[428] General Archer Discussion

So the 420 build messed up archer fallz?

 

I thought it was a feature because on Australian Unofficial server (ALU ARE NOOBS MAP :3) there are massive trees and when an archer climbs up one and a builder starts chopping it down to get wood, the archer falls to his bloody death. :(

 

Build 421 is out, but I can't find the change log yet, so I'll edit this post when I find it or someone posts it to me in the Mechanics thread.

 

I think having a nearly 2 second stun when falling from a tree is a little ridiculous...

 

...Especially when troll builders "accidentally" you out of trees.
See what I did there? >_>

 

... I find that since archer has been nerfed, its only fair that we get compensation of staying in trees... Or atleast we stay in trees if knight attacks tree onece, but if he starts jabbing at it, we fall... To our bloody doom... So make the stun time a bit more than before (im guessing why you could catch the tree was because of super short stun time) but not so long that we will fall ALL the way to the ground on a medium tree, (6-10 blocks i think) so time it to a 4 block fall?

 

Dude, even if it's a ONE BLOCK FALL, you're stunned for SO LONG that you're basically fucked unless a friendly accidentally hit the tree.

 

That feel, when the build number keeps getting updated.

Spoiler: Build 424 Changelog

- A number of API calls made from KAG servers to the API were changed such that they do not cause lag spikes on the server in certain situations. The server should also deal better with the API being unavailable (if it is completely unavailable, people will not be able to join but the players already in the server should be fine)
- There have been a handful of changes/hotfixes since 421 came out, so it is time to bump to the next build number to ensure everyone has the latest and greatest

enjoy!
</br>--- merged: Jun 19, 2012 7:33 PM ---</br>
Another build has rolled out. This one hopefully fixes the admin crashes guards and admins alike have been struggling with, hurrah!

Spoiler: Build 428 Changelog

Build 428 is on its way out with some important (potential) fixes:
- fixed rcon admins/guards crash on certain collapses #267, #469
- fixed unable to join busy server (lots of objects)
- fixed crash on camera shake (sometimes)
- Removed use of in-game browser, links now open in normal external browsers
- pressing enter in the username box at login now submits the form
- slight changes to how ping timing works in the browser, might yield more correct results

EDIT: Added Hotfix logs:

Spoiler: 428 Hotfix

- Fixed issue with big (40+ player) busy servers running out of object IDs (and kicking everyone/being unjoinable) after a few hours
- Some optimizations related to how object IDs are looked up (in theory lower cpu usage on servers with a lot going on, in reality not much of a difference)
- removed 'Blob Loaded' log/console messages
- Fixed wood blocks not showing up in gold CTF and zombie modes

 

Archers are honestly just boring kill grinders now. All cqc abilities of archers have vanished. It is most often a suicide leaving your tower. While the spam was ridiculous yes, it also kept the archers fun to play.

Tree climbing still gives you a nice temporary fortress, but escaping via them isn't viable anymore so alone archers always fail to escape enemy knights when there is forest (you get slown down). The stun time is simply ridiculous, it should by no means be longer than one second. I'd rather just completely remove a feature than make it not a good choice to use in the first place at all.

It seems that with only a single method of attack the archers are either overpowered or boring. Archer needs new features to make it both balanced and fun to play. I thought of a one tweak and a one addition, that should be somewhat easy to do and open up a lot new possibilities.

• The time your shot is charged at maximum is 5 seconds.

After the max charge is lost, it should just disappear, not begin to slightly decrease, and after that, increase. The difference between a max-charged shot and an almost-max-charged shot is so big, that it is often just a waste of arrow to release it after charge has been lost.

• Rolling

This one is interesting. By simply pressing W + A/D the archer would do a roll, that:
- Gives a small speed boost
- Is about 5 tiles long
- Disables all collision with enemy units
This combined with the longer max charge time would be very fun to fiddle with. A few possibilities would be rolling past an enemy knight and shooting him in the back, resulting in a kill if the knight's got 1.5 hearts. Escaping via rolling while surrounded, chasing up enemy builders in tunnels, avoiding spikes, etc. It would all still require very good timing and a little dumb enemy, so this wouldn't be overpowered.

Instead, it would be fun and encourage archers coming off their towers. Archers playing in the pocket of their knights are much less annoying to deal with. You won't get suddenly shot from somewhere off the screen. You won't be unable to move at all. And the enemy archers will be in the reach of your bombs :>

Any arguments rising against this I shall defeat.

 

say the charge should last for 2-3 seconds and rolling should be able to go through 1 block wide spaces
also i think that in a parkour sort of way that if an archer would roll they would recieve less fall damage Instructional video time ftw!
i

 

Honestly the drop rate seemed like a glitch to me more than anything until I found out that it was in fact a new feature which started to boil my bottoms.

To put it in all honesty, this change is far more ridiculous compared the the hindered draw time and I'm glad server admins are starting to revert the rate of fire to it's previous stance. There are a large group of problems which comes with the new drop penalty and one of the biggest factors is the archer's mobility. If an archer is hindered from their mobility as opposed to knights having the ability to flight,glide and bomb jump, I would have to say this new build is a utter pile of bull shit while the excluding the fact that arrow climbing has been hindered as well.
Another problem I've encountered with this new "balancing" changes , is the griefing factor that comes with it. It's quite an annoyance trying to enter abase with a tree in front of it, especially when builders are constantly cutting down trees at the front lines. I mean really? Are we focusing on combat or are we focusing whack-a-mole? I give this feature an A+ certificate for absolute retardation.

 

Agreed... Tis new drop stun is really bad, i wish we had ournold ability to cling to the tree, really hard for a knight to drop you, but much slower draw time

 

I mean it doesn't only happen to archers, it happens to anyone trying to climb up a base with a tree near by.

 

I think grabbing the tree was pretty cool

 

I don't know if anyone's bothered to bring this up, but with that change in how builders cut wood - one coin and six wood per hit, they're much faster at gathering arrows than collecting as an archer if there's an arrow workshop nearby. Plus, builders also get wood from their hits.
Shouldn't archers be the best at making arrows?

 

I start to think that archer's shooting nerf does not feel as bad currently because of the water addition and how defencless are people in water.

I think that archer nerf's consequences will start to show up when boats will be added and water will become less of an obstacle.

I liked how you could get into the thick of fight and with some skill still be dangerous.Now you are forced to camp.

 

Maybe archers can sit by a wood pile and craft arrows.

 

That would work because archers get arrows by kicking a tree, and kicking logs are pretty much the same thing.