Can you configure an archer's range?

[Xenith]

I believe, or think, or whatever, that it would awesome to be able to have either a troop command to; say; fire "Long range", "Normal Range" "Close Range", for various reasons. For example, in sieges, a close range fire mentality would be best for the sake of accuracy. In open field environments a long range attitude would be best suited, so that a larger amount of arrows can wreak havoc upon your foes.

If not a troop command, then a mod feature or something of the like. Say, a scroll bar? Slide left for closer range and slide right for further range... like those you see in the Diplomacy Mod. Or even a direct edit of a script or text file. Any of these ideas would be splendid as long as the end result is reached.

I used to search function to look for other discussion topics that might be relevant but haven't found anything similar. If I was wrong, I apologize and will move my thread else where.

-X

 

[Winterwolf00]

This sounds pretty much like the volley fire thing people have been asking for.
I started a rather short lived thread proposing that you could order your archers to fire at a certain angle. And whenever you fire an arrow yourself  you see a degrees symbol next to the bow.
Think of the flash game Bowman.

 

[Xenith]

Not exactly what I had in mind, but that is also a debatable idea. I could see how you could use that to your advantage, in say, staged fights. Where the enemy noble has his troops lined up and isnt moving for a period of time, but other than that, it would be hard to set the troops into firing into a certain degrees quick enough since the degrees would change every few seconds. (seconds it takes for them to understand your preset degrees and then the amount of time for them to load and fire.)

I was focusing much more no a range finder. I am positive there is one incorporated already, You can walk one step forward and they will arm their bows and prepare to fire, then you can take that one step back and they wont arm anymore. So there is something in the engine already. I am looking for a way to tweak it either live time or before the game starts. So that 'Archer Wars' or something like that could be achieved. (Although Archer Wars isnt what I was going for... but it CAN be done if you can tweak that range finder)

But again, Winterwolf00, I do like your idea, I just cant see the scenarios in which it could be implemented... again not unless its a stand war.

 

[Caba`drin]

Are you talking for the enemy AI or a command for the player to give to his/her party?

If the latter, why not just adjust how close to the enemy you order your troops to "Hold Position" depending on the situtation? If you want it to be a little more hands off, I have a "skirmish" order script that adds an "avoid melee" order to archers/throwers so they try to stay a set distance away from the enemy. It's linked in the Module System code link in my sig. But, in general, is there something that I am missing in your idea?

If you are talking AI, motomataru's formations does some of this in calculating an ideal distance to move the enemy AI to...they then try to maintain about that distance from the bulk of your party.

 

[Winterwolf00]

The idea is to fire one arrow yourself at say...45 degrees. Use the first arrow as a marker and when the enemy reaches that spot order your archers to fire on that same spot.

 

[Caba`drin]

The idea is to fire one arrow yourself at say...45 degrees. Use the first arrow as a marker and when the enemy reaches that spot order your archers to fire on that same spot.

And you can just hold down F1 to get a flag and put it at the spot? (And order your archers to hold fire until they get there, then order fire at will on arrival, if you wish to micromanage/get them there as fast as possible?)

 

[Winterwolf00]

The idea is to fire one arrow yourself at say...45 degrees. Use the first arrow as a marker and when the enemy reaches that spot order your archers to fire on that same spot.

And you can just hold down F1 to get a flag and put it at the spot? (And order your archers to hold fire until they get there, then order fire at will on arrival, if you wish to micromanage/get them there as fast as possible?)

Er...What?

 

[Caba`drin]

Looks like I misread it the first time, eh? Heh. I had read your statement to mean the player would fire an arrow to indicate where the rest of the archers should move to, but this is clearly not your intention. (But if it were, my previous statements about holding down F1 and using the positioning flag would be far easier). Regardless, now that I've re-read it I see your point....and I believe that of the OP. It is making sense now.

If I am now reading it right, what is being suggested is essentially the automation of the "hold fire"/"fire at will" orders, so that the player would indicate in advance when archers should open fire, but not need to monitor the enemy's advance to give the order in real time.

This would not be difficult to implement as a pre-battle option. Before the battle, a pre-battle order screen could allow the player to select a certain range (a certain # of meters) at which the archers should begin firing. The archers would then spawn in the battle with the "hold fire" order active. A trigger would check every few seconds to see if the enemy has gotten within the pre-set distance/range from the archers. At that point, the archers would be given the "fire at will" order. It could be made more complicated by tracking the distance between the archers and the enemy then throughout the battle and, once enemies are once again out of the allotted range, give the "hold fire" order to the archers again.

A consideration would be whether this decision making should be agent (individual soldier)-based or based on an "average" for the entire group of archers.

However, getting range information from within the mission...from a bow shot...would be considerably more tricky than from a pre-battle presentation.

 

[Winterwolf00]

I was talking about using a tracer shot. I want my archers arrows to land right where my arrow landed.
Archer units were commanded by one person who monitored the distance of the enemy. Like a sergeant. And once the enemy gets too close for volleys you can simply order *INDIVIDUAL SHOTS* and they go back to default.

 

[Xenith]

Looks like I misread it the first time, eh? Heh. I had read your statement to mean the player would fire an arrow to indicate where the rest of the archers should move to, but this is clearly not your intention. (But if it were, my previous statements about holding down F1 and using the positioning flag would be far easier). Regardless, now that I've re-read it I see your point....and I believe that of the OP. It is making sense now.

If I am now reading it right, what is being suggested is essentially the automation of the "hold fire"/"fire at will" orders, so that the player would indicate in advance when archers should open fire, but not need to monitor the enemy's advance to give the order in real time.

This would not be difficult to implement as a pre-battle option. Before the battle, a pre-battle order screen could allow the player to select a certain range (a certain # of meters) at which the archers should begin firing. The archers would then spawn in the battle with the "hold fire" order active. A trigger would check every few seconds to see if the enemy has gotten within the pre-set distance/range from the archers. At that point, the archers would be given the "fire at will" order. It could be made more complicated by tracking the distance between the archers and the enemy then throughout the battle and, once enemies are once again out of the allotted range, give the "hold fire" order to the archers again.

A consideration would be whether this decision making should be agent (individual soldier)-based or based on an "average" for the entire group of archers.

However, getting range information from within the mission...from a bow shot...would be considerably more tricky than from a pre-battle presentation.

Thats more along the lines of what I have been trying to discus Caba ' drin.

Have a preset range for the archers to fire at. (or any ranged unit) and it will be set per individual unit. Every unit already has some sort of preset rule for range. I mean, I know that they currently fire when a unit reaches a certain distance. I was just suggesting a way to manipulate that already preset feature to allow live time changes. That to me, would be amazingly neato, as an example, long range less accurate more volleys, close range, more accurate less volleys.

Have it set to long range, fire 10 volleys, and then set it to normal or close to conserve the rest of your archers ammunition.  I hope you understand. Its currently 2:27AM where I am and I'm tired as all heck, but I am just asking two things primarily. Would this be useful in your opinion(s)? and Do you think it can be implemented without too much effort(s)?

-X

 

[Xenith]

--Just for any future posters--

I am going to make this a change-able feature in my upcoming mod. (Dont have a name for it or anything yet)

I want to make a person able to tell his archers to fire at a long distance, a normal distance, and a short distance (ammo conservative)

Keep you all posted.

-X