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[peasant cretin]

This is a ranged combat manual for archers in Adventure Mode. It concerns scouting and environment. Information regarding rate of fire and skill effect can be found in Zivilin's post Dwarven Research: A Study of the 'Archer' and 'Marksdwarf' Skills.

The focus of ranged combat is controlling distance to manage the behavior of the target's AI (artificial intelligence) as there is an extended delay after firing an arrow or bolt. During this delay your character may be vulnerable to repeat attack.

Firing distance is limited by maximum visibility. This is not affected by character strength, weapon skill, or item quality. We'll define maximum visibility as the furthest tile you can either (l)ook X at or (f)ire X upon. Conditions such as weather and/or time of day can reduce maximum visibility. Under optimal conditions, maximum visibility can be as high as 25 tiles due North/South/East/West with an 11 tile span at end range, and as high as 18 tiles due NE/NW/SE/SW.

Maintaining the highest possible tile distance while being able to fire on a non-aggressive target is the goal. Targets become aggressive at a distance of 20 tiles. We'll define an aggressive target as one which has been alerted to the presence of your character and is pathing its way to you, so it can unload its attack. Because of the extended delay after firing, your character will depend on her/his dodge and shield skills to survive the interval. This should be avoided. A non-aggressive, but active target may jump away from shots fired or flee to a safer location, but it is not aware of your character, and will continue to be under fire until shot down or you run out of arrows or bolts.

In order to guarantee a non-aggressive enemy AI, prior to the transition from the fast travel screen to the slow travel screen, movement toward the potential target should begin with 1 world map tile of separation between your character/group and the intended destination. With no world map tile buffer, the drop into slow travel mode may place your character and companions within a distance of 20 tiles, which will activate an aggressive enemy AI. This may become worrisome when that enemy AI is an inorganic titan that shoots webs.

It's generally for the best if all scouting is done solo as you cannot account for companion AI response. Adventure Mode archery is typically for the lone character rather than the leader of a roving band. Your character's scout toward the target should be done with ambush/sneak mode on, one tile at a time, peeling away the darkness, revealing visibility by moving laterally if you approached from the north or south, or vertically if approaching from east or west, but always within the end range 11 tile span, until the target is detected.

This approach takes into consideration targets that are not in open spaces, but obscured by z-level changes. Your character's movement activates the enemy AI. Yellow movement !! signifiers are triggered by movement, but will not reveal the creature tile in the z-level viewer on the righthand corner of your screen.

The use of ambush/sneak is for viewing vision fields once they are triggered. A vision field, hidden in a z-level change, will reveal the creature tile in the z-level viewer. While this does not allow for identification, you can now attempt to shift the enemy, either with movement or fire, toward a position on the same z-level, which will allow you to identify the target and begin your attack.

Identification may fail if there are too many z-level changes, preventing a same z-level line of vision reveal. When this happens, it may be advised to skip the target if the scout is being run against an unknown shrine sheltering an unknown enemy (which Legends Mode cannot help you with).

In most cases, you'll have fully revealed and identified the target. You can now shoot missile after missile, while maintaining a 23-25 tile distance, until you get the kill.

[ZM5]

Great guide and interesting way to use ranged weapons so they're actually effective.

I myself have been really neglecting ranged weapons since I prefer to travel with companions, which doesn't go well with using stealth, and the very long reload period after shooting combined with the inability to aim for specific body parts made them really off-putting for me, while making throwing a more attractive option - you still can't aim for a body part but throwing is a lot faster and easier to grind up, and you have more choices for ammo too - you can still use regular ranged weapon ammo in addition to stuff like coins or pickaxes.

[peasant cretin]

Much thanks! I agree, throwing is more efficient and being a master of coin would be pretty fantastic. I think Mafol may go that route and coin shoot his way into history. It'd be a change as I often field ranger/forester characters. That flavor always worked for me.

[ZM5]

Yeah, I myself have been using coins as a support weapon, since they're great for crippling enemies (I haven't gotten any kills with them, though) - if I want to finish off someone with a throw I usually use something like a pickaxe since those are great for severing limbs - AFAIK with throwing the game rolls an attack from a list of attacks available to the weapon - since pickaxes don't have a blunt "hit with handle" attack, like most melee weapons do, it makes all throws with them very deadly.

I'm wondering now if the same applies for ammo shot by weapons - so if you had an ammo type with a blunt attack in addition to a sharp one, would it also roll between those 2 for each shot? Gonna have to test that later.

[Droggarth]

IIRC, recently when I tore off some kobold's limb with biting, I spit/threw it back at the kobold and it fractured a bone in its body. Didn't pay much attention due to being sort of tired but yeah.. woah.
Talk about insult to injury.

[peasant cretin]

The scouting approach mentioned here is applicable whether you throw objects, use bows/crossbows, or wish to melee, as it's just based on sneak mechanics and AI response.

I centered this around bows/crossbows (aside from my using them on my characters) mostly because the delay after attack here is the longest (DF2014).

You can be attacked up to 16 times as a dabbling archer/marksdwarf during the delay after attack, where as you'll just get attacked 3 times as dabbling archer/thrower during the delay after. Melee's delay should be one attack or none.

But yeah, the throwing is good stuff.

[Max™]

This is why I prefer to use flying races if possible or find a sniper perch if not.

Last time I played a nonflier archer I'd go up a sheer surface and plink away, if I got noticed I'd generally have time while they were climbing so I could act again when they were almost beside me, and then I'd either plink them out of the tree if I was confident enough or do a takedown/toss and drop them out of the tree.