cRPG

cRPG => Suggestions Corner => Game Balance Discussion => Topic started by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 07:19:34 am

Title: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 07:19:34 am
This is pre-patch .261, so currently outdated (IE archers may deal a little less damage on average)

New Edit:
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WARNING! THIS POST IS FUCKING LONG

There are a lot of archery threads around right now.

A lot of people are saying a lot of things about archery. 
Archery is EZ-mode.
Archery is under-powered. 
Archery is broken because of bodkins. 
Archery kills in 2-3 hits. 
Archers should avoid firing into melee. 
Archers should fire into melee. 
Archery is over powered. 

Archery is for pussies.

Everyone has something to say about archery, but there never seems to be enough hard evidence.
I'm hoping that I can at least provide some context with this thread, so at the very least we can frame the archer whine-fest with a semblance of truth.

What I did:
I spent some time during the course of a few days to keep track of the amount of hits it took me to kill a wide assortment of poor suckers helpful test subjects, using a controlled distance while recording what their strength, ironflesh, and total body armor (chest + gloves) were.  I would kill each subject 1-3 times from short, medium, and long range.  In the end I had roughly 25 kills from each range, or about 75 individual tests in all.  Still plenty of room for variation, but enough tests that the findings should hold up fairly well.

The Facts of the Experiment:
My Build:  At the time of the test my build was 17/21.  I had 5 Power Draw, and 163 archery wpf.  I had an effective armor weight of 5, so a negligible decrease in effective weapon proficiency.

My Equipment: I used a Masterworked Horn Bow (27 cut) and Masterworked Bodkins (4 pierce) for a raw 31 pierce damage.  This is 1 more pierce than a vanilla Rus Bow and vanilla Bodkins, and 1 less pierce than a vanilla Long Bow and vanilla Bodkins.  Therefore please note that my damage is probably around the mid range for archers who use Bodkins at this time (more powerful than most non-loomed bows, but a bit less powerful than the heirloomed 2-slot archers out there). 

My Distance Interpretation:  I told test subjects to stand by the dead tree centered in the pictures below (the one with bodies all around it; I affectionately refer to it now as "the murder tree"), and I would target body shots from the location you see me take my screenshots from.  I know that these distances are arbitrary, but in the heat of battle I consider these to be rough guidelines of what constitutes practical 'short, medium, and long' shots.

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My Findings:

Against Targets With 80+ HP:
Most hits to kill: 9  (Target: 80 hp, 72 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill: 4  (Target: 87 hp, 54 body armor AND 85 hp 71 body armor.  Occurred on short & mid distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  5.3 (out of 9 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range:  5.5 (out of 8 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range: 6.125  (out of 8 total tests)

Against Targets with 64-76 HP:
Most hits to kill:  7  (Target: 76 hp, 68 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill:  3  (Target: 65 hp, 52 body armor.  Short distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  4.08  (out of 12 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range:  4  (out of 12 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range:  4.25  (out of 12 total tests)

Against Targets with 62 or less HP:
  Note: A level 1 peasant was included in this round which may lower average hits to kill numbers slightly
Most hits to kill:  3  (Target:  55 hp, 46 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill: 1  (Target: 38 hp,  9 body armor.  Any distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  1.57  (out of 7 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range: 1.4  (out of 5 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range:  1.6  (out of 5 total tests)

(light armor tests need more work; not enough tests and peasant testing threw numbers.  Without the peasant included tests would average 2 hits for short and medium range, 2.5 for long)

My Conclusions:

More testing will need to be done now that I have 6 power draw.  But ultimately I don't think that bodkins are quite as overpowered as people seem to say regarding the heavy armored tincans. 

Bodkins will kill tin cans in about 5 or 6 hits on the average.
Bodkins will kill mid-heavy troops in about 4 hits on the average.
Bodkins will kill lighter troops in about 2-3 hits on the average.


Keep in mind there are going to be a lot of archers that use non heirloomed bows, or use cut type arrows, and in those cases their average hit-to-kill numbers will probably be from 1 to many hits higher on the average (esp. when dealing with tin cans).  Similarly there will be heirloomed heavy power draw longbowmen who will probably bring the average hits to kill number down by 1 max (so maybe 4-5 for tin cans, 3 for mid-heavy, 2 for lighter).

Other hunches; general things I found interesting:
-hp mattered more than armor for survival
-distance didn't seem to make AS large a difference as I originally thought.  Perhaps I wasn't far enough away on my 'long' tests
-If you are a standard infantry type with decent (50 ish) body armor you'll likely survive 4 hits from archers in general.  It takes quite a bit of strength and armor to reliably survive 5 or more, so it probably isn't worth it.
-board shield w/ 600 hp survived 20 arrows. Low armor, but I did about 30 damage a shot.  Shields rule basically for ranged (duh)

I'll see if I can update more when I have time.

E: I almost forgot:  Thanks to everyone who gave a bit of time FOR SCIENCE!
Credits to test subjects:
Sageroth
Jeff
Captain_Insano_WCO
Passion
Assassino_Extremo
Sedurut
Wolfgang
Blade
Voester
Morr
Gzack
Tom_Cruise
Ninja_blood
Wintersong
Ninja_djnipsy
Grandpa Joe Has altheimers (thanks for skewing the results you peasant jerk!)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Miley on October 14, 2011, 07:41:24 am
O0o...
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Liveon on October 14, 2011, 08:12:37 am
The most important is PD- your build is, ekhm, atypical (17?) and ineffective(imho).
The best/OP archers have a (absolute minimum) >+6 PD (exception is  HA, but they are  speed premium for damage).

BTW, Archers are not OP- good archers are OP:), just like a good 1h/2h/xbows/cavs.
Another thing; that there are too many(low diff for topbows, imho)...
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 14, 2011, 08:18:33 am
What I've noticed is that Rus Bow and Longbow tends to 2hit while other bows are a lot less threatening.. Probably something to do with the PD requirements, too.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: The_Angle on October 14, 2011, 08:19:11 am
''The Inconvenient Truth'' made this thread feel like I just opened a Wikileaks Article.

*Edit* Its a good read and I hope that this could perhaps silence those who blame archery for its apparent OPestry upon loose facts or lies.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Prpavi on October 14, 2011, 09:43:06 am
I appreciate the time you took to do this test and hats off to you for this.

Would like to see it done with proper 6 and 7 PD.

Also u must realise most people are bothered by sheer ammount of ranged on the servers not individuals or individual damage, yes i can sucessfully dodge one archer shooting at me but 5 or more no way.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: rufio on October 14, 2011, 10:01:38 am
so basicly its not op that u can ~3~4 shot people with a hit and run build like yours, witch you will outrun most people with in archer gear. and now be a nice little archer and take 7+ pd like the moar dedicated real archers and see how u will rofl about, oh yeah and go hang on some cliffside or hard to reach place to where u totally take advantedge of the movement in this game, and oh hi you so eazy to hit right now moving slowly towards me hihihihi, ur only option is to run from me har har, better run better run run from my bow,  oh adn while u at it take 2 archer friends at position urself a few meters appart from eachother, and see how ur effectiveness quahunderdfuckindrouples. while u at it try communicating with them like ok lets hit this guy first, ye if u hit him the other 2 of u will have free hits to, ye ye  lets do that. omg haha i think i like this game now, we can own everybody together guys, omg your such a genius , i have waited so long for a game where i could finally own everybody without actually having to be a decent gamer.

to the point , yes maybe slightly maybe atm its ballanced if this was a deathmatch type of game where u wher  a lone wolf sniper facing your enemys. but il give u a reality check this is supposed to be a teambased game where u work together , and oh oh oh dous the realisation sink in that maybe then your class is still the most op thing out there, currently challenged by a line of throwers.

ONLY SOLUTION DECREASE DRAW SPEED OR DECREASE DAMAGE , preferrable abit of both

(this is not directed at poster directly since his research is great and appretiated and only backing up my whine, its directed to the fairy class users in general )
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 14, 2011, 10:28:57 am

ONLY SOLUTION DECREASE DRAW SPEED OR DECREASE DAMAGE , preferrable abit of both


I dont think your opinion is an educated one. Archers already populate the bottom of the score boards, if anything, damage needs to be increased and the reticule needs to hold out for 2 extra seconds so archers can aim properly. And people should whine about effectiveness, there's a reason why almost every melee fighter had a shield back in the day. Unlike crpg.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: rufio on October 14, 2011, 10:34:28 am
I dont think your opinion is an educated one. Archers already populate the bottom of the score boards, if anything, damage needs to be increased and the reticule needs to hold out for 2 extra seconds so archers can aim properly. And people should whine about effectiveness, there's a reason why almost every melee fighter had a shield back in the day. Unlike crpg.

you seem to be talking out of context here im not talking about realism here im talking about ballance in this ''''game'''' witch is arguably far from realism. asin  to give a simple example: an archer u can power block eny weapon witch isnt crushthrough  with a cicle, and if i was bothered i could probbably write several pages arguing as in how this game isnt as it was back in the day, thanks for sharing your oppinion thow good sir. oh and yes i know from hours and hours of waisting my life away in this game that archers do actually top the scoreboards to.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Prpavi on October 14, 2011, 10:45:32 am
I dont think your opinion is an educated one. Archers already populate the bottom of the score boards, if anything, damage needs to be increased and the reticule needs to hold out for 2 extra seconds so archers can aim properly. And people should whine about effectiveness, there's a reason why almost every melee fighter had a shield back in the day. Unlike crpg.

yesss u speak the gospel my dear man!
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Paul on October 14, 2011, 10:52:47 am
Rufio, what do you think is the average k/d-ratio of a footarcher and a foot 2h guy? Both above level > 25. The abominable archer must surely be at least on par or more likely be above the meager melee man, right?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Dezilagel on October 14, 2011, 10:58:28 am
Good thread, but as said 7-9 PD Rus/longbow users are what's really causing the rage on the servers atm.

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 14, 2011, 10:59:37 am
I dont think your opinion is an educated one. Archers already populate the bottom of the score boards, if anything, damage needs to be increased and the reticule needs to hold out for 2 extra seconds so archers can aim properly. And people should whine about effectiveness, there's a reason why almost every melee fighter had a shield back in the day. Unlike crpg.

No they don't. Only bad archers just like bad 2h or bad shielders. Good archers are usually 1st (depends on map) or close to the top, just like 2h. Cav, on the other hand, are usually 1st no matter the map (only dense cities are problem for those bastards) and don't need to be particularly good players to do good because their victims are usually completely braindead.

Also K/D =/= skill

Quote
Rufio, what do you think is the average k/d-ratio of a footarcher and a foot 2h guy? Both above level > 25. The abominable archer must surely be at least on par or more likely be above the meager melee man, right?

Let me guess, it's more of those statistics of yours? :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Tennenoth on October 14, 2011, 11:00:14 am
As an archer who runs around with a base 6PD (18 strength), Masterwork Bodkin arrows, Masterwork Longbow & 159 wpf I could quite happily help you with these tests if you wish. I am willing to jump onto a duel server and set up a similar distance and do a similar amount of tests.

I could probably collar Gisbert in to help as well, with his 7(?) PD, 173(?) wpf, Masterwork Longbow and Masterwork Bodkin arrows.

Also, on top of that, I am able to see specific hp levels (by percentage) due to being an admin and the "show player names cheat" so this could help give a more accurate representation of the exact damage each hit is doing, on average, at a specific distance, specific height, power draw, weapon prof etc etc. (I'm sure no one would mind the use of this in course of scientific experimentation that would benefit the community.)

From the top of my head, I have to say I do do a reasonable amount of damage, but most of my kills come from close range kiting of silly two handers. I normally kill medium armoured people (50 body armour) in three shots (unless they increase my speed bonus my jumping at me or running towards me/doing the idiot spin dance that we all know is completely ineffective)

So yes, in short, i'm quite happy to give a different view point on this as well.

Finally, this is perfectly true:

Also K/D =/= skill
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Raki on October 14, 2011, 11:01:59 am
If I may ask, why are people screaming "NERF NERF" when a good archer manages to top the boards, but there isn't a human being around that's really complaining about the other 90% of the maps (rough estimate) when the boards are topped by a skilled 2her, polearm user or shielder?
Cav's in the same boat as archery btw, no-one likes being bumpslashed in half by some random my old friend with a semi-indestructible armored horse. :P (lance cav topping the boards can be impressive imo)

Anyway, a skilled archer is just as dangerous as any other skilled player. I think that's called balance...
Sure, 3 archers working together can be deadly for anyone without a shield, but then again, that's probably why shields exist in the first place. Also, if you look at groups of 3 cav, 3 shielders or 3 2h/polearm players, I think it all evens out. (unprepared people don't stand a chance)

Thanks for the tests on the killing ability of archers, MrShine.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 14, 2011, 11:10:54 am
oh and yes i know from hours and hours of waisting my life away in this game that archers do actually top the scoreboards to.

On ocasion even I do, if most of my foes are noobs of peasants. The facts remain however, just go to crpg1 and see for yourselfs. It would be interesting if the devs here had a function to compare classes and kill counts in the crpg database. And you dont need to tell me that crpg is realistic(althought the devs strive to make it so), most players are shieldless conan wannabes running around the field. Some with arrows sticking out of their chests like it doesn't make a difference, yet still complaining about archery...

How do you think any archer feels when most shots are misses, and when they hit anyting its rarely a kill?

edit: Being shot is annoying, though that shouldn't be a reason for archery to be nerfed
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 14, 2011, 11:14:27 am
Who are you and on which server you play?

Quote
How do you think any archer feels when most shots are misses, and when they hit anyting its rarely a kill?

A little bit better than a 2H dude, same level of knowledge who decided to approach me on his own just to find out that I can block most of his attacks and even when I make mistake he hits me in the body with his sword which is about 8-15% HP taken from me... on the other hand that one archer hit is about 20-25% HP taken from me and he's still far away and keep running :wink:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 14, 2011, 11:25:22 am
Who are you and on which server you play?

At the moment Im that bald annoying little whiner called Ulmar, and I stay away from the larger servers. Its mostly crpg4, pecores, nordsmen,... for me.

When you say that a good archer can be a good blocker in melee, you're implying that we can actualy stand up to the melee fighters, when we have only a few wp points there and crap melee weapons.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Digglez on October 14, 2011, 11:31:29 am
Good thread, but as said 7-9 PD Rus/longbow users are what's really causing the rage on the servers atm.

actually no, its the rapid fire high WPF archers that rip people a new one.  They are fast enough to kite you forever and can continue shooting at the drop of a hat, unlike xbows that you cant reload if you chase after them.  It used to take them 5+ shots to take down medium infantry, now they can kill you with as little as 2 shots or even 1 headshot

Now say 3 enemy hornbow archers that used to be a moderate threat to medium infantry are now a death sentence because all their shots are going thru your paper mache armor.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: IR_Kuoin on October 14, 2011, 11:35:45 am
Most archers aren't OP only the ones with full mw is, and unexperienced archers are realy easy to dodge, especally if your agi is high
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: karasu on October 14, 2011, 11:39:55 am
People forget that this is a War simulator. Not a God Complex simulator. You're expected to kill and die. If you're getting killed too much by a certain class, adapt. I don't see Cooties (p.e.) complaining about it, and he still tops scores constantly while being a Boromir, with a shield on his back.

Wars were won with tactics, shieldwalls, ranged waves, timed cavalry support, and engineered equipment. Not by Boromirs.

While being an archer in this mod, specially now, you're already gimped by the simple fact that the jump shooting was removed, but the jump swinging is still here, even though no one on his perfect mind would jump and swing heavy metal weaponry to try and hit something, this isn't Hollywood. And this "feature" was a great help against cav specially.

Also add the fact that a simple hit from an arbalest/lance/2hCav/1hCav/poleaxes/2handers is enough to kill a dedicated archer.

Sure they don't wear expensive armor and expensive lightsabers, but if you keep in mind the ultimate truth that 95% of the time, when a round ends the bodkin stacks are repair (350+ each), adding a bow for almost 700, and a side weapon if you have a build like that (like mine, and tenne p.e.) adding more 500+, and still having in mind how squishy an archer is even paying hard for it, you might start seeing things differently.

Before whining, put yourself in a Neutral position, and reflect about every single fact weighting in the final formula.


PS: also, my signature.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: rufio on October 14, 2011, 11:43:46 am
Rufio, what do you think is the average k/d-ratio of a footarcher and a foot 2h guy? Both above level > 25. The abominable archer must surely be at least on par or more likely be above the meager melee man, right?

paul im sick of ur and eny others k\d individualism remarks being brought so smirk, yes i know archers dont have high k/d, but for me this game should be ballanced to teamplay, probably something you rareley do , ur a number cruncher, a statistics man. and thats all fine, but dont start shoving your statistics taken from random matches and set test inviorments into our faces.
the fact is movement is slow in this game, so ranged whatever damage will always be op. there is bareley cover in most maps, shieldwalls bareley work as cover while advancing. and it is when you start coordinating the classes together that you realise that archery / throwing is op. and yes i do so. you know what i do when we do some nice synergy play? i protect my fuckin archers, and that fuckin wins me the matches, because next to them stunning people and picking off targets together, they fuckin kill shit from RANGE. and if they dont kill they will have wounded people so significalty that i can 1 shot them. and it is form this experience that i conclude that i find archery op , not because in pug rounds i get killed by them and take huge damage, no because that for me when i keep my archers alive it feels close to cheating. i want volley shots back , u know that melee get showered by 3/4 waves of arrows , that dont do immence ammounts off damage before they then ingage into the melee fight.  as it currently is and prove me wrong  if u can,  a shield wall of throwers and archers behind them will OWN eny other setup against them, like really OOOOWWWWWNNNN.


oh ye im a 1handed shielder cav with greatlance for all people with theyr borimir remarks out there.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Slamz on October 14, 2011, 11:53:03 am
Another good test would be to try and compare accuracy.  Have a PD 5 Horn Bow user and a PD 7 Longbow user both shoot at a shielder from "long range" and compare hit rates.  Give them both 5 shots to zero in on the target (target does not move) and then have then both fire 20 more arrows and compare the miss rate.

I think what we'd find is that while high PD archers can kill in 2-3 "hits", it's actually 5-7 "shots", purely due to the inherent inaccuracy of archery.  Doesn't matter if the archer himself is 100% dead accurate -- the arrows themselves are not, especially over modest distances.



I think the REAL problem is that people create builds like:
30/9
10 IF
10 PS
2 Athletics
3 WM
130 2H wpf
0 ability to do anything about ranged

...and then they complain about ranged.

It's like a 1H shielder running around with a warhammer in an open field and complaining about cavalry.  Maybe you should... I dunno... get something to counter your nemesis?

"But I don't wanna adapt!  Wanna make single minded build and pwn everything with it!"
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Arrowblood on October 14, 2011, 11:59:16 am
ill say nothing to archery whine....
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 14, 2011, 12:09:25 pm
ill say nothing to archery whine....

Duly noted, good sir.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Liveon on October 14, 2011, 12:18:25 pm
I think the REAL problem is that people create builds like:
30/9
10 IF
10 PS
2 Athletics
3 WM
130 2H wpf
0 ability to do anything about ranged

...and then they complain about ranged.

Error, correct power build(for 30lvl):

Strength: 30
Agility: 9
Hit points: 85
Skills to attributes: 8

Ironflesh: 10
Power Strike: 10
Weapon Master: 3
Athletics:0

Two Handed/Pole: 130 wpf


Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Slamz on October 14, 2011, 12:39:43 pm
Athletics:0
Even better!

Nothing says "take your time aiming, I won't be there anytime soon" like 0 athletics.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Mihilist on October 14, 2011, 01:16:10 pm
I think the REAL problem is that people create builds like:
30/9
10 IF
10 PS
2 Athletics
3 WM
130 2H wpf
0 ability to do anything about ranged

...and then they complain about ranged.

It's like a 1H shielder running around with a warhammer in an open field and complaining about cavalry.  Maybe you should... I dunno... get something to counter your nemesis?

"But I don't wanna adapt!  Wanna make single minded build and pwn everything with it!"

Archery is fine -- 2handers/poles need to grow a pair.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: rufio on October 14, 2011, 01:54:03 pm
fuck archery
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 14, 2011, 02:04:11 pm
Yeah, fucking archers!
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Vibe on October 14, 2011, 02:07:31 pm
But ultimately I don't think that bodkins are quite as overpowered as people seem to say regarding the heavy armored tincans. 

No,

chuck testa
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 02:26:57 pm
Hello, thanks for all the positive feedback!

Some responses:
The most important is PD- your build is, ekhm, atypical (17?) and ineffective(imho).
The best/OP archers have a (absolute minimum) >+6 PD (exception is  HA, but they are  speed premium for damage).
My lvl 30 build is 18/21 this gen, so I am getting 6 PD.  The thought came to me as I was close to hitting 30 and figured it might be useful to check the damage I am doing now, and then see how much it really changes when I go to 6 PD.  I included the fact I had 17 strength because I saw a damage algorithm from Paul which made it appear that raw strength has a slight impact on arrow damage.

Using bodkin arrows though I think having 5 PD seems to be working just fine.  It will be interested to see how much of a true change in average number of hits I will get when I hit 6 PD.  I have a hunch that I might decrease the min/max numbers of hits it takes per kill, but I bet averages won't drop too terribly much.

What I've noticed is that Rus Bow and Longbow tends to 2hit while other bows are a lot less threatening.. Probably something to do with the PD requirements, too.
As I mentioned I am using MW Bodkins & MW Horn Bow, which does 1 damage more than a vanilla rus bow.  So the averages I posted regarding hits -> kill  will likely translate for most Rus Bow users, however of course someone with a MW Rus & Bodkins will do more damage.  I can't see the average hits to kill for mid-heavy people going from 4 to 2, but I could see it being closer to 3, with the occasional 2 shot. Of course this is just speculation.

I appreciate the time you took to do this test and hats off to you for this...Thanks! :)
...Also u must realise most people are bothered by sheer ammount of ranged on the servers not individuals or individual damage, yes i can sucessfully dodge one archer shooting at me but 5 or more no way.

I agree, you'll have a hard time dodging 5 archers.  But does that mean archery needs to be nerfed to make it possible for you to survive 5 archers shooting at you?  I don't think so - since this is a team game that means there are 5 archers who are NOT shooting at 4 of your teammates.  I don't think the game should be balanced around 1v1 paper scissors rock, but it does need to take that sort of balance into consideration.  In melee 2 teammates who know what they are doing should take down any other melee player in probably 90%+ of all instances, provided they are working together effectively.

so basicly its not op that u can ~3~4 shot people with a hit and run build like yours, witch you will outrun most people with in archer gear. and now be a nice little archer and take 7+ pd like the moar dedicated real archers and see how u will rofl about,
The biggest complaints I've heard were from people claiming that bodkin arrows needed to be reverted to cut, and discussion that the lower tiered bows became too powerful with pierce damage.  I started with the lowest possible PD needed for my bow, to see how much truth there was to these claims.  You can see the results, which I think prove that a) a 15/24 hornbow archer can be effective, and b) a 15/24 hornbow archer will probably average between 3-5 hits to kill someone.

I think that longbow users are actually doing quite similar damage to what they were doing pre-bodkin patch, since they always had pierce.   In fact I would be willing to bet that the highest PD longbowmen will only ever get their average down to something like 2-3 hits, but will have to sacrifice a bunch of accuracy to attain that.  I think 2-4 hit average is a much more realistic total for someone with 7 or 8 PD and a MW longbow.

Also remember that while my build can "run 'n gun" I'm not going to be close to 100% accuracy per shot.  It is probably honestly closer to something like 35-40% in the midst of battle with people moving around in these middle range type situations.  So 3-4 hits will probably translate into 8 or 9 arrows.  I don't think bodkins deserve a huge nerf, but perhaps a very slight damage decrease for lower tier bows (followed by a longbow buff of some sort, and maybe a slight buff to non-bodkin arrows to make them more appealing) might not be a bad idea.

As an archer who runs around with a base 6PD (18 strength), Masterwork Bodkin arrows, Masterwork Longbow & 159 wpf I could quite happily help you with these tests if you wish. I am willing to jump onto a duel server and set up a similar distance and do a similar amount of tests.

I could probably collar Gisbert in to help as well, with his 7(?) PD, 173(?) wpf, Masterwork Longbow and Masterwork Bodkin arrows.

Also, on top of that, I am able to see specific hp levels (by percentage) due to being an admin and the "show player names cheat" so this could help give a more accurate representation of the exact damage each hit is doing, on average, at a specific distance, specific height, power draw, weapon prof etc etc. (I'm sure no one would mind the use of this in course of scientific experimentation that would benefit the community.)

From the top of my head, I have to say I do do a reasonable amount of damage, but most of my kills come from close range kiting of silly two handers. I normally kill medium armoured people (50 body armour) in three shots (unless they increase my speed bonus my jumping at me or running towards me/doing the idiot spin dance that we all know is completely ineffective)

So yes, in short, i'm quite happy to give a different view point on this as well.

That would be awesome!  By all means if you wanted to do research I'd welcome the additional info (you could post it wherever of course, but if you added  to this thread I could add it to OP data). 

One thing I did not do was test with a standard set of body armor, just because it was easier to grab people at random and record what they were currently wearing & their STR/IF totals.  Similarly I did not do enough (IMO) tests with more of the light-mid infantry, so my results are a bit weak there.  Again if you decide to do testing you are free to test whatever you want since finding specific builds or armor ranges will be much more challenging to just pull from random people :)

But this testing should be quite easy to recreate as long as the ranges are kept similar, and the data from the subject is all recorded.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Dezilagel on October 14, 2011, 02:33:09 pm

Standard values: (c-rpg)

armor_soak_factor_against_cut       = 0.65
armor_soak_factor_against_pierce    = 0.5
armor_soak_factor_against_blunt     = 0.4

armor_reduction_factor_against_cut       = 1.6
armor_reduction_factor_against_pierce    = 1.1
armor_reduction_factor_against_blunt     = 1.3

crpg penetration flag(applied modification for bows, crossbows and thrown)

armor_soak_factor_against_cut       = 0.78
armor_soak_factor_against_pierce    = 0.6
armor_soak_factor_against_blunt     = 0.48

armor_reduction_factor_against_cut       = 0.96
armor_reduction_factor_against_pierce    = 0.36
armor_reduction_factor_against_blunt     = 0.78


This is why hp is much better than armor for absorbing arrows.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 14, 2011, 02:59:39 pm
QQ blah blah blah QQ...

Waiting for you to get bored of archery, go back to xbow, cav, 2h/polearms and start whining about archery :P

***

Also, even tho I think that archery is a bit too good atm I don't mind it. Even now on every archer that kills me I kill five so I'm quite satisfied with that ratio (I like to hunt friendly archers).

But I do mind noobs who come here and whine how archery is still underpowered and how they miss most of the shots and...

Bagge, danko, chico and even koldborn 80% of the time manage to hit me (hard) even if I dodge. How come they don't miss?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: polkafranzi on October 14, 2011, 03:14:02 pm
WARNING! THIS THREAD IS FUCKING LONG

Archery is for pussies.

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 03:24:59 pm
^ That's ultimately the TL;DR version :P
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 14, 2011, 03:50:38 pm
I don't think archery is the problem. Problem with balance of this mod lies in free wpf and effectiveness of pierce damage. Everything that seems OP has something to do with those two things.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Liveon on October 14, 2011, 04:12:38 pm
WARNING! THIS THREAD IS FUCKING LONG
Archery is for pussies.

Naturally, coz pussies archers are OP:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login



Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 14, 2011, 04:50:45 pm
Proof! I want ^ in game!  :o
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MaHuD on October 14, 2011, 04:53:11 pm
She is actually on a horse as well.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 14, 2011, 05:06:31 pm
Hhmm....Nice test all in all, but I consider your long range as mid/short :D


Nice test though, but what does it help balancing archery?

You used only hornbow and 5 pd :/  Lots of archers have other bows and other stats and I for example can easily 2shot a tincan with my 7pd/8wm/mw longbow/mw bodkins ^^
Most archers are below lvl 32 and have a different kind of build, but still people like me count in the mind of all the whiners getting 2shot^^


By the way Rufio, everyone knows you are one of the guys who hate archers most, because everything you would like to see in such a game is man vs man melee battles. So please stop suggesting drawspeed or missilespeednerf or whatever comes into your mind as you have no real idea about archery and due to that you are no real help here  :lol:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 05:33:35 pm
You used only hornbow and 5 pd :/  Lots of archers have other bows and other stats and I for example can easily 2shot a tincan with my 7pd/8wm/mw longbow/mw bodkins ^^
Most archers are below lvl 32 and have a different kind of build, but still people like me count in the mind of all the whiners getting 2shot^^

Please don't take offense, but your post is the sort of thing that I feel can cause a lot of the confusion/misinformation with archery.

"easily 2 shot a tincan" with 7 PD MW longbow?  You might be 2 shotting people in battle who are already hurt, but there is no way that you will be consistently 2 shotting tin cans with a 37 raw pierce damage between a MW longbow & MW bodkins, when my 31 raw pierce damage averaged 5-6 hits per kill on the same tin cans.  If anything I can see the range being something like 2-5 hits, but by no means should you "easily" get a 2 hit kill.  Probably closer to 4 hits on average.  Especially if you consider my long range to be your mid/short.

But by all means you're welcome to do some testing as well and let us know what you find :)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 14, 2011, 06:11:35 pm
Just one thing, do you realize that is possible to have 9/10 pd and 150 wpf at lvl 32/33?

That's just insane, both epic damage and decent accuracy. But archery doesn't have anything to do with that. It's free wpf and wm being useless.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 14, 2011, 06:14:46 pm
Hhhmmm....I can 2 shot a guy in lordly transitional. Sometimes it's 3 and sometimes it's 2. Lordly transitional means 60body armour alone by the armour, gloves not counted (they always wore some^^)

And I remember taking 60% with a long long range shot of a lordly transitional guy with 1 shot.

Tincan has nonloomed about 60body armour, so it is possible for me and not very hard^^


But as already mentioned, not many have a lvl 32 full archer build
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 14, 2011, 06:20:21 pm
Just one thing, do you realize that is possible to have 9/10 pd and 150 wpf at lvl 32/33?

That's just insane, both epic damage and decent accuracy. But archery doesn't have anything to do with that. It's free wpf and wm being useless.

That would make us archers even more hopeless in melee, like flowers ready for plucking.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 10:46:26 pm
Just one thing, do you realize that is possible to have 9/10 pd and 150 wpf at lvl 32/33?

That's just insane, both epic damage and decent accuracy. But archery doesn't have anything to do with that. It's free wpf and wm being useless.

One would think it works that way, but each point into power draw at those high levels decrease accuracy and (I believe) decrease draw speed.  So the 150 wpf that would normally be pretty accurate with 4-6 PD starts to be less effective.  Archers with 9+ (and I would argue 8+) have precision problems.   But as others have said infantry won't remember the 5 missed arrows, just the 1 that hit and hurt alot :)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: karasu on October 14, 2011, 10:50:22 pm
I guess no one read my reply.  :rolleyes:

Oh well, carry on the lobby-ism.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Winterly on October 14, 2011, 10:54:22 pm
Good job Mr. Shine!! :D
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 14, 2011, 10:58:31 pm
Good job Mr. Shine!! :D

Thanks!  Also you reminded me: added credits to the OP  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Taser on October 14, 2011, 11:03:09 pm
Bravo. Nice job but as people have said more people go 8-10 PD rather than 5. I, myself, am a 5 PD archer. I may go to 6 since I'm only 23 or so atm but most people going archer seem to be going for high PD rather than the bare minimum for a horn or rus bow. So it may not actually change anyone's mind on whether archery is OP or not since they're focused on a particular build for archers.

I do applaud this though. Great stuff and if you ever need another archer for comparison, let me know and I'll help for comparison to a high powered archer.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Rogue_Eagle on October 14, 2011, 11:25:25 pm
I have 7PD and a MW rus bow and bodkins.

I don't 2 shot tincans. Usually they take about 3-4.

I can occasionally 2 shot the 36-40 chainmail armour types.

People complain about archers, people complain about cavalry, people complain about pure STR, people complain about swing spammers, people complain about shielders. If you want to just play 2h duels, why not go native and let the rest of us play crpg? I play crpg because I got bored of the lack of control I had over chars in native. All these different types of classes are what make crpg fun to play, it seems that the 2handers that whine the loudest get archery nerfed again and again, ok a couple of nerfs were needed back in the day, but right now I think it's in a good place. A horse can run through an archer no problem. Everything counters something. Perhaps those that complain need to be a bit more flexible and either adapt their char or make a new one that can counter archers rather than run here and complain.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 15, 2011, 12:24:24 am
One would think it works that way, but each point into power draw at those high levels decrease accuracy and (I believe) decrease draw speed.  So the 150 wpf that would normally be pretty accurate with 4-6 PD starts to be less effective.  Archers with 9+ (and I would argue 8+) have precision problems.   But as others have said infantry won't remember the 5 missed arrows, just the 1 that hit and hurt alot :)

That's true.

But (there's always but), such build shouldn't be precise at all just like heavy STR melee build shouldn't be able to stand against moderately AGI based build in terms of attack speed like now is the case.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Rogue_Eagle on October 15, 2011, 12:28:21 am
One would think it works that way, but each point into power draw at those high levels decrease accuracy and (I believe) decrease draw speed.  So the 150 wpf that would normally be pretty accurate with 4-6 PD starts to be less effective.  Archers with 9+ (and I would argue 8+) have precision problems.   But as others have said infantry won't remember the 5 missed arrows, just the 1 that hit and hurt alot :)


I thought they got rid of that PD penalty thing.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 15, 2011, 12:38:53 am
I guess no one read my reply.  :rolleyes:

Oh well, carry on the lobby-ism.

Ofcourse noone cares about your post, because you suggested a neutral view on classes   :shock:  How dare you? That community is not capable of being neutral  :rolleyes:


People complain about archers, people complain about cavalry, people complain about pure STR, people complain about swing spammers, people complain about shielders. If you want to just play 2h duels, why not go native and let the rest of us play crpg? I play crpg because I got bored of the lack of control I had over chars in native. All these different types of classes are what make crpg fun to play, it seems that the 2handers that whine the loudest get archery nerfed again and again, ok a couple of nerfs were needed back in the day, but right now I think it's in a good place. A horse can run through an archer no problem. Everything counters something. Perhaps those that complain need to be a bit more flexible and either adapt their char or make a new one that can counter archers rather than run here and complain.

This!
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 15, 2011, 01:07:50 am
Ofcourse noone cares about your post, because you suggested a neutral view on classes   :shock:  How dare you? That community is not capable of being neutral  :rolleyes:

Nope, he always tries to buff the class he's currently rolling and is never willing to admit it. Typical hypocrite.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Kafein on October 15, 2011, 01:09:53 am
People forget that this is a War simulator. Not a God Complex simulator. You're expected to kill and die. If you're getting killed too much by a certain class, adapt. I don't see Cooties (p.e.) complaining about it, and he still tops scores constantly while being a Boromir, with a shield on his back.

Wars were won with tactics, shieldwalls, ranged waves, timed cavalry support, and engineered equipment. Not by Boromirs.

Okay.

While being an archer in this mod, specially now, you're already gimped by the simple fact that the jump shooting was removed, but the jump swinging is still here, even though no one on his perfect mind would jump and swing heavy metal weaponry to try and hit something, this isn't Hollywood. And this "feature" was a great help against cav specially.

Besides that I personally think that while nocking an arrow while jumping seems more awkward than swinging a piece of metal while jumping, archers can still kite allright. They lost the ability to magically shoot over shields, which seems okay to me (shields countering archers). On the "help against cav" part, it's still possible to dodge without jumping and shoot in the horse or rider. Anyway, a horseman able enough to come into melee range of an archer with his horse/himself alive (more on this later) already has merit for that and shouldn't have too much additionnal trouble for hitting the archer.

Also add the fact that a simple hit from an arbalest/lance/2hCav/1hCav/poleaxes/2handers is enough to kill a dedicated archer.

It usually is but not always. The main problem being that most people die before this comes into the equation.

Sure they don't wear expensive armor and expensive lightsabers, but if you keep in mind the ultimate truth that 95% of the time, when a round ends the bodkin stacks are repair (350+ each), adding a bow for almost 700, and a side weapon if you have a build like that (like mine, and tenne p.e.) adding more 500+, and still having in mind how squishy an archer is even paying hard for it, you might start seeing things differently.

This isn't close to what a decent horseman has to pay for a very squishy and huge (read arrows will hit) horse, and even more when the horse is easier to hit and a little more resistant.


Before whining, put yourself in a Neutral position, and reflect about every single fact weighting in the final formula.

This formula is much more complex than what many people tend to beleive. The main advantage of archer is the range (quite a dull sentence there). It's very complicated to estimate the average impact of this. However, it shouldn't be forgotten. Archers are defended against cav and inf because especially at very close range, bows are deadly weapons. The best way to kill an archer remains stealth, for both cav and inf, because when an archer spots someone approaching, he can immediatly react and shoot at this opponent, or run away.

In the case of cav, one of the most suicidal things to do is heading towards an aware (or defended, or not close enough to something you can hide behind) archer, as the speed bonus will increase the arrow damage, and the rate of fire makes the time window for "safe" attacking very short (you have to stay very close to the archer in order to maximise the distance yet still be able to reach him before he shoots again, a last second shot is a sure headshot).

This extremely good, ranged defense gives the class big advantages. The raw stats shouldn't be expected to be as high as those of classes that actually have to take much more risks and be the target of much more threats.

People complain about archers, people complain about cavalry, people complain about pure STR, people complain about swing spammers, people complain about shielders. If you want to just play 2h duels, why not go native and let the rest of us play crpg? I play crpg because I got bored of the lack of control I had over chars in native. All these different types of classes are what make crpg fun to play, it seems that the 2handers that whine the loudest get archery nerfed again and again, ok a couple of nerfs were needed back in the day, but right now I think it's in a good place. A horse can run through an archer no problem. Everything counters something. Perhaps those that complain need to be a bit more flexible and either adapt their char or make a new one that can counter archers rather than run here and complain.

I don't get why all the other classes should adapt to archers while archers are sitting somewhere on a roof chanting "Stop whining".
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 15, 2011, 01:13:57 am
Throwers can jump while throw as well...

It's realism argument actually, xbowmen and archers can't because they have to be precise and there aren't any archers who would jump kite IRL. But a person needs a functional brain to get that and sadly some of our forum comrades don't fit the reqs...

Seriously don't take karasu's posting about balance seriously. He cried so hard against archery when he was playing 2h and was actually supporting removal of jump kite. But suddenly (khm khm) he thinks it's unfair... oh my!
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 11:00:00 am
Maybe I haven't been doing any tests depending on how many arrows kill, but I have noticed that shot deals more dmg than hit in melee ( ofc despite left swings of 1h ).
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 15, 2011, 11:20:56 am

It's realism argument actually, xbowmen and archers can't because they have to be precise and there aren't any archers who would jump kite IRL. But a person needs a functional brain to get that and sadly some of our forum comrades don't fit the reqs...


So a guy with plate and a big sword would jumpkill in reallife?   :lol:   :rolleyes:

Nope, he always tries to buff the class he's currently rolling and is never willing to admit it. Typical hypocrite.

He doesn't say anything about buffing a class.
An he is right, there are guy never complaining about classes, so why do some people have to complain about certain classes every day? ;)



This formula is much more complex than what many people tend to beleive. The main advantage of archer is the range (quite a dull sentence there). It's very complicated to estimate the average impact of this. However, it shouldn't be forgotten. Archers are defended against cav and inf because especially at very close range, bows are deadly weapons. The best way to kill an archer remains stealth, for both cav and inf, because when an archer spots someone approaching, he can immediatly react and shoot at this opponent, or run away.

In the case of cav, one of the most suicidal things to do is heading towards an aware (or defended, or not close enough to something you can hide behind) archer, as the speed bonus will increase the arrow damage, and the rate of fire makes the time window for "safe" attacking very short (you have to stay very close to the archer in order to maximise the distance yet still be able to reach him before he shoots again, a last second shot is a sure headshot).

This extremely good, ranged defense gives the class big advantages. The raw stats shouldn't be expected to be as high as those of classes that actually have to take much more risks and be the target of much more threats.


So you say other archers are in less danger and less threatened or targeted by players than other classes? Ever played on servers?^^

It's funny how so many people always say "oh it's so easy as an archer to defend yourself against incoming cav". "It is so easy to headshot a horseguy who trys to kill you."

Blablabla, play an archer for a while and we speak again.

Tell me how I shall draw my bow while constantly getting bumped or slashed by a horseman that trys to kill me. Maybe I'm such a noobarcher after 8 gens and lvl 32 that I can learn something from you guys, as you seem to be the most skilled archers in this game :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 11:29:44 am


Also add the fact that a simple hit from an arbalest/lance/2hCav/1hCav/poleaxes/2handers is enough to kill a dedicated archer.

Sure they don't wear expensive armor and expensive lightsabers, but if you keep in mind the ultimate truth that 95% of the time, when a round ends the bodkin stacks are repair (350+ each), adding a bow for almost 700, and a side weapon if you have a build like that (like mine, and tenne p.e.) adding more 500+, and still having in mind how squishy an archer is even paying hard for it, you might start seeing things differently.



Just wanted to say that I have been lancing archers a lot and I was surprised that they were getting hit with the lance, survived and then blocking everything with hammer downblock. What is more, I couldn't even bump them sometimes because it's not that hard to jump and avoid a horsie if you have 7 ath and nearly no armour on you.

About upkeep. Mind the guy who is wearing good armour ( around 600 to even 1300 for transitional ), good gloves 300 - 500, boots around 200-300, head armour 300-400, weapon 800-1300, sometimes horsie for 1500+ if he wants his horse to survive 2 arrows and die after 3rd. I just wanted to say that an average upkeep for that guy might be FUCKING HUGE!

Archers save their cash on armour, melee weapon, head armour, gloves and boots. I had an archer alt and I was using rly good eq for archers and with x1 for 90% of the time I still managed to have a stable amount of bucks in my pocket.

What is funny is that when 40 % of life is gone by arrow, your battle usefulness is lowered. Your chances of surviving some kind of gangbang are down to eeeee... they are low. And there are ofc some archers that manage to kill 6-7 guys in 1 round as an archer. I think it's a bit too much as for the support class. Even shielders get fucked by some archers trcks like holding shot and spinning with shielder from the distance of 10cm.

Upkeep isn't that high for archers, team usefulness is pretty huge, because you don't need to stay close to the enemy to deal him as much dmg as dedicated melee would do. Also I see a lot of archers dying after 2 hits ( I die after 2-3 ) it means that they survive enough even in shit-armour. Ranged needs to get balanced because there is something wrong. It requires a change for balance not for some kind of truth. Archers would be skilled if they had no aiming tools ^^ even if sb placed something on his screen to see where he is aiming, still the shrinking and stretching aiming tools would require proper timing. It is probably impossible to delete or change archers' aiming tools in any way, because they can always change the textures so they would have aiming tools again...

BTW Karasu I remember you topping the charts as an archer with bodkin and Rusbow. 5 of 6 of my deaths were because of ranged that map... and you were 1-hitting the targets that got hit earlier and 2-hitting the med-armoured fresh guys...

I have another idea of balancing archers. I suggest a new chrushthrough formula that would be based on the weight of the weapon, str and ps and length. it would allow the flamberge to crushthrough the archer's hammer It is funny because 1 of those archers can just keep beckpedalling and blocking a guy with flamberge untill he get's shot by another archer, ofc if it turned out that the archer can't escape from the flamberger. New crushthrough formula would balance the 0 slot weapon blocking. It would be possible to block some 1h swords but not all of the 2h and polearms.

I need to wash the dishes, btw I like whining about the archers.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 11:33:05 am


So you say other archers are in less danger and less threatened or targeted by players than other classes? Ever played on servers?^^

It's funny how so many people always say "oh it's so easy as an archer to defend yourself against incoming cav". "It is so easy to headshot a horseguy who trys to kill you."

Blablabla, play an archer for a while and we speak again.

Tell me how I shall draw my bow while constantly getting bumped or slashed by a horseman that trys to kill me. Maybe I'm such a noobarcher after 8 gens and lvl 32 that I can learn something from you guys, as you seem to be the most skilled archers in this game :rolleyes:


Man remember that is a situation 1 of 1000. in the other 999 you have another archer nearby you who shoots the horseman. Archer is never alone and even if those 2 are far away from eachother they can always teamwork. What is pityful is that you can block a lancier even wihtout a weapon. it's easy to chamber with your fists or just to jump aside.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 15, 2011, 11:35:45 am
Put 6-7 PD, Repeat test

Its the same as if i wanted to test melee dmg. There would be a HUGE difference between 5 PS and 6-7 PS
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 15, 2011, 11:36:53 am
So a guy with plate and a big sword would jumpkill in reallife?   :lol:   :rolleyes:

He could, if he wanted to. People need to drop the common misconception about plate armor
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 12:00:13 pm
Ah there is 1 thing I ahve forgotten to say. Isn't it like that, that when you release an arrow, for the first few meters it's shaking a bit? I mean it looks like" ( " then " | " then " ) " and " | " again? ( Didn't know how to show that :P ) Anyway that arrow is springy and during the first few meters it's not stable and therefore guys in good armours shouldn't get 100% dmg in v. small ranges because if arro hit you in " ) "
position it will just glance or breake. therefore very small ranges should be sefe for melee shouldn't they ?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 12:02:43 pm
Put 6-7 PD, Repeat test

Its the same as if i wanted to test melee dmg. There would be a HUGE difference between 5 PS and 6-7 PS

It would be smaller difference, because PS adds 8% and power draw 14%. Am I right ?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 15, 2011, 01:22:51 pm
He could, if he wanted to. People need to drop the common misconception about plate armor

We've talked about that theme in another thread over a long time.

Sure you can jump and hit. But now try this with full swing and the intention to hit someone and THEN miss you hit because he steps back. All your power put in that swing and your jump will go further and you will just land on your face or arse.

It's the same about all the jumpkicking in martial arts movies. It's good for films etc, but no real fighter would ever do that in reallife, because it's stupid and very dangerous for your own
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 15, 2011, 01:30:57 pm
If you my old friendchers somehow, magically, persuade dev team to remove jump swing from this mod you can have this mod just for yourselves :wink:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 15, 2011, 01:36:34 pm

I got the impression that you were sayin that he couldnt do it because of weight/movement restrictions.

Hence i said he could, if he wanted to.

Is it practial? No

Can he do it? Sure

And thats why it shouldnt be removed, cause if i want to do it i can.

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 15, 2011, 01:59:38 pm
We've talked about that theme in another thread over a long time.

Sure you can jump and hit. But now try this with full swing and the intention to hit someone and THEN miss you hit because he steps back. All your power put in that swing and your jump will go further and you will just land on your face or arse.

It's the same about all the jumpkicking in martial arts movies. It's good for films etc, but no real fighter would ever do that in reallife, because it's stupid and very dangerous for your own

No, jumping and hitting would be and is practical... but only very situationally. Just like in c-RPG. If you just randomly jump around in fights, you'll be a sitting duck when you land.

Check this for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPRU02T0fU&feature=player_detailpage#t=278s
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Overdriven on October 15, 2011, 02:06:20 pm
Check this for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPRU02T0fU&feature=player_detailpage#t=278s

I must say I was quite impressed with the way they designed Achilles fighting style in that film. I always imagined him to be this big hulking guy...kind of old style image of a hero. Instead they used speed and a rather unique fighting style.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: karasu on October 15, 2011, 03:19:09 pm
Regarding Kafeín post:


Quote
Quote from: karasu on Yesterday at 10:39:55

    People forget that this is a War simulator. Not a God Complex simulator. You're expected to kill and die. If you're getting killed too much by a certain class, adapt. I don't see Cooties (p.e.) complaining about it, and he still tops scores constantly while being a Boromir, with a shield on his back.

    Wars were won with tactics, shieldwalls, ranged waves, timed cavalry support, and engineered equipment. Not by Boromirs.


"Okay."

Okay.

Quote
Quote from: karasu on Yesterday at 10:39:55

    While being an archer in this mod, specially now, you're already gimped by the simple fact that the jump shooting was removed, but the jump swinging is still here, even though no one on his perfect mind would jump and swing heavy metal weaponry to try and hit something, this isn't Hollywood. And this "feature" was a great help against cav specially.


"Besides that I personally think that while nocking an arrow while jumping seems more awkward than swinging a piece of metal while jumping, archers can still kite allright. They lost the ability to magically shoot over shields, which seems okay to me (shields countering archers). On the "help against cav" part, it's still possible to dodge without jumping and shoot in the horse or rider. Anyway, a horseman able enough to come into melee range of an archer with his horse/himself alive (more on this later) already has merit for that and shouldn't have too much additionnal trouble for hitting the archer."

In fact this is what caused the even more improved camp-fest on rooftops and running archers, a wonderful "chicken-egg" situation.


Quote
Quote from: karasu on Yesterday at 10:39:55

    Also add the fact that a simple hit from an arbalest/lance/2hCav/1hCav/poleaxes/2handers is enough to kill a dedicated archer.


"It usually is but not always. The main problem being that most people die before this comes into the equation."

In case you haven't noticed yet (as most of the community), archery is a support class, and it works into diminishing the numbers of the enemy army before the infantry clashes, not meanwhile, not after. As so, it's completely normal that the enemy numbers go down before the main fight. Specially now with reduced missile speed, a average archer can only shoot in safety into a melee fight if he stands really close to it, to avoid the risk of team killing, wounding, etc.

Quote
Quote from: karasu on Yesterday at 10:39:55

    Sure they don't wear expensive armor and expensive lightsabers, but if you keep in mind the ultimate truth that 95% of the time, when a round ends the bodkin stacks are repair (350+ each), adding a bow for almost 700, and a side weapon if you have a build like that (like mine, and tenne p.e.) adding more 500+, and still having in mind how squishy an archer is even paying hard for it, you might start seeing things differently.


"This isn't close to what a decent horseman has to pay for a very squishy and huge (read arrows will hit) horse, and even more when the horse is easier to hit and a little more resistant."

Once again, people are yet to realize the intentions towards cavalry from the mod creator. It was supposed to be a "prestige class" due to the simple fact that it is the biggest powerhouse in this mod/game and the biggest tide-turner. A decent cav/lancer p.e. can easily achieve ridiculous amounts of kills even using the "squishy and huge horse" you kindly mention, (take Leed, or Tommy as an example). And the reason behind the increased cost of the mounts prices it's only a measure to counter the huge numbers of cavalry constantly at the game, making it simply unplayable, specially with the number of deser/plains maps on rotation now.
You can imagine 30+ players with a 1 hit kill ability every few seconds and the ability of knocking down opponents while dealing damage as they please.
Also add the fact that it's easier with medium/high ping players to hit the rider than the bugged mount, cause it's immense the amount of arrows that pass by that amazing animal or that every cav rider can bump hit anyone trying to block (yes, sadly even lancers can do it, even if the lance has already passed the target).

Even so this measure wasn't enough, since market allows people to make easily lots of money by either honest trades or scamming like a boss.

This also applies to BlueKnight rage post.  :oops: (btw blueknight, I don't 1 shoot anything that isn't a naked peasant, due to the simple fact that I only have 6 PD (who needs more anyway) and it rains 80% of the time, damn I have to headshot cooties twince almost in point blank in order to kill him with normal weather.  :lol:

Quote
Quote from: karasu on Yesterday at 10:39:55

    Before whining, put yourself in a Neutral position, and reflect about every single fact weighting in the final formula.


This formula is much more complex than what many people tend to beleive. The main advantage of archer is the range (quite a dull sentence there). It's very complicated to estimate the average impact of this. However, it shouldn't be forgotten. Archers are defended against cav and inf because especially at very close range, bows are deadly weapons. The best way to kill an archer remains stealth, for both cav and inf, because when an archer spots someone approaching, he can immediatly react and shoot at this opponent, or run away.

In the case of cav, one of the most suicidal things to do is heading towards an aware (or defended, or not close enough to something you can hide behind) archer, as the speed bonus will increase the arrow damage, and the rate of fire makes the time window for "safe" attacking very short (you have to stay very close to the archer in order to maximise the distance yet still be able to reach him before he shoots again, a last second shot is a sure headshot).

This extremely good, ranged defense gives the class big advantages. The raw stats shouldn't be expected to be as high as those of classes that actually have to take much more risks and be the target of much more threats.



Erm, sure mate, though I wasn't talking about that obvious information.  :rolleyes:

The Paper Rock Scissors method is constantly at work, ranged is good against infantry and horses, horses are good against infantry and ranged, etc etc etc etc yadda yadda.

It's just a matter of how are the classes used, how are the tactics made, and WHO is actually using them.



Quote
Posted by: Leshma
« on: Today at 00:13:57 »


Throwers can jump while throw as well...

It's realism argument actually, xbowmen and archers can't because they have to be precise and there aren't any archers who would jump kite IRL. But a person needs a functional brain to get that and sadly some of our forum comrades don't fit the reqs...

Seriously don't take karasu's posting about balance seriously. He cried so hard against archery when he was playing 2h and was actually supporting removal of jump kite. But suddenly (khm khm) he thinks it's unfair... oh my!


Saddens me how you simply use every single opportunity on the forum to get a "shinning troll moment of fame".

Firstly, you can't govern this videogame by realism arguments only. You can start by the simple example that you can't CUT a heavy armored knight, but game-wise wouldn't make any sense. I believe you're intelligent enough to find another examples without trolling/insulting.

Secondly, I was, and still AM in favor of the removal of jump shooting, but not a lone action, as it was. This only led to even further need of roofcamping, glitch abusing and full athletics running archers, which I simple hate. Yes I'm an hybrid that actually hates camping on roofs, and runners who don't know how to manual block. Deal with it.

And lastly, I don't need your help to make my posts even more disbelieved or ignored, cause it seems to be a reality already for a long time ( I guess it's the counter part of talking my mind openly without fearing repercussions ).

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 03:34:26 pm

btw blueknight, I don't 1 shoot anything that isn't a naked peasant, due to the simple fact that I only have 6 PD (who needs more anyway) and it rains 80% of the time, damn I have to headshot cooties twince almost in point blank in order to kill him with normal weather.  :lol:


It doesn't change the fact that cooties has a build at lvl 33 or 34 and he has a few IF points. Not everyone can afford 6 IF. What is more, you can always hit sb from every distance ( I am not talking about accuracy, just about possibility ) and it is impossible to block arrow until you have a shield. Also if the enemy was hit earlier it's just 1 shot and the enemy is dead.

I have retired yesterday, I have 16 str and 0 IF so far, but I have 50 body armour and today when it was raining I got hit with 2 arrows and around 70% of my life was gone. If there wasn't any rain I would be dead after 2 arrows...
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 03:36:25 pm
And remember that the number of shots to kill sb doesn't show the dmg that they deal. 70% of HP down, still means 2-hitting...


BTW if I placed everything in 1 post nobody would read it.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Remy on October 15, 2011, 04:52:46 pm
What is more, you can always hit sb from every distance ( I am not talking about accuracy, just about possibility )

I can possibly flank an entire enemy team and kill them all with a 1H axe, clearly axes are over powered.  :rolleyes:

There are furthermore several situations when in fact you cannot get a decent shot off...
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Farrok on October 15, 2011, 05:00:16 pm
about jumpslashing:

i don`t know of any fighting techiques with jumpslashing...when its realistic i want a link to that plz...need to learn it xD only because i`m interested in it because i fighting in reallife, being in a fencing school...learning german school fencing like in the late medieval times.

though i would like it better ingame when no one can jumpslash/jumpshot. melee need control over swing(swinging power comes from body not from arms) and range need precision(already worse by jumping and no jumpshooting anymore)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 15, 2011, 05:03:28 pm
As it was said many many times before; You cant remove jump slashing because people would just camp places where you need to jump to and kill the ones that attempt to jump....
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Brutal on October 15, 2011, 05:06:21 pm
The inconveniant true is that it is just way harder for a decent player to get a good k/D ratio with an archer than any other class (especially with non loomed weapons).

If you think I'm wrong either you didn't try archery or you play it 95% of the time . Ask Paul stats don't lie.

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Cup1d on October 15, 2011, 05:13:06 pm
Quote
( I am not talking about accuracy, just about possibility )

Great suggestion.
No, really.

It's possible to kill all enemy team as 1 level peasant with stone in hand.
I am not talking about chances, just about possibility


It's possible to parry all hits with bare hands.
I am not talking about chances, just about possibility


It's possible to marry C.H.A.D.Z.
I am not talking about chances, just about possibility



TBH Xant even in your video Achilles have a pivot. Not just jump, slash-block-slash, then land.
 
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 15, 2011, 05:27:58 pm
TBH Xant even in your video Achilles have a pivot. Not just jump, slash-block-slash, then land.

Well yes, no one would jump and attack exactly like in c-RPG, of course. Limit of the animations. Same goes for everything, from running to attacking - far from how one would do it IRL.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: karasu on October 15, 2011, 06:05:59 pm
It's easy to speak hot headed and whine about things, but try every class in the game at least 1 full generation and then remake every single judgement.

I for once have the "advantage" of having played 7 gens as an skirmisher (bow+2h), 4 gens polearmer, 4 gens cavalry, 3 gens 2 hander, 1 gen 1h/shielder, 2 gens crossbower, 1gen thrower, 1gen HA,  etc... All this alongside on all my characters ofc (the main has only 16 gens), making me realize every single tiny bit of info regarding all the play styles and when I have a doubt, I kindly ask a dev about it, or simple, go pure retard into the code and get some headaches.
And no, I'm not a mentally damage lobbyist hypocrite like leshma kindly stated, for those who're wondering.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Leshma on October 15, 2011, 07:39:15 pm
about jumpslashing:

i don`t know of any fighting techiques with jumpslashing...when its realistic i want a link to that plz...need to learn it xD only because i`m interested in it because i fighting in reallife, being in a fencing school...learning german school fencing like in the late medieval times.

though i would like it better ingame when no one can jumpslash/jumpshot. melee need control over swing(swinging power comes from body not from arms) and range need precision(already worse by jumping and no jumpshooting anymore)

How about this, jumplashing is fun!

War simulator? German fencing school?

Dude if I wanted to play something historically accurate just because it's historically accurate, I would play M&M with Gnjus. But I find that incredibly boring.

If you guys somehow turn this mod into two armies fighting like those Mithras guys are fighting, I certainly wouldn't play that because I find it incredibly boring.

I play this game because it's fun to be swordsmen, there are so many techniques and different approaches. Start taking some of those away and people like me will find another mod where that's possible.

Yes there are lot of "I's" but that's because I don't really care about balance anymore. I care about myself and every my post and every thread I make will be me trying to buff myself. Most people are like that, at least I'm honest enough to admit it.

Also about archery, I believe that Kafein hit the spot when he talked about archery from his perspective as a cav. When you finally, somehow approach the archer of course you should kill him. I can't throw my swords at you from distance I only can fight when I'm close enough. Why should archery or any other ranged class have the luxury to be good both at distance and in close combat? Ranged classes should always have worse stats than non ranged. Archers not performing very well in general isn't fault of archery, it's about people who play archery being bad players in general.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: dreadnok on October 15, 2011, 07:39:44 pm
WARNING! THIS THREAD IS FUCKING LONG

There are a lot of archery threads around right now.

A lot of people are saying a lot of things about archery. 
Archery is EZ-mode.
Archery is under-powered. 
Archery is broken because of bodkins. 
Archery kills in 2-3 hits. 
Archers should avoid firing into melee. 
Archers should fire into melee. 
Archery is over powered. 

Archery is for pussies.

Everyone has something to say about archery, but there never seems to be enough hard evidence.
I'm hoping that I can at least provide some context with this thread, so at the very least we can frame the archer whine-fest with a semblance of truth.

What I did:
I spent some time during the course of a few days to keep track of the amount of hits it took me to kill a wide assortment of poor suckers helpful test subjects, using a controlled distance while recording what their strength, ironflesh, and total body armor (chest + gloves) were.  I would kill each subject 1-3 times from short, medium, and long range.  In the end I had roughly 25 kills from each range, or about 75 individual tests in all.  Still plenty of room for variation, but enough tests that the findings should hold up fairly well.

The Facts of the Experiment:
My Build:  At the time of the test my build was 17/21.  I had 5 Power Draw, and 163 archery wpf.  I had an effective armor weight of 5, so a negligible decrease in effective weapon proficiency.

My Equipment: I used a Masterworked Horn Bow (27 cut) and Masterworked Bodkins (4 pierce) for a raw 31 pierce damage.  This is 1 more pierce than a vanilla Rus Bow and vanilla Bodkins, and 1 less pierce than a vanilla Long Bow and vanilla Bodkins.  Therefore please note that my damage is probably around the mid range for archers who use Bodkins at this time (more powerful than most non-loomed bows, but a bit less powerful than the heirloomed 2-slot archers out there). 

My Distance Interpretation:  I told test subjects to stand by the dead tree centered in the pictures below (the one with bodies all around it; I affectionately refer to it now as "the murder tree"), and I would target body shots from the location you see me take my screenshots from.  I know that these distances are arbitrary, but in the heat of battle I consider these to be rough guidelines of what constitutes practical 'short, medium, and long' shots.

(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)


My Findings:

Against Targets With 80+ HP:
Most hits to kill: 9  (Target: 80 hp, 72 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill: 4  (Target: 87 hp, 54 body armor AND 85 hp 71 body armor.  Occurred on short & mid distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  5.3 (out of 9 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range:  5.5 (out of 8 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range: 6.125  (out of 8 total tests)

Against Targets with 64-76 HP:
Most hits to kill:  7  (Target: 76 hp, 68 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill:  3  (Target: 65 hp, 52 body armor.  Short distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  4.08  (out of 12 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range:  4  (out of 12 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range:  4.25  (out of 12 total tests)

Against Targets with 62 or less HP:
  Note: A level 1 peasant was included in this round which may lower average hits to kill numbers slightly
Most hits to kill:  3  (Target:  55 hp, 46 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill: 1  (Target: 38 hp,  9 body armor.  Any distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  1.57  (out of 7 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range: 1.4  (out of 5 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range:  1.6  (out of 5 total tests)

(light armor tests need more work; not enough tests and peasant testing threw numbers.  Without the peasant included tests would average 2 hits for short and medium range, 2.5 for long)

My Conclusions:

More testing will need to be done now that I have 6 power draw.  But ultimately I don't think that bodkins are quite as overpowered as people seem to say regarding the heavy armored tincans. 

Bodkins will kill tin cans in about 5 or 6 hits on the average.
Bodkins will kill mid-heavy troops in about 4 hits on the average.
Bodkins will kill lighter troops in about 2-3 hits on the average.


Keep in mind there are going to be a lot of archers that use non heirloomed bows, or use cut type arrows, and in those cases their average hit-to-kill numbers will probably be from 1 to many hits higher on the average (esp. when dealing with tin cans).  Similarly there will be heirloomed heavy power draw longbowmen who will probably bring the average hits to kill number down by 1 max (so maybe 4-5 for tin cans, 3 for mid-heavy, 2 for lighter).

Other hunches; general things I found interesting:
-hp mattered more than armor for survival
-distance didn't seem to make AS large a difference as I originally thought.  Perhaps I wasn't far enough away on my 'long' tests
-If you are a standard infantry type with decent (50 ish) body armor you'll likely survive 4 hits from archers in general.  It takes quite a bit of strength and armor to reliably survive 5 or more, so it probably isn't worth it.
-board shield w/ 600 hp survived 20 arrows. Low armor, but I did about 30 damage a shot.  Shields rule basically for ranged (duh)

I'll see if I can update more when I have time.

E: I almost forgot:  Thanks to everyone who gave a bit of time FOR SCIENCE!
Credits to test subjects:
Sageroth
Jeff
Captain_Insano_WCO
Passion
Assassino_Extremo
Sedurut
Wolfgang
Blade
Voester
Morr
Gzack
Tom_Cruise
Ninja_blood
Wintersong
Ninja_djnipsy
Grandpa Joe Has altheimers (thanks for skewing the results you peasant jerk!)

but your leaving out the biggest part tho. a headshot kills anyone in 1 hit no matter what armor
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Player_01 on October 15, 2011, 08:04:04 pm
but your leaving out the biggest part tho. a headshot kills anyone in 1 hit no matter what armor
Not if that person is a level 35 full str build with 15 IF and a x3 loomed Armet.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Tears of Destiny on October 15, 2011, 08:13:08 pm
Fantastic original post, rubbish thread though.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 15, 2011, 08:15:31 pm
I got the impression that you were sayin that he couldnt do it because of weight/movement restrictions.

Hence i said he could, if he wanted to.

Is it practial? No

Can he do it? Sure

And thats why it shouldnt be removed, cause if i want to do it i can.

I could also draw a bow and jump in the moment I release the arrow  :rolleyes:



@Xant: If you consider film fights as realistic I'm out of this thread  :rolleyes:


How about this, jumplashing is fun!


How about this, jumpshooting was fun!      stupid comment Leshma  :rolleyes:



I play this game because it's fun to be swordsmen, there are so many techniques and different approaches.

Aha, and destroying the fun archers have is ok just because you want to play your swordsman?  Seriously?   :rolleyes:



Also about archery, I believe that Kafein hit the spot when he talked about archery from his perspective as a cav. When you finally, somehow approach the archer of course you should kill him. I can't throw my swords at you from distance I only can fight when I'm close enough. Why should archery or any other ranged class have the luxury to be good both at distance and in close combat? Ranged classes should always have worse stats than non ranged. Archers not performing very well in general isn't fault of archery, it's about people who play archery being bad players in general.

Who says archers are good at melee?  The only thing we can do is block.  WOOHHOO!!!  :rolleyes:  It is so fucking easy to kill an archer in melee because of the lack of wpf you can easily outspam him.
Killing an archer with cav when you are close is easy as well, as most guys start bumping them when they manage to downblock (oh yeah it's very hard to block one direction^^) and that way they easily get their kill.

I know enough good cavplayers who can easily kill an archer. Maybe you guys should improve you skills?

but your leaving out the biggest part tho. a headshot kills anyone in 1 hit no matter what armor

Every tried headshotting for example captain georgeous (or whatever his name is written like^^) with a mw longbow, mw bodkins and 6pd and 8wm?

Won't work. I tested it on duel server with him, you can't do it with a bow. Maybe it's possible with a throwing lance or arbalest, but with no kind of bow.

And there are some other guys aswell with loomed heavy helmets. Headshotkilling them doesn't work with bows.

Please talk about stuff you know  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 15, 2011, 10:16:25 pm
Great suggestion.
No, really.

It's possible to kill all enemy team as 1 level peasant with stone in hand.
I am not talking about chances, just about possibility


It's possible to parry all hits with bare hands.
I am not talking about chances, just about possibility


It's possible to marry C.H.A.D.Z.
I am not talking about chances, just about possibility



TBH Xant even in your video Achilles have a pivot. Not just jump, slash-block-slash, then land.

And what is that about? I wanted to say that archery is a weapon with nearly infinite range. It's like if you had a pike with 200 000 range and if it was only blockable with shield.

BTW. Have you enjoyed your lesson about possibilities?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 15, 2011, 11:44:36 pm
So yeah, can we stop clogging this thread up with arguments about jump-slashing and other things that have nothing to do with the thread?  I'm not some ON TOPIC chocolate chip cookie but DAMN.

In response to one of the few on-topic posts I see on this page:
but your leaving out the biggest part tho. a headshot kills anyone in 1 hit no matter what armor
Headshot from an archer will usually 1-hit kill, but if you are far enough away it will just do a good dent.  It is also much harder to headshot someone from range than it is to hit them in the head with a swing, so I personally don't think this is too much of a problem.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 16, 2011, 04:25:21 am
@Xant: If you consider film fights as realistic I'm out of this thread  :rolleyes:

I knew you'd bring that up. Too easy.

So you claim that was computer animated? That wasn't really Brad Pitt (or a stuntman, but let's hope Brad doesn't need a stuntman to jump..) jumping? A real human being couldn't possibly jump like that?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 16, 2011, 09:37:23 am
I neither said that this wasn't possible nor that he didn't do it himself ;)

It is the same about jumping in plate with heavy weapons etc.
It is possible, but noone would do it in a realfight due to the big danger that it brings.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 16, 2011, 09:44:57 am
I neither said that this wasn't possible nor that he didn't do it himself ;)

It is the same about jumping in plate with heavy weapons etc.
It is possible, but noone would do it in a realfight due to the big danger that it brings.

And who are you to speak for everyone?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: mustg on October 16, 2011, 10:30:42 am
well i have 8 pd and 7 wm, mw rus bow & mw bodkins and i can kill a guy who is equipped with 3x heirloomed transitional armour & 3x heirloomed gilded hourglass gauntlets+ 6 IF with 2-3 shots...  ^^
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Kafein on October 16, 2011, 12:44:30 pm

"This isn't close to what a decent horseman has to pay for a very squishy and huge (read arrows will hit) horse, and even more when the horse is easier to hit and a little more resistant."

Once again, people are yet to realize the intentions towards cavalry from the mod creator. It was supposed to be a "prestige class" due to the simple fact that it is the biggest powerhouse in this mod/game and the biggest tide-turner. A decent cav/lancer p.e. can easily achieve ridiculous amounts of kills even using the "squishy and huge horse" you kindly mention, (take Leed, or Tommy as an example). And the reason behind the increased cost of the mounts prices it's only a measure to counter the huge numbers of cavalry constantly at the game, making it simply unplayable, specially with the number of deser/plains maps on rotation now.
You can imagine 30+ players with a 1 hit kill ability every few seconds and the ability of knocking down opponents while dealing damage as they please.
Also add the fact that it's easier with medium/high ping players to hit the rider than the bugged mount, cause it's immense the amount of arrows that pass by that amazing animal or that every cav rider can bump hit anyone trying to block (yes, sadly even lancers can do it, even if the lance has already passed the target).

Even so this measure wasn't enough, since market allows people to make easily lots of money by either honest trades or scamming like a boss.


Look at all the noob cav we see lately, how many kills do they make ? Not that much.

Besides, it is correct that cav is the class with the best killing potential, but when you look at it closely, they can't really choose their kills. And that makes a lot of difference. Killing a lvl 3 peasant or killing that-2h-celebrity-that-killed-your-whole-team-last-round counts as 1 kill. There are very few things that will determine wether someone will probably die to cav or not : cav awareness, teamplay and weapon choice.

The peasant has usually no defense and will get lanced or bumped to death cheaply. One kill.

The uber-elite-2h has cav awareness, otherwise he wouldn't be that much elite. He has a good anti-cav defense weapon (jumpswings, GS lolstabs). And sometimes plays nearby teammates, sometimes not, but since he has a good weapon and awareness, the team support isn't needed. To kill that guy, a cav has to wait for an opening in the awareness, otherwise he will get lolstabbed. He also has to wait for the teammates (especially polearm users) to die or go somewhere else. Moreover, attacking when the 2h is occupied fighting inf is a gamble, as the risk of killing/bumping/hitting a teammate is very high, especially with "tornado fighters". And finally, he is forced to use the couched lance and all its hazards since a decent armor is enough to protect the 2h from a onehit lance poke (and hitting that 2h twice will be even more difficult). If the cav manages to kill that beast somehow, the holy scoreboard says the same. One kill.


No wonder those very good shiedless infantry are usually killed by ranged, as all the other classes have much more trouble doing it.


What I'm trying to say is that while cav do a lot of kills, most of them aren't valuable at all. I can safely assume that 70% of cav kills are unaware people. The rest are fail jumpswings, ranged missing the last-second-headshot, other cav or footmen outnumbered by cav. Those people with poor cav awareness usually aren't good in what they do, cav awareness is a sign of battle mode experience (thus general fighting experience as well).

Ranged, on the other side of the spectrum, can choose their targets in a much larger pool. The differences between the peasant and the uber-2h from an archer point of view are much lesser than from a cav pov (unlike cav in the majority of cases, ranged don't die when they miss). Yet one will turn the tide of the battle, and the other will not.

That's why I don't think cav do turn the tide of battles more than any other classes. Elite cavs turn the tide of battles just as elite inf or elite ranged. Average cav ? Nope. They die trying to charge a lone archer (it takes a decent horseman to kill the logically weakest possible aware target) or doing other things that seem realistic but aren't effective. It's only when they realise they are disguised ninjas on horses they start making kills (yet not the "useful" kills).


tl:dr Archers don't make lots of kills but all their arrows (hitting or not) are useful for the team. The K/D ratio doesn't mean anything compared to the W/L ratio.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Jarlek on October 16, 2011, 01:28:05 pm
Look at all the noob cav we see lately, how many kills do they make ? Not that much.

Besides, it is correct that cav is the class with the best killing potential, but when you look at it closely, they can't really choose their kills. And that makes a lot of difference. Killing a lvl 3 peasant or killing that-2h-celebrity-that-killed-your-whole-team-last-round counts as 1 kill. There are very few things that will determine wether someone will probably die to cav or not : cav awareness, teamplay and weapon choice.

The peasant has usually no defense and will get lanced or bumped to death cheaply. One kill.

The uber-elite-2h has cav awareness, otherwise he wouldn't be that much elite. He has a good anti-cav defense weapon (jumpswings, GS lolstabs). And sometimes plays nearby teammates, sometimes not, but since he has a good weapon and awareness, the team support isn't needed. To kill that guy, a cav has to wait for an opening in the awareness, otherwise he will get lolstabbed. He also has to wait for the teammates (especially polearm users) to die or go somewhere else. Moreover, attacking when the 2h is occupied fighting inf is a gamble, as the risk of killing/bumping/hitting a teammate is very high, especially with "tornado fighters". And finally, he is forced to use the couched lance and all its hazards since a decent armor is enough to protect the 2h from a onehit lance poke (and hitting that 2h twice will be even more difficult). If the cav manages to kill that beast somehow, the holy scoreboard says the same. One kill.


No wonder those very good shiedless infantry are usually killed by ranged, as all the other classes have much more trouble doing it.


What I'm trying to say is that while cav do a lot of kills, most of them aren't valuable at all. I can safely assume that 70% of cav kills are unaware people. The rest are fail jumpswings, ranged missing the last-second-headshot, other cav or footmen outnumbered by cav. Those people with poor cav awareness usually aren't good in what they do, cav awareness is a sign of battle mode experience (thus general fighting experience as well).

Ranged, on the other side of the spectrum, can choose their targets in a much larger pool. The differences between the peasant and the uber-2h from an archer point of view are much lesser than from a cav pov (unlike cav in the majority of cases, ranged don't die when they miss). Yet one will turn the tide of the battle, and the other will not.

That's why I don't think cav do turn the tide of battles more than any other classes. Elite cavs turn the tide of battles just as elite inf or elite ranged. Average cav ? Nope. They die trying to charge a lone archer (it takes a decent horseman to kill the logically weakest possible aware target) or doing other things that seem realistic but aren't effective. It's only when they realise they are disguised ninjas on horses they start making kills (yet not the "useful" kills).


tl:dr Archers don't make lots of kills but all their arrows (hitting or not) are useful for the team. The K/D ratio doesn't mean anything compared to the W/L ratio.
Finally someone who explained this properly. I'm gonna quote this whenever I can.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: karasu on October 16, 2011, 03:10:19 pm
Some people need to play more on Battle servers to realize the true state of things.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: kongxinga on October 16, 2011, 03:29:15 pm
Look at all the noob cav we see lately, how many kills do they make ? Not that much.

Besides, it is correct that cav is the class with the best killing potential, but when you look at it closely, they can't really choose their kills. And that makes a lot of difference. Killing a lvl 3 peasant or killing that-2h-celebrity-that-killed-your-whole-team-last-round counts as 1 kill. There are very few things that will determine wether someone will probably die to cav or not : cav awareness, teamplay and weapon choice.

The peasant has usually no defense and will get lanced or bumped to death cheaply. One kill.

The uber-elite-2h has cav awareness, otherwise he wouldn't be that much elite. He has a good anti-cav defense weapon (jumpswings, GS lolstabs). And sometimes plays nearby teammates, sometimes not, but since he has a good weapon and awareness, the team support isn't needed. To kill that guy, a cav has to wait for an opening in the awareness, otherwise he will get lolstabbed. He also has to wait for the teammates (especially polearm users) to die or go somewhere else. Moreover, attacking when the 2h is occupied fighting inf is a gamble, as the risk of killing/bumping/hitting a teammate is very high, especially with "tornado fighters". And finally, he is forced to use the couched lance and all its hazards since a decent armor is enough to protect the 2h from a onehit lance poke (and hitting that 2h twice will be even more difficult). If the cav manages to kill that beast somehow, the holy scoreboard says the same. One kill.


No wonder those very good shiedless infantry are usually killed by ranged, as all the other classes have much more trouble doing it.


What I'm trying to say is that while cav do a lot of kills, most of them aren't valuable at all. I can safely assume that 70% of cav kills are unaware people. The rest are fail jumpswings, ranged missing the last-second-headshot, other cav or footmen outnumbered by cav. Those people with poor cav awareness usually aren't good in what they do, cav awareness is a sign of battle mode experience (thus general fighting experience as well).

Ranged, on the other side of the spectrum, can choose their targets in a much larger pool. The differences between the peasant and the uber-2h from an archer point of view are much lesser than from a cav pov (unlike cav in the majority of cases, ranged don't die when they miss). Yet one will turn the tide of the battle, and the other will not.

That's why I don't think cav do turn the tide of battles more than any other classes. Elite cavs turn the tide of battles just as elite inf or elite ranged. Average cav ? Nope. They die trying to charge a lone archer (it takes a decent horseman to kill the logically weakest possible aware target) or doing other things that seem realistic but aren't effective. It's only when they realise they are disguised ninjas on horses they start making kills (yet not the "useful" kills).


tl:dr Archers don't make lots of kills but all their arrows (hitting or not) are useful for the team. The K/D ratio doesn't mean anything compared to the W/L ratio.

Thank you for taking the time to write out this clear and well thought post.

And yes chadz is a horse hater. Having all cav armies isn't strange depending on which part of the world you were in during medieval times. But, noooooo, we need bog standard boring western european catholic state of affairs.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: copper on October 16, 2011, 07:07:36 pm
If you're getting killed by archers too much perhaps you should:

1.) Stop making ridiculous 30/9 STR builds with plate armor. Shooting high ATH players who can change directions on a dime is much harder than shooting a slow STR build, no matter the range.
2.) Get a shield (no shit).
3.) Get off your horse or avoid archers. Cav are public enemy #1 for archers, and shooting them off their horses gives me a semi.
4.) Play as a team. If you're charging head-first into an archer nest at the start of the round maybe you need to re-think your "tactics".

This has been a public service announcement by your friendly neighborhood pussy archer. :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Spleen on October 16, 2011, 07:35:09 pm
If you're getting killed by archers too much perhaps you should:

1.) Stop making ridiculous 30/9 STR builds with plate armor. Shooting high ATH players who can change directions on a dime is much harder than shooting a slow STR build, no matter the range.
2.) Get a shield (no shit).
3.) Get off your horse or avoid archers. Cav are public enemy #1 for archers, and shooting them off their horses gives me a semi.
4.) Play as a team. If you're charging head-first into an archer nest at the start of the round maybe you need to re-think your "tactics".

This has been a public service announcement by your friendly neighborhood pussy archer. :mrgreen:

/signed
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: BlueKnight on October 16, 2011, 07:41:40 pm
well i have 8 pd and 7 wm, mw rus bow & mw bodkins and i can kill a guy who is equipped with 3x heirloomed transitional armour & 3x heirloomed gilded hourglass gauntlets+ 6 IF with 2-3 shots...  ^^

Finally sb who admits it.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 16, 2011, 08:03:50 pm
well i have 8 pd and 7 wm, mw rus bow & mw bodkins and i can kill a guy who is equipped with 3x heirloomed transitional armour & 3x heirloomed gilded hourglass gauntlets+ 6 IF with 2-3 shots...  ^^

Finally sb who admits it.

I'd love to see some sort of evidence/extended testing from someone with 8 PD and MW Rus/bodkins, because as I said before I averaged between 5 - 6 hits on high HP/tin can type players with my MW horn & MW Bodkins.  Taking someone with 85 hp (30 str 10 if) and high end armor that's between 14-17 damage per shot with my raw 31 pierce damage and 5 PD.

To 2-3 shot those same targets consistently you'd need to be doing a whopping 28.3-37.5 damage per shot.  Are you telling me that the +4 pierce and your +3 PD compared to my build is going to account for more than double the damage per shot?

I call bullshit. MW Rus Bow & MW Bodkins is not going to consistently 2-3 shot tin-cans unless they are agi builds wearing heavy armor.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 16, 2011, 08:18:53 pm
I'd love to see some sort of evidence/extended testing from someone with 8 PD and MW Rus/bodkins, because as I said before I averaged between 5 - 6 hits on high HP/tin can type players with my MW horn & MW Bodkins.  Taking someone with 85 hp (30 str 10 if) and high end armor that's between 14-17 damage per shot with my raw 31 pierce damage and 5 PD.

To 2-3 shot those same targets consistently you'd need to be doing a whopping 28.3-37.5 damage per shot.  Are you telling me that the +4 pierce and your +3 PD compared to my build is going to account for more than double the damage per shot?

I call bullshit. MW Rus Bow & MW Bodkins is not going to consistently 2-3 shot tin-cans unless they are agi builds wearing heavy armor.

Announce when you want to do tests again and I will show up if I can :)  So we can check it out whether it's possible to do it most of the time or not


Look at all the noob cav we see lately, how many kills do they make ? Not that much.

Besides, it is correct that cav is the class with the best killing potential, but when you look at it closely, they can't really choose their kills. And that makes a lot of difference. Killing a lvl 3 peasant or killing that-2h-celebrity-that-killed-your-whole-team-last-round counts as 1 kill. There are very few things that will determine wether someone will probably die to cav or not : cav awareness, teamplay and weapon choice.

The peasant has usually no defense and will get lanced or bumped to death cheaply. One kill.

The uber-elite-2h has cav awareness, otherwise he wouldn't be that much elite. He has a good anti-cav defense weapon (jumpswings, GS lolstabs). And sometimes plays nearby teammates, sometimes not, but since he has a good weapon and awareness, the team support isn't needed. To kill that guy, a cav has to wait for an opening in the awareness, otherwise he will get lolstabbed. He also has to wait for the teammates (especially polearm users) to die or go somewhere else. Moreover, attacking when the 2h is occupied fighting inf is a gamble, as the risk of killing/bumping/hitting a teammate is very high, especially with "tornado fighters". And finally, he is forced to use the couched lance and all its hazards since a decent armor is enough to protect the 2h from a onehit lance poke (and hitting that 2h twice will be even more difficult). If the cav manages to kill that beast somehow, the holy scoreboard says the same. One kill.


No wonder those very good shiedless infantry are usually killed by ranged, as all the other classes have much more trouble doing it.


What I'm trying to say is that while cav do a lot of kills, most of them aren't valuable at all. I can safely assume that 70% of cav kills are unaware people. The rest are fail jumpswings, ranged missing the last-second-headshot, other cav or footmen outnumbered by cav. Those people with poor cav awareness usually aren't good in what they do, cav awareness is a sign of battle mode experience (thus general fighting experience as well).

Ranged, on the other side of the spectrum, can choose their targets in a much larger pool. The differences between the peasant and the uber-2h from an archer point of view are much lesser than from a cav pov (unlike cav in the majority of cases, ranged don't die when they miss). Yet one will turn the tide of the battle, and the other will not.

That's why I don't think cav do turn the tide of battles more than any other classes. Elite cavs turn the tide of battles just as elite inf or elite ranged. Average cav ? Nope. They die trying to charge a lone archer (it takes a decent horseman to kill the logically weakest possible aware target) or doing other things that seem realistic but aren't effective. It's only when they realise they are disguised ninjas on horses they start making kills (yet not the "useful" kills).


tl:dr Archers don't make lots of kills but all their arrows (hitting or not) are useful for the team. The K/D ratio doesn't mean anything compared to the W/L ratio.


Look at all the noobarchers out there. You can consider more than 70% of them as useless. Most of them miss about 2/3 of their shots and most noobarchers go for the easykill peasant and waste about 5 alone on this oneshot.

Funny how you say that cav has to couch a 2h to onehit him, whereas lots of cavplayers (I remember you sayint it, too) say in other threads, that couch does less damage than a thrust.  Can you guys please get clear about your own class before talking about other classes?

Actually ranged die alot of times when they miss their shot, because it can be a charging twohander/ polearmer who kills them, or an incoming horse or an enemy archer/thrower/crossbowguy. Maybe the risk for cavplayers is higher than the one for archers, but it's not as high as you state. Why do so many "uberelite twohander" get killed by cav and rage afterwards in the channel? Why are there so many people very often leaving the server to play siege because of a massive horde of cav on a server?  Doesn't look like cav is in such a high risk, as lots of players prefer easy-to-play classes.
Cav also has the bonus of lots of speed which lets them escape pretty well and which lets them dodge arrows very easy. And they have the bonus that they can wear lots of heavy armour without losing any damage or accuracy and without losing much speed with their horse.


Maybe we should close this thread as we are not getting closer to any solutions^^
Ranged is very balanced atm, except for the "arrows define the damagetype thing".
Ok and longbow could use a small buff compared to other bows, but that's archer intern and nothing that has to do with other classes
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 16, 2011, 09:49:08 pm
Announce when you want to do tests again and I will show up if I can :)  So we can check it out whether it's possible to do it most of the time or not

Well I only have 6 PD so I don't know how much help I'd be to sit in on those tests :)

But (and I extend this to anyone who's interested in helping out further) the tests should be pretty easy to recreate if you want to do this independently.  Just post in this thread or send me a PM and I can add new info to help get a better picture on real figures.

1) Tell me your build and equipment & make sure you use bodkin arrows (or don't actually, it would be interesting to see how much bodkins affect archery, which might give people an idea about how archery was NOT fine without any pierce)

2) Make sure you keep track of the HP & body (chest + glove) armor of your victims.  If possible take a handful of tests with people to allow outliers to stand out.

3) Try to emulate similar distance shots based on my pictures in the OP. 

4) (optional) Mix it up!  If you want to try point blank & very long distance shots that would be interesting new data  I'd welcome.  Similarly, perhaps playing with speed bonus would be fun, maybe try to have a player move towards the archer (getting hit by the arrow ideally at one of the 'distance' markers I've included).

My one request is please try to document these variables as much as possible.  If I get something like "I 2 shot a tin can at long distance with my long bow and bodkins" I'm not considering that proof: give me real numbers and ideally some good test data. 

Highest "priority" data right now are IMO high PD archers that are using longbows or rus bows.  I would also be interested in hearing about how many arrows missed their targets during this test considering the lower accuracy of these builds :)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 16, 2011, 09:54:25 pm
If you're getting killed by archers too much perhaps you should:

1.) Stop making ridiculous 30/9 STR builds with plate armor. Shooting high ATH players who can change directions on a dime is much harder than shooting a slow STR build, no matter the range.
2.) Get a shield (no shit).
3.) Get off your horse or avoid archers. Cav are public enemy #1 for archers, and shooting them off their horses gives me a semi.
4.) Play as a team. If you're charging head-first into an archer nest at the start of the round maybe you need to re-think your "tactics".

This has been a public service announcement by your friendly neighborhood pussy archer. :mrgreen:

What are you doing man! If all these noobs learn to play the game, we archers are all screwed!
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: copper on October 17, 2011, 12:15:29 am
Don't worry about it, good players already know this and stupid players don't learn.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Bobthehero on October 17, 2011, 02:08:47 am
If you're getting killed by archers too much perhaps you should:

1.) Stop making ridiculous 30/9 STR builds with plate armor. Shooting high ATH players who can change directions on a dime is much harder than shooting a slow STR build, no matter the range.
2.) Get a shield (no shit).
3.) Get off your horse or avoid archers. Cav are public enemy #1 for archers, and shooting them off their horses gives me a semi.
4.) Play as a team. If you're charging head-first into an archer nest at the start of the round maybe you need to re-think your "tactics".

This has been a public service announcement by your friendly neighborhood pussy archer. :mrgreen:

I'll do that if you get some melee weapon profiency, stop running and use a real 1 or 2 slot weapon.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Taser on October 17, 2011, 03:44:32 am
I'll do that if you get some melee weapon profiency, stop running and use a real 1 or 2 slot weapon.

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Besides if he's using a rus bow which seems to be real popular, he has no chance to have a 1 slot weapon let alone a 2 slot. Unless he only has one stack of arrows then he could have a 1 slot. That would only give 17 arrows or so depending on which arrows he uses but I'll assume bodkins. So 17 arrows, which goes by quick, just so he can face down a pure melee with a hammer. Yeah sounds awesome.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Bobthehero on October 17, 2011, 03:46:22 am
I have an archer alt, I am guilty of using the hornbow, but I plan on switching to a longbow once I get the PD for it, I will use a stack of bodkin and a long arming sword, I am already more than able to defend myself in melee with 6 ps and 70 wpf.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Taser on October 17, 2011, 03:59:04 am
I use horn bow myself as well but no wpf in melee. It gives me the chance to use a mace which is nice. Using a rus bow is different though since 0 slot weapons are not supposed to be good (they're 0 slot so.. yeah). This only applies when people use 2 stacks of bodkins which is usually the case rather than only using one. it gives the opportunity to shoot more and play more as the character you made rather than going in melee because a melee character doesn't want to run more than he has to.

You made more of a hybrid than an archer to be honest. How much wpf do you have in archery? Have fun with the longbow though, try out the rus as well. I dislike both because it feels too different for me although I never consistently used either before going back to horn bow.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Bobthehero on October 17, 2011, 04:01:39 am
130 something, and no its an archer, I pew pew people at range, fight off the one or two that reach me then go back to pew pew.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Taser on October 17, 2011, 04:07:14 am
Well then I have no issue with that. But I also have no issue with an archer than runs either. Some people are good at melee and some aren't. Only exception is when they're the last player left on a team and they're delaying. If they're pew pewing they're fighting. If they just run around like they're in a 5k then no dice.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: arowaine on October 17, 2011, 04:12:16 am
this is totaly false robinlongstride 3 shot me im level 33 7 iron flesh 21 strength! he kill me with a horn +3 bow and bobkin +3 so this is totaly false
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 17, 2011, 04:21:01 am
this is totaly false robinlongstride 3 shot me im level 33 7 iron flesh 21 strength! he kill me with a horn +3 bow and bobkin +3 so this is totaly false

21 str 7 IF is 70 hp.  Let's look at my OP...

Against Targets with 64-76 HP:
Most hits to kill:  7  (Target: 76 hp, 68 body armor.  Long distance shots)
Least hits to kill:  3  (Target: 65 hp, 52 body armor.  Short distance shots)
Average hits to kill from short range:  4.08  (out of 12 total tests)
Average hits to kill from medium range:  4  (out of 12 total tests)
Average hits to kill from long range:  4.25  (out of 12 total tests)

Looks like you can still get 3-shot, but most of the time you'll get 4 shot.

He got lucky; it happens.  I don't know his build but it's unlikely he'll be able to 3 shot most people.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 17, 2011, 11:36:12 am
At your tests, was your target standing still?
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Bulzur on October 17, 2011, 11:51:20 am
At your tests, was your target standing still?

Yep, no speed bonus at all. At least that's how i read it.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 18, 2011, 07:19:57 pm
Yep, no speed bonus at all. At least that's how i read it.

Yeah all my tests were done with the target standing still.  Archers will probably do slightly more damage against enemies running forward, less to enemies running away.  As to how much damage that is I have no idea :)

Giving this a final bump just in case anyone interested in doing some additional testing missed the thread.  I'm getting close to retirement (now have 6 PD) so I might do a little more testing if I'm bored, but level 31 beckons so I probably won't. Edited my OP in case someone wanted to recreate some of the tests or spice them up.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Damatacus_ATS on October 18, 2011, 11:09:41 pm
Just so you all know I only read the first post on here and not all the others.
My observation has been that it takes maybe one less arrow to kill someone in heavy armor, and one more arrow to kill someone in light armor, than it used to before bodkins were changed. This I guess is reasonable, it can be annoying cause archers are often the hardest to hit, and now you have to hit them one more time. This is tough cause once you hit them you have their attention, and with the missle speed set like it is, it is very tough to hit people at a distance when they are aware you are shooting at them. On the other hand it is nice to be able to inflict some damage on heavy armor. Overall I would say that it was a good change.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 18, 2011, 11:25:18 pm
Its not slighlty more, its alot more...
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 19, 2011, 12:28:36 am
Its not slighlty more, its alot more...

Well show me some evidence and I'll update information accordingly.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fluffy_Muffin on October 19, 2011, 12:40:42 am
I am too lazy, but if you want proof you can go to singleplayer and test it out, it lists the speed bonus and the % of added damadge in the chat
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: RandomDude on October 19, 2011, 01:36:59 am
sry i didnt read all 8 pages

I would of thought most archers have 6+ pd. Also it doesnt take into account speed bonus to dmg. Most people are running towards an archer when shot arent they?

Someone else mentioned 30/9 str builds. Im 18/21 and wear plate and I havent taken much notice of ranged recently as I just get on with it but when pierce came out I took some nasty hits, as i reported at the time. A body shot with my lordly plate + lordly gloves took 1/3 hp.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Wookimonsta on October 19, 2011, 10:36:07 am
Bodkins will kill tin cans in about 5 or 6 hits on the average.
Bodkins will kill mid-heavy troops in about 4 hits on the average.
Bodkins will kill lighter troops in about 2-3 hits on the average.

it takes me 5-6 hits to kill a tincan
it takes me 3-4 hits to kill a medium troop
it takes me 2-3 hits to kill a lightyl armored guy
it takes me 1 hit to kill an unarmored guy.

This is with a MW danish great with 5 PS which I know isn't massive, but its still a decent amount.
Considering you are standing in the back lobbing arrows over a distance, this seems a tad unfair.
This is a low risk, medium-high reward class.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Rumblood on October 19, 2011, 10:47:35 am
it takes me 5-6 hits to kill a tincan
it takes me 3-4 hits to kill a medium troop
it takes me 2-3 hits to kill a lightyl armored guy
it takes me 1 hit to kill an unarmored guy.

This is with a MW danish great with 5 PS which I know isn't massive, but its still a decent amount.
Considering you are standing in the back lobbing arrows over a distance, this seems a tad unfair.
This is a low risk, medium-high reward class.

Dude my ARCHER has 5 PS. I don't know what you are calling your class, but it isn't a melee character.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fraemi on October 19, 2011, 11:10:42 am
I really don't see what is so inconvenient about this "truth", that smug topic name just makes it look like you already were predisposed to one side of the discussion and never even thought the other side had many valid arguments. I especially like how you raise a couple of the more common insults and claims about the archers and never adress them afterwards for the most part.

Let's state the obvious: Your build is no standard, mw rus bow + mw bodkins is what you will see on most people with 6pd as lowest, often going higher. Archers are a much lower risk class than any melee or cav ones are, your biggest threat is cav which is countered by roofs and generally not being alone (not to mention that you can still gravely injure or kill a horse making you a not-so-likeable target for cav), archers can run away from infantry in all situations but extremes and that is a huge advantage over infantry who can't usually pick their fights or disengage at will unless they are using light armour which is somewhat unlikely or an agi heavy build which is just as unlikely.

Let me state something as a 2hander with a MW danish, 154wpf and 7PS:
I need anywhere between 4-6 hits to kill a tincan
I need 3-4 hits to kill a medium armoured guy
I need 1 or 2, where the former is much less likely, hits to kill a a lightly armoured person
I need 1 hit to kill an unarmoured person, naked or dresses level.

Oh and not to mention that my opponents CAN block my attacks and that I have to block their attacks as well. Much higher risk than archers are.

Everytime I get hit by an archer with rus/bodkins I loose from 20% up to 40% of my health (59) from speed bonus + pierce in a lordly transitional and no other armour heirlooms + mail gauntlets. Headshots are well over 50%, usually something like making me suspectible to being killed by a peasant with a staff. As an archer you will benefit a lot more from speed bonus because the enemy is probably moving relatively to your position, because your team is somewhere over there too.
Even with a 21/18 build, if I get into a 2v1 situation by best bet is to mingle between enemies looking for openings and otherwise I'm fucked if those 2 guys aren't complete retards. I can't run away like an archer can even in my medium-light armour.
Not to mention if archers are camping roofs there is completely nothing I can do about it, it doesn't even have to be a roof - just a defensible spot. No other class can completely shut down all options like that.
Archers stun, this really makes little sense when compared to how a hit from a 1.2m blade doesn't stop you from moving a second but an arrow does. In a 2v2 situation where one team is made up of 2melee guys and the other is an archer + any melee - all it takes for the archers side is to win is for his teammate to backpedal. Not to mention that 2 archers can easily benefit much more from teamwork than most classes.
Oh and archers are the only class which benefits from slowing terrain - hills, water, ladders etc. Noone else does.
Archers also easily benefit from flags appearing since they can kite to the end of the world without being in actual danger themselves.

I think I remember that at some point I read a post that in the future archery damage will be defined by bow damage and then arrows, which won't make you have more than 30 fucking pierce damage from a low risk weapon all over the map.
And let me mention roof campers one more time - they shut down most options on some maps - completely keeping you from fighting in a certain spot all the while being completely immune to any danger and being a huge danger themselves.

Also your post isn't fucking long and nor do I mean to imply mine is, that just seemed unnecessarily smug of you again.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Paul on October 19, 2011, 11:35:43 am
Archery is horribly OP and still has the worst k/d right after dedicated throwers. That means archers suck skillwise. I hate them.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fraemi on October 19, 2011, 11:38:15 am
k/d doesn't speak on efficency and the utility they provide.
Lots of new archers are also kids who have watched lotr or something and play shitty builds with heavy armour, the archers who know how to build them can't really fail.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 19, 2011, 01:00:48 pm
it takes me 5-6 hits to kill a tincan
it takes me 3-4 hits to kill a medium troop
it takes me 2-3 hits to kill a lightyl armored guy
it takes me 1 hit to kill an unarmored guy.

This is with a MW danish great with 5 PS which I know isn't massive, but its still a decent amount.
Considering you are standing in the back lobbing arrows over a distance, this seems a tad unfair.
This is a low risk, medium-high reward class.

Wooki get your numbers correctly. Even I kill people with less hits on my melee char and I have 6ps and a 2x loomed heavy bastard sword^^

Most guys with light armour, let's say about 30, are maximum 2 hits from someone with your stats
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Remy on October 19, 2011, 01:08:36 pm
the archers who know how to build them can't really fail.

Apparently you have never played battle then...
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Okkam on October 19, 2011, 01:11:33 pm
it takes me 5-6 hits to kill a tincan
it takes me 3-4 hits to kill a medium troop
it takes me 2-3 hits to kill a lightyl armored guy
it takes me 1 hit to kill an unarmored guy.

This is with a MW danish great with 5 PS which I know isn't massive, but its still a decent amount.
Considering you are standing in the back lobbing arrows over a distance, this seems a tad unfair.
This is a low risk, medium-high reward class.

meh Wooki

it takes me 1-3 hits to kill a tincan
it takes me 1-2 hits to kill a medium troop
it takes me 1 hits to kill a lightly armored guy
it takes me 1 hit to kill an unarmored guy.

This is with 6 ps and mighty GLB.

Wanna 1hit somethig - take suitable weapon
Wanna be sworddancer - do not whine about your pity ps and cookie sword.
Wanna do more kills - whine a little to devs about crazy armor bonus of loomed armor (+14). On the other way this armor often save your life, so think twice before whining.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 19, 2011, 01:23:51 pm


Oh and not to mention that my opponents CAN block my attacks and that I have to block their attacks as well. Much higher risk than archers are.
 

With the new way of missile speed people with more than 3 athletics can easily dodge arrows. Most people are just not good at that because they start moving before the archer even really aimed :/  That's not our fault.
Even I can dodge arrows with my 2 athletics as an archer, just because I check out where he is aiming at and I start moving a very short time before he releases his arrow. And if you are close then it is very hard to block attacks from a melee guy if you have no wpf in any other weapon than bows.

That argument doesn't really count I'd say.

Everytime I get hit by an archer with rus/bodkins I loose from 20% up to 40% of my health (59) from speed bonus + pierce in a lordly transitional and no other armour heirlooms + mail gauntlets. Headshots are well over 50%, usually something like making me suspectible to being killed by a peasant with a staff. As an archer you will benefit a lot more from speed bonus because the enemy is probably moving relatively to your position, because your team is somewhere over there too.
Even with a 21/18 build, if I get into a 2v1 situation by best bet is to mingle between enemies looking for openings and otherwise I'm fucked if those 2 guys aren't complete retards. I can't run away like an archer can even in my medium-light armour.
Not to mention if archers are camping roofs there is completely nothing I can do about it, it doesn't even have to be a roof - just a defensible spot. No other class can completely shut down all options like that.

Easy solution, hope dev team finally wakes up:

1. Remove the "arrow defines damage thing" again.
1.1 Hornbow is a bow for short range and fast shooting against light targets --> no pierce needed, let other guys handle the tincans or if not, well then shoot your 10 cut arrows into the can before it dies^^
1.2 Rusbow has as well no need for pierce as it is a very fast bow, good for shooting over longer range and it has a very high damage output and a very good accuracy (Whether you want to here it or not guys, but rusbow is still the most overpowered bow in this game and I guess it will sadly always be :/ ). You can still damage the tincans, but better would be shooting all the other guys, because you can do good damage and you can shoot fast.
1.3. Longbow however is meant to shoot maybe over the same distance as rusbow, but it is also meant to shoot people in heavy armour and maybe the heavy horses. That's why it needs and should have pierce as the only bow. Bad about the longbow is that you draw it very slow compared to other bows, that's why one should concentrate on heavier armoured targets, because the little runners will reach you before you even shot 2 times. Let people with fast bows handle them.


But it seems people would have to start thinking and playing in a team for that, so I guess it will never be like 1.1 to 1.3 :/

About the roofcamping: I think I proposed a very good suggestion in the thread about siegeequipment ingame: Remove ladders from battleservers, but put some more permanently attached ladders in. Means put maybe two fixed ladders into every villagemap, that are already attached to let's say two houses. That way ranged can still go up on roofs, but everyone else can always walk up the ladders to kill them. Roofcamping and such stuff will never happen again.
Of course a shielder should go up the roof then to kill the ranged, but if not then please dear twohanders or polearmers don't complain about getting shot afterwards, if you insist on running up a roof full of archers^^


Archers stun, this really makes little sense when compared to how a hit from a 1.2m blade doesn't stop you from moving a second but an arrow does. In a 2v2 situation where one team is made up of 2melee guys and the other is an archer + any melee - all it takes for the archers side is to win is for his teammate to backpedal. Not to mention that 2 archers can easily benefit much more from teamwork than most classes.

I don't know what game you play, but usually I get stunned by twohanded swords, polearms, bolts, arrows and incoming throwing stuff.  o.O  Tell me your hack that this only happens for arrows. You must be using one as it is well known that polearms stun almost every time^^

And about the backpedaling: Most melee guys are too stubborn and killhorny to do that while fighting someone, because they want to shot how epic and brave and good at dueling they are.  herpderp!  Well and most archers are too stupid to shoot the right person when shooting into melee and due to that so many people want a ban or friendly fire or whatever for that^^

I think I remember that at some point I read a post that in the future archery damage will be defined by bow damage and then arrows, which won't make you have more than 30 fucking pierce damage from a low risk weapon all over the map.
And let me mention roof campers one more time - they shut down most options on some maps - completely keeping you from fighting in a certain spot all the while being completely immune to any danger and being a huge danger themselves.


I don't understand what you mean here. That they want to remove "arrow defines damage" ? That would actually be good, because the way it is now it is worse as it gives hornbow and rusbow too much of an advantage.
Or do you mean that damage will be higher than now, because it will be both, cut and pierce? Hopefully not!  :shock:


the archers who know how to build them can't really fail.

Please what? There are so many archers out there doing the right stuff: walking around with little weight, using a good build, because they asked all the successful archers about theirs and they shoot at easy to hit targets and STILL so many of them are failing around. If I put some effort in it I might come up with about 10 names of in my opinion very good archers (and yes I know what a good archer is and what not so please do not talk about that^^) whereas the number of very good melee players is much higher.  :rolleyes:


I forgot something: Again I read something about archers are less threatened that other classes. Seriously guys, go play archer for a while and you know it's not true. Cavalry always tries to kill max amount of archers.
Lots of people try to sneak in from the sides of the map to kill as many archers as they can.
Many archers/ crossbowers try to concentrate on archers, because they usually stop moving the moment they shoot and are due to that a more or less easy hit and because they are a threat for their teammates.

And as a melee guy you can easily avoid much threat if you are smart enough. Just don't rush forward against everyone and learn to play with your team. That way you are less threatened, because most people just try to hit whatever is in reach instead of trying to hit that one special person (except it is Chase or Cooties or someone :D )


And some archers (me included) are in even more danger due to all these bad guys out there who always want to kill certain archers ^^
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Cup1d on October 19, 2011, 01:48:38 pm
Gisbert, do you remember how good was all bows before last patch? Don't you remember mw hornbows and bodkins for 600k at market? With this patch low tier bows has a chance at last. Not all archers wanna use only longbow.

Why I can see succesfull 2handers with low tier weapons like maul or even practice sword? Because it possible to play with it.
Why I do not see succesfull archers with short bow? Because it's impossible to play, while you need at least 4-6 arrows to kill naked peasant.

Cut damage for bows was just most epic fail decision of devs. You can find my early threads, when I record how you cant damage with mw hornbow and mw bodkins (as you remember they have +7 to damage in january) armored horse, even with 5 headshots in a row.

Show me succesfully archery with short bow or bow AND cut arrows, or stop this Longbow lobbying.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 19, 2011, 01:53:46 pm
Well then maybe keep the piercething but reduce the damage for hornbow or something.

Or let's just ignore it (which I think devs will never do) ^^

I'm just trying to find a solution for all that whine whine by melee guys just because they don't like a certain class, before we get another big archernerf again  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Malaclypse on October 19, 2011, 02:17:10 pm
My short bow finally has pierce damage, thank god.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fraemi on October 19, 2011, 02:27:52 pm
I won't bother quoting everything in parts, but anyway:

I usually manage to dodge arrows while chasing one guy, archer support and mass suppressing is essentially undodgeable. If the archer even decides to hold his shot for a 0,25s more then he can still hit from a close enough distance. Hitting arrows is a lot easier than hitting melee strike against anyone who has any experience at this game, archery is like clicking moving icons while melee actually requires you to adapt to your enemy and use actual finesee which isn't comparable to that of every fps ever.
oh and wpf doesn't affect BLOCKING speed. Blocking speed is static, only thing you may be feeling is the weight-stun. Not to mention you are doing something very wrong if you can't run away from melee. Risk/Reward is something that should always be considered and right now archers have great ratio of both currently.

About roofing archers: No other class can completely shut down the options of another class, only archers can do this all the while recieving incredible safety. Guess what - there aren't always shielders availible especially in the later stages of the game when the archers still can camp and the shieldless can only hug the walls.

I didn't mention anything else apart from that ARROWS STUN, read carefully. Stating one thing doesn't exclude others. And two handed swords don't stun in the same fashion arrows/bolts/polearms do, you can still move and there is only a short window of time where you can't block/attack.
You basically said: "People don't do that" while I have seen many times people use this efficently and done this myself, an archer is a huge asset as one of the last men or in general.

I read the following: A portion of damage is defined by type of bow and a portion is defined by type of arrows. For example: Rus+Bodk. would be mostly CUT with a little PIERCE, unlike how it is now - full pierce.

Archery isn't hard, I played it before this patch and I still had about a k/d of 3 at level 31 and I played a very my old friendgy runaway/skirmish rus+tatars archer. Archery requires very similar skills to those you use to click icons and play every other fps in which you use projectile weapons. If you really fail at archery as well built lvl 30 archer - you are bad at using a mouse.

And risk wise - roofs counter all your risks and I can count on one hand how often I see archers who prefer ground level instead of a comfy roof. Cav can't do shit to a roof and all it takes is 2 archers crossfiring to even make that shielder reconsider getting on that roof.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Corwin on October 19, 2011, 02:33:21 pm
Remember this? http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,16652.60.html
The voting is very close to 50%, and I remember chadz promising that balancing team will in those cases reconsider and at least give an explanation.
Paul's provocation on the first page of the topic I do not consider to be answer. And it would be nice to hear other members of balancing team. Yes, even Fasader.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 19, 2011, 04:35:08 pm
Hitting arrows is a lot easier than hitting melee strike against anyone who has any experience at this game, archery is like clicking moving icons while melee actually requires you to adapt to your enemy and use actual finesee which isn't comparable to that of every fps ever.

It seems you haven't played much of an archer.
This thread only tells you the inconvenient truth about damage, but there are more in battle:
bows are slow to load, the reticule doesn't hold for more than 1 sec, and the arrows themselfs are slow to the point that you can easely dodge them at a moderate distance. These nerfs also make it easy for any archer to miss a lot of shots against any moving target, and then when you manage to hit the enemy it's rarely a kill, unless you try shooting a bloodied target fighting in melee which is dangerous for the team.
All these facts can have a negative effect for the archer's ability to hit the enemy from the moment the target is chosen, to the moment the arrow gets there.
Also, most 2handers will become aware of you when you shoot them and then they just dodge your slow arrows and spam-slash you, because even if you manage to hit them a second, or even a third time, they usualy survive.
I should also mention that when an archer goes through all the process of shooting a far away target he usualy becomes very unaware of his surroundings making him a prime target for backstabers.
It can be quite childish for people to demand even more nerfs for archery, when the reason the engine works this way it's so 2handers dont cry as much, but it seems the more you give them, the more they want.
As for realism, running through the field with nothing but maille armor and a 2handed weapon should be a good way to get shot-killed. As I've said before, melee warriors usually didn't risk going into battle without a shield, unless they could afford decent plate armor. But if this isn't convincing enought, I can mention yet again that archers are usualy in the bottom of the scoreboards, for the reasons mentioned above, while even skilless 2handers can do much better. This is proof enought that archers are still nerfed when compared to other classes(exept maybe throwers).
So shut up and STOP ranting if you dont know what you're talking about.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fraemi on October 19, 2011, 05:11:40 pm
I've played 2 low gens of an archer with:
MW Horn + MW Tatars + Mace
MW Rus + MW Tatars + Hammer
and that was actually BEFORE the full pierce damage "buff"

I finished both generations with a k/d of about 3, let's not even mention sieges. I never had problems with awareness from either cav or inf because I didn't tunnel vision on one target (it's like an argument of "I'm bad - that's why we need buffs") and knew how to use the "view outfit" button.
I stopped playing an archer because I found the gameplay boring and withdrawn from the real action which is melee.
Also fuck defining by realism and don't state opinions as facts. A good or even a decent archer is better to be had on your team than a good or a decent anything else.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adamar on October 19, 2011, 05:15:50 pm
I just described what archery is and the freacking scoreboard doesn't state opinions.
And the "I played an archer, it's easy, so I went 2hander" thing is getting old. I've fought enought 2handers with my fighting axe to know how low skilled they usualy are.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Brutal on October 19, 2011, 05:28:54 pm
I've played 2 low gens of an archer with:
MW Horn + MW Tatars + Mace
MW Rus + MW Tatars + Hammer
and that was actually BEFORE the full pierce damage "buff"

I finished both generations with a k/d of about 3, let's not even mention sieges.
Yea well try and do the same with non loomed gear, loosing 5 base damage+ shooting speed and accuracy will seriously change your experience.

It has been said many time before fully loomed archer are OP, the gap with non loomed archer is way to big.

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Tears of Destiny on October 19, 2011, 05:49:39 pm
Every time I read this thread, my bullshit meter explodes.

Talks like what fills 80% of this thread is why the Devs don't listen too close to what you lunatics say.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fraemi on October 19, 2011, 05:55:09 pm
The scoreboard DOES lie, because archers injure people more often, kill horses and control entire large portions of the map - which noone else can do to the same extent, apart from cav.
If anything then archers get too much from heirloom bonuses, a loomless archer is shit compared to a fully loomed bow + arrows. While any other class isn't changed that much by weapon heirlooms.
I never said it was easy, reread again. I said archery felt boring, withdrawn and quite honestly pretty lame in regards to the people I killed.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Tears of Destiny on October 19, 2011, 06:11:21 pm
On the other hand a melee class fully loomed with +14 armor from gloves and torso armor...  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 19, 2011, 06:36:18 pm
On the other hand a melee class fully loomed with +14 armor from gloves and torso armor...  :rolleyes:
Armor looms are the silliest thing still in c-RPG. +14 armor from looms, c'mon.. it'd be balanced if it was a total of +7 from gloves and armor. Still a huge goddamn bonus but it wouldn't turn you into a Panzer tank.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Jarlek on October 19, 2011, 08:33:48 pm
Armor looms are the silliest thing still in c-RPG. +14 armor from looms, c'mon.. it'd be balanced if it was a total of +7 from gloves and armor. Still a huge goddamn bonus but it wouldn't turn you into a Panzer tank.
Agreed. And as ToD pointed out in another thread, so is bow/quiver 'looms. Still archers whined when he made a suggestion to change it  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Siiem on October 19, 2011, 09:50:27 pm
I agree, armour looms are abit over the top, could be changed to +1, +1 and +2.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Xant on October 19, 2011, 09:57:11 pm
I agree, armour looms are abit over the top, could be changed to +1, +1 and +2.

More like +2, +1, +1. I say this being completely unbiased.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 20, 2011, 06:20:06 am
I finished both generations with a k/d of about 3, let's not even mention sieges. I never had problems with awareness from either cav or inf because I didn't tunnel vision on one target (it's like an argument of "I'm bad - that's why we need buffs") and knew how to use the "view outfit" button.
I stopped playing an archer because I found the gameplay boring and withdrawn from the real action which is melee.
Also fuck defining by realism and don't state opinions as facts. A good or even a decent archer is better to be had on your team than a good or a decent anything else.

A k/d of 3:1?  As full archer?  I don't buy it.  I remember when the nacrpg site was up and kept track of KDR, the highest KD for archers was like 2.5:1 or something.  You're either lying, you got a bunch of kills in melee instead of archery, or you're a much better archer than you think.  Or maybe with the larger battles in EU you are able to grab a bunch more peasant kills I don't know.

Also - Comparing melee swings and arrow hits doesn't really work, yes melee can be blocked, but it's much easier to get head shots, much harder to dodge swings, and you can attack much faster while in melee.  Plus even an amazing manual blocker probably won't outlast a high level shield taking arrows, a huge counter to lone archers.

To others: The reason I made this thread was to cut through some of the crap flying around, not to serve as a magnet for it.  Stop making claims about archery being OP, loomed archer being OP, whatever, without bringing something to the table.  I'm serious, I would love if we could get some more concretes in this thread instead of bitching.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Fraemi on October 20, 2011, 10:09:05 am
If you really want concretes then repeat your test at 6/7/8PD with a MW Rus + MW Bodkins and MW Horn which is what anyone who knows what he is doing wants or is using.
Regarding the KD, I played siege until about I could get 5pd and 130/140 wpf to use a horn bow with decent accuracy, then I started playing on battles much more often. I really don't claim to be a great archer and I really had a lot to room to improve.

Regarding the heirlooms:
Check how much the damage/accuracy/speed improves for a "regular bow + regular arrows -> mw bow + mw arrows" transition in comparison to "regular 1h/polearm/2h -> mw 1h/polearm/2h".
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Vibe on October 20, 2011, 10:18:30 am
Armor looms are the silliest thing still in c-RPG. +14 armor from looms, c'mon.. it'd be balanced if it was a total of +7 from gloves and armor. Still a huge goddamn bonus but it wouldn't turn you into a Panzer tank.

Much much agreed. And I say that as an owner of Lordly gauntlets and Lordly body armor.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Ujin on October 20, 2011, 05:00:42 pm
Just jumped in and wanna say that Fraemi used to be a top-notch archer before he respecced , he indeed had loads of kills and was pretty damn accurate, not to mention that he actually almost never tunnel-visioned as well. Believe it or not, i don't really care.


P.S. armor looms should be reduced to +4/5 on torso and  3 on gloves imo.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 21, 2011, 02:33:22 pm
What do you mean by k/d 3:1?

That you go out of a round with 3times more kills than deaths?  If so, I have to agree it was and still is possible and actually quite easy IF you are a good archer^^
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on October 21, 2011, 07:39:07 pm
What do you mean by k/d 3:1?

That you go out of a round with 3times more kills than deaths?  If so, I have to agree it was and still is possible and actually quite easy IF you are a good archer^^

Occasionally sure, but for a full gen?  No way not easy at all. I think Swalker made a challenge thread about that somewhere...ah yes http://forum.c-rpg.net/index.php/topic,10602.120.html

"Let me start by saying I have no hate for xbows (ok maybe a little but lets not let that cloud my point).  Archery should be returned to pre-patch levels...we don't want a buff.  I personally know that archery is the hardest major class to play post patch...which is why I can make this challenge.

I am offering 100k in gold to any non-archer main, that rolls an archer alt, and posts a positive kdr by reaching level 31.    Rules:  1.  You can't have an archer main.  2.  You can't create a STF archer.  3.  It must be a pure archer...all wpf's must be 1 except for archery.

*good luck and have fun...and feel free to post your experience(no matter how early you quit) on the forum.

Sincerely,
S. Patrick Walker"

Granted he's talking about people claiming that archery is EZ mode and that was before the arrow changes, but I still find it much harder to have consistently high KDR as archer than as any other melee.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on October 21, 2011, 11:35:05 pm
I think he wasn't talking about the time from lvl 1-25 ^^

Everyone knows archers are useless before 25 and I think he was talking about when you fully leveled (is that word written that way? leveled? :D ) your archer, that you get a positive k/d in battles or rather a 3:1 k/d
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Lordark on February 28, 2012, 07:48:30 pm
Nurf throwing
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Rumblood on February 28, 2012, 08:03:43 pm
Regarding the KD, I played siege until about I could get 5pd and 130/140 wpf to use a horn bow with decent accuracy,

Pew pewing on siege is easy to get a high K/D. Do it on Battle. It won't happen.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Camaris on February 28, 2012, 08:22:22 pm
Rufio, what do you think is the average k/d-ratio of a footarcher and a foot 2h guy? Both above level > 25. The abominable archer must surely be at least on par or more likely be above the meager melee man, right?

Archer without heirloom is much worse then archer full heirloomed.
2h, Pole without heirloom is much closer to 2h, Pole full loomed.
1h is in between both (heirlooms are more important then 2h/pole but less then archers).

Perhaps you should nerf archer-looms and buff gen1 archers instead.
Give every bow +2 Damage and remove damage bonus on arrows.
Make Arrow-Looms +1 +2 +2 ammo for example.

Archers are as strong as before but now they arent as different as before.
I dont want them nerfed i want them adjusted.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Sellka on March 05, 2012, 01:31:27 pm
To be honnest, I think the long bow needs an adjustment on arrow speed and just a small tweek anyways. Just drawing takes 2-3 seconds before you can fire. This adjustment to the bow could make it more usefull as it is virtually useless at its current time. Also, you would think that the most expensive bow with a painfull expence should be able to outshoot a skirmisher class/hornbow etc.


Also Rumblood, I do get a decent KD on battle if the situation is right. but 1/2 of the shots are point blank and do massive dammage but the arrowspeed of the longbow in its current state is still garbage for long range shots. A hornbow/skirmisher class can easly outshoot the longbow and, out carry them with bodkin arrows. 30 arrows per game with a longbow. 
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on March 05, 2012, 03:18:07 pm
To be honnest, I think the long bow needs an adjustment on arrow speed and just a small tweek anyways. Just drawing takes 2-3 seconds before you can fire. This adjustment to the bow could make it more usefull as it is virtually useless at its current time. Also, you would think that the most expensive bow with a painfull expence should be able to outshoot a skirmisher class/hornbow etc.


I agree that the longbow should be looked at, but I don't think it should be shooting as quickly as the hornbow - that's not its niche.

Hornbow SHOULD be winning against the longbow in archer duels with its draw speed, but the longbow should have a more pronounced difference in missile speed than it does now.  That way the longbow is better at doing what it's supposed to do (shoot better from long distances) while the horn bow should be more of the mid-range fella.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Cup1d on March 05, 2012, 04:18:28 pm
Archer without heirloom is much worse then archer full heirloomed.
2h, Pole without heirloom is much closer to 2h, Pole full loomed.
1h is in between both (heirlooms are more important then 2h/pole but less then archers).

Perhaps you should nerf archer-looms and buff gen1 archers instead.
Give every bow +2 Damage and remove damage bonus on arrows.
Make Arrow-Looms +1 +2 +2 ammo for example.

Archers are as strong as before but now they arent as different as before.
I dont want them nerfed i want them adjusted.

I think it would be fair if every Powerstrike will kill 14 your effective wpf in melee profeciency. So with 163 wpf and 6 PS you'll have 79 effective wpf naked. As every archer.
After this add armor penalty

I think it's good idea to nerf STR crutchers a bit
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Chagan_Arslan on March 05, 2012, 05:14:51 pm
(exception is  HA, but they are  speed premium for damage).

HA dont get speed bonus for shooting someone while riding at full speed toward them, the speed bonus is only based on the enemy movement
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Wraist on March 05, 2012, 07:03:08 pm
I think it would be fair if every Powerstrike will kill 14 your effective wpf in melee profeciency. So with 163 wpf and 6 PS you'll have 79 effective wpf naked. As every archer.
After this add armor penalty

I think it's good idea to nerf STR crutchers a bit

That has nothing to do with what he said :|
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Cup1d on March 05, 2012, 07:40:28 pm
That has nothing to do with what he said :|

Archers looms compensate this wpf reduce bullshit.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Phew on March 05, 2012, 07:57:15 pm
I am offering 100k in gold to any non-archer main, that rolls an archer alt, and posts a positive kdr by reaching level 31.   

100k for getting more kills than teamkills? Seems doable...

My pet peeve: people that say "positive kdr" when they mean "kdr>1"
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on March 05, 2012, 08:06:57 pm
take it up with Swalker, who I believe is no longer playing (or incognito)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Lordark on March 07, 2012, 06:46:01 am
I've played 2 low gens of an archer with:
MW Horn + MW Tatars + Mace
MW Rus + MW Tatars + Hammer
and that was actually BEFORE the full pierce damage "buff"

I finished both generations with a k/d of about 3, let's not even mention sieges. I never had problems with awareness from either cav or inf because I didn't tunnel vision on one target (it's like an argument of "I'm bad - that's why we need buffs") and knew how to use the "view outfit" button.
I stopped playing an archer because I found the gameplay boring and withdrawn from the real action which is melee.
Also fuck defining by realism and don't state opinions as facts. A good or even a decent archer is better to be had on your team than a good or a decent anything else.

^^Well said sir well said.  Now let us all nerf longpikes some more please. Tired of these 7 athletes whirlwind tin can tornadoes
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Renten on March 07, 2012, 07:02:43 pm
If an archer with 6pd could check at what amount of armor the target has that bodkins are more effective it would be nice. Especially if they had MW bodkins and MW tartars (or can borrow). Also do the test with vanilla of both.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Lichen on March 07, 2012, 07:16:11 pm
If an archer with 6pd could check at what amount of armor the target has that bodkins are more effective it would be nice. Especially if they had MW bodkins and MW tartars (or can borrow). Also do the test with vanilla of both.
From my observation generally anyone in mail or above use bodkins. Anyone below use tartars or other cut arrows. Devs have balanced it pretty sensibly.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Aleta on March 09, 2012, 09:02:48 am
I think this testing was done with targets with way too much health. A 15 STR char with 0 IF has 50 hp. a 21 STR char with 5 IF has 66 hp and 70 hp if 7 IF. I consider that to be extremely much IF really. If going 24 STR with 8 IF one has 75 hp. and I would say this is like going crazy on getting as much hp as possible. About 95 % of the people playing in the server has between 35 and 60 hp. Most people also have between 0 and 50 armor. That makes this target the typical target:
Quote
Most hits to kill:  3  (Target:  55 hp, 46 body armor.  Long distance shots)

So one can say 95% of the players can be killed with maximum 3 shots, even on long range.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: MrShine on March 09, 2012, 02:06:29 pm
I think this testing was done with targets with way too much health. A 15 STR char with 0 IF has 50 hp. a 21 STR char with 5 IF has 66 hp and 70 hp if 7 IF. I consider that to be extremely much IF really. If going 24 STR with 8 IF one has 75 hp. and I would say this is like going crazy on getting as much hp as possible. About 95 % of the people playing in the server has between 35 and 60 hp. Most people also have between 0 and 50 armor.

I assume you are EU?

Considering that HP is the most important factor in absorbing archer blows, and EU seems to be the biggest contributors to the "nerf archery" lobby, perhaps this is more of a meta game problem and not really one about ranged balance.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Sellka on March 09, 2012, 02:55:48 pm
+1, People just lobby with nerf archery. I agree some instances its bs, but meh its crpg. I'm in the lobby for the longbow.That shit got wrecked by chadz. Longbow can be out drawn, by horn bow etc naturaly but, the longbow should be able to out shoot them, But, it can't. the stats on the horn bow closely related to the longbow when it comes to ranged combat. This is also comming from being an archer back in the day, and being one in the crappy excuse  for a bow it is now, and I was easly getting out shot by horn bow etc.
       

Archery is suppose to do a bit of dammage, on the account it is all we have for our offence, and defence. shooting shielders is insane now, the forcefield they have is messed up. How are archers suppose to defend them selfs against shielders? where is the balance in that when its inpossible to shoot them from the front, and if they know your shooting at them, they always aim towards you, and go your way, naturaly. People complain about archers running away when thats our last defence, and happens what we are good at, Shielders are one of those reasons why archers run the fuck away, when they come waltsing around with shields that take half of your arrows to distroy.

PS. another little topic to bring up.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adalwulf on March 09, 2012, 10:57:08 pm
Archery is fine if you disagree learn how to play and...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEyk-iohLw&feature=related
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Sellka on March 10, 2012, 12:06:06 am
Archery is fine if you disagree learn how to play and...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEyk-iohLw&feature=related

Should listen to your own advice as it needs to be tweeked :V
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Adalwulf on March 10, 2012, 12:41:59 am
Quote
      Archery is suppose to do a bit of dammage, on the account it is all we have for our offence, and defence. shooting shielders is insane now, the forcefield they have is messed up. How are archers suppose to defend them selfs against shielders? where is the balance in that when its inpossible to shoot them from the front, and if they know your shooting at them, they always aim towards you, and go your way, naturaly. People complain about archers running away when thats our last defence, and happens what we are good at, Shielders are one of those reasons why archers run the fuck away, when they come waltsing around with shields that take half of your arrows to distroy.

Not true. I shoot shielders many times in the face even with their shields up or on the legs. they don't have forcefields as you put it and archers shouldn't be able to defend themselves against shielders....stop being a lone archer and try playing with your team maybe? If you follow your infantry you won't have to run very far because he will get attacked in the back....

Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Gisbert_of_Thuringia on March 10, 2012, 09:41:43 am
Agree on the last one....forcefield has been gone for ages now. Ask the shielders, some are still complaining about it cause they loved to be ultra protected^^

You can still defend yourself against shielders. Either try to run around them and shoot or just take your melee weapon (which you should have) and defend yourself until your team is close. And as Adalwulf said: Stick to your team. No need for lonesome archers who try to kill everyone out there alone. Archers need protection so they should always be close to teammates who defend them.

We can do high damage and we can do that over distance. But we can't really defend ourselves, we survive mostly only one hit and we get killed by cav easily the moment we start aiming (even when you checked your back before, they might come around a corner suddenly when you start aiming^^)   Live with it :)
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Aleta on March 10, 2012, 12:45:10 pm
I have lately been playing my archer alt a lot. My "findings" is that archery isn't as "gay" as some people often say. In the levels before lvl 20 you can't really do much, and after hitting lvl 25 you are a killing machine. (if you have the skill, where the strategy and positioning skills are the most important I'd say. any noob can have good aim) And as I have mentioned earlier archery don't need a nerf.

However, I think archery needs a tweak. There should be done something to stop or reduce the effectivity of kiting archers, and bodkins should rather have +8 damage than piercing.


@MrShine: Yep I'm EU. Do really a lot of people stack STR that much over there in NA? I would consider a 24/15 build to be very STR focused and then one only has 75hp. At least compared to EU assuming that the average of players have between 64 and 76 HP and 52 to 68 armor is a bit wrong. (at least considering 76 hp would require 25 STR) And just so you know, don't get me wrong. I mentioned earlier in this post but I can repeat it: archery does not need a nerf. However, they could use some tweaks.
Title: Re: Bodkins and Archery: An Inconvenient Truth
Post by: Remy on March 10, 2012, 05:12:01 pm
after hitting lvl 25 you are a killing machine. (if you have the skill, where the strategy and positioning skills are the most important I'd say. any noob can have good aim) And as I have mentioned earlier archery don't need a nerf.

The same point applies in some way to most classes but the level at which a class becomes useful varies.

However the end factor is always skill for every class, the average "noob" can in fact not be a killing machine even with a lvl 30 Archer or HA. :wink: