need help with my archery

[cheech]

how does the aming cross work - i dont get it.

I never hit anything but i want to be a mongol style horse archer

 

[Temujin]

train your horse archery skill, and when you aim while galopping aim a little bit to the left of the target you want to hit. just practice practice practice. and make sure you know what you want to hit before you start aiming

 

[Harr-the-Ruskie]

I don't think that's what he is asking Temujin.

The crosshair expands briefly when you start to draw your bowstring and then shrink to its smallest size. This represents the time it takes your character to reach the optimum power of the draw.

At that point, the smallest crosshair diameter signifies that your draw is at its optimum power, and hence best accuracy because your arrow will fly further and with an optimum trajectory.

You should release your arrow when the crosshair is at its smallest.

Beyond this point, if you keep your bow drawn, your character will eventually tire from the strain. This will affect your ability to to keep the the bow steady. Accuracy will suffer and this is reflected by the crosshair getting larger again. If you release the shot at that moment your arrow will be inaccurate.

Movement (on foot and on horse) will also affect accuracy resulting in a larger crosshair.

As you become more proficient with the bow, you will find the following rewards :-

1. Your time to reach optimum draw (power & accuracy) for arrow release is quicker.

2. You can hold your draw longer before you get tired.

3. You deal better damage to your enemies.

4. If you invest in some Horse Archery rating, your accuracy penalties is reduced during mounted archery.

As with all forms of archery/missile fire, don't forget to 'lead' your target if your target is moving. Aim in front of his direction of movement so that by the time it takes your arrow to fly to the aimpoint, your target would have moved onto that very spot.

Archery is extremely valuable combat skill in M&B

 

[beyondge_20]

thanks a bunch

 

[Stonerbill]

is it not intuitive that the cross hairs represent the possible trajectory domain of the arrow? when shot, the program shoots teh arrow in a random direction, anywhere within the cross hairs. when the cross hairs are large there is a greater area to hit and so you are less accurate. when they are together, the arrow will only go to one spot.

the strength of the shot is always teh same, from experience

 

[katank]

The optimal draw is important. When proficiency is high, you'll no longer see the RGB dots but see only 1 white dot. This allows for you to make headshots across the map. It occurs around 150 xbow proficiency and 200 or so regular archery proficiency.

 

[DaLagga]

the strength of the shot is always teh same, from experience

You mean how much damage you deal? At the start of the game with low archers, i'm lucky if i deal 20 damage with a bow in the arena, and usually its less than 10 (not including headshots). But with 200+ archery skill, its rare that they dont' die in 2 hits (1 if its a headshot).

 

[dorni]

My archer guy is almost 400 skill in archery, and the crosshair is a dot that lasts about six seconds or so. I didn't time it with a stopwatch, but just kind of counted. Anyway, it's like being a sniper.

My sword guy is about 140 archery now, and that's pretty good for what I want with him. If my horse is slow or stopped, I can get some good shots, but with this guy, it's all 1-handed sword and shield.

As far as I know, there are five factors involved in archery.

1. The quality of your bow. I don't know all the variables involved (for accuracy, distance etc) but the obvious ones are drawing speed and damage.
2. Your accumulated experience. You get experience points (XP) for every good shot.
3. The XP you pump into archery when you go up a level. This is the same number as above, but there are limits to how much you can manually add to your XP. (Increasing your Weapons Master points will increase the upper limits on manually-added XP.)
4. Your points for mounted archery. You can get up to 8 points there. In the upper point levels, your gallop archery can be accurate.
5. The simple muscle action of aiming (hand/eye coordination and a feel for trajectory, etc.)

2 and 5 you achieve from doing archery.

 

[Qoatl]

You should release your arrow when the crosshair is at its smallest.

When using a bow, if you click the attack button once and let go, the arrow will automatically be launched when the crosshair is the smallest (your aim is best at the moment you finish pulling back the bowstring).

If you want maximum accuracy, just click the button once and continue to track the enemy with your crosshairs until the arrow is released a second or two later. The shot will go where the crosshairs are at the time the arrow is released, not where they were when you clicked, so this strategy works quite well.

Also, remember that arrows have finite speed and are affected by gravity. Aim high when a target is farther away and always lead fast-moving targets (e.g. horsemen).

 

[Konradude]

One question ive wanted to ask...does power draw effect crossbow?

 

[Nairagorn]

Nope.

 

[UbiquoY]

One small thing I noticed about archery:

I believe that the strength of the bow you use affects your accuracy. I started a new character as a Hunter, and I was at about 110 archery proficiency before I upgraded my bow from the Hunting Bow. I went straight to a Strong Bow, and I noticed that I suddenly was less accurate. It makes sense for this to happen - to delive more damage, a bow would need to be stiffer, and a stiffer bow would be harder to aim (more strain to hold it drawn).

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this, or disagrees with me. I thought it was a cool addition to the game.

 

[compfreak]

yes, that does happen, but i just work around it. the hunting bow is just too weak to use no matter how accurate it is. or more precisely, it is too weak when you don't get a headshot .

 

[dorni]

When using a bow, if you click the attack button once and let go, the arrow will automatically be launched when the crosshair is the smallest

I tried this today, and it's not really true. If I click and hold, the crosshair becomes a white dot, but if I do it your way, the arrow is launched well before the three RGB dots converge into a white dot.

Your way launches the arrow at its earliest possible moment. It may not be the most accurate possible shot, but it'll be the fastest one.

 

[Qoatl]

Hmmm.. perhaps I adopted this strategy when my archery skill was low enough that only lost accuracy by holding the button down. It will be interesting to test this. In any event, this technique works quite well for me.

I often walk backwards on a horse firing headshots at enemies that are coming toward me. Accuracy seems to be pretty good.

 

[Aethelwyn]

One thing I've noticed is that occasionally on horseback I'll lose my targeting reticule entirely while in the process of aiming at a target. Can anyone explain why this happens, and how to avoid it? It gets annoying, since then I have to cancel the shot, wait for the reticule to reappear, and go through the process again -- quite a time sink when there's a battle raging on about me.

 

[katank]

That method results in wild shots. It's not too bad but is quite a bit worse than waiting for smallest reticule.

As for bow strength and accuracy. Yes, it is worse with better bows.

Even when I start as a hunter, I fight in the arena until I can get a long bow and ditch the hunting bow immediately.

The accuracy reduction is insignificant compared to the far superior damage that I dish out.

 

[BobG]

One thing I've noticed is that occasionally on horseback I'll lose my targeting reticule entirely while in the process of aiming at a target. Can anyone explain why this happens, and how to avoid it? It gets annoying, since then I have to cancel the shot, wait for the reticule to reappear, and go through the process again -- quite a time sink when there's a battle raging on about me.

You're probably swinging your aim too far to the right. If your horse is facing due north, you can only shoot arrows in an arc going from north through west to south. If your bow swings east, the reticule disappears, because you can't shoot in that direction.

 

[Aethelwyn]

Ahh, thanks. Yes that would make some sense.

 

[katank]

When a horse archer, always ride slowly in big counter clockwise circles to give maximum targeting time.

Of course ride fast when you need to run away from cav