Arrows, arrows, and more arrows

Root spell + shooting arrow would work too :> Immobilization spells. Would be nice to throw potions that do stuff in combat too, be a true rogue ("ninja" :>)

Btw, I've brought this up in discussions on this before... but there might be situations in the game that could be constructed as really difficult for archery, like a winding cave passage where you would have no straight shot at an enemy and wouldn't be able to use stealth, making melee almost a necessity. I would find those type of situations interesting.

 

I finally looked in the game recently to see the arrows you can get in the shop, though I haven't played as an archer yet. How do you use them in combat --- I doubt you get a chance to select them in the middle of combat? Like if you have one burst arrow, do you get to save a shot to use it?

 

Personally I wouldn't mind an archer being a thing. Just because D&D didn't do it shouldn't influence sota one bit. Legolas fired off arrows at point blank range and did all kinds of remarkable stunts. We don't need to have matrix-like 360 camera spins in slow motion as an archer jumps sideways shooting 2 arrows at once that poke both of his opponents eyes out though.
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This is a classless game, however I would like to see a person be able to put their skills in archery and not have the disadvantage of having to learn how to fight with a sword too. Swordsmen can learn swords without learning the bow so why hinder this awesome skill set by forcing them to be multifaceted? Sure some will want to pick up magic to be an enchanted archer. Yet having a pure archer should be just as important as having a pure mage. A mage also cannot do as much in close quarters.

A pure archer should have a point blank shot bonus too. They should also have the potential to gain skills in firing exploding arrows, or skills in poisoned arrows, etc etc. Then maybe the archer will have to make a conscious decision to become a hybrid with mage skills or be a pure archer because both paths have their strengths and weaknesses. Maybe one path is even better than the other at more things, but there is still a niche for those who opt for one vs another. Not all skill sets need to be perfectly balanced. Also a warrior who knows some blades should also be able to pick up archery and do the basic archery skills like a ranger.

Although in real life there were PURE archers. They might have had daggers, but their primary post may have been behind castle walls to shoot enemies from a distance. There may have been archers that never physically touched the front lines of combat ever. At higher levels the archer could still pick up some mage skills to create a hybrid single opponent deck, and maybe an area of effect deck. Although at higher levels everybody will have the chance to choose to expand their skill sets or increase their str, dex, or int.

 

@Isaiah,

Its a matter of if you can manage to use your bow successfully when someone is fighting you with a sword and shield, not whether killing someone at point blank is possible. And if you can, that means you're a highly skilled archer, a grandmaster archer, not someone at lev. 1.

Btw, mages, archers, will be able to use a melee weapon without investing any skills in it at all, just by using the auto-attack. Auto-attack won't help against dragons, but it'll do in a pinch, in a last ditch situation against a not too difficult foe. If not auto-attack, then ready a shield... I think there should also be an auto-block in the game too, with a defensive stance, like I mentioned in another post. I'm planning to do a long post in the coming week on how I think playing as light armor can be improved and one of the points will be switching from an attack stance to defensive stance. Auto-block would be extremely useful against incoming attacks and would give people a better chance against fighting heavy armor too.

I would also hope that the skill advancement system isn't so particular that you can invest one or two points in a melee skill without completely borking your long-term designs for pure archery or magery.

 

Yea, that's why I said pure archers make sense in a party situation but its going to be hard relying on your bow in a solo situation, without using stealth to hide or run also, or finding some way to block, or immobilize your opponent. Using rogue or ninja tactics.

 

I've seen interesting things in martial arts. I wouldn't be surprised if some very skilled archers didn't actually have some real life techniques that were very useful in close quarter combat with a bow in hand. Martial artists are very creative, and frankly some of the techniques out there are really simple and well thought out. So I wouldn't count out the possibility that well trained and experienced archers might have ways to defend themselves and get some distance again.

 

Yep, sure, but the key thing is require archers to do something instead of treating it like no problem that there's this guy attacking you with a sword. Plus, if the attacker has a shield up in addition to holding a sword, you're also going to have to be pretty skillful to get your arrow around his shield. And all of this means a very highly skilled, grandmaster archer, not a beginner.

 

I think stealth goes hand in hand with archery. Somebody who is a solo archer is clearly not of the mindset of the standard infantry archer. The infantry guys would line up and fire arrows on command etc.

The psychology of the lone archer has to be different. They are probably hunters. Bow hunters need to creep around and not scare their prey. Stealth and solo archery go hand in hand in my mind.

There will be pvpers that do things differently, but a person looking to have fun and adventure around alone should have plenty of fun hiding in shadows landing sniper shots on unsuspecting foes.

 

Also the defense and tactics vs a shield user might have some basic skills that combatants of all kinds would learn. Regardless of your skill there might be some type of quick maneuver with the off hand (or a side kick) that would push the shield to create a mechanical disadvanatge or cause the shield user to side step and reset his stance... or something like that.

None of that needs to actually be in the game, but it could be one of those things that we can use our imagination and assume it is happening. It could also be mentioned by the archery combat trainers as some of the conversation they have with players that doesn't effect the skills or how you play, but are just there for added immersion.

 

All the famous archers I know (hawkeye, green arrow) always have enough specialized arrows to do what they need so why can't I?

 

Except their arrows carry a much bigger punch. Realistically, an archer shouldn't have to carry more than a couple dozen (maybe 60 max ) arrows in his quiver, NOT 2,000 of them

 

unfortunately EVERYONE has the heal spell, so yeah, go ahead and run off and hide, I'll be fully healed by the time you sneak back up on me. Another reason to return heals fizzle if you ask me because, well, I like ninjas too dagnabit lol.

 

Was watching this the other day on TV,

http://www.ahctv.com/tv-shows/ancie.../ninjas-the-original-masters-of-black-ops.htm

: >

 

I have a question that may or may not have been asked before.

Will there be templates or archetypes (created by the game designers themselves) of the pure swordsman, pure pole arm, pure archer, and pure mage for the player base to get an idea of how the developers envision the skills to be like?


For example, games like Pathfinder have specific characters (with pictures and names) to depict each of the base character classes, and they use these same characters in all of their books. SotA does not have classes, but nobody really knows the "intent" of the skills better than the developers of these skills. It would be nice if they create at least 8 character templates that portray each of the skill types implemented the way the designers of the game envision these skills, and maybe even hire Stephan Danelie to give some visual life to these 8 architypes, and then sota can use them as examples of how to spec out a character and more...

They can also do what Pathfinder has done and give names to these characters, and use their pictures in specific scenarios like showing how to create a party. Also they could take these guys and firelotus could add life to them by telling a tale of this party adventuring together in the land of Novia. After that they could even add these players in the game as NPCs as trainers or adventurers that might even join our party as a companion at times. Just a thought.

 

The devs are discussing making some trainers modeled after archetypes, so you know that the skills that the trainer offers help you move towards that archetype.

 

will these architypes be posted for all to see some place? When I say posted, I'm thinking like a tab on the sota webpage that talks about each of the skill types for instance sowrds, but then next to the description of the swords skill it shows an example of a level 25 swordsman (which we can click on to see his skill trees) This would include the decks that character has which includes supplementary skills, potions and whatever to fill out that person's deck, and also allows us to browse that character's chosen skills so people can see that the Strength and Dexterity were boosted, and what innate skills were needed to reduce slugs, and allow for one or two locked glyphs... that kind of thing. (maybe it could even show a character progression of these characters to show how they change from level 5 to level 11 to level 21, to level 41 and finally level 51.


Along with these architypes there needs to be a web-based test ground that allows us to map out our skill progress. So we can input a level and it will show us the number of skill points we would have at that level to allow us to place the skills in a web-based version of what our in game skill list would look like. That way we can test placing skill points in all the skills we want so we can tell what looks good, and allow us to create a screenshot of what our idea of the ideal path for your characters. So it needs to be interactive as if we were at a skill trainer raising and lowering our skills, but instead it is just a web based tool/calculator for us to use as a testbed.

With something like that it would help us figure out how to spec out our archer or whatever.

FYI-- I'm thinking long into the future before the release of the game.

 

So I just did a test. Here are some of the facts first.

1. I am level 36
2. I placed 132 points into Archery and maxed almost everything.
3. I used a Founders bow and went to veiled swamp.
4. I had about 350 regular arrows.
5. Deck was set to random draw.
6. I stood still and did not move.

My test was to see if I could actually kill something with just regular arrows. I stood on a low cliff, targeted a slime and shot 350 regular arrows into it. I even used the only glyph available to me (bulls-eye?) whenever it appeared. The slime would heal faster than I could hurt it. 350 arrows later I switched back to my heavy armour, sword and shield and am heading off to the trainer to switch my skills back over to swords. Should take me about 3 or 4 shots with the sword to kill the slime. R12 Archery... not impressed so far. Sorry but if I cannot kill a slime with 350 regular arrows....

 

Yeah, kind of depressing

 

You should have had more than one type of glyph show up. Did you get some of all of the arrow types?

I was able to kill single mobs slowly when I tested it out, I think I put more into stats than you did. Still, it was dead last, a bit behind magic and far behind melee and hybrid builds.

 

No, that was the point of his test. He only purchased regular arrows, so only the Aimed Shot glyph would show up on his combat bar Even with the specialized arrows, it takes a lot of them to kill a single slime (as I learned the hard way...) Forget about trying to take on multiple slimes at once. (You'll die really quickly - even at level 50 )