Nerf the Ammo Belt (Yes I Said It) :-S
HaHaCharade
Member Posts: 1,644
I realize it is a game and as such some logic goes out the window (where are you carrying the 150,000 gold you have?). But I think we can agree that missile weapons are *awesome*. The only draw back of them is close range, and you run out of ammo. I think you really eliminate the second drawback if you make it where you can carry enough arrows to sack Rome on an adventure. 
Example: I currently have 1200+ arrows in my Ammo Belt on my current IWD:EE playthrough. The belt is a very cool concept (and a needed one). That said, when you can literally have over a thousand arrows in it... is there really a point anymore? Bags of Holding I can understand (Hey, its magical and costs upwards of 10k gold). But a mundane Ammo Belt should have a capacity of 500 arrows max. And I think that is generous! With a limit it is still a great item, but when you place no limit (or if there is a limit, it is ridiculous) you might as well add in infinite ammo at that point. There is no realistic ammo belt that could fit over 1000 arrows on a person.
Example: I currently have 1200+ arrows in my Ammo Belt on my current IWD:EE playthrough. The belt is a very cool concept (and a needed one). That said, when you can literally have over a thousand arrows in it... is there really a point anymore? Bags of Holding I can understand (Hey, its magical and costs upwards of 10k gold). But a mundane Ammo Belt should have a capacity of 500 arrows max. And I think that is generous! With a limit it is still a great item, but when you place no limit (or if there is a limit, it is ridiculous) you might as well add in infinite ammo at that point. There is no realistic ammo belt that could fit over 1000 arrows on a person.
1
Comments
P.S. Fairly sure that 100 coppers = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, 100 gold = 1 precious jewelry. So, carrying 1 precious jewelry = 1000000 (1 million) coppers. 1 gold in BG is actually worth 1 copper, the devs just vent "more micromanaging? Eh screw that, lets just call everything gold, and let the player carry endless amounts of it". Prolly the same reason they added a magic bag in BG2; they wanted to cut micromanaging to let the game to flow better.
Think of it this way; 100000 basement dwellers spendin 25 seconds micromanaging is... errr... a lot of time wasted for no reason.
Actually, precious jewelry cost depended on the type of gem obviously (which BG really does a good job maintaining) -- but good breakdown. Honestly, the money thing would simply be micromanagement but the arrow thing to me is a combat resource.... So it is a bit more managing survival at that point. Really when it gets down to it, why even have the quiver? If you run out you can pause in combat and throw something else in. The only reason was if you ran out entirely which made sense in my mind. With 2,000 at the ready... you are not going to run out. Ever. Unless you forgot to buy some lol.
And if we really want to get technical, I don't think edged objects were even allowed to go into a bag of holding (it can be pierced from the inside per pen and paper 2nd edition AD&D if memory serves) but I understand that being dropped for game simplicity and BoH usefulness.
It's not th huge capacity to carry what you use, i.e use a bow so you can carry 1000+ arrows.
It's the capacity to carry all the darts, bullets ect. as well so you can sell them, that spoils things a bit.
Not sure if I'm explaining this clearly.
It would be very game enhancing if you were in a large dungeon or area without shops and instead of finding arrows, you only find darts. So then you'd have to use them. Mix up the playstyle a bit.
Now that's too severe IMO, but say you only found really good darts and then had to leave them all behind?
That might encourage people to branch out a bit.
There's an infinite supply of magic arrows available if you grind in Kresselack's Tomb (upper levels). Camp and you'll encounter skeleton archers who will sometimes drop them. Current playthrough I have x400 Arrows of Fire +1 and x350 Arrows +1.... Yuan-Ti Elites drop the +1 Arrows regularly in Dragon's Eye also.
oh wait
But sure, if you’re excessively camp-farming and killing 6000 yetis and 9000 skeleton guardians, I can see how an extra thousand arrows would come in handy. I mean, I think the solution here is more “nerf camp-farming” and less “nerf the ammo belt”, but yeah, that’s probably impacting game balance.
You can purchase infinite arrows as easily as you can farm them. So I don't understand how farming arrows enters into it, really.
I'm just an "everything within reason" kind of guy. I do still think that if you take 6 missile weapon users, the "running out of ammo" possibility is one of the only real downsides and requires a bit more foresight on the player's end. Maybe I'm too steeped in the encumbrance sheet days of our old pen and paper AD&D, but I think there's some logic to my thought process.
Also, cherry-picking logical inconsistencies is one of the greatest traps in these arguments.
You (apparently) accept unquestioningly a flagrant violation of natural laws in all manner of circumstances, but suddenly 1,000 arrows in a box is too much? Please. If you are truly concerned about realism, there's a volume of problems that would need addressing (like how you can keep going for 50 hours without food or water or going to the toilet, for starters).
Anyway, this is a video game inspired by D&D but it's not exclusive to D&D players nor 100% adherent to D&D rules. Too much "realism" (in very large quotes) is a turn-off for people who aren't too fussed about D&D rules and just want a video game that works without forcing them to jump through ten hoops just to be more "realistic".
Containers and inventory have a capacity in game and are measured already. Folks can only carry so much, and containers can only carry so much in game. That's why we have weight allowances and strength scores. That's why some containers (Bag of Holding) are magical, can carry more, and are more expensive. That's the only point I'm making. Making one point about one container and saying "2,000 is a bit ridiculous, how about 500" isn't cherry picking a game to death for the sake of realism, really. I'm more interested in a bit of balance.
I find it harder to believe that adventurers would limit themselves to what they could carry on their persons but that's just me...