Topics

16

Suggestions Corner / Crossbows makes archery look like a silly pursuit.

« on: July 12, 2012, 02:30:16 pm »

Take a good infantrybuild
Lots of PS and Melee WPF.
Put on some heavy armor.
Mail body and Gloves. Nice boots and a strong helmet. Board and blade, Greatsword or Polearm.
You got 2 slots left.. what to do?

(Crossbow usable for level 3 and up)
MW hunting crossbow 45p 3504g (1)
MW Bolts 5p 193g (16)
Total dmg:50pierce ammo:17 cost:3697gold

MW Horn Bow 27c 7896
MW Bodkin Arrows 2p 5058 (17)
Total Dmg(PD:5):49p Ammo:17 Cost:12954gold

Congratulations , you are now infantry AND ranged.
Infact you hit just as hard as the usual Hornbow archer, only its much cheaper.
Hornbow gear costs 250% more! What a bargain!
You did not have to remove even one point or wpf from your infantrybuild .
And none of that crappy armor with substandard effects from looming. Reinforced! Pffff... Lordly is the way to go!

If you feel like really investing into ranged, do not roll an archer. Go get a

(Crossbow usable from level 5 and up)
MW Crossbow 62p 10474 gold (1)
MW Bolts 5p 193g (16)
Total dmg: 67p ammo:17 cost:10667gold

MW Rus bow 31p 9974
MW Bodkin Arrows 2p 5058 (17)
Total dmg(PD:6):61p Ammo:17 Cost 15032gold

You then do more damage than even the dedicated 2slot archers that costs 41% more to use!

But there must be a catch? right?!?!

Yes the BIG catch is that you have to use 4-5 seconds reloading at your own chosing behind cover with an animation that hides 50% of you body.
Instead of the 2-3 second it takes to draw a bow exposed in the open.

But that BIG catch is offset by better accuracy,higher dmg,lightning fast bolts and ability to hold ur aim til perfect. Shoot thru shields!Shotgunning is fun too.

So go out there play toe to toe with the archers. And when things get hairy, trust in your heavy armor, full health and dedicated meleebuild.
While for the archer its game over.


/rant

Im sligtly disgruntled that any player can do the same and better than my archer for less gold/skillpoints/wpf and still have an untouched perfect meleebuild with heavy armor.
I figured this would correct itself over time ,but its been awhile now, and it seems nothing has changed.
I feel crossbows function more like firearms, and is a nofun way to play the game for those using it and other players exposed to them. Subjective ofc.

So im hoping you look over the situation again. I have listed below some measures that could make archery again the main provider of ranged capabilities with "minimal" impact on other classes.

Please implement some of the suggestions below

-Remove weightpenalties for archers
-Remove wpf/PD req. for archers
-Make all bows 1slot
-Make all crossbows 2slot
-Increase cost of crossbows and bolts
-Increase reloadtime on crossbows
-Increase bow and arrow dmg
-Put heirloombonuses on archergear on par with crossbows and bolts.
-give light armor the same heirloom bonuses as the other armors.

Thank you!


TLDR:Infantry with 1slot crossbows makes archers look ridiculous, QQ backed up with numbers and facts. Suggestions on how to normalize this situation.

17

Sell/Trade / +1 Items for sale/trade , open to suggestions.

« on: July 07, 2012, 11:44:21 pm »

I got for sale/trade:

Tempered Elite Scimmitar (+1)
Large Bag of Bodkin arrows (+1) (Sorta want to hold on to this one, but can be part of a deal)

Looking for:
Loomed Leather Gloves
Loomed Arrows
Loomed Bodkin Arrows
Loomed Archer armor

or gold/heirloompoints

18

Historical Discussion / Lost fightingstyle of Edo-Japan. Mighty Wind!

« on: February 21, 2012, 09:31:09 am »

Old japanese scrolls reveal a fightingstyle previosly unknown, should be implemented in crpg.
Would make a nice addition to the kick.

http://io9.com/5886529/japanese-fart-scrolls-prove-that-human-art-peaked-centuries-ago

silly yes, but funny

19

General Off Topic / Iran showdown - Ninjas!

« on: February 16, 2012, 07:49:14 am »

Recently the US moved its 3rd carrier strike group outside the shores of Iran , making it a new alltime high!
Just waiting for the goahead-Gulf of Tonkinevent to trigger the mayhem.

Thus forcing Iran to show the ULTIMATE showdown deterrant!

Brigades of FEMALE NINJAS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U87nSTpDmTQ

20

Sell/Trade / closed

« on: February 15, 2012, 10:34:30 am »

.

21

General Off Topic / Whitney Houston passed tonighte.. RIP...

« on: February 12, 2012, 04:38:22 am »

If she mattered in you life or not, Whitney Houston died tonight. RIP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ivtcelIo0

Show you true colours!.. ;)

22

General Discussion / rant on my utopian medieval battlefield game!

« on: January 24, 2012, 01:16:46 pm »

Alot of ranting lately, so here is my rant on the utopian medieval battlefield game 

Everyone has their own reasons for playing this great game, we value different aspects of the game.
I personally have no love for the xp,grind,gold,loompoints,and points to distribute.
But if a bit of Dungeons&Dragons and grinding is what I must endure to play a great medieval battle, so be it.

I would love it if the core of the game was battle awareness, tactics, and luck!
That these cores played a larger part than low ping,personal "skill" eyehand coordination ,muscle reflexes,minmaxing,tweaking the textures and display options.
Iknow many will object strongly to this notion.

I wish to participate in a battle,where there is  chaos,carnage,mayhem,despair,defeat and glory.
The mindset that every player should have a fair chance 1v1 vs any other class is oposite of what I want.
Dueling is for duelserver, I want gangbang, using numerical and positional advantage, underhanded tactics.
But generally favoring active play, not stalling and delaying.
I want the action to be brutal,fast and unforgiving. Fairness is overrated imho.
Encounters should be fast.. either by fleeing , or a fast trade of block/attacks. That within a short timeframe decides if you live or die.
The worse the chances to succed the greater the glory if you actually do.
Balance the teams by switching player, giving the losing team more players.
Not by generally trying to make every class equally powerfull/weak.
With the current model I favor buffing everyone , not nerfing everone.

The "uniforms" in crpg is a mix and match of all kinds of armour and weapons.
And only way to see if someone is a friend or foe is the cirle above their head.
Instead maybe small colored ribbons for peasants, and shieldcoloring,armour coloring could be used to indicate teams. No haloes/circles above heads.

I would like to drop the K:D scoreboard.
Iknow when I did good or bad, dont need a scoreboard keeping track.
A running score inbattle is imo counterproductive, a server total on the crpg site is fine, maybe track battles won/lost instead.
A way to hide/filter the HUD and esp chat/commands would be very good. To much 4chanlike drivel ,discussions about stats,players trying to trade loompoints and MW items ingame and spam breaks the immersion for me.
Maybe a filter that lets you only see commands from players nearby, or friends/clanmates/commander.

One clean blow from a "big weapon" on unarmoured opponent head or torso should render them out of action (dead or mortaly wounded).
Two-three clean blows from smaller weapon, or hits on limbs should do the same.
Armour should deflect blows and hits according to type and weapon. Plate should deflect most cut, some blunt , and occationaly pierce.
And the movementspeed should reflect realisticly how much armour/gear you are lugging around.

Heavy cav should charge and trample archers and peasants hard and fast should they get in close enough.
Light cav should have no charge og rear/move to the side when about to bump.
Archers should not have pinpoint accuracy, but arrows should sting like hell if they actually hitting naked/cloth armour, same with getting hit by a bolt or javelin.
Get an ax in the face, a sword in the stomach.. you should be dead/out of action.

The various weapons should differ more in length, speed and attack and block direction available.
Marginal differences leads to minmaxing stats, but does litte in altering the way the weapon is handled.

Maybe not all weapons should be able to block all attacks.
You have to drop the pike, and pull out you sidearm if opponent gets to close.
Maybe some weapons should only have the ability to block ,but not swing. Like bows ,and crossbows.
More crushthru when heavyhitting weapons is blocked by small/fragile weapons.

Maybe let build (wpf or skills) determine how many attack/block directions you have with a given weapon.
Dedicated melee with Axe/spear/2hand sword have the full range of attacks and blocks 4-4.
Should and archer or crossbowman pick the Axe up, he might be be limited to 4-3, 3-3 3-2 ...

Introducing ties, killing all the enemies with only 1 man remaining outa the intial 50 is not really winning a battle more like a pyrrhic victory.
Maybe scale defeat/ties/wins by percentage of survivors on the winning team.
Maybe make one side autosurrender/flee the battlefield when it is a 1:10 ratio of combatants left.

Many of the proposals here would lead to drastically lower survivability, randomness, making people kill or die fast. No fun you say?
Well isnt this a good thing..? the battle is resolved faster .. playing for higher stakes... and a new one starts.. refine you tactics and try again..
less time waiting and watching mass dueling.

Sorry for ranting and wall of text.
It is only my vision of the greatest medieval battle game, not nececarily the one true way.

I appreciate all the hard work and contributions people have made to this mod, my rant is meant as inspiration not criticism.

23

Suggestions Corner / 2 guys 1 horse

« on: January 10, 2012, 06:04:23 am »

Would it be possible with the new scripting capabilities for a rider to give a lift to a footsoldier?

I think it would bring alot of new plays and fun.
Hurry in ladder, drop off some flankers.
Deploy tincans where needed...endless possibilities...

24

General Discussion / servertypes that reward various amounts of gold/xp.

« on: October 06, 2011, 03:22:42 am »

Today a crpgserver rewards some gold and some xp , say its 50/50.

What if there was 2 kinds of crpgservers?

say EU1/NA1 rewarding mainly gold (90%) and xp (10%), and EU2/NA2 mainly XP (90%) gold (10%).

low level chars would tend to play on the XP heavy one, and highlevel would tend to play on the goldheavy one. Mercenaryserver and Peasantville.

Would make all the lowlevel gear shine and get used more. Variety!

And people can have fun playing from the start, instead of being run over by highlevel powerhouses the first days of a gen.

Yay or Nay?

25

General Discussion / tactics at the beginning of a battle.

« on: September 28, 2011, 02:38:12 am »

Tactics in cRPG is fun , because in most aspects it is selforgansing,
created on the fly and often with little communication by all participants doing what they think is best.

The main tactic however often ends up becoming a variation of "CHARGE!" "GO LEFT!" "GO RIGHT!" towards the enemy spawn.
Depending on the scene the two main forces often keep running in circles until one side is halted or one catches up with the other.

The most active / fast melee usually dictates what happens by leading the way and like sheep all the rest follows,
learning from experience that they get slaughtered fast if they get caught by the enemies doing the same tactic.
The slower elements, either because of slow runningspeed or stopping to reload crossbow,
stops to release arrows often get harassed by enemy cav and skirmishers failing to keep up with the main force.
Thus losing alot of the forces potential since they die early in the battle.
The time you spend running is time that could have been spent hurting the enemy, helping/protecting teammates that are getting slaugterd behind you near spawn.
Flanking is effective when a smaller force leaves the main force to pressure weak spots, not by the entire army running on aflankingmission.

Let the cav that are truely mobile handle latespawners,AFKers,peasants,straggelers killing them does not swing the battle by much. It is only statpadding.
When the footsoldiers starts running the force gets divided and stretched out thin, weak.

At the start of the battle two issues are important, neutralizing enemy cav and securing some advantageous spots in the terrain to dictate how the battle will be fought.

Cav have the hardest time when the group move as one, with a mix of spearmen and ranged on the edges of the group.

If you manage to secure some advantageous spots, the ranged part of the force can then soften up the enemy before the infantry clash,
and even better if you can clash in a spot where ranged has some elevation, so they can overshoot friendly melee you have a great advantage.
If you give ranged some time to work, you will have an easier job later on.
Ranged cannot soften up the enemy if you rush mindlessly straight in to battle.

Why run to them , when they will run to you?

And as a bonus, it will feel more like a real battle, instead of a marathon!

26

Scene Editing / Ideas on what makes a map fun to play.

« on: August 31, 2011, 04:43:31 am »

I am very happy that people are making new scenes, thank you!
Its refreshing and fun to be surprised by new content.

I did not find any sticky or recent post with ideas concerning what makes a scene fun and playable, so I wrote this up to maybe trigger some more discussion.
I have no experience with creating scenes, but I have played alot of them.
Below I have written an incoherent wall-of-text where i address some aspects I believe makes a scene good and fun.
I have played mostly as dedicated archer, so there is a focus/bias on some aspects.

This is meant as encouragement to make more scenes and not as criticism of existing scenes.
I hope this is useful for some of the great scenemakers out there.


Spawns:

-Spacious enough for a large crowd to spawn without getting stuck. Less bumping,teamwounding,TKing by mistake,less frustration.
-No line of sight of enemy spawn. Makes tactical surprises possible and enemy ranged cannot fire directly into the the tightly packed spawning group.
-Some obstacles and landscape that slows down/makes it harder to manoeuvre a horse in. Makes early cavrush on spawn abit harder, giving slowspawners, or defenseless units a chance to prepare/move before facing multiple cav in the open.
-Has some clues that points/funnels the players towards the enemy. So that players do not run the wrong way and hit mapedge.

Buildings:

Roofs that are intended to be used for play should be accessible from the groundlevel. Avoid access via trickjumping,including mounted player jumping with horse.
If one wishes to make an archersnest, make the way up very exposed,slow or easy to defend.
If buildings are not intended to be used for play, try to block off access. roofcamping causes alot of frustration. And slows down the game.
The ladders players bring with them are IMO a tool to bypass walls,rivers,etc... for surprise and speedy movement.
 
An alternative to doors and gates is the oneway drop. A place to get out that is low enough to not take damage going out/down, but too high to jump back in on foot or mounted.

Openings in windows,ladders,fences may confuse, its not always easy to know if it is possible to use a ranged weapon thru the opening. Or if the fence/ladder will provide cover.

Landscape:

Small hills and ridges can be used to flank,ambush,move unseen. With a few vantagepoints here and there that has a good overview.

Elevation in the landscape makes ranged fighting harder, more precise aim and timing is required to hit targets. it can also reduce the number of potential targets, depending on the view.
Elevation also makes it easier to get a clear shot , avoiding hitting friendly units at the "front" and friendly players running into the missiles path.

Rocks,barrels,stubs,ruins and angled surfaces are priced by ranged players because they can provide elevation and cover for feet/lowerbody.
Making them a smaller target and harder to spot by other ranged players.
They also provide some protection from cav since cav are weary of running into objects that makes the horse rear/stop.

Bushes,foliage and hay can be used to obscure line of sight but not passage.
Some like to hide in the bushes/hay, but often it is not a practical place to aim from as the view is semiblocked.
Alot of hidingplaces draws out the game, as there is always a player that believes the game is hide&seek instead of mount&blade.

Low hanging foliage, vertical beams,stairs can sometimes block the bannertag above a friendly player.
Since crpg allows for mixes of all kinds of gear, and no clear uniforms this leads to tks and teamwounding from time to time.

I like maps that funnels the players towards eachother by one or several funnels.
Without funnels the battle often become marathon running, as groups of players just run in circles and do not meet. Especially in dense cities.
Some vantagepoints could lessen the circlerunning, makes it possible to locate eachother.

Landmarks and referencepoints like bridges,churches, tower, walls, barns and such are good, as it makes it easier to plan and coordinate actions.
If there are many of the same type, why not differentiate them abit, varying them in size/material/color

Scenes with distinct strongpoints and weakpoints.

Strongpoints are places on the map where you have in varying degree :
-view of what is happening around you
-Partial cover from ranged
-Can use ranged on enemies.
-Able to attack enemies selectivly. (Run down on the left side of the hill/building/ruin to attack 2 archers or right side to engage 3 shielders?)
-Able to reinforce/help several groups of allies depending on where it is needed.
-little chance to get backstabbed/surprised by cav or flankers.
-If high up, high enough that it will do some fall damage, but not kill you if you have above half life left. Useful for escaping large groups of enemies rushing you.

Weakpoints
-Area where you have little battleawarenes, limited sight of surroundings, approaching cav,gangs and backstabbing.
-In range and exposed to archers and crossbows from many angles. Other strongpoints.
-Little or no cover/obstacles.

The various points can be arranged so that they are weak from one direction, and strong from another.


I would love to see some creative use of fallingdamage traps in fortifications. Obvious from one side, camoflaged/illusion from the other.
Or create fight or fly situations ,think Sparta 300 well or cliffscene .
Narrow bridges and ledgers without railing. where a fall will kill you.

Could be used to increase the time it takes for a whole group to get into position, limit scavenging bolts/arrows from dead players.

Or gaps only jumpable on horseback.

Just make sure people do not get stuck.

/great-wall-of-text

27

Suggestions Corner / Trial by battle , Peasant uprising!

« on: August 29, 2011, 07:30:56 am »

A suggestion for resolving some future nerfing, taxes, stale bread and cabbage issues.

Trial by battle is the honourable way to resolve such matters.

I propose Lord chadz, his henchmen developers + a small selection of toptier mercenaries
should take the field armed with their finest weapons and armor in a decisive battle.

The opposing force should be a LARGE mob of angry peasants

Bring you torches and pitchforks!

GOD WILLS IT!!!!

28

General Discussion / archery calculations documentation

« on: July 22, 2011, 05:25:33 pm »

Could someone intheknow create a summary  of how archerybuilds works?
I can only find outdated scattered info on the subject.
How wpf affect speed and accuracy,
Does powerdraw affect anything other than the dmg?
How important are missilespeed for dmg.
Does the +dmg on the arrow deal piercedmg on top of the cut dmg?

It is very frustrating to try and build a good archer when u can not know what affects what .. and how much.

Is the powerdraw +dmg canceled when you have too little wpf or does it just affect accuracy?

These things must be documented.

I guess the overcomplexity is built into warband, but please make some coherent documentation.
So we can atleast approximate some numbers.
This would be very appreciated.

Or if not in detail. Effective dmg stats vs various armours with the various bows+arrows.
Something.

Anyone?
DevTeam?
BalanceTeam?

29

General Off Topic / Ironclad - Great medival battle/siege movie

« on: July 11, 2011, 03:15:21 am »

It is amazing if your into medievial armour,weapons,sieges and such.
(That i guess you are if you are playing warband)