04/28/2021 - Feedback Request - Bows - Test Server

[Xsyon]

The Test Server is up with Bows finally ready for public testing!

For testing only, you will have schemes for all bows automatically in your Weaponcraft craft menu. Once you equip a bow you can attack with either the right or left mouse button. Crosshairs during combat show what you are aiming at. Arrows are affected by gravity so you will have to aim high at distant targets.

PVP is enabled on the Test Server.

A few adjustments are still in the works:

- Final tweaking and optimizing of arrow collision with creatures / players.
- Bow and arrow variables (speed and damage). Feedback on these is welcome.
- Crafting of arrows that are depleted when shot. (This is currently just turned off for easier testing).
- Higher skill required for crafting most of the bows. Recipes for bows will also be learned through inspiration and found or bought schemes.

Please let me know if you encounter any problems. All feedback on this new feature is welcome!

Thanks!

[thurgond]

Tried out ranged combat. Crafting bow went fine. Problems started when combat started.

Going into combat with a bow locked the cross hairs (ok the small square) behind my character's left ear. The target was near impossible to see as my head was in the way. Switching to first person camera wasn't a help as the bow blocked the view of the target.

Running in ranged combat mode stopped animation and sunk my character below ground up to his shoulders.

Switching from ranged to melee combat is problematical. It is possible to have a weapon in the right hand and bow in the left, but to switch to melee you have to exit combat and drag the bow back to a bag then reenter combat. This makes dropping the bow by accident a possibility. Actually dropped (with no confirmation) both the bow and a preorder mutilator just playing around with the melee slots in a safe place. Trying to do this in combat with something trying to chew my face is a sure way to loose one or more weapons.

A possible solution would be to have slot(s) for preferred melee weapon(s) and ranged weapon together with separate keys for ranged and melee combat.

Playing around with 3rd and 1st person camera views, I got into something like "axial view." In this mode the only keys that worked were escape, "c" which rotated the camera clockwise and "v" which moved the PoV below the terrain mesh. Reloging didn't fix this problem, I had to completely exit.

[Xsyon]

I've patched the missing sprint animations.

I'll check out the rest that you mention. You shouldn't be able to equip a bow and another weapon so I will look into that first.

Thanks!

[legend552]

BOWS BABY, LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Aside from that, here's my fun little experiences and feedback.

I got a bow from a lovely person at Founders Isle, and I played against the Revenants there. When I entered the bow in combat, moving in any way to the left, like left, forward left, and back left, sunk my character into the ground. It was fairly hard to see in third person where the arrow went, or where to aim, so I entered first. I enjoyed fighting in first, added a pretty cool feel, and sorta to me seems like the intended way it was meant to be. If you're aiming for a good third person ranged combat, I think panning the camera to over the shoulder will help assist us with our aiming.

While playing with the bow, I noticed that left click and right click offer different charges, like holding two weapons. One is a quick draw, and one is a long draw. My issue, at least currently, is that neither charges affect the damage output. Currently the only way I could increase damage was leveling the bow and ranged skill, and "backstabs", which were shots at the back.

Another issue, I found that merely left clicking launched an arrow at full force. This also coupled with the problem that arrows do the same damage no matter what, so spamming left click to shoot made it somewhat easy to kill the Revenants, but still a bit of work as they all did around 2.5 damage each, slowly going up as bows and ranged leveled with me. Main thing preventing this issue is stamina, which might not be a problem to people who have higher levels of it.

Arrows only went in a straight line, which is sorta something I think would work on a full right click bow charge. I think this is where dexterity can come into play, you could add an arrow deviation system that will cause the arrows to shoot different directions to the intended target, and increase in accuracy as your skill in bows increases, as well as your dexterity stat. This could also save left click bow charges for defensive attacks, which I assumed was the intention, the closer the enemy, that faster you want to shoot.

When I was switching camera modes, I accidentally hit "Insert", which sorta sent me into a different and odd camera mode. Pressing it again sent me to another weird one, and pressing it a third time put me back to normal, but dropping me from the sky out of nowhere.

So far these what I can remember and give from my test time with the bow. I'm too tired to continue. If you need me to elaborate more on any of these, let me know and I'll try to answer or reproduce anything I mentioned.

Thanks, I'm hyped for bows finally!

Bows, then swords, then SPELLS! LETS GOOOOOOOOO (one can dream)

[legend552]

After sleeping and thinking some more, I do remember that arrows do have gravity and drop, but after a little distance, they drop and it becomes a bit hard to track where they went.

[Xsyon]

I've patched the Test Server.

Regarding issues to far:

1) Problems with swapping a bow and other weapons should be fixed. You shouldn't be able to equip a bow and another weapon. Equipping a bow when you have two weapons should unequip both weapons - one to where the bow was and the other to an empty slot in your containers.

If any problems are encountered equipping bows or equipping other weapons, let me know the exact circumstances to reproduce the problem.

2) The combat sprint animation while carrying a bow should be ok now. There are a few other animations I may need to patch and I will patch those this weekend.

3) About the 'axial view' that both of you entered: In this build, hitting Insert switches between normal mode and two different camera fly modes. These are for the Test Server only and are modes that are used to fly around the world that I use. I've made this available for players on the Test Server and will post instructions on these modes later. For now, if you accidently hit Insert, just hit it again until you get back to the normal camera mode.

4) Regarding the bow's target: The bow currently aims where the camera is aiming which is standard. I'll look into optionally having the aim above the player's head to see if that's better for some players but that might end up causing confusion. I'll see what I can do.

5) I've fixed charged attacks so that left and right charge at the same speed. (The right hand was unintentionally using the charge rate of an empty hand)

6) I've fixed charged attacks to increase damage.

Note: Arrows do disappear after a minute and are hard to see on the ground. If you go searching for them, they may disappear by the time you would find them. It's not necessary to find the arrows though.

Thanks!

[thurgond]

4) Regarding the bow's target: The bow currently aims where the camera is aiming which is standard. I'll look into optionally having the aim above the player's head to see if that's better for some players but that might end up causing confusion. I'll see what I can do.

The aiming point as it is currently is blocked by the characters head. That makes it hard to impossible to hit distant targets.

I've been playing Conan Exiles lately and there the target is about a foot to the right of the character's shoulder or the character's head when in a combat crouch.

[Whorlok]

under what can you craft arrows?

[Whorlok]

BUG: I opened a house and wanted to move items from one of the baskets into my basket. The items just disappear

[ferglong]

I have the same issue as Whorlok. When I move items from a tent basket to another basket my items disappear. The only items not affected are items that are in the basket and pouches that I'm carrying. Also, I noticed that every external object in my tribe area (Arch pieces, carts, baskets and long logs) are named as such but with an added ": Stables" to the name.

[Xsyon]

I've restarted the Test Server with my latest build.

1) Interface issues should be fixed. (I had to revise some inventory functions to accommodate bows and the functions still needed some fixing). If you encounter any lost inventory items still, let me know the exact circumstances.

2) Arrows are craft-able. The scheme should appear in Weaponcraft. Arrows are now required for bows. They should get used up as you shoot. (Note: as they require feathers I will set up feathers to be easier to find).

3) I've offset the camera (similar to Conan Exiles). We'll see how this feels for players. I may end up having a setting for this offset as players are currently used to having the camera centered on the character and the offset might feel strange. (Or the change might not be a big deal, we'll see).

4) I fixed the problem with the 'Stables' tag showing everywhere. (There was a typo in a part of the code I optimized).

[ferglong]

Arrow crafting appears to be working fine as does the arrow depletion upon use. I like the offset camera change as it makes aiming alot easier. The inventory is working again, I moved items around from various places and all is fine again. As are the names of external objects not having ": Stables" attached to them.
I did notice that my carts (and another toons carts in a different tribe) are all listed as abandoned.
Thanks for your prompt fixes, It's appreciated!

[thurgond]

Did a brief test.

Arrow crafting worked fine. Since they are quickly used up, you might consider increasing the number from a single craft from 5 to 10. Maybe add chicken feathers from hunting chickens.

Really like the camera offset (OK, I"m the one that suggested it). I hardly noticed it when zoomed out, but it was easy to target a bow shot. It also made targeting bins on the ground much easier.

Saw arrows on the ground briefly and could target them but could not pick them up. Is this intended or will there be a way to recover arrows?

[Whorlok]

please let us recover arrows..:)

[legend552]

I think letting arrows be non recoverable is better.

[Bejaymac]

Please get rid of that stupid camera offset, I keep running into stuff and getting stuck.

When someone goes into combat mode with a bow equipped then force the camera into 1st person mode.

[legend552]

I think the camera offset is good for combat mode. It helps you see a bit better where you're aiming, and where your guy is going to hit.

[Xsyon]

The Test Server is running the build I plan to patch publicly this week. This includes a few minor changes:

1) Arrows are crafted 10 at a time instead of 5.

2) You can rotate upwards at a greater angle during combat in order to allow the character to shoot up at creatures more.

3) There is a setting for the camera offset. This setting as well as the ping and hp display settings should save to the saved settings file.

4) I had thought of recoverable arrows (auto recovery actually) but it's just an extra complication. If I add this later, arrows will degrade instead of having a one time use and will auto recover after being shot. For this patch though, arrows won't be recoverable.

5) Crafting needs to be checked. I am working on a revised crafting panel. The new panel is currently switched off but I made some changes to the crafting functions to accommodate the new panel, so crafting should be checked to make sure it's all working properly.

That's all for now. Thanks!