Better bows

[niltrias]

This suggestion is not for now, but for whenever the perception fix gets implemented. The basic bow, made from a branch and some string, would work, but have a silly-low draw weight and probably wear out quickly. You could probably use them for hunting rabbits or chickens, but taking a deer with a bow made from a bent branch is fairly unlikely. Especially a bent fir branch. The ranger bow works on an game-balance perspective, but the idea that somehow adding steel and silk to a bow is going to make a better bow is pretty unrealistic.
How about these two upper level bows -- (all times are RL)

-- Long bow --
Cut down a log. A Bowyer can process a log into a single longbow stave with a 50% chance of success. Then the staves go into a tanning tub, with water, and they sit there for 24 hours. After 24 hours, they can be pulled out and worked into an unfinished staves, with a chance of failure again. Left alone in the tub for 48 hours, they rot and become nothing.
unfinished finished staves must be placed on a drying rack for 24 hours. Leaving them longer is not dangerous. After they are dry, they can be worked again into semi-finished staves, then back into the tubs for a further 24 hours. Again, leaving them for more than 48 hours causes them to rot. After the semi-finished staves are fully soaked, they can be pulled out and processed into finished staves. Finished staves must be dried, then combined with horn/tusk, wax, and string (horn/tusk is for the nocks, wax is for weather-proofing. And a nice shine.) result -- One longbow.

-- Composite bow --
This would be more difficult than the long bow, but the basic tub method would be the same. However, for composite bows, the bow maker would need tusk/antler lathes and sinew (new item) each time the stave is worked on. Tusk/Antler Lathes would be produced from tusk/antler by a bowyer with composite bowmaking...Each attempt would have a chance of success based on the industry-nature slider. Sinew would have to be implemented...maybe processed from steak?

Anyway, these bows would represent a respectable amount of work on the part of the bowyer, giving marksman users a Simple Bow -> Long Bow -> Composite Bow chain of options, similar to the Melee user`s Stone Axe -> Militia Sword -> Soldier Sword -> B12 Axe.
Also interesting about this is that the melee users are dependent on Industry, while the Marksmanship users would be dependent on Nature.

What you think?

Edited slightly for formatting

[Jackard]

Left alone in the tub for 48 hours, they rot and become nothing.

no. no. no. no. no.

windows are a terrible mechanic, stop suggesting they add new ones

[niltrias]

Honestly, I don`t much like windows either, but it seems to be a hallmark of this game, so I added it to keep with the feel of everything else.
What if it used a timer, like steel-cooking does, instead of a window?

[sonerohi]

If you can't be arsed to log in once a day to work on a project that you need done, then how can you expect to get it done? 2 days is pretty lenient, since it doesn't require maintenance like silk or steel.

[Peter]

I'd be fine with a two-day window. It will only serve to make compound bows all the more rare and valuable.

I might add a short bow, which lies somewhere between our degraded "normal bow" and a long bow, and would presumably be the first real hunting bow.

[Thursday]

The process seems a bit too complicated. I don't know how people are supposed to figure this out on their own. Also, you suggest the creation of new skill and items just for making bows, which seems like extra work for something not everyone can use.

Remove all the failure chances, and chances to rot, replace the drying pole with the herbalist's table and the sinew with intestine, and you may just have something. Additionally, while it doesn't make as much sense in real life, it might be good to include higher end materials (like silk) in the creation of better bows, so that the material requirements and not just the time requirements increase.

However, more than seeing new bows in the game, I'd like to see the inclusion of more arrows. We have steel and iron, but can't use these to produce arrows that do more damage.

[Jackard]

If you can't be arsed to log in once a day to work on a project that you need done, then how can you expect to get it done? 2 days is pretty lenient, since it doesn't require maintenance like silk or steel.

What are windows for? Think about what they are intended to balance instead of mindlessly copying them.

In the case of the treeplanting window, it could be that the devs felt that forests would be too easily replaceable if players had numerous trees in stock, despite the time spent to prepare and grow and protect them. As we can see from the overall lack of trees, this didn't turn out so well.

Given how complicated the bowmaking process is above, can you give any reason why punishing players that can't keep to an arbitrary schedule would make for a worthwhile addition?

[Dondy]

How about including a new plant, the yew? Bows made out yew are way superior to bows made out of weaker, less flexible wood.

The yew might be a rare wild tree that could be cultivated for bows or carved into topiaries. If the yew is bent as it is growing it creates a bow stave that requires minimal manufacturing. It's a matter of waiting to harvest the bow. So an immature yew might offer the option of bending it as opposed to a full grown tree which could only be cut and shaped into a bow of slightly lesser quality.

And as an additional possibility... leaves from a yew tree can be used to produce a deadly poison. This when brewed in a cauldron will produce a teapot that is labeled exactly the same as regular hot tea but when drunk... has a different effect on stamina entirely.

Not that the game in its current state is suffering from too much trust between players...

[niltrias]

The process seems a bit too complicated. I don't know how people are supposed to figure this out on their own. Also, you suggest the creation of new skill and items just for making bows, which seems like extra work for something not everyone can use.

Remove all the failure chances, and chances to rot, replace the drying pole with the herbalist's table and the sinew with intestine, and you may just have something. Additionally, while it doesn't make as much sense in real life, it might be good to include higher end materials (like silk) in the creation of better bows, so that the material requirements and not just the time requirements increase.

However, more than seeing new bows in the game, I'd like to see the inclusion of more arrows. We have steel and iron, but can't use these to produce arrows that do more damage.

Right, I said drying pole, I meant drying rack. Just like a hide. Ill fix the OP in a sec. I like the idea of using the herbalist table to generate sinew...but should it be from intestine or from meat? And I agree that for game balance, the high-end bows should probably use silk as well.
As far people knowing how to do this, the process could be put directly into the skill description, under the flavor text. Id like to see this for most skills, actually.

Also the arrow idea is seconded. I think they should be made from coins with a hammer, anvil, and stick. Although it would be nice to have a carpenter have to create a lathe first, to get a...wait for it...well-turned shaft. (thats really what it is called, I swear.)
Then take a coin, a hammer and the *Ahem* well-turned shaft to an anvil, and produce iron/steel arrows.

[zombieexpert]

Why coins? How about just crafting arrow heads?

Something like 10 per bar sounds reasonable, then of course you just add that to the branch.

Higher quality metal, higher damage arrows.