Telamon will eventually figure it out, he's got the right people on board to consult. There are a number of problems with archery. The accuracy bonus with bows is just one of several things, it's not an easy skill to fix. When alchemy provided a damage bonus to explosion potions on OSI this skill had its time in the sun....briefly. There was something about using UOAssist that made an alchemist archer harder to cheese than doing it with Razor.
The formula for archery chance-to-hit is somewhere in the forums here. Because it's based on distance as well as skill, just testing from one spot isn't going to demonstrate whether the +25 is working or not. For what it's worth, I think I tested this a while back and it was working. But with the formula here, far more important in the chance-to-hit with a bow is the distance and whether or not you're moving.
Well, problem #1: your testing dummy has defensive wrestling (meaning [Eval Int + Anatomy]/2 gives wrestling for defensive purposes). This isn't in his picture. I'm going by the hit percentage. Re: Dalavar, the formula is in the patch 31 notes.
I voted Other. I think removing accuracy range check is not needed if the +25 archery is adjusted to give a real boost to Accuracy. I want Mortal Strike (prevent healing for X sec) to be added for archery special. It would make an archer dexxer viable. Edited : I played with +25 bow and they does not seem to give me more hits at distance.
The top screenshots match what we'd see with the normal to-hit for melee combat. The bottom does not match my calculation of the formula in the patch 31 notes. 2% lower chance to hit at 5 more tiles distance?!
Currently, the hit percentage at 2 tiles is the highest and it trails off from there. OTOH, 1-1.5 tiles doesn't use the same formula, as you noted. With a +25 bow against 100 wrestle, stationary: 1T 58% (regular bow 50%) 2T 82% (regular bow 70%) 3T 74% 4T 67% 5T 61% 6T 56% (regular bow 48%) 7T 52% 8T 49% -- xbow range -- 9T 46% 10T 43% (regular bow 37%) -- regular bow range -- and 13T with an orc bow 31% <- Prepatch and on the run: 2T 67% 3T 58% 4T 47% 6T 38% 8T 32% 10T 27% 13T (orc bow) 19% <- Prepatch
Any variation to chance to hit, is a problem. At GM, all weapons should be 50% versus any other GM weapon skill. That should be the baseline for any and all weaponry. I think that the 1/4s pause to shoot would still be perfectly fine, so long as at GM skill, you still have 50% chance to hit. If "accuracy" bonuses on archery weapons were made to be like all other weapons (+Tactics) to add small damage bonuses, I would expect Archery to feel a lot more effective.
So here are the Val Runic Bows I had someone to create on test server. I also had my tactics changed to 125 and my archery set to a flat 100. The first book is a Val Runic Heavy Xbow, second is a Val Runic Crossbow, and the third is a Val Runic Bow. If the changes to accuracy while on the run set to a flat 50% regardless of movement or range you can see the damage below is on par with other weapons via the tactics mod. The crossbow felt great and shoots at a good rate with 90 dex. I did think the Bow under performed a bit. Even with the best weapons in game, the changes I feel are minor but would also make archery viable. 50% always change mods to tactics.
From the last couple of posts of screenshots something is definitely broken. For example, see shot of xbow and bow. Same Base damage roll, same armor, wildly different final damage. Its like they are using completely different formulas.
According to stratics, the bow and xbow are virtually identical. Over 50 shots there should be basically 1-2 damage diff max.
Well if thats the case I hope those help with fixing the problem. Right now it seems like crossbow is the way to go. Seems to always perform better than the others.
I just tried GM Bow with barbed leather vs GM Crossbow with barbed leather and the results were nearly identical. 31 AR, 5 tiles. If I blocked out the roll range you wouldn't be able to tell which is which. ---- All the complaints seem to be aimed at the long-range on-the-run hit percentages and resulting poor performance in pvp. I think the lack of archers is evidence enough they are underpowered. My simple suggestion: Reduction to movement penalty Reduced intensity of range effect Weapon speed increase
If it is a vanq, why does the book say bonus damage 0? My book says bonus damage 9 with a vanq even on a miss. The results perfectly reflect a plain +25 bow as well...
