Generalizing Archery

dataweaver42

I’d like to see the Archery Power Set generalized and renamed: instead of focusing on bows and arrows in particular, have it focus on tricked-out pre-firearm ranged weaponry: bows and arrows, yes; but also lassos, bolas, boomerangs, spears, nets, and slings. With the broader concept, I’d call it the Hunter power set instead of the Archery power set.

kallethen

Bolas and boomerangs are already under the Gadgeteering powerset.

dataweaver42

I know. My suggestion would involve moving them from Gadgeteer to Hunter (formerly Archery), in addition to adding a few more “primitive ranged weapon” powers.

bluhman

On one hand, considering how crowded Gadgeteering is, this would really help with organizing powers.

On the other hand it'd mess up the unlock order/tiers of pre-existing builds. (i.e. to take Tier 2 Bolas, you normally would pick stuff like MSA and Boomerang Throw to get to it. After the change, you'd need stuff like Straight Shot and Gas arrow or whatever).

dataweaver42

bluhman wrote: »

On one hand, considering how crowded Gadgeteering is, this would really help with organizing powers.

On the other hand it'd mess up the unlock order/tiers of pre-existing builds. (i.e. to take Tier 2 Bolas, you normally would pick stuff like MSA and Boomerang Throw to get to it. After the change, you'd need stuff like Straight Shot and Gas arrow or whatever).

Oh, certainly. The expectation would be that you'd grab Hunter's Instinct rather than Molecular Self-Assembly, the former being more thematically appropriate. And yes, I'm aware of the inferiority of Hunter's Instinct vs. Molecular Self-Assembly; in generalizing Archery to Hunter, I'd revise Hunter's Instinct to be more effective.

Basically, the problem I have with Archery as it's currently presented is that you have to go outside the powerset at some point if you want any variety. Part of the problem is that the current selection of powers largely exhausts the options for trick shooting, leaving more trick arrows as the only option for expansion.

• If you don't want to do trick arrows, you have to go outside the powerset, either to Gadgeteer for its boomerang/bola powers (which arguably are there primarily because there was nowhere else to put them) or to the Martial Arts power group for (mostly) melee attacks.

• If you're OK with trick arrows, you don't have many choices: there are only four types of trick arrows (Sonic, Taser, Explosive, and Gas). I wouldn't mind seeing a few more options here, too; just not to the exclusion of other "hunting weapons".