Craftable flare shells

[sierra 117]

Now that we have ammo  crafting , I'm thinking being able to make more flare shells. Would be a good solution for dealing with timberwolves on interloper.

[ManicManiac]

@sierra 117
I, personally, would prefer it if those cartridges stayed rare.

[ThePancakeLady]

I have to agree with the OP. For Pilgrim, Voyageur and even Stalker, the flare gun is not usually a big deal. 

But for Interlopers? Even with the revolver now enabled for Interlopers, it is one of the first weapons most Lopers I know go running to get, asap. Rifle ammo manufacturing does Lopers no good. I suspect revolvers will be much more rare for them, as opposed to how common they are in Pilgrim & Voyageur. Heck they aren't that uncommon in Stalker, even. The gunsmithing and ammo manufacture are supposed to be an option for long-term players, people on long runs. 

 

Though Raph did say in the video that they are looking into other uses for the milling machine, and I am guessing the bench, as well. So, perhaps this is already something they are thinking about. How to make flare shells craftable. (Not a simple thing to do IRL... magnesium and the other chemicals in flare shells and road flares are not something you treat lightly.) . They may need to research to see what can be used, and how/why it would be on Great bear Island.  The ingredients for making rifle and revolver rounds fit in. Car batteries for the lead. Lots of dead cars abandoned all over the place. Stump remover- logging on the Island, trees that "needed" to be removed to clear land fr farming, and the building of structures, large and small.  Plant fertilizer... "Island Gardens for Island People" posters  and the community gardens and "farmers market" in PV, as well as farms in various regions. Doesn't seem like organic gardening was a big thing on GBI. Charcoal... readily available from burned out fires.

But I have a hard time figuring out what magnesium and strontium nitrate would be doing on the island. Unless there is a hidden fireworks factory somewhere? Unless we could harvest from unused flares, red or marine.

[sierra 117]

14 hours ago, ThePancakeLady said:

But I have a hard time figuring out what magnesium and strontium nitrate would be doing on the island. Unless there is a hidden fireworks factory somewhere? Unless we could harvest from unused flares, red or marine.

Yeah good point, the availability of certain material/chemical requirements might not be very plausible for the setting.

Hmm well might need to think of something a bit more primitive. 

I'm thinking mainly for a good defensive tool against Timber wolves, use of the new milling options for interlopers to be able to use , utilize renewable resources and be windproof.

How about some kind of small crossbow that fires mini torches/stones or something along those lines. Could use the milling machine to make some sort of mechanism,combined with wood and guts/other materials.

Just throwing out random ideas.  I have not had much experience with TW's on interloper. So far throwing torches from a fire seems a viable tactic, although I just die instantly if it's windy. I have not tried with the bow yet.(I've just been testing new custom games ) marine flares work, but kind of sketchy if you only have one.

Would love to hear others ideas , it can't hurt to give the devs some more ideas. And they can ultimately decide what they feel fits the theme of the game best.

Edited December 13, 2019 by sierra 117

[Enigma]

On 12/13/2019 at 5:19 PM, sierra 117 said:

How about some kind of small crossbow that fires mini torches/stones or something along those lines. Could use the milling machine to make some sort of mechanism,combined with wood and guts/other materials.

This. 

I will add on the idea, the dev team should let us make metal arrows and a better bow. 

[stratvox]

Aye... I'm not really up with hand crossbows firing flaming missiles, but a superior version of bows and arrows (metal arrow, compound bow perhaps?) would be totally cool.

[Guest jeffpeng]

On 12/13/2019 at 1:34 AM, ThePancakeLady said:

Unless we could harvest from unused flares, red or marine.

That's the only way I can think of it. And actually turning a flare into a flare shell ..... that's a pretty hefty tradeoff. Flares are you only option to get a protective fire going in a storm. Also your only chance of illumination in a storm if you don't have a storm lantern (which I usually don't since it's too heavy for the two times I use it every three weeks) Really ... I'd actually think twice before sacrificing one of those for a flare shell. So I don't see that upsetting the balance in Interloper. Good suggestion.

On 12/13/2019 at 4:19 PM, sierra 117 said:

How about some kind of small crossbow that fires mini torches/stones or something along those lines. Could use the milling machine to make some sort of mechanism,combined with wood and guts/other materials.

That reminded me of the fact that the game is clearly missing a railgun. And a rocket launcher. Also there should be enough scrap metal in the dam to forge a full metal armor.

7 hours ago, stratvox said:

metal arrow, compound bow perhaps

A compound bow! Higher range, flatter projectile arc due to higher speed. I want that one.

Edited December 18, 2019 by jeffpeng

[peteloud]

I would like to be able to use gunpowder to make a firework, or even a low-grade grenade, to scare off or kill wolves.

I have always felt that there should be a second, better, bow, with greater range, accuracy and killing power.

 

 

[ThePancakeLady]

11 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

On 12/12/2019 at 7:34 PM, ThePancakeLady said:

Unless we could harvest from unused flares, red or marine.

That's the only way I can think of it. And actually turning a flare into a flare shell ..... that's a pretty hefty tradeoff. Flares are you only option to get a protective fire going in a storm. Also your only chance of illumination in a storm if you don't have a storm lantern (which I usually don't since it's too heavy for the two times I use it every three weeks) Really ... I'd actually think twice before sacrificing one of those for a flare shell. So I don't see that upsetting the balance in Interloper. Good suggestion.

Indeed. And flares (marine in particular) are still a defense against wolves, both Timberwolves and our regular block-pelted adversaries. Also darn handy if you are going through a cave or mine, and have little lantern fuel, or only low quality torches. And, AFAIK, still a good defense/weapon against Old Grumpy Bear(s). Having them be harvestable to craft flare shells, say 1 flare = ingredients for 6 flare shells (with empty flare shells needing to be harvested after use, or possibly as rare finds in the world- you shot the bear with a flare, and it took off, now go find it to get meat, guts, bear skin... and your empty flare shell.). It would not be OP, and there would be a few tough choices to be made by the player as far as how they use both flares and the flare gun. Require a hunting knife or hatchet to be used for harvesting the flare. The process and method may not be completely IRL "realstic", to simplify it for a game mechanic, but... lots of stuff in this game are already simplified in that way. 

[Moll]

How about craftable shotgun shells based on flare shells? They look same as flare shells (ingame). It would be nice ammo for crafted single shot pipe shotgun.

Bruh, probably not.

[Salty Crackers]

The best way to balance flare shell reloading would be to make it so the shell casing decays 40-100% when it is shot and require unused marine flares and gunpowder to craft. With the Revolver being removed from Loper, this would be the only effective counter to Timberwolves besides sneaking up on them and taking a long-range bow shot, which is obviously impossible with a hungry pack on your tail.