According to the post with the official patches to the game, I must have started in 2000 or maybe 1999, which doesn't seem exactly right, but it's all right there in the patches. I played for a couple of years I guess, I remember when the 3d client came out after Ultima Online 2 was cancelled, but was gone before the Age of Shadows, I think. I remember archery being an excellent, effective PvE skill as a warrior type, and while it was considered too slow for the hardcore PvPers, I found it to be fairly potent, at least as a first, or last, shot in an unexpected fight. It was slow, but an exceptional bow hit hard, and often enough to be worth using. You couldn't shoot while moving, and if you moved in the act of shooting, you'd miss every time. It had its downsides, as you had to devote 100 points to the skill, your weapon could not be repaired, and you'd either have to buy or gather resources to make arrows, and you had to come to a complete stop to shoot, obviously. I started using it when I was getting owned by poisoning creatures, after initially being exclusively melee. This is the second shard in a row I've been on that archery has been substantially worse for some reason. People complained about archery back then too, but it was mostly about making it a better PvP skill, being able to poison arrows, etc. In conclusion, I thought archery was just fine in this era, no one complained about it being OP as far as I remember, and if it needed any tweaks or changes, it would be improvements in effectiveness(unless you were using a swing timer thing with a heavy xbow for pvp, there was no reason whatsoever to use anything but a regular bow, as the xbows were considerably slower), or small things like being able to repair bows and such. I like this shard, and I realize it is not hardcore in it's allegiance to exact era accuracy(and I don't really care that much about that), but if archery is not good here, then it's not era accurate. My suggestion for improving archery is just to make it work like it did then.
Unfortunately that won't happen here. It just doesn't have the following it did in production servers. Not many people use it here because it is so bad and after the new patch and some testing, it's still pretty bad. Not enough was done in my opinion. However, staff have put effort into it and this is what they've come up with after 5 years so don't hold your breath.
Archery has its niche uses. In PVP, its more of a secondary skill. You won't kill someone strictly using bows, unless you're in a group of 3+ and everyone lands a hit with a heavy x bow or something (like the legendary RRG triple and quadruple bowshot kills). You can shoot while moving here which is kinda nice but its hard to rely strictly on that to kill someone. In the brigand guild we use bows because it looks cool and its funny chasing down people with arrows flying, or good for surprise attacks. The latest patch is a slight improvement in archery I think. I've long been a proponent of poisoned arrows for archery though as I had fun with that build on the old angel island server.
I used archery on production, in a group though, so there's that. But, is there somewhere that lists the reasoning behind the change that tied distance in to accuracy? It makes sense for the real world but seems to partly defeat the purpose of a ranged combat skill. Mostly I'm just wondering if there was a valid reason, like excessive max range use in PvP? *shrug*
Since the patch I've seen more reliability in hitting with archery whilst performing a move-shoot-move manoeuvre, however I may have been suffering from ping related issues where the server didnt know I'd stopped yet... or something. Swing timer also seems to not reset on move now. Whereas prior, every move seemed to reset that timer. I guess thats probably because we can now shoot on the move. I only tested in a quick session, it did seem more fun and less tedious though. The range modifier is my beef with mechanics, that plus the lack of runics outside of event drops.
Not really. I know I saw some 30+'s, but I couldnt tell you if it was on a bow, xbow or heavy. Nor what target I was shooting. I'll give it a proper test on my archer and a GM test dummy and then report back on damage. As for not enough done. I think with the big gaps we have between patches + little to no "hotfixes", its preferrable to have small changes. Opposed to something becoming obviously OP and be on live for a month or two.
Hmmm, so you can shoot while moving here? That explains the nerf, I suppose. It would be OP I think, if the damage and the hit chance were the same as back then in that case. People would still complain about it if they just made it the way it's supposed to work, but it would be a useful skill. You pretty much have to have to play a mage for effective ranged attacks, and that is basically 3 non-combat skills you need then, as opposed to one combat skill. I would use archery and halberd drive-by's to take on the nastier creatures with a dexxer.
Hehe, wearing plate Tailoring rules the schoolyard here friend. Wearing plate is sooo 1999 http://uorforum.com/threads/armor-shield-and-slayer-suggestions-retitled.32260/#post-313945
I hope it's not a 'real world' comparison because this is UO, and the argument could be made that the same should apply to some spells. Why does it have to be such an issue for archery when we've all experienced running the entire map with a fireball chasing our butts.
