The Bow is pointless

[Cedar]

So I found the revolver and rifle very quick in survival mode as well as plenty of ammunition.
With the bow however...sure, the bow is easy to craft. Find a sapling, leave it for a bit, hunt some animals and there you go. But arrows?
I still haven't found a heavy hammer after going through 3 regions.

Meanwhile I've killed dozens of wolves with the revolver, some deer and even a mose with the rifle. This is ridiculous. What's even the point of having a bow in this game?
I'm at around 30 days now. I have crafted a single arrow so far. With an arrow tip that I found somewhere.

[Včelí medvídek]

few reasons that may but dont have to be relvant particularly by different game difficulties...

1) plenty people play difficulties without firearms at all..

2) Bow+arrowst is more or less infinite resource, while rifle ammo is way more scarce

3) if I remember properly with maxed skils bow is stronegest weapon

4) Weight...


And well, I am not fan of revolver, I have no clue why it was added to game at first place as imho it was totally unneeded. Almost did nto use it yet so cna not properly comment.

[IFIYGD]

Interloper experience mode does not get the rifle or revolver. Only the distress pistol, and they must craft a bow and arrows from scratch. Bow is kind of a needed thing for that mode. The rest of us playing Stalker and below can choose to use whatever ready-made or crafted weapon we want.

So, don;t use the bow if you can't find a hammer to forge arrowheads. Though, if you look in the right places, the hammer is out there for you to find. It's not common, but it isn't impossible to find. Has a number of potential spawn locations.

Personally, I prefer the bow, since I can craft new arrows. Revolver and rifle rounds, and flare shells are finite. Once used up, no more (no respawn, no way to craft). Meanwhile, arrows are *almost* infinite. Birch saplings can and do wash up on the coast, using the beachcombing mechanic, though not frequently.Whole and broken arrows can be found in the game world, near carcasses, and a few other locations. Managing your ammo and your arrows is essential if you want to live for years in-game time. It's not a shooter. You don;t have unlimited ammo. Sounds like you are playing it like it is a shooter. Slow down, keep looking, and only kill what you need to, when you need to.

[Lenny Rat]

Originally posted by JayXL:

And I agree.. not sure what purpose the revolver serves in Survival mode, although I hear it's decent wolf repellent in Stalker. I expect it has a more prominent role in Story mode.

I'm guessing that Astrid will be packing one in E3.

[dogshocker]

@ OP : I think you're being a bit unfair on the bow but, I guess, each to their own. I know the bow seems sort of quirky at first but it has a great kill ability when you hit the target. Also, it's a lovely thing to use, the whole shooting thing with the bow is a delight...you can even see the arc of the arrow....all feels very Zen.

For my money, I think the pistol should be reconfigured. It's okay that it's fairly deadly at close range but mid to long, it should be far less effective....perhaps something for the devs to mull over, but really, only my own opinion at the end of the day.

I think they've got the rifle pretty good now...but the bow...man...you should take some time to learn to love it !!!

[Foxen]

Originally posted by Lenny Rat:

I'm guessing that Astrid will be packing one in E3.

No we know what's in her case! :D

[markwars]

As a guy that likes to play long runs (500+ days) and travel to base build on every map the bow is the clear choice...eventually.

I typically build my rifle skill up very quickly in early game days when I am light and I need food fast. By the time you get to day 100 it's easy to have rifle at level 5 but you are pretty much out of bullets. That's when I generally craft my first bow. At that point I'm much heavier so dumping the rifle once and for all is great and it looks wonderful on the rifle racks where you find them. :)

The mooseskin satchel combined with well fed bonus almost make the rifle an item to carry forever...but once you get the bow mastery up you enjoy being able to carry a lot more wood for sketchy travel days.

The revolver has been a completely new experience for me. In my runs I've found piles of the rounds so it's very easy to play a much more loose style and just scare the wolves away. It pretty much kills the need for stealth which in someways is jarring to me. I love what it does in terms of making wolf struggles unnecessary...and I've been practicing a lot with it in the Ravine so I can learn how to actually hunt deer and score instant kills...but I don't think I like what it does to the game as a whole because it makes TLD world louder. The silence is one of my favorite parts...but that's just me. Rifle shots were rare because of resource availability...the revolver is for use all the time.

I would like to have the option to turn the revolver off completely to restore the old rifle and rifle bullet spawns....and vice versa.

[Cedar]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Sounds like you are playing it like it is a shooter. Slow down, keep looking, and only kill what you need to, when you need to.

I'm playing on voyageur since this is my first time playing the game and I was looking for a mix of survival and exploration gameplay. I don't kill if I don't have to and I'm certainly not playing the game like a shooter, I'm not retarded.

I kill animals when I need food. When a wolf is about to attack I use the revolver to shoot next to him and scare him off which I think is the main point to having the revolver in the game. Actually, now that I think about it, blanks would be a neat addition to the game.

Weight and almost infinite ammo for the bow are good reasons to have it in the game and with the hardest difficulty mode it does make sense. I didn't know that.

@dogshocker Thanks for your input.
I'm looking forward to when I'll finally be allowed to use the darn thing! ;)

Edit: Thanks @ markwars for writing down your experiences.
I have to admit I'm fairly late on giving this game a go but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
Once I find the heavy hammer I'll get to train with the bow and learn to appreciate it.

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Cyan:

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Sounds like you are playing it like it is a shooter. Slow down, keep looking, and only kill what you need to, when you need to.

I'm playing on voyageur since this is my first time playing the game and I was looking for a mix of survival and exploration gameplay. I don't kill if I don't have to and I'm certainly not playing the game like a shooter, I'm not retarded.

I kill animals when I need food. When a wolf is about to attack I use the revolver to shoot next to him and scare him off which I think is the main point to having the revolver in the game. Actually, now that I think about it, blanks would be a neat addition to the game.

Weight and almost infinite ammo for the bow are good reasons to have it in the game and with the hardest difficulty mode it does make sense. I didn't know that.

@dogshocker Thanks for your input.
I'm looking forward to when I'll finally be allowed to use the darn thing! ;)

Edit: Thanks @ markwars for writing down your experiences.
I have to admit I'm fairly late on giving this game a go but I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
Once I find the heavy hammer I'll get to train with the bow and learn to appreciate it.

No need to get triggered. If you have killed dozens of wolves, a moose, and deer, in the first 30 days, you are likely killing eating way more than you need to. You do not need to keep your stomach full at all times. Hydration and warmth are your biggest concerns on Voyageur, there is a ton of loot, including store-bought food to eat. All you need to do is keep your calorie store above 0 for a few days to get the Well-Fed bonus. You don't need to be topped off constantly. And you lose condition extremely slowly when starving anyway. Being dehydrated will kill you a lot faster. That moose will feed you for a month, if not more, by itself. you are killing way more than you need to. You will run out of ammo for the rifle and revolver very quickly, if you are using so much in the first 30 days.

Chill out. I was new once too, did the same things (though we had no revolver back then. I played the game like it was a shooter, and killed everything that came into sight, and tried to keep that stomach topped off. Sorry if sharing over 2600 hours of experience in this game with you, upset you. I'll be sure not to try to help again. :)

[jswilliams]

There are no Firearms, only Zuul.

[H34VY_R41N]

Originally posted by Foxen:

Originally posted by Lenny Rat:

I'm guessing that Astrid will be packing one in E3.

Now we know what's in her case! :D

John Rambo's bow!! Imagine explosive arrowheads blowing bear to pieces! What a glorious picture!

[Liduska77]

This thread is the pointless thing.

Imagine advocating a survival game that doesn't have a bow and arrow available hahaha

Nice one OP

[Foxen]

Originally posted by Liduska77:

This thread is the pointless thing.

Imagine advocating a survival game that doesn't have a bow and arrow available hahaha

Nice one OP

That would surely end in even more discussion! :D

[Cedar]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Sorry if sharing over 2600 hours of experience in this game with you, upset you. I'll be sure not to try to help again. :)

Someone is more upset than I ever was. All I said is that I'm not stupid as I never had the intention to play this game as a shooter when I bought it.

I'm not planning on putting thousands of hours into the game. I'll play it as long as I'm having fun with it and bragging about some amount of hours in a game surely doesn't make your input more valuable. It makes you come off as arrogant.
Some advice from someone who hasn't died in over 2 decades.

I don't know what got you so pent up. This is just some forum post.

@ Liduska77 imagine that, there are plenty of survival games without a bow.
Don't Starve, State of Decay, Darkwood, This War of Mine, Pathologic,... just to name a few.

[H34VY_R41N]

Originally posted by Cyan:

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Sorry if sharing over 2600 hours of experience in this game with you, upset you. I'll be sure not to try to help again. :)

Someone is more upset than I ever was. All I said is that I'm not stupid as I never had the intention to play this game as a shooter when I bought it.

I'm not planning on putting thousands of hours into the game. I'll play it as long as I'm having fun with it and bragging about some amount of hours in a game surely doesn't make your input more valuable. It makes you come off as arrogant.
Some advice from someone who hasn't died in over 2 decades.

I don't know what got you so pent up. This is just some forum post.

@ Liduska77 imagine that, there are plenty of survival games without a bow.
Don't Starve, State of Decay, Darkwood, This War of Mine, Pathologic,... just to name a few.

Lol, what This War of Mine is doing in your list, huh? Is it wilderness survival simulator? Don't Starve is a humorous survival and has a plenty of stupid weapons instead of real ones.

[Cedar]

The claim being made was that there are no survival games without bow and arrows.
The games listed are survival games without bows and arrows.

With your logic BF5 doesn't count as a WWII game because there is no well known war location in the game or because there are no russians, japanese or americans.
To be fair, BF5 isn't a WWII game to me but that's another story.

I'm unsubscribing to this discussion as it's getting way off topic.
Msg me directly if you got something to contribute to the topic.