Mikodzi
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Hi guys! I know that there was couple of topics regarding archery. But on this one I want to present my vision of archery mechanics that could be implemented into Exanima or SG. I really love Exanima, but almost in all games I role-play an archery character, so is it very important for me to get archery here as good as sword fighting is here already. All comments are welcome!
Archery
Uses standard fighting scheme with TAB button to toggle battle mode, left mouse button to draw a bow and right button to cancel action.
Basics
To fight with bow you need to equip bow, quiver and allocate arrows from inventory to quiver. Its mandatory that quiver have its own limited arrows slots and only arrows in that quiver can be fired.
Archery requirements
Power bar (optional) - acts like stamina bar, the longer you hold attack button - the more power it gets for the shot. Some types of armour requires full power and special arrows to be penetrated. Or there could be a small chance to hit vulnerable spot. Speed of which power bar is restored depends on current character actions, e.g. when character is running, power is being restored slower than usual.
Power bar addition mechanics - when drawing a bow, there will be indicator on power bar which will display maximum power that it can be drown for a single shot (depends on bow, character skills). If player overdraws power and shoots, arrow will be not stable, causing less penetration damage and almost random aim (forget about precise targeting). Of course player can cancel that action and start drawing again.
Bows - they have different stats: power that can be drawn (some bows will have ability to draw half of power or even more), speed of power usage (power can be drawn faster), penetration distance.
Quiver - they will have two stats: arrow slots available and quiver location. Every quiver will have it maximum arrow capacity. Quiver location should relate to speed of reloading, for example quiver on chest will reduce reloading speed compared to quiver on back. Quiver is not required for using the bow, character can equip arrows into hand, but its amount is greatly reduced compared to quiver.
Arrows - main stats: weight (range), penetration ability.
Aiming
Two phases of aiming:
Long range combat awareness
Enemies should change their behaviour in case of ranged battle. For example: skeletons may use shield to cover themselves and quickly approach the player. NPCs without shield may run away and wait for player in tight spot.
Archery physics
The should be calculations to tell us if the armour could be penetrated with that used power, arrow type and angle. There will be only two types of results upon hitting: penetrated or deflected. If arrow penetrates the armour (chain, plate) it could not be recovered, you can collect that arrow again only from leather, fabric or naked body. Also it could be recovered when arrow was deflected.
Summary
All mechanics stated above should make archery challenging and not overpowered type. Player with bow could not become glass canon due to power bar restrictions and quiver capacity limit. Also it would be not easy to recover arrows if player shoots at heavy armour guys. To maintain entire game difficulty, archery would also be almost useless without proper skills and trainings.
To make things ever harder - all HUD options like Aiming oval and Power bar could be hidden.
@Madoc is very welcomed in this thread
Archery
Uses standard fighting scheme with TAB button to toggle battle mode, left mouse button to draw a bow and right button to cancel action.
Basics
To fight with bow you need to equip bow, quiver and allocate arrows from inventory to quiver. Its mandatory that quiver have its own limited arrows slots and only arrows in that quiver can be fired.
Archery requirements
Power bar (optional) - acts like stamina bar, the longer you hold attack button - the more power it gets for the shot. Some types of armour requires full power and special arrows to be penetrated. Or there could be a small chance to hit vulnerable spot. Speed of which power bar is restored depends on current character actions, e.g. when character is running, power is being restored slower than usual.
Power bar addition mechanics - when drawing a bow, there will be indicator on power bar which will display maximum power that it can be drown for a single shot (depends on bow, character skills). If player overdraws power and shoots, arrow will be not stable, causing less penetration damage and almost random aim (forget about precise targeting). Of course player can cancel that action and start drawing again.
Bows - they have different stats: power that can be drawn (some bows will have ability to draw half of power or even more), speed of power usage (power can be drawn faster), penetration distance.
Quiver - they will have two stats: arrow slots available and quiver location. Every quiver will have it maximum arrow capacity. Quiver location should relate to speed of reloading, for example quiver on chest will reduce reloading speed compared to quiver on back. Quiver is not required for using the bow, character can equip arrows into hand, but its amount is greatly reduced compared to quiver.
Arrows - main stats: weight (range), penetration ability.
Aiming
Two phases of aiming:
- Passive aiming - occurs when player is in battle mode, but haven't drawn a bow yet. By default, aiming cursor will look like wide oval which will show current shooting accuracy range (arrow could be shoot anywhere within that oval). Aiming oval spread will increase or decrease when player moves aim further or closer to character (distance penalty). There will be additional skill that decreases starting aim accuracy.
- Active aiming - phase when player starts drawing a bow and power. To get maximum accuracy (oval may become small circle) player needs some defined time (in seconds) and that time depends on skills and bow type. Why it is important - it will not allow not skilled player to have precise shoots. This mechanics will look like: when not skilled player starts drawing a bow and waits for maximum accuracy, he'll eventually pass the power bar limits and shoot will be messed up. It happens because time for most precise shoot is longer that time needed to draw maximum power. Of course it can also be bypassed by shooting on closer range, as I mentioned already distance will increases or decrease time for aiming.
Long range combat awareness
Enemies should change their behaviour in case of ranged battle. For example: skeletons may use shield to cover themselves and quickly approach the player. NPCs without shield may run away and wait for player in tight spot.
Archery physics
The should be calculations to tell us if the armour could be penetrated with that used power, arrow type and angle. There will be only two types of results upon hitting: penetrated or deflected. If arrow penetrates the armour (chain, plate) it could not be recovered, you can collect that arrow again only from leather, fabric or naked body. Also it could be recovered when arrow was deflected.
Summary
All mechanics stated above should make archery challenging and not overpowered type. Player with bow could not become glass canon due to power bar restrictions and quiver capacity limit. Also it would be not easy to recover arrows if player shoots at heavy armour guys. To maintain entire game difficulty, archery would also be almost useless without proper skills and trainings.
To make things ever harder - all HUD options like Aiming oval and Power bar could be hidden.
@Madoc is very welcomed in this thread