What's the point of Ammo? (in General)


AdminQBGentlemanLoser [{END}] October 19 2007 8:45 AM EDT

The recent changes have got my thinking. What's the point of having ammo in CB?

Cash sink? Realism? Extra Damage? Strategy?

Can't the cash sink be changed if it's really important. I donno, increase the Heal cost for teams equippin Ranged weapons.

If it's extra damage, then up the base of ranged wepaons to refelect that Ammo is being taken out. change the upgrade cost if required.

If it's Strategy, well you can't really run anyone out of ammo any more, and there's no real difference to using different types of ammo (with the Exception of Ex shots, which should, in my mind be got rid of and a new type of Sling introduces that explodes as a base property).

What really does ammo bring to the game?

QBJohnnywas October 19 2007 8:48 AM EDT

"(with the Exception of Ex shots, which should, in my mind be got rid of and a new type of Sling introduces that explodes as a base property)."


I'd have one of those!! And it's only fair, what with all those seeking weapons. Unless of course you want to add 'seeking' qualities to the SoD......


With all the changes to ammo over the past year or so, I have to say, I'm in agreement with you on this one. What does it serve to have ammo as a separate thing?

Kong Ming October 19 2007 8:53 AM EDT

I tend to agree. No point having to equip ammo, just make it such that once you have a ranged weapon you'll have ammo equipped.

Talion October 19 2007 9:01 AM EDT

How about an ammo auto-supply system that works like the character healing process?

Users choose the ammo and the amount of +'s and x's to associate with their minion's ranged weapon. The price varies depending on the ammo, but it gets automatically charged and replenished to 100 before every fight.

That would free up some space in the weapons store and let people choose how much they want to spend on ammo.

Since defensive ammo would be free but it would be necessary to prevent users from upgrading to [x100](+100) ammo for defense, the following rules could be applied:

(1) Ammo used for defense could be an average of the ammo used for challenges during the past week.
(2) A character inactive for more than one week automatically uses base ammo.
(3) A character that spend less than 160 BA in a 24 hour period is considered inactive for that day.

I think this would be fun.

The difficult part would be to determine how the naming process would work. But it could be something like paying for a certain amount of named ammo per user. If a user pays for 3 named ammos, he can equip a total of 3 minions with named ammo.

QBsutekh137 October 19 2007 9:53 AM EDT

I think named ammo would simply go away in this scenario (making the idea a bit sticky). But items do get removed from the game, albeit rarely. And if someone named an item that gets removed, it is generally just "tough", as far as I can recall...

Remove all ammo, and reduce rewards for an ammo-user by the number of arrows that got fired (in some fashion...) Sounds like it would work to me...

AdminQBGentlemanLoser [{END}] October 19 2007 10:16 AM EDT

I prefer that to increasing Heal costs for missile weapon users.

The game still tracks the number of 'ranged' attacks you make, and therefore the number of ammo you would have used.

Only concern here is that you would gain negative cash rewards from a Stalemate.

But since you have to pay to heal after one anyway...

But really what benefit does a numbered amount of ammo really give anymore? If removign them is too much, change the items to quivers/pouches (with stats) which contain unlimited amounts of ammo.

QBJohnnywas October 19 2007 10:31 AM EDT

Having given this more than a moments thought, the only real reason I can see for ammo is the only real reason for having swords and bows: a way to distinguish between tanks and mages.

My little pile of ex shot is all that distinguishes my char from a mage team really; well that and having to build physical stats. Oh and not having to worry about AMF. And having to care about evasion. And dex gaps. And melee penalties. Quite a lot of other stuff really...lol ;)

Talion October 19 2007 10:44 AM EDT

What S137 wrote makes a lot of sense.

Maybe combining the 2 ideas could work...

- Unlimited ammo
- Allow user to add +'s and x's
- Give rewards penalties depending on amount of ammo needed and ammo quality with the rules from idea applied to defensive ammo

8DEOTWP October 19 2007 1:16 PM EDT

change the items to quivers/pouches (with stats) which contain unlimited amounts of ammo.

phrog October 19 2007 2:56 PM EDT

I'm completely biased (I suppose most of us are.) because I use SoD and exp shot. I do like the idea of revamping the SoD to make exp shot part of the sling. After that, I think I agree that ammo could be removed across the board.

Talion October 19 2007 3:16 PM EDT

"change the items to quivers/pouches (with stats) which contain unlimited amounts of ammo."

Yes, that is better than my idea. That way, someone can use any type of sling with an Explosive Shots Pouch (rare) or an Iron Shots Pouch (weapons store spawning).

Mikel [Bring it] October 19 2007 3:25 PM EDT

I'm all for this, but I would say raise the Base of an arrow/bolt/shot just a bit and then make it non-upgradeable. If you need more X or +, put it on the weapon.

This would do away with defensive ammo altogether.

The only problem I see is with Ex-shots, what do we do there? Maybe only named ones can have the ability to fire them, otherwise they fire regular shots.

AdminQBGentlemanLoser [{END}] October 25 2007 1:10 PM EDT

New Sling. ;)

Or rather Slings. ;)

Add back the 'Mageseeker' Sling of David, and add an exploding Sling.

Remove Exshots (why are they still non rare rares?), introduce nameable quivers/pouches which are in essence unlimited Ammo al la IA from CB1.

Besides the Hal has IA. :P
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