Why force the use of the bow?

I die so much more trying to use the bow to kill an enemy to get meat. Why are we forced to use a specific weapon to get an item? I love the bow, but not when the enemy charges you and you have to try and run away and fire at it.

 

Honestly, the bow is a lot less of a hassle once you upgrade it to the second tier. Get the one meat you need for the quest, then wait on the bow till you upgrade it.

 

I was just logging in to ask the same question - it's a very difficult quest to complete early on....at the same time, I'm finding some cool stuff, and maybe I can cobble some armor together soon so I can actually survive to kill something with my bow!

 

Spoiler: Slash the mob down with your sword, finish it with a bow. Timing the bow for when it flashes causes more damage.

In general, if every mob dropped the resources no matter how you finished them, the game would be trivialized. Which is why terraria implemented drop chances, which were frustrating. I see meat and leather as often as I need it, you can also just grow your food.

 

Spoiler: Iron bow 1 hits everything

 

Only for a little while. If you go below the surface, there were a fair few things that take two hits. But even so, thats a lot better than the crappy starter bow.

 

The best way to use the tier 1 bow is to start fighting with the sword, once the creature is 2 bars from death, pull out the bow. Remember you can also build shelters in one quick motion of the hand. I actually caged a bunch of mobs and then made a small hole to throw my arrows

Think outside the box a bit. Don't just equip the bow and pew pew. These are not exploits to break the game, their just "street smart" survival skills lol...

 

The iron bow basically wrecks any level 1-4 enemies. I felt similarly until I upgraded to it, but now I feel it might be too powerful. I have huge stacks of meat and leather now from preferential bow use.

 

Only issue I really have with it is I feel it doesn't give meat near enough when a monster is killed.
It shouldn't happen every time, but for how difficult it can be sometimes to kill one with it, it should be about a 3-4/5 drop chance.

Just my opinion though.

 

I must say, I find the concept of softening up monsters with melee in order to kill them with range .... bizarre. And annoying. I like slicing things up.

My kingdom for some iron. I think the planet I started on was a super bad draw. No iron, no silver, no NPCs... just lots of eyeballs as far as the eye can see.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the bow. I just dislike that the game forces you to use it to get meat. I have done the sword then bow method, and I have even built a little house with a small opening on top so monsters go up and cant get to me, but I can shoot them. But it feels clunky and forced.

 

yea on a lvl 3 or below planet..... once you get to lvl 7 or 9 ones that bow won't one shot much. the crafted weapons come more into line as well, i am currently farming a lvl 7 planet and my spear take about 2-4 hits to kill where as anything on a 3 or below planet is one shotted.

 

So, melee the mob down, then pew pew a few times to you can get your damn meat. Is this what Chucklefish intended? I'll do it, but I think it's a half-assed implementation.

 

Appart from the quest needing it, you can actually plant the seeds you have at start and grow them before you go hungry. You dont "have" to use the bow at all. Plus, they might had a way to skip over the tutorial quest in the futur.

 

I understand your perspective, but it still feels like poor implementation of a game design element. It breaks immersion and sucks the fun out of hunting mobs for items.

 

Maybe you didn't read the warning that came with the beta. This is a stable build meant to test game elements. Drop ratio's and stats on weapons can change as can implementation of drop tables on monsters. While your suggestions are probably appreciated, they would be appreciated in the "suggestion" forum.

As most people don't see the problem especially at this stage of testing move past the issue, make a constructive post in the correct section, or simply wait till further implementation times of the beta.

 

I love using my bow - only complaint is no pixel drops with it. :/

 

It's already being changed in the next patch. http://www.reddit.com/r/starbound/comments/1s620n/some_of_the_changes_coming_tonight/

 

To do the following...

1. Teach you a sure way to get food to survive.
2. Ensure you get a healthy dose of the combat
3. Encourage you to upgrade to other items, or ensure you have something to fall back on.

 

Did I miss something? Is this not the place to discuss how you feel about elements in the beta? Is posting how I interpret something in game, and then responding to others who have something to add on that topic not constructive?