Not sure what you mean by "viable". Pretty much every character should already be using missiles to some extent, given the monsters that are too dangerous to melee, the speed of missile weapon training, and the power of slaying ammo. I don't see a need to make efficient bow/crossbow ammo scumming more accessible to non-archers and non-farmers. So a meaningless cost (e.g. gold, additional reward for a previous quest) would be bad, but a meaningful cost (e.g. alternative to grizzled gladiator rewards) could be interesting.

While I don't really see Fletchery as an essential skill at all, it would be kinda neat as an early quest reward. Like another beginner dungeon with a few objectives and the reward as woodcraft and Fletchery.

I think giving Fletchery to Humans as a racial skill would be a decent option. Making Fletchery somehow mutually exclusive with other quest rewards wouldn't be a bad way to go either, I suppose.

Personally, I generally dislike adding more guaranteed skills to the game generally... classes are already too similar by middle game, IMHO.

For the general complaint that missiles are too hard to find in early game, I'd suggest using rocks to start with. Bows and xbows become more viable in mid-to-late game.

[edit]Duplicate of 3837[/edit]

early quest reward definately makes sense.

fletchery is a skill any adventurer should have. Something like concentration i can see your point re: specific classes.

one option could just be to decrease the ammo destruction - even as an archer you run out way too fast, and i don't think stacks of boomerangs can be maintained any more? everything breaks

I'm all in for dramatic reduction of ammo destruction, especially ammo that is dedicated, such as arrows, quarrels, thrown daggers/spears/knives etc.
Making fletchery obtainable in-game doesn't seem to me like a really necessary addition.
I agree that at the current rate of ammo destruction, it becomes a minor issue but perhaps the solution lies elsewhere.
Fletchery requires fletchery sets and hatchets which are often hard to come by if you're not archer.
I think you're better off just looking for more ammo, especially when the prospect of making it in stacks of 10-20 doesn't really fix the deficiency problem.
The skill itself would have to be adjusted and I don't see that happening any time soon.

I don't really like the original proposal due to balance purposes. Range combat is really overpowered in ADOM now. Almost nothing can damage you from range but even with no archery skills at all you essentially can kill almost anything with missiles. Once ranged combat is reworked I'd probably agree. But right now I'd leave it to archers.

P.S.: I like JellySlayer's suggestion on making this human racial starting skill. Sounds fair enough: on the one hand not given to everyone still, on the other hand makes a bit more attractive the least attractive (for me) class.

I wouldn't want to see missile destruction reduced further--slaying ammo is so powerful, it shouldn't become more durable.

But thumbs up for a minor quest to learn Fletchery.

Jesus, guys, when was the last time you actually used Fletchery? Are you serious about balance issues?

0 votes for, 3 against.

Milking arrows is more turn-efficient, does not require skills or other resources. Fletchery is ok because it creates stacks of arrow which can be used without fuss. If TB ever gets to implement the quiver, as asked probably million times, the problem will go away for those who know what they are doing.

I mean seriously, in 2000 turns I can learn Divine Intervetion or I can create 100 arrows. Wow, great skill for everyone except Archers.

Frankly I find fletchery sets stupid, especially after people voted for it to be dropped more often for some reason. As of now, it's useless garbage for most of classes. If I were the OP, I would RFE that fletchery sets could be usable without the skill whatsoever (idk, with -3,1d6-3 default value) and that the skill itself would improve efficiency, ammo quality, reduce time and increase chance of suffix/prefix.

I'm using every Fletchery set as long as I have this skill and Fletchery sets to use. Usually I wait until I can get logs too before using it. See no problems with Fletchery otherwise and unable to get your point. This skill does have a use in the game.

How are people having trouble finding arrows early game? Between arrow traps, raiders, "archer" class enemies, and about a billion other mobs, I always wind up with stacks and stacks of arrows before I even make it out of the Village Dungeon. Plus, as expensive (time-wise and fletchery-kit-wise) as it is to make arrows over finding them, is it really something people need that badly?

Do most people really care that much about turn count? For me it's preferable to milking because it wastes less of my time (and 100 arrows is probably more helpful for winning than knowledge of Divine Intervention :p ).
Anyway, if the skill is worthless that just makes the whole RFE kinda pointless.

Skill isn't worthless, it's just unnecessary. It has definite advantages such as stacks of quarrels of slaying. But it's a bit of a game time waster. I use the skill if I can get it, but otherwise I'll just throw rocks until I have enough arrows. I don't even milk monsters for ammo and I end up with huge stacks of arrows and bolts usually.

I agree with the reduction of ammo destruction. Someone brought up slaying ammo becoming a problem but I don't see why rarer ammo couldn't have a higher chance of being destroyed than regular ammo.

One of the reasons I brought this up was because with the new drop rate of fletchery sets I'm finding them everywhere and would love to be able to use them on the wooden sticks that drop from kicked down doors. I would even agree with the idea another user mentioned of letting anyone use a fletchery set, but with a penalty for not having the skill.

Someone else brought up the abundance of arrows, which is something I mentioned in my post. I agree arrows are easy to come by, but quarrels and tiny quarrels can be quite rare. It would be nice to make crossbows and small crossbows more of an option in the early game than they currently are for those that don't know fletchery. One possible alternative solution is to have a ratling archer encounter in the wild, similar to the roaving barbarians, to enable PC's to farm quarrels, though I'm not sure that farming missiles is what TB prefers players to experience over utilizing one of the several fletchery sets that are otherwise useless without fletchery.

My main beef with ammo destruction is in early game, where I don't have any slaying missiles yet and instead rely on stacks of 5-10 missiles.
It takes a lot of shooting to bring the tougher stuff down and at the rate at which missiles are destroyed, it's not really feasible.
I couldn't care less about slaying missiles as I stash them for bosses anyway, instead of just shooting random stuff.
Destruction rate of missiles thus affects early game more than it does later game, where weapon marks, attributes and artifacts make up for the major part of damage that lower level chars lack.
Decreasing this destruction rate wouldn't make ranged slayers particularly more powerful, since even right now you pretty much always have enough of them to bring down a boss.
The existence of slaying ammo doesn't really impact the difficulty that much because their advantage is only clear in a handful of situations.

I'd go as far as suggesting that archers should be able to create slaying ammo of their choice, assuming fletchery at 100 and perhaps some other conditions (blessed fletchery sets/logs/sticks/hatchet).
Other classes might have a very low chance to get an occasional stack if they have the skill, which would perhaps make it worthwhile.
As it is, fletchery is quite redundant for any char that is not an archer.

The point is it can be a quest for people who want to use, but it doesn't require balancing or being mutually exclusive with something decent.

Let people fletch their arrows if they want, it's not a big deal. I just don't understand the negative voting.

I don't think fletchery is necessary for missile combat to be usable, so giving it away as a freebie is taking away an exclusive feature of farmers and archers for no gameplay benefit. For me, that's enough to vote no. I'd also be opposed to a quest which gives away Survival, Appraising, or Cooking, and those skills aren't very powerful either.

The trade fletchery sets RFE seems like a better way to accomplish something similar (transform useless fletchery sets into quarrels).

I fully agree with this one - giving access to Fletchery to everyone would remove yet another flavour item in the game.

However, I'm going to upvote Fletchery skill for humans, as well as the fletchery set trading suggestions, if they are submitted as RFEs.