[Role Playing Game] Arrow replenishment

[Trill]

Ranger class in my ORPG uses two resources - mana (used for most abilities) and magic arrows (which are used for various trick shots, which cost very little mana).
Magic arrows are finite resource, they don't regenerate like mana does and can't be replenished with potions.

The question is, how should she regain arrows? Note that this is something she must be able to do in heat of battle, although that wouldn't happen very often - mostly if she has been forced into one big fight right after another.

Ideas I have:

1) Channeled ability that may or may not be interrupted by damage, which replenishes some arrows over 5 seconds - this will force a Ranger to rely on invisibility and stuff, which someone might not want in their build for some reason. Also is kinda boring, no?
2) Have slain monsters drop parts visible only to the Ranger, that grant her an arrow when she picks them up; also they will randomly spawn in random spots in forests and stuff - while nice, it will make replenishing arrows in boss fights impossible, unless the boss has adds, and make replenishing arrows between big fights a hassle.
3) Use crafting in town to make quivers of arrows, which can be consumed like potions - takes away choice and interactivity from gameplay. Also since I'm not using an inventory system yet, and even if I begin to, it will be comparatively limited, so adding extra consumables is not welcome.
4) Every X total damage dealt, or every X abilities used the Ranger regains some arrows - too many classes already use very similar mechanic.
5) Using abilities in certain order restores arrows - same problem as above.
6) Have health/mana fountains found all around the map(s) replenish ammo too - doesn't make much sense, is too meta, impossible to use in combat, but I'm sure someone would suggest such ammo replenish checkpoints, so I added this.
7) Passively gain an arrow ever 15 seconds or so. - I don't like this idea at all, I just added it for completeness.
8) Your ideas?

 

[Pyrogasm]

• Every X attacks (large, say 20?) replenishes an arrow. Killing a unit with an attack (not ability) immediately gives a magic arrow and resets the counter to 0. Attacks against boss-type units grant additional stacks to the counter (so it goes a little faster straight up attacking bosses).
  
  
• Channeling ability useful in combat: Channel for X (small, 3?) seconds, taunting up to 2 nearby enemies and gaining Y% damage reduction for the duration. Every attack made against the hero while channeling grants Z magic arrows.
  
  
• After using a magic arrow it drops fragments on the ground approximately where the ability's effect took place. Fragments may be picked up (not to an inventory, just a counter) by walking near them. N fragments makes a new magic arrow. Magic arrows also regenerate every X (long) seconds.
  

 

[Trill]

Taunt wouldn't be a good idea, Ranger is pretty flimsy.
I'll consider the rest though, thanks for ideas.

 

[Pyrogasm]

Taunt wouldn't be a good idea, Ranger is pretty flimsy.

That's why you limit the number of targets and give the unit damage reduction.... It also allows the ranger to have a spell to occasionally tank powerful attacks by anticipating them and is only situationally offensive. Thematically, steal the 'essence' of attacking enemies to use against them with a powerful magic arrow spell.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Maybe use a leaderboard system that keeps track of the amount of arrows (increases when bought/crafted/found, decreases when used) and disables the ability when you run out, freeing up an inventory slot.

Also every time you use a magic arrow on an enemy, it drops a magic arrow powerup on death (as many as were used on it).

 

[noob]

When you run out of magic arrows you spend mana each time you use a skill that spends arrows and you can refill in magic arrows in town.

 

[cleavinghammer]

As for replenishing them mid-battle, you could have a non-hero skill that creates them in exchange for mana, health, resources, or all three.

A harvesting ability where every hit on a tree grants a low number of arrows (tree regenerates or is unkillable), or one that kills the tree but grants a very large number or arrows.

Zelda boss battles that require consumables (arrows, bombs, seeds, etc.) often have respawning ammo, maybe have the same here (for example, a pile of skeletons from previous adventurers that regularly creates a magic arrow powerup, a tree that creates arrows when killed with a spell, etc.).

 

[Trill]

When you run out of magic arrows you spend mana each time you use a skill that spends arrows and you can refill in magic arrows in town.

A bit simplistic. A Ranger could just stack mana items and mana potions and forget about arrows altogether.

As for replenishing them mid-battle, you could have a non-hero skill that creates them in exchange for mana, health, resources, or all three.

A harvesting ability where every hit on a tree grants a low number of arrows (tree regenerates or is unkillable), or one that kills the tree but grants a very large number or arrows.

Zelda boss battles that require consumables (arrows, bombs, seeds, etc.) often have respawning ammo, maybe have the same here (for example, a pile of skeletons from previous adventurers that regularly creates a magic arrow powerup, a tree that creates arrows when killed with a spell, etc.).

Those are very interesting ideas. I'll give them a thought.

 

[noob]

A bit simplistic. A Ranger could just stack mana items and mana potions and forget about arrows altogether.



Those are very interesting ideas. I'll give them a thought.

But this ranger is paying a huge cost in equipment slots: the ranger that does not tries to bypass the magic arrow cost can get twice as much + damage and + attack rate items and kill everything two or three times faster.
So in the end the ranger that will be the strongest and the fastest at clearing stuff is the one that does chose to take more dakka and then manage its magic arrows supply(return to town before bosses or avoiding to use the highest spending spells when fighting small monsters).

 

[cleavinghammer]

What kind of trick shots? Maybe you can have one that ensures an affected target will drop powerups or items via certain conditions.

In Doom, shooting enemies for long enough puts them in a stunned state, and meleeing them to death in this state guarantees health drops, while chainsawing enemies to death guarantees ammo drops (but not chainsaw fuel, for obvious reasons).

So for example, an arrow that deals low damage and puts a short-lived buff on the target, but guarantees item drops (including magic arrows) if the target is killed while the buff is still active (and doubles the reward if the arrow deals the killing blow).

Spell idea: The ability to fire off a percentage of your magic arrows at once (set via entering a message). The closer to 100% (and the more arrows this works out to), the more effective the barrage will be in terms of damage, AoE and debuffs inflicted.

 

[noob]

In doom 1 you instead grab stuff on the ground and stuff some possessed people drops.

 

[cleavinghammer]

The one where Doomguy wakes up in a coffin.

 

[noob]

I did not say you were wrong.
I was just thinking about doom 1.
Now there is a new doom called doom so I assume that people mean the latest doom unless they say doom 1.
Back on the topic:
If trips from time to time to towns for potions is a thing in your rpg then just having a quite huge arrow storage can make the ammo issue occur only when you use high spending skills a lot.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Number 7 should always be baseline way to replenish, except slower. Also reward arrows for landing good shots or with some skill effects (maybe just some abilities).

Rewarding them as drops from monsters only really works well if you throw a lot of monsters at the players such as a hero defence. It does not work well if the players face boss monsters where its a long time to kill 1 thing.

Crafting is not at all recommended since it really disrupts the flow of play. One either has to buff the hero to the point it is out right OP to compensate or players will quickly regret choosing it when they see other heroes not have such resource management issues. Either case is not fun. This is why Diablo III removed ammo from bows and crossbows during alpha/beta.

Replenishing at fountains in combination from enemies can work. This basically turns it into your typical classic game super ammo that you can use all you want as long as you note all pickups and save enough for when it is actually needed. That said this can conflict with other heroes who do not use such a resource since they might be able to perform better in many circumstances due to not being limited by ammo availability. A good example would be a long boss fight where one quickly runs out of super ammo while other classes can pace their abilities better. This is generally why Number 7 approach is the recommended base line.

For bosses which go into enraged mode it is especially important to avoid making the ammo too strong. Otherwise people will save up all their ammo for when the boss enrages and then unload it all to burst them down. This defeats the purpose of the ammo being limited and the bosses enraging.

 

[cleavinghammer]

^^ Ah, sorry.

Do the other hero classes use similar mechanics? That way you could have special buildings ("shrines", "altars", etc.) that restore everyone's special mechanics in addition to health and mana.

 

[Trill]

What kind of trick shots? Maybe you can have one that ensures an affected target will drop powerups or items via certain conditions.

In Doom, shooting enemies for long enough puts them in a stunned state, and meleeing them to death in this state guarantees health drops, while chainsawing enemies to death guarantees ammo drops (but not chainsaw fuel, for obvious reasons).

So for example, an arrow that deals low damage and puts a short-lived buff on the target, but guarantees item drops (including magic arrows) if the target is killed while the buff is still active (and doubles the reward if the arrow deals the killing blow).

Spell idea: The ability to fire off a percentage of your magic arrows at once (set via entering a message). The closer to 100% (and the more arrows this works out to), the more effective the barrage will be in terms of damage, AoE and debuffs inflicted.

Okay, this is great, and I'll probably end up using this. Its dynamic, it does not trivialize the mechanic, and it requires player to be good.
Only difference the ability will grant arrows even if target doesn't die, so its usable on bosses. I'll have to rebalance that.

Number 7 should always be baseline way to replenish, except slower. Also reward arrows for landing good shots or with some skill effects (maybe just some abilities).

Rewarding them as drops from monsters only really works well if you throw a lot of monsters at the players such as a hero defence. It does not work well if the players face boss monsters where its a long time to kill 1 thing.

Crafting is not at all recommended since it really disrupts the flow of play. One either has to buff the hero to the point it is out right OP to compensate or players will quickly regret choosing it when they see other heroes not have such resource management issues. Either case is not fun. This is why Diablo III removed ammo from bows and crossbows during alpha/beta.

Replenishing at fountains in combination from enemies can work. This basically turns it into your typical classic game super ammo that you can use all you want as long as you note all pickups and save enough for when it is actually needed. That said this can conflict with other heroes who do not use such a resource since they might be able to perform better in many circumstances due to not being limited by ammo availability. A good example would be a long boss fight where one quickly runs out of super ammo while other classes can pace their abilities better. This is generally why Number 7 approach is the recommended base line.

For bosses which go into enraged mode it is especially important to avoid making the ammo too strong. Otherwise people will save up all their ammo for when the boss enrages and then unload it all to burst them down. This defeats the purpose of the ammo being limited and the bosses enraging.

Very valuable insight.
Saving arrows up for maximum burst means a Ranger would cripple her damage, risking the party losing simple through attrition. So its pretty good trade-off.

^^ Ah, sorry.

Do the other hero classes use similar mechanics? That way you could have special buildings ("shrines", "altars", etc.) that restore everyone's special mechanics in addition to health and mana.

Wizard uses similar mechanic ("spell slots"), but those are not intended to be replenished.
And I have considered replenish points, but those feel too gamey and out of place.


Anyway, I think I found all the answers I want, thanks guys.
Any more idea are always welcome though.