Reusable arrows?

[Demut]

For those among you who plan to choose the bow in Skyrim: What do you think about reusing arrows? Should this be possible? Seeing how arrows will be very rare for some reason (according to Todd Howard) I think this is a smart way of counterbalancing that disadvantage a bit.
For example, I could see how there might be a perk that make it possible to occasionaly pick up arrows from dead enemies. Spending more points on that perk would increase the probability. Arrows that missed and landed on a soft surface (grass, water, sand, snow ...) should have that possibility right from the beginning though.
Does that sound like a good propsal to you?

 

[Tusck]

Yes there should be a certain % chance that the arrow can be used, based on what you shoot. If you shoot leather, you can reuse. If you shoot Heavy Armor, then no, the chance should be much lower to be able to reuse. I agree with your suggestion as well, based on the situation, there should be a chance at recovery. When I heard that arrows where going to be rare, my first thought was I hope I can make them.

 

[Demut]

Yeah, at least low-level arrows should be easy to craft. Heck, one of my former school friends is a bow enthusiast who builds them himself and he can make lots of arrows in a fairly short time even with primitive equipment. So our hero should be able to do at least that at his work bench.

 

[Tusck]

I would agree that we should be able to make common wood arrows. Others should be harder to find, or require higher level items to craft them. Over and abover this, I'm not sure why arrows are such a rare commodity in Skyrim. That really seems weird to me.

 

[Demut]

I couldn’t really understand this either given their relatively common materials and easy crafting method. We shall see how they did this. Personally, I believe that a slower reload time was already enough nerfing.

 

[Tusck]

I totally agree, the slower reload time and the nerf to running backward was a big nerf to archery, however they increased the damage by a lot, so it should even out. But then you add in a strange to quantity of arrows. So I don't know, seems weird. Overall I think it will still be better than Oblivion.

 

[Demut]

That’s not really a great feat. Making it worse than Oblivion would have been a challenge

 

[hexperiment]

That’s not really a great feat. Making it worse than Oblivion would have been a challenge

AHAHAHA. yeah, that's true. I downloaded Duke Patrick's Combat Archery mod to make it stronger. Also you have an arrow case and you have a limited amount of arrows you can carry at a time. Not to mention, you can withdraw your arrow if you choose not to shoot. A really great mod and I think Bethesda actually took some inspiration out of that.
The rareness of arrow does seem pretty weird to me. Sounds like they are discouraging archers in some sense. If it is THAT powerful then I guess it should balance out but I really prefer that I can make an archer character who only uses bow and arrows in combat. I hear that you can whack your enemies with your huge bow if they get too close so that'll be fun :]

 

[Tusck]

LOL so true, but can you believe that Oblivion archery was better than Morrowind, because it was. Archery was terrible in Morrowind and melee was so easy.

I had not heard about using your now in melee, that is awesome. I was wondering what skill I needed to take as a backup, but I may just use that and sprint.

 

[Jeruhmi]

If they are rare, then yes, I think reusable arrows should be good. Or maybe the chance of them breaking on hit, like in other games.

 

[Tusck]

I actually just found this quote. It seems that the fan made mod "Better bows" was used for Skyrim. That's pretty cool.

BigTomHatfield: “Are there any ideas from the modding community for Morrowind and Oblivion that have influenced the design of Skyrim?”

Yeah, the Oblivion mod “Better Bows”. It made arrows more powerful, more likely to kill in a single hit, and balanced it by making it slower to draw the arrow back in the first place. Skyrim takes that pretty much wholesale, and the demonstration we saw had a lot of bow and arrow action.

 

[Cole]

I like the idea of reusable arrows as well, with in reason of course. If they made arrows to common too, it might just to easy for any class to take out a bow and shoot down dragons too, so that might be a reason.

 

[Demut]

I don’t understand that argument. How would widely available arrows encourage a warrior or mage to use a bow? You do realize that your damage depends on your skills and perks, yes? Someone who didn’t skill this way won’t find bows useful no matter how many arrows there are.

 

[Tusck]

Why wouldn't a warrior use a bow? It's a great ranged damage if you don't like magic, like a lot of people said.

 

[Demut]

That is not what I said. I was contesting the insinuation that a steady supply of arrows would somehow get classes that usually don’t use bows to pick them up all of the sudden.

 

[Tusck]

Ah I would agree with that. I'm going to be really pissed if I keep running out of arrows.

 

[Cole]

That is not what I said. I was contesting the insinuation that a steady supply of arrows would somehow get classes that usually don’t use bows to pick them up all of the sudden.

I was implying that because they made the bow stronger in skyrim, that if they made the arrows to common, it might just be better for even a mage to pick up a bow and shoot. Perks that make the bow stronger will of course make this better for assassins or thieves. ;P

 

[Sheogorath]

Ehhhh maybe there is a random perk that has a chance of making arrows automatically come back to you.

 

[Cole]

I don't know about coming back to you, but having less chance of breaking, making them easier to retrieve would be more realistic i think.

 

[Demut]

Yeah, coming back like a boomerang sounds silly.