stamina reach zero.
Also increase their radius, for both, aggressive animals should be way more scary....they should be able to engage you from 1 minimap maybe giving you some warning before attacking, some sounds or an aggressive stance.
In short, URW Pve.

[Juukin]

I feel the aggro from a screen away and all could be tough for new players. Maybe when we can outrun the animals that should be added.

Anyway, still back on topic, if anyone has suggestions or ideas how this could be worked around, for newbies to have some sort of weapon for early hunting in melee range, please drop a comment.

[sMartins]

I feel the aggro from a screen away and all could be tough for new players. Maybe when we can outrun the animals that should be added.

Obviously we need also a way to escape, giving you some time to do that or idk, hide yourself with the stealth option or something ( climb a tree, able to hearth back when you hear him, but before he starts to chase you, or something, idk i'm not a games developer....i'm sure that something in that way could be added too)