Even at the risk of receiving the usual "nerf ranged", "remove ranged" nonsense, let me try to provoke a reasonable discussion here:
People probably dont know the names of my alts but I very well may have as many combined gens of pure melee in this game as I have with my archer main. So contrary to popular belief, I dont play ranged only and I it is not my gaol to make ranged OP. Not gonna lie, archery is still the main reason I play this game though.
On topic, needless to say, ranged imbalance is an issue that justifiably is a concern as old as the game itself.
People just happen to be interested in medieval warfare as whole and that simply includes ranged, not just 2h dueling. This will not change no matter how weak you make ranged, some people just like playing ranged, period. Discouraging people from playing ranged by simply nerfing the class into the ground though is unfair/poor gamedesign and thus unacceptable.
I can completely agree however that the ability of dealing damage from a distance in a melee centric game should be a privilege that should come at a cost greater than that of melee classes. What that cost is supposed to be is open for discussion, yet it should still allow a competent player to do well with the class. Gold/Upkeep certainly is not a suitable deterrence at this point, which may indicate a new form of currency is needed which should be rewarded for performing well instead of being earned though playtime mostly, which is the case with gold right now. One could think about implementing something like "duty points" when a class does its job properly, e.g. a piker stabbing an incoming horse instead of the inf who is already surrounded by 3 shielders or an archer who targets enemy ranged rather than shooting into melee when both options are present. Just a thought at this point, maybe worth getting deeper into.
Even with all that in mind though, I cant help but notice that the average EU1 player is rarely making any effort to shift the battles in their favour with the tools that are already available.
Everytime I play on EU1, even when one team gets destroyed by ranged for the 5th consecutive round, on the 6th they will usually still go to the exact same open spot again, mindlessly walking around in circles, needlessly exposing themselves to ranged nests. Never bringing siegeshields, never making an effort to protect their own ranged from inf/cav so they can in turn handle or at least suppress the enemy ranged/cav/HA. If the round starts and the melee blob insist on mindlessly sprinting around the map - while splitting up in little groups in the process - without ever looking back to check if teammates need help, just to eventually complete an entire lap around map and ending up at their own spawn again, it is really no wonder that only the fastest 2h and pole will be left alive after 2 min because all their teammates with heavy gear ( such as low ATH - high PD archers with high bow/quiver weight ) got picked off one by one in the first minute of the round. Even in the cases where it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to have ranged in your team due to the enemy having horse ranged, you will still never see the average no-shield melee player willing to stick to his own ranged but rather try to chase down the HA on foot with a greatsword. LOL. Shielders usually are completely oblivious to friendlies trying to hide behind them and will still try to dodge an incoming projectile with the shield up just to save a few shield hitpoints, which in turn gets the friendly behind hit or killed. Minding the line of fire of friendly ranged also seems like rocketscience to the average melee player, who will still insist to charge down an enemy archer even if he has 5 friendly ranged right in his back, effectively blocking all of them to take a shot. And you can bet if this charging melee will get shot ( either by the enemy or friendlies ) he will still be the first to cry about ranged.
I may ask for a lot here since this behavior didnt really change for the past 8 years but there are a load of options available that simply nobody is willing to utilize. Of course, I know, we have a very "special" community with a lot of cool kids who are still at a maturation stage where discriminating a group of players depending on their weapon or class preference is perceived as "strong" and "alpha male" and all that teenager stuff and cooperating with others, especially with ranged in this context, will probably be seen as an infringement of their self-esteem. The next time you get shot to pieces though by 5 archers however, you may want to ask yourself where your own archers are or what the hell you are even doing charging a ranged nest alone with no shield and no friendly ranged backup to give you some suppressing fire. I can only hope nobody expects all their problems getting nerfed away just because they may be too lazy and entitled to adapt/cooperate, since this is not going to happen.
Regardless of the issues stated above, one team having all the ranged and one team having none should obviously not happen. One would have to come to a consensus what should happen with banner stacks. Should class balance ALWAYS override banner balance, as was suggested before ? There also have been some preparations to change maprotation so we dont have to play 10 ranged heavy maps in a row, then 10 cav heavy maps in a row, then 10 narrow street city maps in a row. That may already easy some frustration quite a bit.
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