Initial feelings of new ammo changes to ranged

[ewert]

In the past, slings always tended to be only used if I found a really good one early, and only until and above avg bow/xbow presented itself.

Now with one winner ranger, and some other classes played, my feelings are:

Slings now have a definite niche due to the ammo not being destroyed. A Buckland x4 will probably be the go to outside artifact weapons for anyone who is mostly melee or spells otherwise. Pretty nice.

Bows will most likely still be top choice for rangers due to the create arrow spell.

XBows, well ... since Buckland includes shooting speed for non-rangers, and the ammo being an issue with XBows, outside of x6s I think they might struggle to compete. x4 sling with no ammo issues vs x5 crossbow ... one might still opt for the extra might sling. So, guess for the non rangeds will highly depend on RNG extra might drops, and a couple good drops of nasty shots can also easily swing it in favour of the sling.

I _think_ this might be a good balance ... my only feeling really is that XBows might be very slightly overtaken by the 0% destruct rate of shots. Definitely not big enough benefit to combat a reasonable even RNG, though.

[archolewa]

I agree completely. Trying out a Ranger now, and oh man it's like night and day. Found a Sling of Power and some enchanted Iron Shots pretty early, and I have been a sniping monster. Slings of Power are the Ranger equivalent of Narthanc, and it's *so much fun*.

My Ranger feels like a dangerous archer and survival expert now, as opposed to a cleric who forgot his healing spells, or a Rogue who failed Stealth 101.

I daresay that I enjoy all the hybrid classes now, and this makes me very very happy.

[Estie]

This change basically unmakes the change to not have the shop stock enchant weapon scrolls anymore.

[mrfy]

I've been playing the recent Ranger changes and it does feel more balanced. Just got to level 30 and now have 2 shots per turn with arrows. Best launcher I've found so far is a short bow of power.

[Estie]

Played ranger, too. First upgrade was a sling of accuracy; then, for a short time, I was using a x5 randart xbow; untill I found a longbow randart (only x4, but also had +5 con and fire immunity) which eventually was used to kill M.

Actually...can get the dump from live:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=24527

[Selkie]

The ammo changes have taken the ranger class from one of the weakest classes to arguably one of the strongest.

Slings of power are now the must have weapon for any ranger until discovering a randart launcher. Indestructible branded ammo is a bigger thing than you'd expect and means you can take out any dlvl40 unique without breaking sweat.

In the 24 hour challenge I chose mage instead of ranger (against my better judgement) and it felt so laboured and slow after the rangers I'd been playing. Rangers are now a very fun class in the first 40 character levels. It becomes more of a grind in the last 10 - but that's the game, not the class.

On a sidenote: Not sure if this has been discussed before but I always like the idea of adding the arrow of Bard as a single artifact ammo. It's indestructible, ice branded and slays dragons powerfully.

[Pete Mack]

In ToME, there was a 2% minimum loss rate for ammo. That seems right for slings--no way are you always going to find your ammo in all the orc skeletons and other rubbish lying around in the pits of Angband