Hunting Difficulties!

Game snippet:
You put on a rugged leather ammunition pouch.

>

look in pouch

a rugged leather ammunition pouch

This plain, rough-stitched leather pouch is nothing special to look at, but is rugged enough to hold a number of stones or other ammunition for a sling. It can be easily hooked or tied onto a belt or sash, or even just a waistband.

Inside a rugged leather ammunition pouch, you see a pile of 5 small round stones.

>

wield sling

You shift your fist and brandish a twine-and-leather sling in your fist.

>

aim gazelle

Combat OOC: -Writing Break- you have started a physical altercation!

                (You may enter 'continue' to skip the break, or 'wait' to extend the break if you need.)

You shift into a shooting stance, looking at an white gazelle at a short distance toward the southward direction.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  

shoot gazelle

Private Combat OOC: You will try to 'shoot gazelle' next time you get a chance.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  

continue

Combat OOC: you - marked to continue.

Combat OOC: an white gazelle - marked to continue.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  Combat OOC: The fight continues.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  What are you going to use to shoot?

Private Combat OOC: This action takes 15 seconds.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  Combat OOC: -Writing Break- With no nearby resistance, an white gazelle succeeded in escaping the altercation, and will be free to go after a writing break.

                (You may enter 'continue' to skip the break, or 'wait' to extend the break if you need.)

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  

continue

Combat OOC: you - marked to continue.

Combat OOC: an white gazelle - marked to continue.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  OOC (Dice): constitution - 63

You feel dull pain from your wound but it seems to be healing.

Combat OOC: The fight continues.

- Health: 81%% - Will: 100%% - Endurance: 100%% -  Combat OOC: The fight ends. Any queued moves will no longer be executed.
 

Whether I use that sling or another, no matter what I do, slings... don't seem to work.

Is this what using a bow is like? These are the right commands, according to helpfiles, but I cannot for the life of me get the weapontype to work. Anyone spot my errors? Any advice?

Javelins, also, seem to not be especially useful, or perhaps even capable of damage. Three for three stunning hits go like this:

Game Snippet:
throw javelin at gazelle
OOC (Dice): finesse + aim - 101
OOC (Dice): grace + javelins - 58
You hurl a well-made steel javelin at an white gazelle.
(You notice someone moving stealthily!)
A well-made steel javelin strikes an white gazelle in the left eye with a stunningly direct hit!
OOC: This action takes 15 seconds.
OOC (Dice): luck - 13
-
look gazelle
an white gazelle
Slender and nimble, this <name> has a graceful body covered with a soft <haircolor> coat above a white belly and chest, over <skincolor> skin. It has <eyecolor> eyes set prominently in its long and delicate face, while long and almost delicate black horns sweep backward from its head in an elegant curve.
She has a slight redness on the left eye.

And again:
throw javelin at gazelle
OOC (Dice): finesse + aim - 91
OOC (Dice): grace + javelins - 58
You hurl a well-made steel javelin at an white gazelle.
(You notice someone moving stealthily!)
A well-made steel javelin strikes an white gazelle in the left eye with a stunningly direct hit!
OOC: This action takes 15 seconds.
OOC (Dice): luck - 13
-(You notice someone moving stealthily!)
An white gazelle bolts east.
-

And finally:
throw javelin at gazelle
OOC (Dice): finesse + aim - 75
OOC (Dice): grace + javelins - 57
You hurl a well-made steel javelin at an white gazelle.
(You notice someone moving stealthily!)
A well-made steel javelin strikes an white gazelle in the back with a stunningly direct hit!
OOC: This action takes 15 seconds.
OOC (Dice): luck - 14

Leading to:
an white gazelle
Slender and nimble, this <name> has a graceful body covered with a soft <haircolor> coat above a white belly and chest, over <skincolor> skin. It has <eyecolor> eyes set prominently in its long and delicate face, while long and almost delicate black horns sweep backward from its head in an elegant curve.
She has a faint pink contusion on the back, a slight redness on the head, a slight redness on the left eye, other smaller wounds, and a slight redness on the right horn.

...so, yes, it seems slings and javelins might both have some difficulties in functioning.

I can't comment on the slings, unfortunately, but...

For the javelins, I think you might just be running into the fact that gazelles are Lovecraftian monsters with insane health/resistance to dying. With the wounds, that looks to me like it's working to hurt, but the stunning hits are doing blunt damage (hence the contusions/redness wounds). Granted, they don't seem to be *stunning*, but I'd lay that at the feet gazelles tend to pass checks like crazy.

This still does mean in a practical sense javelins aren't "working", but I suspect it's a more universal problem. Not sure if that makes you feel better... Alpha weirdness, it's inevitable!

Thank you, but that doesn't seem to be the issue(though the time-to-kill on a gazelle is there). The javelin does perfectly acceptable damage when wielded in a melee, like so:

GAME SNIPPET:
You draw a well-made steel javelin back and jab towards an white gazelle's right eye.

The stab sinks harshly in upon an white gazelle's right eye.
Blood is gushing from an white gazelle's right eye.

It's just that when thrown, it doesn't seem to have any significant damage roll. (I enabled damage rolls for testing, but didn't save the log for their numbers, and it seems they don't save in the website's autolog).

ETA: the above wound left a 'deep' wound, for example; a far cry different from the slight redness. Thrown daggers might be worth testing as well, but javelins certainly don't seem to function as a thrown weapon, merely a wielded one.

It being a contusion has me suspect throw is possibly the wrong verbage to attack with the javelin, that it may just be simply throwing it at the gazelle. (throwing objects hit but usually just bruise, like a rock)  Aiming being for ranged my guess is shoot instead of throw (even though it isn't a bow) I tried to spawn a javelin into arena to test but no luck yet.

I could see that, though if you look at the snippet, both Aim and Javelin are rolled for, and help throw mentions it being the command for dangerous weaponry too:

If the thing you are throwing has the potential to cause serious harm, you may need to aim first, and this will begin combat. Otherwise you can throw light, non-weapon items just for fun. These may still cause harm, but just some small bruises.

Aha, so I got that messaging about potential harm with the warspear just trying to throw it. So I aimed and on throwing it did 20 damage each time, so I think that is a bug. Then I just throw salmon unaimed, so here is the result after (edited to add)

throw warspear at chick
OOC (Dice): finesse + aim - 47

HP:54% END:33% WILL:100% >
You hurl a steel-tipped warspear at an innocent chick.

HP:54% END:33% WILL:100% >
A steel-tipped warspear strikes an innocent chick in the chest with a stunningly direct hit!

He has a slight redness on his right paw. (damage: 20)
He has a slight redness on his breast. (damage: 20)



 

throw salmon at rooster
OOC (Dice): finesse + aim - 47

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% >
You hurl a pile of 3 cuts of salmon fillet at a runty rooster.

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% >
A pile of 3 cuts of salmon fillet strikes a runty rooster in the back with a stunningly direct hit!

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% >
OOC: This action takes 15 seconds.

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% -
OOC (Dice): luck - 38

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% -
OOC: You may now perform another action.

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% >
diagnose rooster
OOC (Dice): intuition + first aid - 55

HP:53% END:50% WILL:100% >
You take stock of a runty rooster.
He has a faint pink contusion on his back. (damage: 10)
 

This is the funniest way possible to test this problem.

Trusty debug salmon.

To be more helpful, I loaded in an arena character and experimented, and yeah, I just COULD NOT get the sling to work.

For comparison, with archery, you get the same "What are you going to use to shoot?" message if you don't have arrows in your quiver, but as long as arrows are in there (or another worn container) it'll pull from it naturally.

With the sling, stones in inventory, hand, quiver, or a belt pouch all didn't seem to be recognized. In a fit of madness I even tried putting stones inside the sling (they don't fit) and various other commands.