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Suggestions Corner / Why archery is broken and how to fix it
« on: May 01, 2012, 06:48:27 pm »
First I'll start off by mentioning a few facts. I've played native for a long time, cRPG for more then a year as of this point, and I've played archer at least 50% of my time. I also am pretty good at archery in real life, and if it matters I was born under the constellation of Sagittarius. Now that we got if I'm qualified enough to argue this out of the way, I would like to explain exactly how archery is broken. In native, archery is relatively more realistic, and definitely overpowered. Against a decent archer or me you cannot get into close range without expecting to be headshot most of the time, and my kd/r was at least 5:1 as archer, my deaths being mostly to other archers and xbowers. This is broken yes, but actually also as broken as it is in cRPG. Not overpowered broken, but a different kind of broken. This was like this at the start, patches did not change it from being not broken. The reason it's broken is because of the accuracy and damage values. Mainly accuracy, even at level 30 as a dedicated archer you will hit about 35 degrees to your target at medium range. This leads to archery being luck, not skill. My positioning is what gets me kills, not aim. And barely any kills at that. I get an average 1 mace kill per game, and do about enough damage to kill a medium armoured enemy and a half with my bow. And this as a dedicated archer with all my points towards archery-based skills. No PF, IS, or 2h wpf here. So everybody who is saying archery doesn't require skill is right, but only because of what I've said so far. This doesn't only effect archers either. Archery being broken is one of the reasons most cav in cRPG are braindead. I can't even count the number of times a horse xbower went up to me point blank when I was shooting him and shot me right in the face, or a lancer cav charging straight into me in a line of archers just to bump me and run away without a thought. Even though if archery required skill they would be pincushions they go directly into crying about archers being skill-less cowards when they die. Stay classy cav. I will guarantee you if cavalry actually got punished while running into a group of archers or dumb polearms they would be a lot smarter, but that's an argument for another day. So that's how it's broken, and now for how to fix it. First, make wpf matter little towards accuracy and have archers always be almost accurate, with level 30 being close to how it is in native. Sounds insane? Now here's the balance part. Have wpf count for arrow speed and distance adding up to damage. Not only is this a good idea but it adds to realism. Accuracy is player skill, strength and speed is experience. Using a better bow should be harder with lower wpf, so that using a longbow with low wpf gives you less arrow speed and damage while using a lighter load bow is better in that area until you get enough wpf. Accuracy should remain the same. Just to make you guys sure that the current system doesn't make sense, compare it to melee combat. Having your arrows miss at max level even at close range is like having your blocks and swings randomly not work. Being able to beat an enemy in melee with worst stats/weapons should be the same for archers, if they have enough skill in positioning and accuracy. And finally to sum it up please buff income at least by a bit. I know archers don't need armour but it really sucks losing .8k constantly just for having bodkins and archers get punished enough in many ways for having armour as it is.