Missile weapons.

[g_flook]

Is it me or are missile weapon ranges a bit excessive? Anyone have any historic data on the effective range of a bow or crossbow. How about individuals throwing rocks 3/4 of the distance of the battel map? I understand if you are on a hill, your range would be slightly extended but there needs to be a limit. Also a rock would have to be a pretty decent size to be effective, I would tink anyway. How far could you possibly throw it. Some people have trouble throwing a baseball across a daimond at a good rate. Let alone a rock.

 

[LB]

Well, the only surviving examples of English longbows (surviving, as being from the past, not modern recreations) are actually from 1545. Their effective range firing War Arrows (heavier arrows designed to actually cause damage, as opposed to Flight Arrows which were light and designed for range, but caused fear more than actual injury) is about 200 yards (600 feet).

The maximum range of crossbows I don't know - possibly greater than that of the longow - but the effective range was shorter as the smaller, shorter bolt had trouble maintaining a stable flight path. It did, of course, have more "punch".

 

[svart]

Why do everyone say throwing weapons are thrown to such long distances ??
I haven't seen that happen on my game even once, my rocks/javelins have a decent short range but they simply fall limp after that range.
Is it just my magical M&B version ?

 

[jrawlings]

When your skill in archery goes up, you will find that some of the longer range shots that are impossible early on become "head shots" routinely.

 

[Slaists]

i've seen sea raiders throw their axes across half the map routinely. they do not hit though: just land at my character's feet. waste of ammunition on the AI's part (if they have it limited) though...

 

[Stonewall382]

waste of ammunition on the AI's part (if they have it limited) though...

I'm all but positive they do, as I've tested and used this against the AI a few times.

 

[Handel]

The range of the crossbows was much smaller then the range of the bows. The bows shoot at high ballistic curve and the archers don't aim at a certain target, but just in the direction of the targets (don't know the wordes needed to explain it in english). The opposite - the crossbow shoots almost at straight line; that's why the crossbows have much greater armor piercing capabilities, but much smaller range.

 

[DaLagga]

Handel is right. I don't feel that bows have or crossbows have too much range. However, i have seen the AI throw rocks half way across the map and hit. So, that needs to be nerfed a bit. As far as javelins and throwing axes go, its really just more the fact that the AI can calculate perfectly how high to aim. When throwing them yourself, its very hard to hit enemies far away, as you're always having to guess at the elevation. So when it comes to javelins and throwing axes, i think the AI needs to be tweaked to miss more often at long ranges with those weapons, but not nerf the weapons themselves.

 

[graphia]

The range for javelins at least is fine - when you consider that they had to alter the weight of olympic javelins because athletes kept throwing them out of the park I don't it's unreasonable.

 

[Cataphract]

The range for javelins at least is fine - when you consider that they had to alter the weight of olympic javelins because athletes kept throwing them out of the park I don't it's unreasonable.

I definately do, javelins weighed alot and i mean alot more than any "olympic 800 gram javelins. For example pilums weighed between 2-3 kilograms and had an effective range of 20-30 meters, this info can be found on wikipedia.com for example.

 

[Harr-the-Ruskie]

The range of the crossbows was much smaller then the range of the bows.

That is not the situation in real life in respect of crossbows that uses heavy iron bows.

 

[Manitas]

The range of the crossbows was much smaller then the range of the bows.

That is not the situation in real life in respect of crossbows that uses heavy iron bows.

Handel is somewhat right, at least range of the crossbow was certainly shorter than bows, provided their draw forces were roughly equal.

Besides, arrows are designed to gain flight, that's why after the initial deceleration period, they start moving at almost constant speed.
Bolts at the other hand were 'dropped like a stone', so even if they had higher muzzle velocity, their flight path was more curved resulting in shorter range and increased inaccuracy.

Yeah, this is inversed in the game.