Stones and Slings, a Stone Age Hunter's Arsenal

[piddy3825]

Been throwing so many stones at bunnies lately in the attempt at unlocking that Stone Age Sniper achievement that I have gotten fairly proficient at hitting my targets at longer ranges.  Got myself a hat trick just the other morning just behind the cabin at Trapper's.  

  

As I looked down towards the old out building there were a couple of deer down in the clearing leisurely grazing their way back in forth across the field.  On a lark I decided to chuck a couple of stones at the deer and much to my surprise I tagged one right in the head.  I watched the stone sail thru the air and bounce right off right off his rack and he immediately turned 90 degrees and bolted towards the mouth of the cave.   

Well that got me to thinking and I thought sure we need one more weapon, something primitive, something simple, something lore friendly, something craftable, something effective not just on bunnies, but on larger prey or predators.   

What could be more simple than throwing a stone but this time with some whammy on it.  Say Hello to my little friend!

That stone looks pretty familiar... about the same size and weight wouldn't you say?  wouldn't take to much leather to make something like this.  

It would be fun to see something like that developed, but I understand the complexity of trying to animate a sling's motion, let alone develop a combat system in order to employ it.  Never the less, I can see myself now on the ice on the Coastal Highway being menaced by three wolves and I have my trusty sling at my side and a handful of stones...

[XaldinVii]

I think that would be a cool addition although I would think it would be more of a weapon to scare wolves off or kill rabbits from greater distance.But it could be a good distraction weapon too, like if you throw a rock somewhere you want a wolf to go to but a sling could let you do that from father away.

[Guest kristaok]

This is actually a pretty good idea! I'd like to see Hinterland implement birds to hunt, as a sling would be good for that as well. 

[reginaphalange]

great idea that would be difficult to build into the game re: animation and an aiming mechanism (unless there's a UI aim help that doesn't involve your hand).

throwing a stone with aiming is hard enough (I'm terrible at it).

[peteloud]

How accurate are slings? 

I would have thought that trying to hit a rabbit or a running wolf almost impossible.

[Doc Feral]

Same thought, aiming with a sling looks rather random. As a weapon it was supposed to chuck stones in the massed enemies' general direction, and probably used to hunt with the same principle against flock of birds or other multiple small targets. Seriously, aiming with something that spins looks really hard, unless you've been chosen by God to be a giant-slaying king. That said, an ancient teenage sheperd surely would need a pastime for his lonely days in the wilderness, and maybe he used to fight boredom by practicing with the sling.

[piddy3825]

3 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

Same thought, aiming with a sling looks rather random. As a weapon it was supposed to chuck stones in the massed enemies' general direction, and probably used to hunt with the same principle against flock of birds or other multiple small targets. Seriously, aiming with something that spins looks really hard, unless you've been chosen by God to be a giant-slaying king. That said, an ancient teenage sheperd surely would need a pastime for his lonely days in the wilderness, and maybe he used to fight boredom by practicing with the sling.

 

7 hours ago, peteloud said:

How accurate are slings? 

I would have thought that trying to hit a rabbit or a running wolf almost impossible.

 

13 hours ago, reginaphalange said:

great idea that would be difficult to build into the game re: animation and an aiming mechanism (unless there's a UI aim help that doesn't involve your hand).

throwing a stone with aiming is hard enough (I'm terrible at it).

 

17 hours ago, kristaok said:

This is actually a pretty good idea! I'd like to see Hinterland implement birds to hunt, as a sling would be good for that as well. 

 

On 3/1/2019 at 9:13 AM, XaldinVii said:

I think that would be a cool addition although I would think it would be more of a weapon to scare wolves off or kill rabbits from greater distance.But it could be a good distraction weapon too, like if you throw a rock somewhere you want a wolf to go to but a sling could let you do that from father away.

check this out... kinda cool 

[Guest kristaok]

3 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

 

 

 

 

check this out... kinda cool 

I absolutely do believe David did indeed wipe out Goliath with a slingshot. So this was pretty neat to watch. 

Not that I necessarily agree with this, but I do remember as a child seeing my ex step father use a slingshot to shoot birds, don’t ask me why... idk why... it’s not my kind of fun that’s for sure. 

But yea a rock shot with enough force would definitely take an animal or human out. 

[LkP]

this is accurate, easy to use (toy-weapon for a lot of young hunters around the world), easy to build, and will definitively knock out birds and rabbits, if not kill.

[peteloud]

I like the idea of the catapult.  When I was a kid we all made them.  I recently made a couple for my grand-daughters.  But when I think of it fitting into the game would it effectively be any different to throwing stones?

[LkP]

If you made some, you tried it, right ? Can you throw as fast as it can shoot ?
I don't believe that you can knock out rabbits with lazy throws like in game. I've seen 6 years old killing birds with that.

[piddy3825]

13 hours ago, LkP said:

this is accurate, easy to use (toy-weapon for a lot of young hunters around the world), easy to build, and will definitively knock out birds and rabbits, if not kill.

Slingshots are awesome!  I made them growing up and when we switched to steel ball bearings, our accuracy went up dramatically at longer distances due to the smooth nature of the sphere as compared to using roundish peebles or stones.  Only reason that I didn't include that in my original post was that most sling shots rely on rubber tubing and rubber tubing was one item that is not already present in the games raw materials.  The power of the sling comes from the centrifical force of the swinging action where as the sling generates it's force from the elastic action of rubber tubing.  I suppose you could use some gut for the slingshot but I dont think that it would have the elasticity necessary to make an effective weapon.

[LkP]

6 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

rubber tubing was one item that is not already present in the games raw materials

There's so many cars. Not all these wheels are tubeless, are they ? So, we got our rubber. You could find steel balls too, but it's more complicated to harvest, I guess.

[piddy3825]

2 hours ago, LkP said:

There's so many cars. Not all these wheels are tubeless, are they ? So, we got our rubber. You could find steel balls too, but it's more complicated to harvest, I guess.

true that, but I was referring to those materials already available.  I was thinking a lot less work that way since didnt have to create another "new" resource.  definitely can harvest the ball bearings from the cars.  Can you imagine if they did implement those ideas, you'd end up being limited to either the railroad maintenance yard or either one of the gas stations on CH or out in Milton town to be able to break down a car's tires and wheel assembly.  lol

[LkP]

33 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

true that, but I was referring to those materials already available.  I was thinking a lot less work that way since didnt have to create another "new" resource. 

With actual resources we could make a staff sling. It seems to be a bit easier to maneuver than the shepherds slings. Yet both are difficult to master. I only did a few tries, maybe that's just me not being gifted...

Quote

definitely can harvest the ball bearings from the cars.  Can you imagine if they did implement those ideas, you'd end up being limited to either the railroad maintenance yard or either one of the gas stations on CH or out in Milton town to be able to break down a car's tires and wheel assembly.  lol

Few big rocks and a knife and you can get the whole inner tube. But yeah, you need tools for the bearings.
As a projectile, you may use carefully chosen pebbles, how would that help the accuracy ? My little experience is that slingshots are quite accurate on short distances with any small rocks (up to 15 meters ?), very instinctive to use, you just need some practice to do power shots with a wrist trick. How far were you able to aim with steel balls ?