Throwing knives

Yeah, throwing knives are pretty useless at the moment. Everything about them just says to run up to the guy and hit them with a big stick instead.

I once suggested the throwing knives needed +1 more range than they currently have.  It sent off a firestorm on the Internet.  Oh the sacrilege they wailed!  But I stand by it.  I've said it before and now Firefly has said it.  Why throw when you can just run up and smack for more damage?  A simple fix....add 1 more range to the knives.  I'm no modder, but it may be the one thing I figure out how to mod after release.

the problem is the dmg, its irrelevant, range doesnt change much

i just added a small bleed effect and it works for stuff like bandits etc or it could be poison etc

for troops it need a full rework to make it viable but tbh i dont see the need to have trained troops with throwing knives... thas a weapon for skilled assassins not troops

The throwing knives real bonus is the fact you can avoid a counter attack and attack a unit. I use them quite effectively in those situations, but they are far and few between. I thought that throwing knives provide 6 piercing damage.

You are right about modding it easily, switch a number from 3 to 4

The problem specifically is that the damage does not scale with the unit group size, but the cost of equipping them with it does. This makes it one of the worst items in the game to use on your unit designs.

So what you are saying is that everybody in the army is equipped with throwing knives, but one person gets to throw them... I can see the order now...

"You in the front, George is it. George you are the only one allowed to throw a knife."

"But sir, we all have knives, can't we all throw them at the same time?"

"No, and I don't care if everyone has a knife, only George can throw them."

"But he has a bum arm and can't throw them very far."

"My order still stands... George is the only one that can throw them and that's final."

"Man I should have signed up to be a mage... they get to at least use their weapons."

Throwing Knives in and of themselves are not a very strong ranged attack. If an additional +1 range were given, I think that would go a long ways into their effectiveness.

They should do damage based on the attack of the unit using them, instead of having their own damage value. That way they would actually scale.

The problem might lie in the fact that they treat throwing knives as a spell.

yeah but it would make no sense

why throwing a knife you should do the dmg of the greatsword you are using?

nonsense...

im you focus too much at them as "weapons"

while they are just accessories, they have a skill that cant and dont have the purpose to be the main source of dmg

its just an alternative skill for when things go south

I thought I was being a genius when I made my anti-Gilden anti-armor pikemen and gave them Throwing Knives and the trait where you get +X% vs damaged enemies (vicious? brutal? bloodthirsty? cheeky? something like that). Run up and hit 'em with knives on one turn and then get the bonus for melee the next. Little did I know they would only do damage about 10% of the time. Oh well.

Also how do you tell when you're getting those sorts of enemy-specific bonuses (e.g. fallen-vs-men, etc)?

Haha, that would be awesome if A)the throwing knives actually did damage and B ) Bloodthirsty did anything at all, and it doesn't.  Great if things worked like they say they do.

You can check the damage you are about to do while hovering over the enemy, the rest is us ppl with a head for numbers or a lot of time who tests and notices something is wrong with them.
I don't think there is a visual cue although that might be a good idea.

I hope throwing knifes becomes a line of weapons (throwing axes, throwing spears, throwing shrills, throwing slaves, whatever) and I would like to see atleast a slight buff to the current knifes, as I never see them deal real damage. Also the tooltip should state how much damage and what type of damage they are about to deal.

I like the idea of having trinkets and stuff to give to your units and soldiers to make them feel unique and special, they don't have to be overly powerful, just... have a chance of actually dealing damage

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

How about this for a change to throwing knives (in addition to the aforementioned ideas):

Units keep their defense bonus (pass) after using throwing knives.

use them to taunt your enemies!

The first issue for throwing knives is the price. If i have nothing better to fill a slot and it cost (almost)nothing why wouldn't I just throw them on. Then it is a very situational use, ie very occassionaly I may want to throw the knife instead of something else. Particularly if its a crap unit. Maybe the free town militia could have them or something.

I am not however  paying metal for it.

It could I suppose have some sort of power, like poison or something.

The real problem for me is, as has been pointed out above, the lack of scale. Bandits throwing knives at my lvl 1 sov is doing something. At  lvl 10 is pointless. Even if if its a whole comapny its still the same tiny attack.

I understand its a 'magic' attack not a weapon. So rather then impossible balance it for the starting bandit and mid game troops I like the idea of scale thru upgrades as suggested above.

A start bandit gets a throwing knife, mid game u could throw axes (or javelins or spears whatever) for a lot more damage. A powerful one shot attack.

There would be certain situations where throwing knives with extra range would encourage kiting.  Given that it is already a big issue it would be better to opt for bigger damage I think.

It wouldn't be too much on the kiting issue given there is a 3 turn cool down, but I suppose it could be exploited.

They will help as an anti kiting feature for units, that was my thought anyways, besides thats why your army have archers... If we can't have 4 range knifes should we really keep bows?
We can't design a whole game around the fact that we don't want kiting in the game at all, besides isn't a little kiting just good sport, the only problem with kiting is when people start kiting stuff like the wildland bosses and death demons.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej