Archery and the lack of a Special Attack

This disproves the whole shoot and move theory and the rate of fire here...I want my archer to do backflips while killing people also just thought this was cool!

That dude's obviously used a legendary power scroll.

I remember on OSI shards when they revamped archery and created all the special moves across the board. The dismount special move for the heavy xbow was fun to use and viable in a PvP setting. What happened was a lot of guilds rolling with teams of 3 stealth/archers and having armor ignore special moves primed on their standard bows. If all 3 stealth archers hit it was an instant kill. I used to play a stealth archer but didn't have any pals left on the OSI shards, so I went with a damage increase normal xbow because it would have a concussion shot that would do extra damage. With lots of dex increase gear, I was able to fire off two concussion shots back to back and if they both hit it was usually a kill. The problem was all the roving bands of stealth archers where it got kinda lame. I soon left the OSI shards because of all the wacky special move combinations being used with just crazy god like weapons and templates that were virtually unbeatable in a one on one fight. You would literally have to have 3 friends to take down one guy towards the last of my pay shard days, but that is another story.

I like the idea of different arrows, created by different feather producing monsters and wood types. To balance it out you could put a cap on how many special arrows you would be able to carry in your pack. The pay shard special move that I used a lot for archery was the moving shot. I believe it had a penalty on to hit chance and damage output but was awesome to just be able to run around and fire. I bet the code would be hard to implement on specialty arrows though. New arrows, ingredients, raw materials would probably be easy but the combat side of that code would have to be a lot of work. Perhaps you could just change the speed and damage output to at least give it a fighting chance as a stand alone PvP skill. A bit faster with a little bit less damage, or make it so you can chug potions so you aren't just standing there waiting for the next spell dump to hit ya. I haven't tried PvP in a long time so I really don't know what would work best. In my world, all archers would just be able to shoot hugs instead of arrows...

'nuff said about shooting on the run.

Cool video, I watched it a couple of days ago. Though I gotta ask, what does a real life archery video have to do with this game?

@Meeshy it really dont have anything to do with this game at all. But that should not stop us from getting inspiration from the video
to improve this games archery. Noone said we should copy/paste, but maybe we could get some good ideas from it.

Notice how distance dont affect accuracy. I can stand right in the face of my opponent and still miss.

While we talk about special moves, how about that footshot?

As it is now, I would not take archery to a PVP fight, maybe in a 4-5 man group but even that I am not certain of.
Archery is a fun skill, I always loved it, but it seems like its a bit underpowered here.

Besides that arrows in shops are way too expensive. They were like 4 or 5 on osi.


Cosmo

Archery needs revamped, it is a joke.

@Cosmo, yeah that sounds great and all but think about the coding involved to bring you everything that you just saw in that video, into the game. In no way did I say, don't post cool videos, I just asked what does that video have to do with an archery revamp? Underneath the video posted is his response saying, "nuff said about shooting on the run." That implies that a video he/she saw in a real life should correlate to actual game mechanics, hence my reply.

Judging by that logic, I once saw a video of a carnival bear riding a tricycle around, perhaps we should incorporate that into the game as well. Tinker skill could make gears and a bicycle frame as long as they have enough ingots and wood in their pack to create it of course, then you would need a tamer to get you a friendly bear(No polar bears of course because they are jerks) and finally have that friendly bear be bonded to the tricycle that the tinker created. Presto, we just created something I once saw on a youtube video, into the game of Ultima Online.

Anyways, back to the real discussion at hand.

I think moving shot would be great along with speed increase on all archery weapons with a damage decrease on them. Special arrows would be cool to see as well.

I've gotta split now, my room mate just told me that there is this video of two girls doing something with a cup that I have to view. I just hope it is a magical cup that is able to summon something tangible that we can use in the game. Maybe a new a spell? "Guilt of ones Father?"

I'm afraid no changes to archery will happen really soon. They'd be nice but it could also unbalance the shard in certain ways, so the revamp would have to be a modest one IMO.

I think something really mild like having a 50% chance of causing a 'weaken' spell effect would be just fine. In a way, that'd almost be like extra damage because you'd have to inflict that much less damage to kill them.

If you paired that with a fletching damage bonus of up to +10 at GM (like lumberjacking) you'd have a pretty good, stronger than current, but not as strong as OSI had it.

Problem is, I don't even think they'd add both bonuses to archery, it might even be too powerful that way. They may just give it a special attack and no damage bonus, or no special attack but a damage bonus. And I don't even see that happening any time soon, because it might be breaking too much with the represented era of the shard.

If they made archery even the tiniest bit better, I'd make an archer though. Archery was really good on OSI *before* they added all the melee skill bonuses and special hits. It used to be that halberds and bows / heavy xbows were all that people PvPed with anyways.

The archer tank mage .. lol. We had full armor, halberd, bow, and 25 dex, ROCKING IT!

Dude I think you missed this part: "Noone said we should copy/paste, but maybe we could get some good ideas from it."

I was just writing to make myself laugh, lighten up there forum warrior and have a chuckle. You just made my pod cast for a segment we call, AF/LD. Shabang!

All Archery needs is a mortal strike and the some damage bonus like lumberjacking when paired with fletching. And add quivers!! A quiver could increase swing of bows only by 20%.

I started around Jan 2012 and I can remember testing Archery when the staff was trying to implement the "running shot". Although being able to run then stop and shoot was light years better than what archer was, it was still lackluster compared to other weapon skills. I think the main problem with archery and I am sure I have said it in prior post was the endless missed shots. Now to be fair archery while standing still hits around 50% of the time and compared to other weapon skills thats about the norm. But on the run was around 37% if I remember correctly out of 1000 shots (have not played in six months, not sure if theses numbers have changed). I have lobbied for archery to hit for 50% regardless of movement and damage be reduced the further away from your target you are. So at 5 tiles away you do 2.5 less damage or something along those lines. Now I understand the reason people would want a "special" move on archery. It only seems fair. But IMO the only way Archery should get a special move would be to pair it with the Bowcrafting skill. I know Hallys, Long Spears, War Hammers all have special moves without obtaining a secondary skill but they are melee. TBH I could kite for days as a Archer and line up a bow hit and purple every 3.5 seconds. I guess what I am trying to say is I have meditation and healing on my archer, both keep me alive. In order to get something you have to give something. Not only would this make archery a pure dexxer or med warrior temp you wouldn't get a archer mage abusing the "special move" and making it become OP. As for special moves there has been a lot of good suggestions. Paired with the Bowcrafting/Fletching skill some ideas are, increase range (to 13 like orc bows), faster swing time (-0.25), weaken blow (-str, like conc/concuss), true running shot (not have to stop to shoot). I think these thing would be reasonable with the change to the formula and the increased accuracy of the bow.

I have been thinking about this since I read this thread. I would like to add my thoughts a little more in detail now. I do not think now that archery should receive a damage bonus if the character also has fletching. If that were the case then all other melee skills would need a damage bonus if they had blacksmithing. This doesn't fix the problem.

If they added different types of wood like OSI did but did it better that would be the way to go and add runic fletching kits etc.

Yew wood could add damage and if it was expectational more damage and then if it was crafted with a runic kit more damage. The end result would be a seriously hard hitting bow that fires at the current speed.

Bloodwood could add bleed attack

Oak could add swing speed


Again whatever type of wood would change those attributes some and then the type of runic kit could add to that by 5-10% or so.

Also quivers would be a nice addition…Only give a slight SSI to all bows/xbows/HXBows.

That's a good idea. You could even simplify it within existing wood types, regular and oak. If they gave oak made bows/xbows a speed bonus, but also gave oak made arrows/bolts a damage bonus, you could revitalize archery IMO. I'd make and play an archer just for that.

The bonuses could be really modest too. I'd think oak arrows/bolts would give a damage bonus (maybe a D6), while oak bows/xbows could have a speed increase. When paired together, which would require time and effort, you'd have something pretty cool going on. There'd be no need to open any old cans of worms with running while shooting, etc.

This would also open up new markets of trade because people would want to buy and sell this stuff. It would create new customers for lumberjackers and fletchers too, because you'd have new things you could do with oak logs that would be in demand.

The Damage is fine bros, to say it isn't is silly. Archery does not need an increase in damage whatsoever. It needs no accuracy check while on the run. Even with 125 archery I still hit for 35%.......with 125 archery I should be hitting for 50+% or more. Unlike every other skill archery bonuses on weapons go towards the archery skill which should increase accuracy with the bow. This is not the case.

If you want a special move (which would require testing). It has to be paired with Bowcraft/fleching.

Just posting to voice support for an archery buff. Don't care if it comes in the form of additional damage, better accuracy, or some kind of utility special attack. It just flat out stinks right now. I don't even use it for fishing, where it supposedly shines the most.

Forgive me for not reading this thread in depth -

I just want to suggest a root issue with archery that may be crucial-

As long as you have to stop to shoot, it will not be an effective killing tool in 'real world' pvp situations (ie not stunbots or traps and stealthers.)

The issue that might be most important to revisit it is allowing shooting on a full run, the same way that melee weapons swing if you can bring yourself alongside the target.

I know that this scenario is scary from the perspective that an archer will be able to continually kite a target. But maybe it should be tested.


I think that archery is something that the developers didn't know what to do with in the era. So it existed the same way it does here and was quite ineffective in pvp. They revisited it in later expansions and made it good mostly through special hits. But I think if my suggestion worked it would be a less foreign/custom change and probably be received better.

The timer to stop and shoot is minimal. You can still kite pretty easy the way it is now. The problem is the accuracy while moving...its like you are the worst archer in the world. If you do get a super lucky 2-3 hits in a row and continue to chuck some pots there is a good chance of getting a kill. 90 dex 3.5 seconds to shoot. If you are missing 70% of the time in a pvp situation you will never win.

Well perhaps archery should have the same change to hit or miss at 100 skill level as any other combat skill.