Bow skill, archery

[dkoor]

Hey guys, just popped in to ask about archery skill in game... what are the best way to increase it?

I followed some advice about building an archery range, it's basically a very long house

x=wall
*=floor & ceiling
d=door

x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
x*x
xdx


Shoot roughly about 100 arrows from which some 20 hit the door... but I got 0 skill increase!

Then I went roaming a bit, encountered a stag, missed with first arrow but second one from almost double distance hit.
I got 1% skill increase . Not sure what to conclude here.

My Bow skill is currently 57%, Spear skill 37%... and I mention that because it's more likely that I'll hit with javelin from closer distance than with bow... or it's at least on par chance which doesn't make sense to me. I'll just say that if things are serious I'd definitely use javelin.
I also tend to enter fight or hunt with less than 10% overall penalty.
I have Masterwork Northern and Masterwork Longbow.

Any input/thoughts? Thanks!

[dkoor]

Small update...
I actually tried to shoot Eagle Owl that ended up caught in one of my traps... but since my dog constantly entered line of fire I hit him 3 times instead of owl!
And I got 1% bow skill increase! From 57->58 with less than 10 arrows fired.
Range was around 10 tiles, which is pretty close.

Will try to shoot in range again next day(s) and see what happens.
I have a good stack of arrows that I purchased just for this reason (increasing skill).

PS. on skill screen, I have 3 little stars on bows, indicating that I should be getting increase fairly easy.

[PALU]

Do you know you can edit your post instead of double post?

My experience with bow skill grinding is that it takes 100-200 shots to increase the skill one point for a fairly skilled character (around 70?). Also, range doesn't seem to matter, so when I did grind I just fired at the ground in front of my feet, as my initial attempts to fire at a wall consumed arrows at a frightening rate (I expected to run out of my 70 or so arrows before three skill point were achieved as the loss rate was about 10-20%).

It's speculated that firing at live targets has a better chance for a skill increase, as well as a longer range possibly being useful. If you're going to use captive creatures for target practice (sacrificing the skin), I'd recommend using blunt arrows, as they ought to harm the target less (and thus let the target live longer to take more hits).

There are two ways to avoid hitting your dog:
- Leash the dog to a tree.
- Equip an arrow first and fire afterwards if the path (including the cone of misfiring) is clear. If you fire from the inventory you're performing a two step action which allows the dog to enter the line of fire. I separate the cocking and firing steps in combat to allow for me to act on what happens during the cocking step.

[dkoor]

Thanks for your input .
Yeah, you're right, I got back to my shooting range and shoot roughly 150 arrows from which 40-50 hit my intended target - door and I got 1 pct skill increase. And I got about 8 broken arrows with 0 losses in the process. That is ofc 'cos I have this "shooting range", basically a long narrow house that took me most of the winter to build. I think it will be worthwile in the long run.
Now sitting on 62% bow skill.

I also noticed that I fairly regularly hit now with bow (hunting/combat) as long as I'm in close range and have little penalties.
That's ok too... you can't really expect to hit something moving in forest at edge of zoomed out screen (would be what, around 50m?)... for a fairly skilled archer I'd expect to hit a moving target from say 20m or so, large animal like deer, but on larger distances I wouldn't expect a regular hit on moving target.

It's very hard to hit anything fast/erratic moving pattern with a gun let alone bow.

Also.... which one would be considered as "better" bow (and in which situations, if there's a difference), Northern or Longbow? I have both at max quality, Norther is pound lighter but from what I gathered also less precise than Longbow.

[PALU]

Unfortunately, the longbow is the best one, with no niches where other types are better.