cRPG

cRPG => Suggestions Corner => Game Balance Discussion => Topic started by: Thomek on September 18, 2014, 06:03:18 pm

Title: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 18, 2014, 06:03:18 pm
It's time to wake up and realize infantry is the bread and butter of cRPG.

You need to work on balance to facilitate infantry being able to have a good time on battle. Right now this is not the case.

Squeezed between the power of cav and ranged elements, it's getting exceedingly impossible to have a good fight. In EU people are flocking to siege, because they are sick of functioning like ranged and cav fodder.

I've been playing this mod for 4 years, and rarely has gameplay on battle been as lame as it is currently on EU1.

Both ranged and cav needs further nerfs. Perhaps we will loose some ranged players, but we will regain more melee players in return I'm certain.

Being shot and bumped to death every round is NOT good gameplay. Both the relative numbers and the power of those classes needs to be kept down!

Just make a decision: This is mainly a melee game. Other classes feed on melee, thus melee must have priority, and more power.

Cause right now it seems the goal is some kind of fairness, the result which is massive unfairness IN PRACTICE against melee.

I'd prefer an honest 2h/pole/shielder hero any day for the vulture-like gameplay which is ranged and cav. I think a lot of players agree.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 18, 2014, 06:31:04 pm
I disagree, even if melee is the main thing of crpg, cavs and archers play a huge role when it comes to teamplay and its balance. It's a way to kill people the infantry cannot kill, and it's still counterable. Every time I eat arrows, it's because I play like a solo hero without shield, or because I'm charging blindly into an archer nest. It learns me to stay at my place, instead of playing like if I was a level 50 hero that kills everything in one hit and that cannot die.

Even cavs, that I hate so much, contribute to that, and a battlefield without archers, crossbowmen, throwers or horsemen would be terrible. That's why melee only servers never worked : people play because they want to see the whole possibility to make an unique build/class on any characte, and not to be restricted to three classes (polearms, 2h and 1h).
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Digglez on September 18, 2014, 06:57:48 pm
i wouldnt mind the ranged & cav so much if it werent for the completely blind balancing that doesnt take builds into consideration.

More often than not, I am AGAINST the team that autobalance just put EVERY SINGLE RANGED AND CAV PLAYER on.  And nearly just is bad is BEING on THAT team, the ranged have killed any and everyone before I get to them so I'm left standing around doing nothing or running from corpse to corpse aimlessly.

I also think it is game breaking and poor balance that someone can stow a bow & arrow and draw a sidearm in less than 1 second.  Stowing a weapon, especially one without a sheath/scabbard needs to take far far longer than it currently does.  Insta-stow & sidearm draw negates the value of sneak attack or chasing down ranged players just to have them conjure a sidearm instantly and play rope-e-dope while the multiple other ranged just plink away at you.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Macropus on September 18, 2014, 07:17:39 pm
I agree that infantry is the basis of this game, I don't however see an overwhelming amount of ranged or cavalry, it seems not bad at the moment tbh. Also note that your (and mine since I respeced to agi ninja again) playstyle's natural counters are ranged and (to a less extent) cavalry.
Maybe I just didn't notice it because of being burdened by respecing choice too much though.  :)

More often than not, I am AGAINST the team that autobalance just put EVERY SINGLE RANGED AND CAV PLAYER on.
That doesn't mean balance is just bad, it means balance is biased towards you personally. How would you explain that?

I also think it is game breaking and poor balance that someone can stow a bow & arrow and draw a sidearm in less than 1 second.  Stowing a weapon, especially one without a sheath/scabbard needs to take far far longer than it currently does.  Insta-stow & sidearm draw negates the value of sneak attack or chasing down ranged players just to have them conjure a sidearm instantly and play rope-e-dope while the multiple other ranged just plink away at you.
You can almost always land 2 hits if you get someone by surprise, seems enough to kill most ranged.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on September 18, 2014, 07:29:39 pm
Unfortunately, there are other aspects to balancing than just relative class strength.  These factors are mostly map design, but then there's also auto balance and a few other things.  However, since we arent going to get an entire set of replacement maps, it will always be easier to balance the classes than create new content.

One factor, outside of map design is high level characters.  I've said it before, high level characters are exponentially more powerful than a level 30.  My level 34 character is crazy fast and does crazy damage.  It can't take a lot of hits, but whatever.  Jack's 24/24 build is insanely powerful, he's faster than most and has that 1-hit lethality.  It's one downfall is he only has 4WM,  but he's good enough to work around that most of the time.  Then you have Aldo, who should be on another level at 37, but he has kind of a garbage build.  High level Archers are now just as strong as level 30 infantry, but can also shoot a bow.  Or they go for pure builds, and have around 200wpf which is just insane.

Another layer on top of that is we can pretty much assume that every item people wear now +3.

We need to start balancing around our current reality, not balancing around where things were 2 years ago.  Oh, and also not balance around whatever pissed Tydeus off this week.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Lennu on September 18, 2014, 08:02:23 pm
Thomek, like you said you've been playing this for 4 years now. But I consider you to be an average melee fighter. And I don't say this to insult you, but to point out that in melee there so many skilled players. A new player (lets say he has been around for 2 months) will still get crushed by you anyway.

On melee it's insanely hard to get anything done. Not because melee is weak, but because your opponents in that melee fight are so fucking strong. A simple 1 kill every now and then is really hard to archive in melee as a new player. You might simply die because you went to close to an enemy  :lol: All it takes is 3 swings after all. And unless the manual blocking is welded to your spine, taking those 3 hits from a skilled player is probably the only thing you did that round.

So altho archery has been nerfed to ground, and cavalry costs a fortune. So as ineffective as those 2 classes might be in the hands of a newbie, a new player can still archieve more by playing ranged/cav, and that way have a lot more rewarding gameplay experience, than in melee.
Landing a few shots on enemies before you died, or killing an afk peasant at the the enemy spawn as cav is way more rewarding than having someone shove a German Poleaxe up your rectum in melee  :lol:

A good example can be found here: http://forum.melee.org/beginner's-help-and-guides/i'm-terrible-at-pvp-melee-combat/
He describes himself as " terrible at PvP melee combat" and well.... he is  :rolleyes: Not because he isn't realizing some obvious techniques or mechanics in melee, but simply because the opponents he has to face in melee combat are sooooo much ahead of him.


Now, obvious fix for this problem would be: get more new players  :lol: This way there will be plenty of different skill level players to fight against. A new player will eventually run into another new player, get a 1v1 kill in melee and actually think "wow, I think I handled that pretty well".
Getting new players happens by promoting C-rpg to the outside world. Like via here http://forum.melee.org/general-discussion/promote-the-mod-to-mod-sites/


But overall I do agree with you Thomek. Melee fighters should be the majority on the battle field. But cav and range should still provide an impact aswell.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 18, 2014, 08:27:48 pm
I think that melee should be able to combat whatever you throw at them with the right equipment, even as a low level or without specialization such as shields and cav rearing. 0-1 difficulty shields in particular I feel need another significant buff. Low tier equipment, including cav and ranged, don't need to be as good as the best out there, but they should be useful. New players can only hope to compete with the most expensive stuff that they can't even afford. I also think that the base wpf should increase to 70-80 while easing the scaling a bit. It would give new players a few better options.

Without WSE updates, the game is limited on how much it could be changed for new and updated features. Other issues stem from animations that need to be tweaked over stats and WSE and non-WSE functions.

Most of my own proposals are based around internal balance and weapon diversity. These are the current topics on the forum: http://i.imgur.com/C5GB8dO.png. Closed threads means that there are enough yes and no votes. Many threads are stuck in limbo at the moment and more balancers are needed. "Item Balancer" has only recently been changed to simply "Balancer" so maybe that means a little more than just item tweaks (which was the position's original purpose afaik).
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: AwesomeHail on September 18, 2014, 09:05:32 pm
imo some meta weps need to be toned down/animation speeds (e.g polearm uphead, long axe spammability)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 18, 2014, 09:19:24 pm
Lennu ofc that cav and ranged are a bit easier to get kills with and probably a little more newbie friendly, but problem is that the hard core play those classes too! :D

Also, I believe infantry melee is the way to hook people. Not cav or ranged, which at least I find much more boring to play.

Basically what I'm asking for is not theoretical item balance, but sticking the finger in the ground and see whats happening on the servers.

It's hard to put down in numbers, but there should be a will, a vision of what good gameplay is, that in the end translates into item balance.

In my opinion good gameplay must be anchored in happy infantry.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Dolphin on September 18, 2014, 09:27:02 pm
I got tired of dying as 1h no shield, i retired and made a xbow having more fun cause i can kill cav and archers with ease now :)

But boring playing against melee as i have to "cook" them with a bolt before being able to defeat them.
To achieve good cooking i need to camp alot which is quite borring 8 sec reload time.

I would love to be able to jump back into being 1h swashbuckler again, if i just didnt keep on getting shoot or trampled.

I say #BuffAthletics !
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 18, 2014, 09:55:20 pm
Lennu ofc that cav and ranged are a bit easier to get kills with and probably a little more newbie friendly, but problem is that the hard core play those classes too! :D

Also, I believe infantry melee is the way to hook people. Not cav or ranged, which at least I find much more boring to play.

Basically what I'm asking for is not theoretical item balance, but sticking the finger in the ground and see whats happening on the servers.

It's hard to put down in numbers, but there should be a will, a vision of what good gameplay is, that in the end translates into item balance.

In my opinion good gameplay must be anchored in happy infantry.

Even if it's hard to put down in numbers, what stats do you propose?
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 18, 2014, 10:22:31 pm
And then all hell breaks loose right? :D

I think you have to look at items specific to classes then.

For ranged: Bows and arrows (reduce damage plain and simple. Yes, tincans will profit the most.)

For cav: Horses (Maneuverability. Will force cavplayers to think before charging in, and make it harder to change their minds.)

For horse ranged: Near total nerf. IDK how, but one way would be to make horse bows, make all other bows unusable on horse, then nerfing the horse bows.

Don't forget the long 1handers like cavalry sword, that have their high cut abused with the speedbonus since forever. Compensate a bit in speed for example.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Lichen on September 18, 2014, 10:55:00 pm
Both ranged and cav needs further nerfs.

Being shot and bumped to death every round is NOT good gameplay. Both the relative numbers and the power of those classes needs to be kept down!

Just make a decision: This is mainly a melee game. Other classes feed on melee, thus melee must have priority, and more power.

Cause right now it seems the goal is some kind of fairness, the result which is massive unfairness IN PRACTICE against melee.
Hmm well I keep saying make crossbow bolts cut damage and only bolts that cost more than the steel ones currently do as pierce damage. Also if you are wonder why so many ranged it's because they USED to be melee but got tired of it because it's tedious playing against other good players and every fight can turn into a 5 minute duel that you just want to be over. So people just 'bypass' that hassle with ranged which takes away all the endless pro dueling with every other player. So yeah players are too good and that's part of the problem.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 18, 2014, 11:04:47 pm
Hmm well I keep saying make crossbow bolts cut damage and only bolts that cost more than the steel ones currently do as pierce damage. Also if you are wonder why so many ranged it's because they USED to be melee but got tired of it because it's tedious playing against other good players and every fight can turn into a 5 minute duel that you just want to be over. So people just 'bypass' that hassle with ranged which takes away all the endless pro dueling with every other player. So yeah players are too good and that's part of the problem.

I actually got a better K/D both generally and on website than I was used to have with archery since I swited on melee. The terrible thing is I play melee (triple hybrid) for a month now, and played archery 2.5 years, and crossbow 1/0.75 year. It's not that hard to gank, if you find ganking people being hard, then, just try a little bit harder : I don't even have to block more than 2 times in a row if I make the good choices. Plus ranged doesn't make people play it (I mean, experienced melee players), they just try it out and mostly respec their character since they got a bad K/D for most of them.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Huscarlton_Banks on September 18, 2014, 11:24:41 pm
It's a bit complicated to make battles infantry melee-centric without breaking cavalry/ranged entirely as classes if changes are only done via modifying things like item stats.

As long as long non-obscured terrain exists (even worse if it happens to be on a hill/stairs), ranged will dominate shield-less infantry.

As long as infantry do not coordinate and group up tightly so that they outnumber enemy cavalry by at least 3:1 per engagement, cavalry will dominate infantry in any scene that doesn't have a ton of logs/rocks impeding free movement.

As long as foot archers don't have a fortified position, cavalry will dominate them 1:1.

Something like HA/HX is even more complicated, since infantry (especially shieldless) are just helpless against them in an open map as long as they don't take dumb risks, and they're basically only countered by multiple ranged in fortified positions.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: F i n on September 18, 2014, 11:45:47 pm
Very Simple Solution to all of this:

Get rid of the 3000000 bazillion slot EU1 - which propably hasn't been full for 100000 years.

Introduce more different Battletypes and -servers instead and finally get rid of the dead EU6.


1) The Kings' battle (100 Slots) - Min. 10k Equipment Value / No Restrictions / HA and HX + Full Ranged 
(click to show/hide)
/ vast Maps / Plains / Fields
(click to show/hide)
+ Bannerbalance

(Propably the clans' choice)

2) The Earls' battle (75 Slots) - 20k max. equipment value / No Horse Ranged / Mixed Maps + Bannerbalance

(Good for skilled players that seek a casual, yet demanding game)

3) The Civil war (75 Slots) - 10k max. equipment value, only close combat / City Maps / NO BANNERBALANCE)

(A Place for new players and old ones. A K:D / Levelbased Balancing could counter the abuse by veteran-clans)



That way you'd give new players a place to have at least equally equipped enemies.

You would also give older Players a better time testing their strength and skill.





Because basically the only choices we have atm are:


Play on EU1 (Getting shot at or being raped / if there's even players on... yesterday for example i was playing on eu1 at like 1am with 20 players on - and 3 Horsearchers.... if it's not even fun for an old my old friend with some decent equipment and kind of a working skillset how should this ever be fun for a new player)

Play on EU2 (Well. It's not battle... and therefor not using the full potential of the fighting mechanics / Skillsets)

Play on EU3 (With yourself...)

Play on EU6 (With a ball and 1-3 drunk or deathmatching people)

Play on EU7 (...a multiplayer game with bots...yeah right.)


OR :

Don't play (My Choice number 1 the past few days - and propably the conclusion many new potential crpg-gods came to after giving crpg a shot... like literally)




It's time to make this interesting again.

Deleting a class, or rendering it useless might be one way. But i'm sure there's others.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: spiritus on September 19, 2014, 02:31:22 am
I have a hard time playing crpg recently even when i play shielders or str builds i still get eaten up by range /:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Chosen1 on September 19, 2014, 04:16:29 am
Very Simple Solution to all of this:

get a shield
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on September 19, 2014, 04:51:36 am
I just want to know who was brave (foolish) enough to post in here and say "yes, make Daruvian an item adviser."

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


(click to show/hide)

Really though, class balance is pieced together by a whole bunch of voodoo magick bullshit that even the balancers can't control. There's random trends of players all getting on one playstyle, maps that benefit some classes and impair others, the fact that some builds are immensely stronger at 32+ than they are 1-30, a wonky as fuck engine, and all sorts of other confounding factors that have to be considered.

Edit: I for one vote that we change the "Balancer" and "Item Adviser" titles to "Voodoo Magick Bullshit Shaman".
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Quiksilver on September 19, 2014, 06:52:02 am
Cav and ranged i can deal with, you can chase archers and they eventually have to fight, very annoying of course. Lance cav are fun to slip and then hit with a polearm or 2h. Its the compination of the two that is retarded   http://i.imgur.com/tlrHm0W.png this is a game early in the morning of nothign but 10 or so HA against a team that didnt even have cav. This was not only this game this was three games in a row before i was fed up. Not everyone had spawned at this point and there were infact more HA. If you have to leave these troll classes in to submit to this fantasy part of the community, then fine, but fix this balancing.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Molly on September 19, 2014, 10:14:42 am
I gonna pick up on something what Thomek wrote: Maneuver of horses.

Some days back when there were quite a lot of cav players, I asked for their honest opinion about horses having overall too much maneuver and funny enough:

From those 10-12 cav riders, except for 1, they all said "Yea, it's way too high."
So, that would be a start when even the cav players actually agree that it should be more difficult. The light horses stop in an instance and turn on a penny with high riding. Either change the maneuver values on the horses across the board or lower the bonus high riding gives. The latter would probably affect HA/HX the most cuz they rely on high maneuver the most.

Just my 2 cents... leave the donkey alone tho! :wink:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on September 19, 2014, 02:31:55 pm
I really don't think cavalry can take another nerf without free look being removed.  Just about anyone can dodge a cav player in a 1v1 situation.  Any further nerfs to maneuverability would just be a nerf to teamwork and a huge buff to ranged.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Digglez on September 19, 2014, 06:43:15 pm
I agree, horse deceleration should be slower and maneuverability at higher speeds should be much more limited.  And massive deceleration should prevent you from attacking or risk being thrown.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Rebelyell on September 21, 2014, 04:34:03 pm
Well If you can split cav and ranged equally(by effectiveness) between bought teams that would solve most of the problems that we have now. Peoples often cry about ranged because balance like to put them in to one team and if that team have cav superiority too....
well then balance unbalance teams.

Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Tydeus on September 21, 2014, 04:49:06 pm
It's a bit complicated to make battles infantry melee-centric without breaking cavalry/ranged entirely as classes if changes are only done via modifying things like item stats.

As long as long non-obscured terrain exists (even worse if it happens to be on a hill/stairs), ranged will dominate shield-less infantry.

As long as infantry do not coordinate and group up tightly so that they outnumber enemy cavalry by at least 3:1 per engagement, cavalry will dominate infantry in any scene that doesn't have a ton of logs/rocks impeding free movement.

As long as foot archers don't have a fortified position, cavalry will dominate them 1:1.

Something like HA/HX is even more complicated, since infantry (especially shieldless) are just helpless against them in an open map as long as they don't take dumb risks, and they're basically only countered by multiple ranged in fortified positions.
Good class balance can't effectively come through simply changing numbers in warband; there are too many hardcoded mechanics that you can't touch. The only balance that should be done through item stats, is balancing items of the same type, with each other. Please can we finally acknowledge this fact? Can we accept that the very maps that 1/2 the community wants to play on (open terrain) are the very things causing balance issues?

You can't both have your cake and eat it.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 21, 2014, 05:09:44 pm
I don't agree.

* In the past nerfs have kept ranged down to a minimum. Nowadays they often top the scoreboard. If those classes stay competitive, it is detrimental for gameplay, because infantry are squeezed between ranged AND cav. Combos making them even more powerful. (Like getting bumped, then shot)

* HA/HX: Creativity is what it takes to nerf them. Make only few bows usable on horse, nerf those. (for example)

* Why can't horse maneuver be touched?

The only thing that needs to be clear, is that infantry is the base food in the food-chain that other classes eat. If it gets squeezed out, the mod dies.

It is a complete misconception that ranged (or cav for that matter) should be competitive in the first place.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Rebelyell on September 21, 2014, 05:13:39 pm
Good class balance can't effectively come through simply changing numbers in warband; there are too many hardcoded mechanics that you can't touch. The only balance that should be done through item stats, is balancing items of the same type, with each other. Please can we finally acknowledge this fact? Can we accept that the very maps that 1/2 the community wants to play on (open terrain) are the very things causing balance issues?

You can't both have your cake and eat it.
HA It looks like you hit brick wall of code but angry mob is still pushing you on it and CMP with sledgehammer(WSE) is in another dimension building new universe.

There is no help there is no hope.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: AntiBlitz on September 21, 2014, 05:37:12 pm
i dont know why freelook is even a thing, ive always said from the beginning that shit needed removed, its retarded, the eyes all around you shit is stupid.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Macropus on September 21, 2014, 06:01:02 pm
i dont know why freelook is even a thing, ive always said from the beginning that shit needed removed, its retarded, the eyes all around you shit is stupid.
Eh... what?
Because cavalry totally needs a buff like that, right?  :)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Kalam on September 21, 2014, 06:27:07 pm
I still maintain that a lot of these issues stem from map design. More town maps would have a significant impact on the effectiveness of non-melee classes.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Quiksilver on September 21, 2014, 06:49:22 pm
I have fallen in love with the conquest maps on siege lately, they make cav almost completely in effective and archers cant run forever without running into a teammate or straight back into their own spawn. I think conquest needs to become a server instead of siege, no one likes siege. It only recently got a following again... because of the conquest maps. Make it all conquest all the time. The terrain and buildings make archery and cav difficult to play, but not impossible.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: AntiBlitz on September 21, 2014, 10:54:00 pm
Eh... what?
Because cavalry totally needs a buff like that, right?  :)

everyone uses it, it is in now way a direct buff to cavalry, get that bullshit nonsense out of here, while were at it, remove the spinning xbow men, also fucking stupid. 
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 21, 2014, 11:25:37 pm
Needing to 360 spin to see the ranged, cav, and gankers around seems pretty bad.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Protemus on September 22, 2014, 12:28:17 am
I say this thread needs to be placed to Chamber of Tears because all I see is crying, mostly from Thomek.

Man up and adopt to new playstyle, range is superior, melee inferior, now grow some balls and stop whining.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Lichen on September 22, 2014, 04:22:06 am
Needing to 360 spin to see the ranged, cav, and gankers around seems pretty bad.
lol, guess I've been playing all wrong as I don't use the 'freeview' key except for screenpics. It should be non bindable to mouse at least.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Vengt037 on September 22, 2014, 06:42:55 am
It's time to wake up and realize infantry is the bread and butter of cRPG.

You need to work on balance to facilitate infantry being able to have a good time on battle. Right now this is not the case.

Squeezed between the power of cav and ranged elements, it's getting exceedingly impossible to have a good fight. In EU people are flocking to siege, because they are sick of functioning like ranged and cav fodder.

I've been playing this mod for 4 years, and rarely has gameplay on battle been as lame as it is currently on EU1.

Both ranged and cav needs further nerfs. Perhaps we will loose some ranged players, but we will regain more melee players in return I'm certain.

Being shot and bumped to death every round is NOT good gameplay. Both the relative numbers and the power of those classes needs to be kept down!

Just make a decision: This is mainly a melee game. Other classes feed on melee, thus melee must have priority, and more power.

Cause right now it seems the goal is some kind of fairness, the result which is massive unfairness IN PRACTICE against melee.

I'd prefer an honest 2h/pole/shielder hero any day for the vulture-like gameplay which is ranged and cav. I think a lot of players agree.

Don't have screenshots, but I've played almost every gen of my main and alts as some form of ranged, and almost always reach level 31 w/ a KDR that is below 1. The 1 time I did a 2H build for an entire gen I was at like 2:1 by the time I got to 31. I guess this is just anectdotal evidence, but that's all I have to offer to this discussion is my personal experience. I have noticed that using the "free look" button frequently and just having good overall awareness and scanning the battleground prior to jumping into combat can save you from a lot of unnecessary cav deaths.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on September 22, 2014, 06:56:40 am
Don't have screenshots, but I've played almost every gen of my main and alts as some form of ranged, and almost always reach level 31 w/ a KDR that is below 1. The 1 time I did a 2H build for an entire gen I was at like 2:1 by the time I got to 31. I guess this is just anectdotal evidence, but that's all I have to offer to this discussion is my personal experience. I have noticed that using the "free look" button frequently and just having good overall awareness and scanning the battleground prior to jumping into combat can save you from a lot of unnecessary cav deaths.

The OP is saying that ranged are particularly powerful now, which actually seems to be pretty true.  You're saying in the past, you were able to get a good KD as melee, when ranged was less powerful.  So, you're not really helping to dispel his argument.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Rico on September 22, 2014, 07:50:54 am
Please remind me of the last major buff to ranged. I seem to overlook it among all the crossbow requirement increases, projectile's armor penetration reduction, quiver weight increases, slot usages, STR archer nerfs and stun removal.

But that's probably just my biased perspective based on nothing but glimmering salty tears.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Macropus on September 22, 2014, 09:17:50 am
Please remind me of the last major buff to ranged. I seem to overlook it among all the crossbow requirement increases, projectile's armor penetration reduction, quiver weight increases, slot usages, STR archer nerfs and stun removal.

But that's probably just my biased perspective based on nothing but glimmering salty tears.
Melee gets harder over time as the game gets older. Ranged doesn't. Therefore - continuous nerfs. Seems legit.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Inglorious on September 22, 2014, 11:10:41 am
Agi builds are a 2 way street. Super annoyingly quick movement and attacks, can still wear plate, and are able to do great damage still. On the other hand, you get shot by an archer or trampled once or twice and you're dead. But, IMO it's a fair trade off. You want to out spam out run and out footwork people. Awesome! That's cRPG's intent to let you do just that! But who is there to stop you? Archers, Cavalry, and other forms of infantry.

On that note: Strength builds are going to be making a come back. I can feel it. Not your 21/18 builds, but 30/9, or 36/3 builds. It's enough PS to kill agi spammers in 1 hit, and you can take about 7-9 swings from one. And let's not forget to mention taking 12 arrows, or 2 couched lances, being able to still fight with a sliver of HP. Those guys are the real infantry. Slow moving, hard hitting. Just an old fashioned raw power build.

Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Okkam on September 22, 2014, 12:39:51 pm
* In the past nerfs have kept ranged down to a minimum. Nowadays they often top the scoreboard. If those classes stay competitive, it is detrimental for gameplay, because infantry are squeezed between ranged AND cav. Combos making them even more powerful. (Like getting bumped, then shot)

It is a complete misconception that ranged (or cav for that matter) should be competitive in the first place.

I still remember many melee heroes from 2010. Pity that 99% of them loose a motivation to play this mod with all this constant rebalance mentality.

It is kindergarten for melee already. What kind of boon you propose to give them now Thomek?   
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Grumbs on September 22, 2014, 01:08:42 pm
Please remind me of the last major buff to ranged. I seem to overlook it among all the crossbow requirement increases, projectile's armor penetration reduction, quiver weight increases, slot usages, STR archer nerfs and stun removal.

But that's probably just my biased perspective based on nothing but glimmering salty tears.

Xbows have never been adequately balanced. They are always token gestures to try to reduce the QQ. They have no build requirements at all beyond optional WPF and 1 handers got over buffed, including 0 slot weapons. They are too easy to use effectively. You can have protection from any counters (shield) a good 1 hander and great ranged weapons without really sacrificing much especially at high level

As the game goes on people get higher level, which means you can make more and more OP ranged builds, either pure or hybrid. High level ranged > high level pure melee by many factors. The game isn't balanced with high level builds in mind because the balancers can't even test those builds

Now we even have HA/HX's which need to be countered by other ranged. Rather than people going ranged just to kill defenceless melee and other foot ranged they need to go ranged to shoot mounted ranged as well. There isn't much incentive to not play a ranged class and it makes cRPG a dull game to play atm. My interest in this game just goes lower and lower
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: zDevilBox on September 22, 2014, 03:35:09 pm
Get back EU_crpg_Melee with 30 slots :!:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: NJ_Legion_Icedtea on September 22, 2014, 04:06:10 pm
Something I would love to see implemented (and I'm sure its been mentioned before) is the removal of crosshairs.

No I am not raging about ranged, but I just think it would add a nice element to the game, and I wouldn't even care if an archer managed to HS me then.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Rico on September 22, 2014, 06:07:50 pm
Many games have this, and there are cross hair overlays to download for free. It's merely another advantage of cheating/exploiting players over others. Jeez, I have even seen people with marker on their screen center to represent a cross hair.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: To Kill A Dead Horse on September 22, 2014, 06:17:58 pm
*INCOMING BAD IDEA*

Implement code that balances teams based on skill points (riding and PD) to prevent one team from becoming stacked with cav and/or archers.

I would suggest doing this for PT too but I do not feel that there are not enough throwers to make it worthwhile.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: NejStark on September 22, 2014, 06:20:12 pm
infantry is the bread and butter of scrublords
FTFY
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: AwesomeHail on September 22, 2014, 06:47:11 pm
I say this thread needs to be placed to Chamber of Tears because all I see is crying, mostly from Thomek.

Man up and adopt to new playstyle gay-way, range is superior not balanced, melee inferior, now grow some balls and stop whining.

Says the most annoying HA in the world :|
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: agweber on September 22, 2014, 11:10:46 pm
My alt, Ranged, who is more of my main than my main is, gets pretty high scores sometimes. However, this is because I'm hunting other ranged and cavalry, trying to support my team. I do a whopping 31c damage with my nomad bow and tatar arrows. Don't rage against all of ranged and cavalry, as not all of us are assholes.

To the person who suggested removing 360°,.. hell no. I love going out into a field when there's only a few cav on and playing cat and mouse. If I lost 360° I'd lose that whole aspect of the game.

To the person who suggested removing crosshairs,.. hell no. For previously stated reason that it just benefits the exploiters even more.

To those suggesting a better balancing system,.. yes. I know that we're probably restricted in many ways, but we've been breaking and fixing things (*cough*valor*cough*) and the community bitched about it, but it was fixed and the community stopped bitching. We can try things out for a few days if it's planned to be only a few days. I'm looking at you Tydeus. You've become the bad guy, even if it was those who can push changes up's fault. San has been talking over and over about not being able to properly test things as well. Just give these two guys (maybe others? I dunno) the power to push changes up. This community is pretty okay with being guinea pigs. We'll rage for a day or two if it really messes things up, but it's better than waiting indefinitely with speculations on what we could possibly do. Just go try it out and see what happens. If you guys need the power to do so, start pressuring the devs to give you that power. They're busy dev'ing elsewhere and c-RPG still needs loving too.

To those suggesting a better map rotation,.. yes. I'd love to see more cities where cav and ranged have more trouble. Open maps are boring and a clustercuss, whereas city maps can take major advantage over strategy and tactics.

I think that's all I've got for now, peace out and keep rolling.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on September 22, 2014, 11:51:16 pm
My statement was you can't further reduce horse maneuverability without removing freelook.  Don't take that out of context, you retards.

IE.  Don't reduce horse maneuverability, you retards.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: BlindGuy on September 23, 2014, 12:29:26 am
i dont know why freelook is even a thing, ive always said from the beginning that shit needed removed, its retarded, the eyes all around you shit is stupid.

If cav gets the same then :D
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Joker86 on September 23, 2014, 09:12:59 am
Thomek, do you really think that...

... less damage for ranged and lances
... lower accuracy for ranged
... slower horses
... weaker horses
... higher upkeep for ranged and cavalry

... will change anything? Really? Even if you managed to lower the population of those for infantry "annoying" classes to like 10% each, do you think a battle should consist of 10% archers, 10% cavalry and 80% infantry? How interesting would this be? How much fun? It would basically be the melee only server, and we all know how popular that was.

And even THEN those 20% non-infantry players would...

... shoot you on distance
... shoot you in melee, stunning you
... backstab and trample you
... force you to CONSTANTLY look around you to check for threats
... run away if you try to attack them
... immediately stop and attack you again once you stop chasing them

I know some of those (like running archers) are less of a problem for your Ninja-build, but I am speaking in general, for all infantry. It's the gameplay mechanics, which make the class so unappealing to play in battle mode, and not the balance. There must be a reason that players have always come back to play cavalry and especially archers, after all those nerfs.


No nerf will help fixing this problem, because balance is not the cause of it! How many nerfs did we have up to now? And if you really think about it: how many kills can a good melee player score, how many can a good archer score? Both archers and cavalry are heavily underpowered already, stat wise. And still they make life difficult for infantry.

I think I won't even advertise for Conquest mode any more, you all know what my opinion is by now. All I will say is that you absolutely, positively need to get rid of that Battle Mode. It's poison for infantry.

To me you all go like "Cavalry is the bread and butter class of the game, but in our default game mode which is siege we simply suck! Please nerf archers and infantry". Now what do you think how far should you nerf the class to finally get over the problem of cavalry being not so good in quickly rushing a castle on top of a hill or surprising enemies on a battlement which is 2m broad?

Yeah. And now think about what you are asking for a class which got its opponents nerfed about a DOZEN times already, and which still has problems killing off all enemies, because it is neither fast nor can it attack on long range, but killing is what you have to do. The solution is obvious, I would say, implement a 13th nerf for those classes, perhaps you can finally make them literally unplayable, thus getting rid of them and saving the game... for infantry... for a while, until most infantry players get bored of the clusterfuck in the middle of each round... and cRPG dies for good.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 23, 2014, 11:41:50 am
I agree and disagree Joker.

Point is Archers and Cav in a good players hands easily tops the board with much more kills than infantry atm. They are more than viable. There hasn't been some continous nerf of archers and cav.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: McKli_PL on September 23, 2014, 12:40:04 pm
Every class can easily top the scoreboard if played right in good hands, and if u have less frags than archer/cav on bad range map/bad cav map than ur doing something wrong on the battlefield
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Joker86 on September 23, 2014, 01:02:55 pm
There hasn't been some continous nerf of archers and cav.

That is not true.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 23, 2014, 01:36:54 pm
OK.

Go ahead people. Make maps yourself. It's not that hard after all. Joker, go ahead and code your conquest mode. Seems fips have gotten something similar to work for siege, so maybe hook up with him.

Anyway.

Unless someone actually starts DOING something, I consider all talk about maps and conquest dreams diverting from the matter at hand.


The point of my post was to show WHY infantry must be more attractive to play compared to ranged and cav, and this should be reflected by item balance. Why ranged (and cav) should be perpetually kept down in power. Because if infantry becomes unbearable to play, the mod very quickly dies.


"If cRPG is an aquarium or a lake, cav and ranged are the sharks and the piranhas. Infantry is the food. When food runs out, predators will also die (leave mod), albeit a bit later. This is why infantry requires good conditions for having fun, more so than cav and ranged. "

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: BlindGuy on September 23, 2014, 02:27:06 pm
Listen up Thomek you nub: battle best mode, infantry best class, more than viable, BUT:

Medium armor is weak against cav, yes

Black hood is very weak against ranged, yes

Katana is very weak at stabbing horses, yes

YOU chose nerf self.

I seldom wear armor, and usually use a joke weapon, but I cannot complain when this goes wrong because I AM CHOOSING to do those things, same as you are choosing to have no head protection, no shield, no spam because you split your wpf and have relatively low Athletics for that playstyle.

Stop nerf self, before nerf others, yadig?
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Joker86 on September 23, 2014, 02:30:20 pm
OK.

Go ahead people. Make maps yourself. It's not that hard after all. Joker, go ahead and code your conquest mode. Seems fips have gotten something similar to work for siege, so maybe hook up with him.

Anyway.

Unless someone actually starts DOING something, I consider all talk about maps and conquest dreams diverting from the matter at hand.


The point of my post was to show WHY infantry must be more attractive to play compared to ranged and cav, and this should be reflected by item balance. Why ranged (and cav) should be perpetually kept down in power. Because if infantry becomes unbearable to play, the mod very quickly dies.


"If cRPG is an aquarium or a lake, cav and ranged are the sharks and the piranhas. Infantry is the food. When food runs out, predators will also die (leave mod), albeit a bit later. This is why infantry requires good conditions for having fun, more so than cav and ranged. "

And NO. I'm not talking about extreme nerfs or eradicating classes. And yes, I understand the inherent flaws in battle, but to be honest, it cannot be THAT flawed. It has been the most popular mode for the better part of 4 years..


Balancing things also involves actually doing something. You are right, infantry must be more attractive to play, but balance is NOT capable of achieving this. You will ALWAYS have to run after your target, you will ALWAYS have to be in weapon reach to your target, and the other classes will ALWAYS not be restricted in that regard, and this is why infantry will ALWAYS suck on battle mode.

And battle mode is INCREDIBLY flawed, people are just unable or unwilling to see this. It was the most popular mode because it was the closest you could get to represent a real battle. But this doesn't work in a game, which is supposed to be balanced, whereas battles were supposed to be won by any means possible!

Seriously, for me the problem is so clear, I can't believe that everyone who wants a balanced game doesn't stand up and shouts "Stop the nerfs, give us another game mode!", because it is the root of all problems we have in the game (besides the shitty upkeep system).

Just imagine what will happen if you nerf archers and cavalry yet another time. Many of those will either quit playing or change their class, just to notice that they will STILL get shot (unless you lower archer damage or accuracy to 0), and they will STILL get trampled and backstabbed, even with slower, weaker horses and less damaging lances, and it will STILL suck unproportionally more than killing someone in melee after running around most of the time. And eventually they will get back to their initial class, and the complaints will grow again, and in the end nothing will have changed, apart from infantry still having a shitty game, but archers and cavaly having a shittier game than they had before.

There is NOTHING balance can do to stop you from running over the battlefield 95% of the time, trying to reach an enemy with your petty 0.5-3m weapon, who doesn't want to be reached. It is so obvious, and I honestly can not believe how you can assume that 5 points less damage or accuracy or a slower rate of fire or slower or weaker horses or whatever can seriously change how it feels to be infantry in an open map and having to kill archers, cavalry and - worst of all - horse archers. They simply can't!

People in general think very little about what they do in online games. And they have little understanding of how balance works, or why certain features work the way they do. And not many people would relate getting killed repeatedly by the same classes to problems with the game mode, rather than simply claiming the other class would be OP and requesting a nerf for it. And usually that's the case, but not in cRPG! It's a special case, since the classes were not created with some balance in mind, but origin from a game which wanted to resemble medieval warfare pretty accurately.

Let's just summarize what we have:
- a large map
- two teams
- the objective to kill all enemies
- a class which can pick their targets on long range
- a class which engages in melee but is so fast that it can also pick targets
- and finally a class which is neither fast nor can pick targets

So does it sound logic to make that last class which sounds so incredibly shitty stronger by giving them better stats? Would the class sound less shitty to play with? I guess not, it would still be slow and it still would not be able to pick targets.

Another approach would be to change the classes, but since this is medieval warfare we can't simply make up a new class with a less shitty mechanic

So the only, THE ONLY approach left is to change the focus on the classes. Find other aspects than mobility and choice of targets to determine what a class does and how well it does it, and you will fix the problem. If target choice and flexibility become less of an advantage, the issues are gone!

Now once for all: balance is not the solution, nor will it ever be! Compare ranged now to the ranged which was possible before the upkeep! You had plated archers with pinpoint accuracy, automatic fire and causing high damage! Compare that to the slow ass, low ammo, low accuracy low rate of fire archers with crappy melee weapons, and estimate for yourself if the extent of the archer problem lowered proportionally to the lowered power of that class. It did not.

This is not a matter of opinion, whether you want nerfs or not, it's not a general game design question, it is a matter of fact. Infantry does not have the same flexibility like the other classes, but has to play in a game more which relies upon being flexible.

I am not derailing this topic because I am talking about something nobody is working on. I am directing this topic to the ONLY solution possible, although the topic started into the wrong direction, and the only question left is: why is nobody working on that single, possible, only solution we have for that problem?
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 23, 2014, 02:47:44 pm
What if the ONLY possible way is impossible Joker? Maybe Fips should shed some light on this.

Should we just give up? Just say fuck it?

I'm not campaigning against your solution Joker, it's just that I don't see it happening. (unless someone steps up)

Ranged btw are not nerfed into oblivion by any means. They shoot fast, and do good damage too. Their 1handers are great melee weapons. There has been times when they have been truly nerfed, and during those times server population was good.

Battle is flawed, but not unfixable to a point better than what it is now. That is my point. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be fair, but it can be OKish.

This is my goal. Not some utopia dream mode than will never get done.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Tydeus on September 23, 2014, 03:00:54 pm
...
Keep in mind conquest isn't the only way to solve this problem. Rather than trying to script/help script conquest+battle/xp system, players can simply choose to make battle maps which don't give any advantages to ranged or cav. To clarify, that's not to say you're giving them disadvantages, just that you're not allowing for height advantages, long range shooting or wide open areas.

Might sound boring(these types of maps were among the most popular back in the ATS server days), but each of those grants an advantage to either ranged or cavalry. Arena is one such example of this type of a map (although it's a bit extreme in how straight forward it is). Your choice.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: BlindGuy on September 23, 2014, 03:10:52 pm
Well Thomek you seem to ignore the fact that you nerf yourself. Anyway, if you really wanted to make infantry stronger, you need to implement some changes. But not to ranged or cav. To infantry: Split WPF is bullshit atm, your damage and speed is insanely better when you take all WPF in a single weapon type. But Hoplite is not very fun for many ppl, and hoplite is ideal infantry: rapes horses and has a shield. Give more infantry access to polearms and shields and they would crush ranged and cav.

But mostly change people's BRAINS. Currently teamwork consists of gank. That's it. It's a ME, IM THE IMPORTANT THING mentality that you have to remove. So, remove the scoreboard, in it's entirety. Just have a list of players. Remove the need for ppl to stack their KDR, and they will give more to team effort. Or have some proper assist system, so you can be proud that all you did was act as a running arrowscreen for your 2hander to get amonsgt the ranged and rape them, or you stood and blocked 2 guys for 2 minutes while your team arrived. But those things cannot be implemented, and the balance is half the issue: Either have ROCKSOLID bannerbalance or NONE, or I don't know, but currently 1: teamhitting/killing is not punished NEARLY enough, not even close. And team spirit is non existant. When you see a teammate getting overwhelmed, currently it pays off to just think "Oh well, fuck him" and run off. And saves dont pay off either: teammate horse slain, he falls at enemies feet, I often (and I see others too) leap over his body and shield him if I have one, or try and block the incoming hits: that should be rewarded too.

So much could be taken from Battlefield aswell: When I see a ninja about to overhead sleepy archer and I throw an axe 20 metres and headshot that ninja, I should get a fucking reward.

Also awareness: Cav or ninjas or something coming behind my teammate, I wheel about and prepare to receive them, teammate just stares at me like "Why you pointing a sword at me bro?" instead of making the fucking logical thought train: Oh, this guy is pointing at something behind me. Just last night I saved a guy just like this, stab past his head and kill 1h-cav horse just before he gets teammate: teammate starts attacking me with sword cause he thinks I tried to stab him and missed, fucking clueless that enemy is rolling on ground behind him.

You cannot make people more aware, you cannot stop newer player from stacking strength and making themselves arrow and lance magnets, and you cannot realistically make most infantry take shields and poles to make them a stronger unit but weaker individuals: ppl dont want that. I mean, it works well to have entire fighting group be shielders with poles and 1handers, on balanced builds, maybe 18/21. Your team will win very often, but since its hard work to make ppl get rid of their super op 2h hero or polespammer extreme, it aint gonna happen.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Grumbs on September 23, 2014, 05:12:34 pm
There is not enough incentive to play pure melee when you can play a ranged character with good melee and decent armour, especially at high level. Thats one of the main issues - make melee a real class in and of itself, rather than half a ranged or cav class like it is now.

I would suggest simply buffing pure melee. Make it an actual class with the presence of a cav or a ranged player, rather than a class that has to gank en mass to compare to the other classes. Make armour better or reduce the armour penetration of ranged. Increase the weight of 2 slot melee weapons for weapon stun. Nerf heavy gloves but add a bit more armour to heavy armours. Nerf 0 slot weapons etc
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on September 23, 2014, 05:39:16 pm
Honestly I'm the best 1h cav in NA and I legit find it easier to just play infantry.

Polearm is the easiest, most rewarding class in the game. All this stuff you guys are crying about saying cavalry and ranged is nonsense.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on September 23, 2014, 05:58:50 pm
Honestly I'm the best 1h cav in NA and I legit find it easier to just play infantry.

Polearm is the easiest, most rewarding class in the game. All this stuff you guys are crying about saying cavalry and ranged is nonsense.

Pretty much.  I've never really played range, but my pole arm character with 17k worth of gear has a much better KDR than my 2h cav in heavy armor back in its heyday, pre-horse nerf, bump nerf and bump slash nerf

I do have a feeling that ranged, with the exception of throwing, hasn't been properly balanced since the WPF patch, considering that they've gained considerable melee capabilities through the 1h stab rework, 0 slot weapons becoming useful and the buffs to the mace and military sickle.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: BlindGuy on September 23, 2014, 06:00:18 pm
... NA... is nonsense.

Sorry, the adults are speaking. We will discuss happy meals and tonka trucks later ok honey?

Jokes aside, I really am sorry: You have no idea. In EU with 30 ping I'm average scorer, can take most ppl 1v1 because of my 10k hours rather than my pure skill, but in NA I'm score-topping with 120 ping... what gives? Is it luck? No, I truly am convinced you guys are way behind, skill wise. Not that you don't have very very good players, but the average is way lower than on EU1.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Macropus on September 23, 2014, 06:13:07 pm
Thomek rages at ranged and cav, Joker advertises the conquest mode, Grumbs talks about ranged-melee hybrids being too strong.
A classic balance discussion, I feel like I'm at home.  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 23, 2014, 06:26:56 pm
8WM, level 35:
Pre-wpf patch: 168 wpf archery, 75 wpf melee
Post-wpf patch: 170 wpf archery, 76 wpf melee

Am I missing something here with the complaints from archery mixed with melee? If you're having trouble with ranged with 80-100 less wpf than you, I don't know how much more you can be assisted without having the kill handed to you for free. Military Sickle hasn't been changed for years afaik and Mace used to be 99 speed, 30b for the longest time, and it's been in the realm of 31b and 100 speed at some points. It was nerfed because knockdown was untechable, inflating the reward for a single hit, and now that nerf is unneeded.

The average for both NA and EU are low, just how it is. Maybe balance should be focused on low level play.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on September 23, 2014, 06:30:11 pm
all that stuff

You think I can't come into EU1 and top the scoreboard? And I'm not even that great by NA standards.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 23, 2014, 06:33:37 pm
Anyone can play with 120 ping and top scoreboards if he plays in a smart way (staying with teammates, using good armor to compensate your ping). I remember I tried playing on NA servers when it was a cav invasion on EU1, and I was actually doing better on NA than EU, since there was less plates, less cavs, and less archers with nomad bows. Good times back then... don't manage anymore to deal with ping. :(
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: BlindGuy on September 23, 2014, 06:43:33 pm
You think I can't come into EU1 and top the scoreboard? And I'm not even that great by NA standards.

Unlss you come in at 4AM when I've chased the last EU's away, before the Russian shift starts, and your the only person on there.

But with players on... No I don't think you can :D
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Utrakil on September 23, 2014, 06:49:07 pm
Honestly I'm the best 1h cav in NA.
I'm not even that great by NA standards.
??
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on September 23, 2014, 07:00:43 pm
I've made an expedition to the strange realm known as EU_1. Here I shall use my training at the cRPG University to record an ethnography of the local culture.

I have just entered the server and spawned in my standard gear for the NA server as infantry. There are 12 players on each team. I was a late spawner. The first player I have encountered fits the following description:

* Full Milanese Plate from head to toe (possibly heirloomed).
* +3 Cataphract Horse
* Jousting Lance

He spots and charges me. I jumped to the side and slashed him in the face (it did no damage at presumably near maximum speed bonus). I am then quickly found by two of his infantry teammates. He bumps me down as they get on both sides of me. I die.

If I had to make an educated guess I would predict that 80% of the server's melee players have over 55 body armor on.

To be continued shortly...

EDIT:

??

I meant at infantry I'm not that great.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 23, 2014, 07:05:47 pm
I don't think it's me with my Ninja build :) I have always prevailed somehow. I like to play against stacked odds. Nothing new under the sun from my side.

Just look at EU battle player numbers. Something aint' right. It shouldn't die so fast. I think it is because infantry started to flee, then it became more and more unbearable for the rest of the infantry.

Fact is EU1 is migrating to EU2, and I fear this is the last step before cRPG dying. At least for me, siege can be fun, but has it's limits, and I quickly tire of it compared to battle, which never seems to loose its grip.

I just... Don't think it's viable to blame people's brains, stupid play etc..  OR dream about new maps, new game-modes, when there are no signs that will actually happen.

What needs to be done is simply a realization among balancers that:

* Try to get a feel for how easy it is to actually play infantry in a Range/Cav scenario
* Realize that cav/range have to pay an extra performance cost, to make room for "the food".
* That every class should have ability to have equal fun, is a flawed argument. Ranged and cav should have less fun than infantry. That's the price they have to pay for food to prey on.

I seriously believe players will come back and respec to infantry, if the game was more shifted in favor of it, and we will once again see player numbers increase.

To NA:
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER on September 23, 2014, 07:17:03 pm
Chapter 2: DRZ Vs. LE

I am now beginning a battle between the ruskies and my brothers the Deutsch and parading myself as The Gay American. I shall use this an experience to judge EU mentalities. I will report my results when I return.

EDIT: It was an awful experience.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on September 23, 2014, 08:06:57 pm
8WM, level 35:
Pre-wpf patch: 168 wpf archery, 75 wpf melee
Post-wpf patch: 170 wpf archery, 76 wpf melee

Am I missing something here with the complaints from archery mixed with melee? If you're having trouble with ranged with 80-100 less wpf than you, I don't know how much more you can be assisted without having the kill handed to you for free. Military Sickle hasn't been changed for years afaik and Mace used to be 99 speed, 30b for the longest time, and it's been in the realm of 31b and 100 speed at some points. It was nerfed because knockdown was untechable, inflating the reward for a single hit, and now that nerf is unneeded.

The average for both NA and EU are low, just how it is. Maybe balance should be focused on low level play.

Mil sickle got a +2 buff on swings in 2h mode.  Langes was already 90% as good as a Longsword.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 23, 2014, 08:18:10 pm
You're correct. My bad about that.

http://forum.melee.org/announcements/0-3-0-1/

Back when Spathovaklion had its speed raised to 99, ranged was getting buffed, and players were rejoicing. Truly the best times back then. :lol:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Inglorious on September 24, 2014, 11:52:02 am


What needs to be done is simply a realization among balancers that:

* Try to get a feel for how easy it is to actually play infantry in a Range/Cav scenario


San is a living breathing example of a balancer that can vouch for infantry vs. ranged/cavalry can be easily done.

I don't think it's me with my Ninja build :)

So, the ninja build with low armor and low HP is fine, but only as long as you're not getting hunted by cavalry and ranged. Hmm...

I seriously believe players will come back and respec to infantry, if the game was more shifted in favor of it, and we will once again see player numbers increase.

Well, here's the thing I don't think players who're playing infantry smart generally run into the problems I think you're seeing. Solo missions by lone wolfs to "ninja" easy targets going bad due to no support class players around you is not the fault of ranged/cavalry.

In NA when groups naturally form up during a round, there's atleast 1-2 pole arms in the mix that have the ability to stop cavalry. It's up to them to do so, or more really everyone to "be aware" of their present location. That, or carry your own spear and don't stand in the open. Use terrain to mess cavalry approaches. Put a wall, pillar, rock between you and him, or if you're ballsy behind you and dodge the hit making him run into the wall and rear.

The number of people playing ranged is what I see a problem. Too many people playing cs:go maybe. However. Not putting yourself in a position to get shot works the best if you don't want to carry a shield.

I complain alot about ranged, but it's not something I think needs to be balanced. Other than that stupid horn/nomad bow that everyone uses. Seemingly hits just as hard as a long bow, fly's faster, and has slight to no drop within 150 meters. And on horseback, they are hilariously accurate. There's no way someone all the way across at the desert oasis map spawn point should land 3 shots on me, while he's moving, and I'm moving on a courser with 10 riding the perimeter at our spawn point.

And the EU cavalry doesn't seem that hard to take on. Last time I ventured into EU servers I claimed top of the charts just by killing cavalry. I remembered reading somewhere that you'll hardly see an EU cavalry do a head-to-head with anyone who knows they're there, especially cav VS cav. My own personal findings: delightfully true! I especially enjoy when you force them to head-to-head. They don't know how to cross  :twisted:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: jtobiasm on September 24, 2014, 12:36:02 pm
Thomek never fails to bring a laugh, complains about ranged but is a thrower.

And this guy is suppose to be an admin

Also this is the icing on the cake

* Try to get a feel for how easy it is to actually play infantry in a Range/Cav scenario

Yet he is a mid table player.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 24, 2014, 01:13:19 pm
I'm usually within top 3 on EU battle.. :P

This is not about buffing ME. This is about EU1 migrating to EU2 and players leaving.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Okkam on September 24, 2014, 01:49:51 pm
The best thing what Thomek did was introducing and advertising of ninja-style and ninja gameplay in 2010. This was good and interesting way of self limiting.
Now Thomek want buff this self-limiting way. And this decision looks strange at least. Especially for a guy who is admin for last 3 years.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 24, 2014, 02:13:46 pm
Ok, have fun on 30 player EU1.

I'll stop kicking this dead horse.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 24, 2014, 04:14:33 pm
If you're top 3, that only leaves 2 other spaces for ranged and cav. I want to focus on HA before looking at cav as a whole again, which I think is alright outside of buffing the Sumpter again and increasing the Courser/Palfrey price difference. I think people are still unsatisfied with internal bow balance, but I don't really know anything about foot archers. Best to have the experts make a topic.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: korppis on September 24, 2014, 04:19:49 pm
Imo battle already died few years ago.

Biggest reason is that people learnt to play. Back when majority of players were bad, it didn't matter so much how many archers there were.. they couldn't hit you every single time. When round started people just went all over the place and there was small fights here and there. It was a lot less about ganking and just plain chaotic.

Nowdays that archers have everything from their thongs to dagger loomed, over 3 years of training, 360 awareness and faster than light arrows, they won't miss so much. There's no hope in flanking so it's all about wearing as much armor as possible and staying in the big blob of a team just to stay alive untill it collides with the other big blob, after which it's one big gank fest.

Honestly I don't see that ever being fixed. I doubt any hardcore epic level archer will give up his bow, or any hardcore heavy armor melee gankers going for light armor and weak weapon just for fun. Although it could be fun to see people being more casual again instead of always going for best and easiest gear and playstyle. If I were new to the mod now, I would just give up for sure.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jack1 on September 24, 2014, 07:08:38 pm
Here are my thoughts:

In terms of maps we need more of the old ATS style maps were there are choke points ranged can't shoot into and more objects blocking views other than foliage. Just about every map has a spot or two were you can view 60% of the map let alone 100% of what's within 50 meters. As loris said you can't sneak up on them anymore so the next best thing is to put them into situations were they get limited shots off.

In terms of internal ground ranged balance I never saw any problems ranged dueling people when I used a long bow. The only thing that was a problem was the HAs using pinpoint accurate bows(nomad, tater). Same reason that most tops coring ranged(non HA) use either longbow or rus bow.

In terms of internal melee it should be polearms>1h>2h in group fights and 2h>1h>polearms in dueling. while balance is good in group combat there is a problem that polearms are also the best dueling weapons. They have the longest 4D weapon (long voulge right swing vs Danish stab), the highest damage(awlpike stab vs Morningstar swing) and the fastest speed (from a decent hitting weapon, long axe vs bastard sword( polearm animations make up for the speed difference))

In terms of str vs agi, str is at a large advantage if they have weapons specially made for the situations(long spear in groupfights) but are at a huge disadvantage when they do not( long spear in 1v1)

The only thing that I can't make a good decision on is str vs agi archers.





In the end my opinion is that one of four things need to happen for ranged:

1. Change the maps to obstruct vision with more obstacles.
2. Nerf archers accuracy so that they can only count on getting a shot when shooting into groups or at point blank.
3. Make the area of bumping a person who has a ranged weapon drawn larger.
Make it so that any time you cancel a shot via close proximity enemy or a reload on a crossbow anytime you receive damage
4. Increase the time it takes to switch out your ranged weapon. Thus making a ranged player shoot less or shoot more and take a hit while changing weapons.

For internal melee balance one of two things need to happen.

1. Make polearms a specialty weapon class. Make any dueling polearms other than spears much slower than they are at the moment but give them a slight length and damage buff.
2. Make any 2 hander have his power increased over 9000.



Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Kaido on September 25, 2014, 07:43:19 am
The true is after all the complaining everyone does and me too about (my old friendcav/my old friendcher),the game was made that way..If it was made for melee battles only it would be a different game.

Also the 'circle' of this game goes: im 2h ill say "my old friendcher/cavmy old friend/shieldmy old friend", if i was an archer i would say "fucking 2h heroes,cavshitlords,1h noobs",if cav "noob2h/1h/arch"
and all going on same class everyone complain about other classes all the time while when he is in that class he still complain about the others.

That's cRPG logic,you can't change that and it will migrate when banerlord/crpg standalone come.Deal with it  :lol:
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: BlindGuy on September 25, 2014, 11:53:45 am
Ok, have fun on 30 player EU1.

I'll stop kicking this dead horse.

Rarely will you get a full 30 on eu1 these days bro. Mod really is dieded.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Kaido on September 25, 2014, 01:31:15 pm
Rarely will you get a full 30 on eu1 these days bro. Mod really is dieded.

It's school season deal with it..
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: DonNicko on September 25, 2014, 03:03:31 pm
Just make expensive armors more invulnerable, because even with 8 athletics but milanese plate, archer can easily outruns me and shoot all of the time. And if I'm not dead yet when I reech them they can kill me with stab of 1h. I always QQ about armor. Make them more expensive if you want but more invulnerable)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Templar_Steevee on September 25, 2014, 04:13:13 pm
EU_cRPG_1   18   Battle   Yes
gg
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Sandersson Jankins on September 26, 2014, 03:44:43 pm
i wouldnt mind the ranged & cav so much if it werent for the completely blind balancing that doesnt take builds into consideration.

More often than not, I am AGAINST the team that autobalance just put EVERY SINGLE RANGED AND CAV PLAYER on.  And nearly just is bad is BEING on THAT team, the ranged have killed any and everyone before I get to them so I'm left standing around doing nothing or running from corpse to corpse aimlessly.

I also think it is game breaking and poor balance that someone can stow a bow & arrow and draw a sidearm in less than 1 second.  Stowing a weapon, especially one without a sheath/scabbard needs to take far far longer than it currently does.  Insta-stow & sidearm draw negates the value of sneak attack or chasing down ranged players just to have them conjure a sidearm instantly and play rope-e-dope while the multiple other ranged just plink away at you.

Agreed with the first portion completely. Classes are fairly balanced in my opinion currently, but the mod would heavily benefit from some sort of class-balancing between teams. Of course, I've got no knowledge of how difficult (or even possible) this would be to implement.

I don't feel that ranged should have any increased time to draw a side-arm. Anything promoting a ranged player fighting in melee instead of turning tail and running away to kite is a great thing.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: CrazyCracka420 on September 26, 2014, 04:39:13 pm
Keep in mind conquest isn't the only way to solve this problem. Rather than trying to script/help script conquest+battle/xp system, players can simply choose to make battle maps which don't give any advantages to ranged or cav. To clarify, that's not to say you're giving them disadvantages, just that you're not allowing for height advantages, long range shooting or wide open areas.

Might sound boring(these types of maps were among the most popular back in the ATS server days), but each of those grants an advantage to either ranged or cavalry. Arena is one such example of this type of a map (although it's a bit extreme in how straight forward it is). Your choice.

I think the magic carpet (the Sarranid town looking map) is a good example.  It has pretty narrow corridors (but some open areas too) but it's pretty much all flat ground. 
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: karasu on September 26, 2014, 07:49:34 pm
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Templar_Steevee on September 26, 2014, 11:10:58 pm
Anything promoting a ranged player fighting in melee instead of turning tail and running away to kite is a great thing.
Lots of ppl (ranged) will run away anyway. I don't know why devs decreased quivers weight (irrationat way to prevent kiting but it works) after most of archers get accostumed to it.

Archers already have good 0 slot melee weapons to fight, but stil many of them hardly ever use them.

From my experience i know that tiny 0 slot swords are deadly even with 1 wpf and 2 PS( i have those values). Almost all is about what ranged have in their minds, not options devs can give them.

Why ppl are playing as HA and HX? Because only classes can counter them are other ranged (mounted ranged have huge benifit compere them to foot ranged players: faster positioning and easier way to choose their targets, insane possibility of kiting). If mounted ranged is dying to cav 1v1 its mostly because of their unaware or mistakes them made.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 26, 2014, 11:24:56 pm
Agreed with the first portion completely. Classes are fairly balanced in my opinion currently, but the mod would heavily benefit from some sort of class-balancing between teams. Of course, I've got no knowledge of how difficult (or even possible) this would be to implement.

I don't feel that ranged should have any increased time to draw a side-arm. Anything promoting a ranged player fighting in melee instead of turning tail and running away to kite is a great thing.

Quite strange to me, people on a side wanting ranged to fight instead of kiting like bitches, but on another side, people saying archers are way too powerful at melee. I'd myself love to fight instead of running, but I'm forced to kite, even with 5 athletics, since I can't even face an average melee player who got better weapons/armors than me. I'll die in a stupid way getting spammed, instead of surviving after taking him down in 40% of cases.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 27, 2014, 12:21:02 am
Lots of ppl (ranged) will run away anyway. I don't know why devs decreased quivers weight (irrationat way to prevent kiting but it works) after most of archers get accostumed to it.

A proposal was made by you know who about increasing headshot damage and lowering quiver weight. Headshot damage failed and quiver weight barely passed on the condition that the weight would slowly decrease and may be raised if it's deemed problematic again. Should the weight perhaps be increased again?

I think that ranged have mediocre melee abilities. They lack the wpf that pure builds have. The people complaining probably aren't pure builds themselves.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Huscarlton_Banks on September 27, 2014, 12:40:58 am
I dunno why people are mentioning 0s weapons when most of the actual complaining about archers seems to be about fast missile speed/draw speed 1s bow users/HA, am I missing something?

I don't think that the quiver weight change did that much, most of the archers/crossbowmen I fight just drop their stuff and run, otherwise I'll end up catching them unless they're naked. I like to pick up the crossbow and run away if they drop it, usually gets them to actually fight.

Open, flat-ish maps tend to be seen as more fun, but people shouldn't be surprised if archers/crossbowmen get really annoying when they have clear LOS from a huge distance and barely have to adjust for height changes in most maps.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Templar_Steevee on September 27, 2014, 09:49:21 am
I don't think that the quiver weight change did that much, most of the archers/crossbowmen I fight just drop their stuff and run
In 90 % when i drop my bow I fight with my OP 0 slot sword and 2PS or run away to find a better weapon. :D
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Grumbs on September 27, 2014, 11:48:37 am
Lots of ppl (ranged) will run away anyway. I don't know why devs decreased quivers weight (irrationat way to prevent kiting but it works) after most of archers get accostumed to it.

Archers already have good 0 slot melee weapons to fight, but stil many of them hardly ever use them.

From my experience i know that tiny 0 slot swords are deadly even with 1 wpf and 2 PS( i have those values). Almost all is about what ranged have in their minds, not options devs can give them.

Why ppl are playing as HA and HX? Because only classes can counter them are other ranged (mounted ranged have huge benifit compere them to foot ranged players: faster positioning and easier way to choose their targets, insane possibility of kiting). If mounted ranged is dying to cav 1v1 its mostly because of their unaware or mistakes them made.

Yup, making ranged strong in melee dilutes the purpose of the melee class, and it simply gives ranged players more options rather than encourages them to stop kiting. Ranged will still kite as much as they possibly can, its only when they are forced into melee that they will then try to use melee. Why on earth the devs though it would be different is beyond me. If you drop your ranged weapon when you're forced to you get huge speed bonus + great melee weapons. If you want to do well in melee you should need to play a pure melee class
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Mr_Oujamaflip on September 27, 2014, 12:04:03 pm
Cavalry and Ranged control engagements because they can hit you when you can't help it, particularly ranged, cav has some degree of risk but they can still pick and choose when they want to fight. This is an inherent ability the class has and there is no way to nerf it.

What needs to be done is to give infantry players alternate ways of dealing with them, stakes are an example of dealing with cavalry (and can often work really well) and siege shields the same with archers, the problem is open maps give these ranged and cav too many options in bypassing infantry counters, cav can just run about all day ninjaing people who get separated and archers can just move to a different place.

It's less prevalent on city maps due to natural funnels etc but it's not something that can really be fixed through item balances because there are too many variations of build.

In regards to promoting teamwork like someone was saying maybe we should get rid of kills and deaths and just have points and have points added for assisting teammates, blocks etc. Anything you do that's positive. Have them get reduced at teamhits and teamkills or being by yourself for ages cos that's not contributing.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jona on September 27, 2014, 12:06:19 pm
I don't think that the quiver weight change did that much, most of the archers/crossbowmen I fight just drop their stuff and run

If I recall correctly, for a short period of time just before the quiver weight increase the devs instead implemented a system where the more athletics you have, the lower your ranged wpf (or something similar). Anyone remember why this didn't work out? Nothing is worse than finally closing the gap between you and a ranged guy, only to have them drop their gear and use their 8+ athletics and light armor to run circles around the entire map before you finally just give up. As Huscarlton said, with xbows you can pick up their weapon so they can't come back to it (assuming you can sacrifice the 2 slots) but with bows you can't. Nothing is worse than catching up to an archer, only to have him drop his bow, run a marathon with you, and then return to the bow and pick it up to finish you off since there is once again a huge gap between you. I guess if archers were kind of forced to not invest in athletics then they arguably get indirectly buffed by having that many more skill points to toss around, but if they invest these in more PS or maybe more WM that helps them melee, then I don't see there being much of a problem. Even if the archers opt to use these points to become better dedicated archers (pretty much a pure WM and PD build) then by all means, let them be effective at ranged. They aren't going to be much more than a stationary turret, so cav, infantry, and even other ranged will actually be able to kill them with relative ease.

On a side note, anyone who knows how to block can be effective at melee with or without any dedicated wpf. All an archer needs to do is put points into PS and they are "effective at melee." I know this first hand by having ~30 wpf in 1h on my main, yet I still hybrid as a 1h/pole hoplite. I do perfectly fine using the 1h. The only difference between a build with dedicated wpf and without is an ever so slight speed increase and more importantly a damage increase. If you have a veteran player where blocking comes as naturally as breathing, then it doesn't really matter how much wpf or PS they have... if they know the mechanics of melee combat well enough, they can be good in most melee scenarios. That said, I still question the logic of making 0 slot weapons that could block... it just really, really didn't seem necessary. It helps out melee hybrids a lot, I get that, but it also allows ranged to carry another what... 15-20 arrows/bolts? As I said, before, in this day and age of crpg you don't need the best build, looms, and weapons to win. By now you are either a skilled veteran or a hopeless noob. While the 0 slot 1handers might not stack up perfectly with the 1 slot, more expensive ones, this doesn't matter all that much. They are barely inferior weapons, and in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, even with minimal PS/wpf, they can work wonders. The problem with crpg nowadays is everyone is too good, plain and simple. If all ranged never had any melee experience, then sure, give them the weapons, they will still fail regardless. Nothing is worse than a melee veteran hopping on their ranged alt... they know how to melee really well, and are now having only a slight disadvantage in melee they are able to sling shit at you from across the map... that's just the worst imo. If you know how to melee, for the sake of this mod... just play your melee class.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Sandersson Jankins on September 27, 2014, 01:52:09 pm
Quite strange to me, people on a side wanting ranged to fight instead of kiting like bitches, but on another side, people saying archers are way too powerful at melee. I'd myself love to fight instead of running, but I'm forced to kite, even with 5 athletics, since I can't even face an average melee player who got better weapons/armors than me. I'll die in a stupid way getting spammed, instead of surviving after taking him down in 40% of cases.

Lots of ppl (ranged) will run away anyway. I don't know why devs decreased quivers weight (irrationat way to prevent kiting but it works) after most of archers get accostumed to it.

Archers already have good 0 slot melee weapons to fight, but stil many of them hardly ever use them.

From my experience i know that tiny 0 slot swords are deadly even with 1 wpf and 2 PS( i have those values). Almost all is about what ranged have in their minds, not options devs can give them.

Why ppl are playing as HA and HX? Because only classes can counter them are other ranged (mounted ranged have huge benifit compere them to foot ranged players: faster positioning and easier way to choose their targets, insane possibility of kiting). If mounted ranged is dying to cav 1v1 its mostly because of their unaware or mistakes them made.

I think I shouldn't have quoted Digglez from the first page of the thread. I believe he was the only one with a gripe against ranged drawing their weapons too quickly, which isn't precisely even the same thing as "ranged are too powerful in melee", although tangentially related.

Keep in mind my experience is limited to NA1 and a EU strat battles long ago. It does not seem like the majority of our "dedicated" ranged attempt to kite, perhaps it is more like half. I agree that it is exceedingly difficult to overcome a pure melee as a dedicated archer, especially if that pure melee is high level or skill, both of which are likely. However, it is certainly possible. I see certain ranged players do extremely well against melee, either scoring kills against them even without proficiency or dissuading them from fighting by inflicting enough damage. I've not read the entire thread thoroughly but I does not seem like many people are indeed complaining about ranged having decent melee capability without melee-related stats.

I think it was very wise to make a larger selection of 1h weapons 0slot so ranged could take advantage of them. It may be the case in EU that ranged do not use them, preferring their feet to a sword. As before, I've got very limited experience of EU play.

(Oops, I guess I didn't see that Jona doesn't like the numerous 0slot weapons. Well uh, fuck you Jona, you're wrong or something. But for real, a large thing to consider is the ungodly weapon-stun that 0slot weapons are encumbered by. Fighting multiple targets with a dinky-ass shortsword is very difficult, especially if you've not dropped your bow and are weighed down by that and its ammunition. If you HAVE dropped your bow and are fighting multiple people with a build not suited for melee and overcome these people, they certainly deserve to lose. If you're forced to run or fight for an extremely long period of time, which is likely considering your blocking is not affected by your sub-par melee capabilities, swing speed is only slightly affected, but damage is heavily affected, the enemy team will have successfully prevented your ass from shooting, which is what your main threat is.)

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 27, 2014, 03:59:41 pm
I think I shouldn't have quoted Digglez from the first page of the thread. I believe he was the only one with a gripe against ranged drawing their weapons too quickly, which isn't precisely even the same thing as "ranged are too powerful in melee", although tangentially related.

Keep in mind my experience is limited to NA1 and a EU strat battles long ago. It does not seem like the majority of our "dedicated" ranged attempt to kite, perhaps it is more like half. I agree that it is exceedingly difficult to overcome a pure melee as a dedicated archer, especially if that pure melee is high level or skill, both of which are likely. However, it is certainly possible. I see certain ranged players do extremely well against melee, either scoring kills against them even without proficiency or dissuading them from fighting by inflicting enough damage. I've not read the entire thread thoroughly but I does not seem like many people are indeed complaining about ranged having decent melee capability without melee-related stats.

I think it was very wise to make a larger selection of 1h weapons 0slot so ranged could take advantage of them. It may be the case in EU that ranged do not use them, preferring their feet to a sword. As before, I've got very limited experience of EU play.

(Oops, I guess I didn't see that Jona doesn't like the numerous 0slot weapons. Well uh, fuck you Jona, you're wrong or something. But for real, a large thing to consider is the ungodly weapon-stun that 0slot weapons are encumbered by. Fighting multiple targets with a dinky-ass shortsword is very difficult, especially if you've not dropped your bow and are weighed down by that and its ammunition. If you HAVE dropped your bow and are fighting multiple people with a build not suited for melee and overcome these people, they certainly deserve to lose. If you're forced to run or fight for an extremely long period of time, which is likely considering your blocking is not affected by your sub-par melee capabilities, swing speed is only slightly affected, but damage is heavily affected, the enemy team will have successfully prevented your ass from shooting, which is what your main threat is.)

(click to show/hide)

I often use my sword against an ennemy I can't kite, since my bow is dealing crap damages with 9 PD (I'm not even joking). Still end up dead because 40 wpf only, which 9 PS isn't able to compensate.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Sandersson Jankins on September 27, 2014, 04:47:17 pm
I often use my sword against an ennemy I can't kite, since my bow is dealing crap damages with 9 PD (I'm not even joking). Still end up dead because 40 wpf only, which 9 PS isn't able to compensate.

Are you a 27-15 build, with 9 PD and 9 PS? Certainly you'd be able to at least hold your own against a pure melee build unless they're very good. If you didn't drop your bow before engaging in melee, which is quite reasonable to do, you would be at a distinct disadvantage because of the ludicrous movement penalty that arrows inflict, of course. I'm not claiming that you'd be able to easily dispatch any motherfucker that came your way in melee with such a build, but I do feel that you are not at a tremendous disadvantage, assuming you've dropped your ranged equipment. Yeah, it sucks a bit to fight with only 40wpf, but to be frank, wpf does not seem to have an incredible amount of impact on swing speed; it is more important for determining damage.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 27, 2014, 06:33:04 pm
Are you a 27-15 build, with 9 PD and 9 PS? Certainly you'd be able to at least hold your own against a pure melee build unless they're very good. If you didn't drop your bow before engaging in melee, which is quite reasonable to do, you would be at a distinct disadvantage because of the ludicrous movement penalty that arrows inflict, of course. I'm not claiming that you'd be able to easily dispatch any motherfucker that came your way in melee with such a build, but I do feel that you are not at a tremendous disadvantage, assuming you've dropped your ranged equipment. Yeah, it sucks a bit to fight with only 40wpf, but to be frank, wpf does not seem to have an incredible amount of impact on swing speed; it is more important for determining damage.

Of course, I can always stab one or two guys, but never do anything more. I always die at the end, and not even to particularly good players sometimes, they just got a shield, plus 180 wpf, and just spam me, since I gotta block three times in a row to be able to attack once ... My thought is, do archers need to be nerfed even more at melee, since the problem is fast/huge missile speed bows ?
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jona on September 27, 2014, 10:41:40 pm
Don't get me wrong Sandy, I am all for archers choosing meleeing over kiting any day. But the fact that they can have a variety of good melee weapons that enhance their ability to use ranged (by allowing them to have more ammo) is kind of counter productive. Blockstun is an issue for all 1handers, and the 0 slot weapons aren't really much lighter. The knobbed mace is 1.7, for instance. The broad short sword is 1.3, which is a pretty good weight for a shorter 1hander. Also, any strength archer won't suffer from blockstun as much since they might very well have more strength than the opponent they are facing in this day and age.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jack1 on September 27, 2014, 10:51:24 pm
Buffing ranged(back to native mechanics minus the super fast draw speeds), making all quivers/bows/crossbows 2 slots with more ammo(and more weight to keep kiting from happening)and making any zero slot weapon(back to hammer, hatchet and that pick) shitty as hell or just giving them unblock able weapons would be the way to go if you want to seriously fix ranged so that it can't 1v1 a melee character.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 27, 2014, 10:55:22 pm
Don't get me wrong Sandy, I am all for archers choosing meleeing over kiting any day. But the fact that they can have a variety of good melee weapons that enhance their ability to use ranged (by allowing them to have more ammo) is kind of counter productive. Blockstun is an issue for all 1handers, and the 0 slot weapons aren't really much lighter. The knobbed mace is 1.7, for instance. The broad short sword is 1.3, which is a pretty good weight for a shorter 1hander. Also, any strength archer won't suffer from blockstun as much since they might very well have more strength than the opponent they are facing in this day and age.

Funny thing is that as a strength based archer you deal more damage with your sword than your bow. No lies. And what use is your "OMG FUCKING OP SWORD" against a guy of same level, but with four more times your wpf and 20 more armor on every part of the body ?

Seriously, just try it before saying anything, just try 27/15 with a short sword and 40 wpf only (I mean, don't put PD/archery), and try to do as  good as a guy with 7 PS and 170 wpf in any melee profiency.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 27, 2014, 10:57:25 pm
Buffing ranged? Can you go into more detail when you say "native mechanics"? You mean give stagger back? I like the slot changes, but it seems extreme. What do any archers feel about increased slots, but more ammo?

@Jona

I don't think your strength counteracts the chance to get weapon stun. I think it's primarily based on the person doing the stunning and the defender's weapon weight. Siding with Algarn on the disadvantage an archer with melee has.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jona on September 27, 2014, 11:05:09 pm
I don't think your strength counteracts the chance to get weapon stun. I think it's primarily based on the person doing the stunning and the defender's weapon weight.

Hmm... I could have sworn that the only way to "defend" against stun was to a) bring a heavier weapon or b) stack more strength. Maybe your strength changed the odds of an opponent successfully getting crushthrough, and I go that mixed up with stun?

Siding with Algarn on the disadvantage an archer with melee has.

Good. I really don't even see the point to this argument because if archers had the same melee capability as any pure melee build, everyone would be an archer. What exactly is the point of saying "I decided to choose using ranged weaponry at the cost of some melee effectiveness, but I'm not good enough in melee so please buff?"
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jack1 on September 27, 2014, 11:27:32 pm
Buffing ranged? Can you go into more detail when you say "native mechanics"?

give them more accuracy without being pin point/ being able to hold a drawn long/rus bow for more than .1 seconds.

You mean give stagger back?

hell no

 I like the slot changes, but it seems extreme. What do any archers feel about increased slots, but more ammo?

the idea behind this is to force ranged players to use 0 slots and to make those 0 slots the original 0 slots. Maker arrows go from 1 slot to 2 slots and ammo to ammo x 2. You get the same thing but you cant evade using the crappier weapons that are specific for ranged(hammer, hatchet, pick). Also you would need to increase the weight of arrows to about 11 so that there isn't kiting. Many ranged have melee hybrid stats and are kiting in NA 1 with 7 weight already. I wouldn't doubt they would change their builds to kiting builds ASAP if it stays at 7 weight.


Sorry for the crappy writing I'm on my phone with autocorrect./b]



Edit: I know that a vanguard guy, a DRZ guy and zlotz each were kiting me yesterday when I was on abbud Amati with 6 ath a huscarl, war hammer, and mail tier gear. Zlotz was slowly outrunning me once he got into the sprint mode but the other two were Jamaican compared to me.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 27, 2014, 11:54:52 pm
Hmm... I could have sworn that the only way to "defend" against stun was to a) bring a heavier weapon or b) stack more strength. Maybe your strength changed the odds of an opponent successfully getting crushthrough, and I go that mixed up with stun?
That might be, I just haven't seen the strength part fully confirmed anywhere, it's just what we all believe. I used to get stunned all the time on my 24 strength guy, and I have no problems stunning with my 15 strength guy if I have a heavy weapon.

Quote
Good. I really don't even see the point to this argument because if archers had the same melee capability as any pure melee build, everyone would be an archer. What exactly is the point of saying "I decided to choose using ranged weaponry at the cost of some melee effectiveness, but I'm not good enough in melee so please buff?"
0 slot weapons did indeed do little to get archers to not kite and fight in melee. I don't think removing 0 slot weapons would help much either. The only "solution" if you can call it that is to tone down the ranged aspects.


@Jack1

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give them more accuracy without being pin point/ being able to hold a drawn long/rus bow for more than .1 seconds.

I was told that hold time is tied to accuracy, but I am not sure what the devs initially changed to archery in the back end.

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hell no

Haha, I was about to say.

Quote
the idea behind this is to force ranged players to use 0 slots and to make those 0 slots the original 0 slots. Maker arrows go from 1 slot to 2 slots and ammo to ammo x 2. You get the same thing but you cant evade using the crappier weapons that are specific for ranged(hammer, hatchet, pick). Also you would need to increase the weight of arrows to about 11 so that there isn't kiting. Many ranged have melee hybrid stats and are kiting in NA 1 with 7 weight already. I wouldn't doubt they would change their builds to kiting builds ASAP if it stays at 7 weight.

This idea sounds nice to me, but that may be my melee bias talking. I don't think the ammo needs to be increased that much, but yeah, the weight would need to increase. I think that trying to balance for some archers that bring 3 stacks and another archer that brings 1 stack + 2 slot weapon is a little much, too.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 28, 2014, 12:29:55 am
Well Jack1, just do it, and regret it. Just think about the fact archers that are already wearing light stuff and having 9 athl will still kite with 11kilos of arrows on their back.

Also, if it has to happen, I simply hope you know you're going to screw every 2h archer + archers that use a 1 slot 1h (2 slots from bow + 2 other slots for ammo leaves no free slot) + archers that loomed a short sword (if you want it back to 1 slot, or to nerf the shit out of it to make it completely uneffective), and it will end up, as you said, archers taking weapons to block, and will keep running even more.

Thing is, I almost see no one on EU1 with a rus bow, and really, I see 1 archer on 50 with a long bow. They simply stick to the low PD bows, which give advantages when PD bonus is maxed out (i.e : nomad bow and 6 PD, with either bodkins or tatars). And it's all those guys that use low tier bows that got most potential when it comes to run.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jack1 on September 28, 2014, 01:00:08 am
Well Jack1, just do it, and regret it. Just think about the fact archers that are already wearing light stuff and having 9 athl will still kite with 11kilos of arrows on their back.

if you get outran by somebody with an archer like that you deserve to be kited. no ranged character should be able to outrun a person with 6 athletic in armor around the grounds of studded leather over mail.


Also, if it has to happen, I simply hope you know you're going to screw every 2h archer + archers that use a 1 slot 1h (2 slots from bow + 2 other slots for ammo leaves no free slot) + archers that loomed a short sword (if you want it back to 1 slot, or to nerf the shit out of it to make it completely uneffective), and it will end up, as you said, archers taking weapons to block, and will keep running even more.



all of the 2h 1 slot weapons are already far too effective to be in the hands of a ranged character.

I don't get what you mean in the bolded part.


Thing is, I almost see no one on EU1 with a rus bow, and really, I see 1 archer on 50 with a long bow. They simply stick to the low PD bows, which give advantages when PD bonus is maxed out (i.e : nomad bow and 6 PD, with either bodkins or tatars). And it's all those guys that use low tier bows that got most potential when it comes to run.

keep in mind that you are a ranged player. ranged players using a 6 PD bow will have the disadvantage in a 1v1 vs any other bow. anyways, when you think of a good archer that is not a HA who do you think of? bagge/stevee on EU or Agile/kelden/itchy/zlotz on NA. they ALL use 6 pd bows. the only person that I can think of that can score high on the boards consistently without a 6 PD bow is flying dildos and he still gets half his kills with his 2 slot 2h sidearm.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on September 28, 2014, 04:35:00 am
I made a thread for a band-aid treatment for ranged + HA. A bunch of my own threads are still in vote limbo, so it's probably going to take a while unless the other voters get in gear whenever the next patch comes up, if they agree with it, of course.


I'm not convinced about the complaints of cav. In fact, horses should have damage received to their legs at half armor instead of 0 armor, mostly to combat those teamhits that nearly oneshot the horse. Requires a WSE2 update, however.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: jtobiasm on September 28, 2014, 10:52:27 am
bagge/stevee on EU or Agile/kelden/itchy/zlotz on NA. they ALL use 6 pd bows.

The only archer i know on there who is good (Never seen the NA guys play and stevee sucks imo) is bagge and i know for a fact when he uses a bow less than 6PD he can headshot people all day long.

Also watch druzhina nebun with his horn bow the guy can pull headshots off all day too.

The bows are perfectly balanced, if you want to kill other ranged take less than 6 PD.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 28, 2014, 11:51:34 am

The bolded part means an archer will drop his bow mostly, start blocking the melee opponent, will try to gain enough speed to run out of the fight and take his bow later.


And Shokoshugi is always doing well with a horn bow imo.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Sandersson Jankins on September 28, 2014, 01:57:35 pm
Don't get me wrong Sandy, I am all for archers choosing meleeing over kiting any day. But the fact that they can have a variety of good melee weapons that enhance their ability to use ranged (by allowing them to have more ammo) is kind of counter productive. Blockstun is an issue for all 1handers, and the 0 slot weapons aren't really much lighter. The knobbed mace is 1.7, for instance. The broad short sword is 1.3, which is a pretty good weight for a shorter 1hander. Also, any strength archer won't suffer from blockstun as much since they might very well have more strength than the opponent they are facing in this day and age.

I can see your point, there are weapons that are 0slot ranking on par or even a bit higher than some 1slot counterparts. Hell, when I was a 30-15 swashbuckler I used a 0slot weapon just because I loved the damn old thing. But keep in mind that the block-nudge is extremely potent and reducing the selection of sidearms for ranged characters may mean that they'll simply pull their dinky hammer when they are in trouble, nudge the bad guys away, and high-tail it the fuck out to shoot some more. I wouldn't dig that so much.

Speaking of which, it does not seem like strength affects weaponstun at all, only weight and perhaps PS of the foe attempting to stun you. At least at 30-15 I'd still get weaponstunned like a bitch using the short nordic war sword, but almost as much using a +3 warhammer, the weightiest 1h I think.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: AwesomeHail on September 28, 2014, 06:11:07 pm
Fighting against 2 HA's in eu 1 with 40 ppl in the server
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on September 28, 2014, 06:26:26 pm
Balancers should kill off HA.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: sjarken on September 28, 2014, 06:39:36 pm
Mostly try to spam or nudge-hit archers when i get close.
So frustrating when they switch to mele and nudge u 20m away, then shots you down or they repeat until you are dead.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: agweber on September 28, 2014, 09:55:40 pm
Balancers should kill off HA.
You could play a class that doesn't run off by itself that then gets targeted by those HAs.

Frankly, HA don't do shit damage anymore and a block of infantry usually just gets ignored. HA will usually run off and try to find an easier kill.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Templar_Steevee on September 28, 2014, 11:58:36 pm
The only archer i know on there who is good (Never seen the NA guys play and stevee sucks imo) is bagge and i know for a fact when he uses a bow less than 6PD he can headshot people all day long.

Also watch druzhina nebun with his horn bow the guy can pull headshots off all day too.

The bows are perfectly balanced, if you want to kill other ranged take less than 6 PD.
Both archers you mentioned are way better than I am in shooting and in melee, but Bagge isn't playing c-rpg ATM as far as  know. I'm a kind o archer that can make a quite good stats in strat battles, I made my 18/27 especially for strat battles.

Also missile speed in nomad and tatar are a bit too high IMO.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: agweber on September 29, 2014, 06:03:04 pm
Also missile speed in nomad and tatar are a bit too high IMO.
I actually don't understand why lower strength bows have higher missile speed. Although, if it were switched so that long bows had faster missiles my character would have a harder time picking off other archers =[

Perhaps missile speed should be tied to the type of arrow instead of the bow? (if that's even possible)
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 29, 2014, 06:19:56 pm
I actually don't understand why lower strength bows have higher missile speed. Although, if it were switched so that long bows had faster missiles my character would have a harder time picking off other archers =[

Perhaps missile speed should be tied to the type of arrow instead of the bow? (if that's even possible)

It isn't. I actually believe all bows should have roughly the same missile speed, to not have instant bows like nomad.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: agweber on September 29, 2014, 06:22:00 pm
It isn't. I actually believe all bows should have roughly the same missile speed, to not have instant bows like nomad.
Stats show the missile speed decreasing the higher damage bow you go. I wonder if in-game missile speed = missile speed + damage or something.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 29, 2014, 08:52:34 pm
Missile speed is missile speed value displayed in shop/game, + some PD bonus.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Huscarlton_Banks on September 30, 2014, 11:20:33 pm
The stronger bows are supposed to be using heavier arrows or something, but warband doesn't natively support restricted ammo access across one weapon type.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Algarn on September 30, 2014, 11:29:08 pm
And with this flawed logic about realism, we get instant shooting from nomad to horn bows (talking about missile speed, once again ...). Realism in the game is good in itself, but it's shit since it's not well implemented. 
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: MURDERTRON on October 01, 2014, 05:36:05 pm
The stronger bows are supposed to be using heavier arrows or something, but warband doesn't natively support restricted ammo access across one weapon type.

Can arrows be assigned str or PD requirements?
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Huscarlton_Banks on October 01, 2014, 06:34:55 pm
Technically yes, but it'd just be some kludgy thing where your character drops them instead of not being able to pick them up in the first place.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Protemus on October 05, 2014, 01:40:28 am
Balancers should kill off HA.

I actualy agree with Thomek, if they would remove HA and buff a little bit Inf I would surely retire and go on Inf again (I would still play cowardly like an HA but that's something else)

Why would I bother with playing Inf and dying to archers when I can top the scoreboard annoy others, pretty much survive every round, kite everyone, it's AWESOME.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on October 05, 2014, 01:44:28 am
I learned the other day that horse speed factor can be set in the code. I already have a number of things that can be added that help fix HA if voted.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Templar_Steevee on October 05, 2014, 02:28:14 am
I learned the other day that horse speed factor can be set in the code. I already have a number of things that can be added that help fix HA if voted.
any examples?
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on October 05, 2014, 03:39:09 am
That's the one most likely. I tried making ammo work with the not usable on horseback tag, but all I can do is force bow/ammo drops. Not really the most elegant solution. A riding penalty makes it so that if you get dismounted, you can't get back on the horse (don't know how to store the variable).
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Jack1 on October 05, 2014, 03:58:54 am
Can you make it so that if you have a not useable on horseback weapon on horseback you can't spawn? Like weapon slots but you can't have both a horse and non horse gear?


Also just dropping the ammo would wnt be bad at all.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: San on October 05, 2014, 04:09:10 am
Not sure. Even if you did, there's no easy way to prevent them from looting arrows they're not supposed to.

I'll leave a test server up whenever my computer is on that has the HA slowdown for the next few days. It's set to 75% max speed right now for any horse ranged.
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Grumbs on October 05, 2014, 06:02:37 pm
I learned the other day that horse speed factor can be set in the code. I already have a number of things that can be added that help fix HA if voted.

Praise Jebus. BTW do even people who don't play cRPG get to vote? Seems it delays the whole process unnecessarily
Title: Re: Dear balancers.
Post by: Thomek on October 05, 2014, 11:55:03 pm
Praise Jebus. BTW do even people who don't play cRPG get to vote? Seems it delays the whole process unnecessarily

Guess he's just testing :)