I need some tips... *Archery*

[PuraajTV]

ok ive checked a bunch of guides (horse archer / foot archer) and nowhere does it really deal with range finding...

How on earth am i supposed to gauge my ranges? I cant see where the damn arrows land 90% of the time (and i got a 32 inch monitor with my nose against it trying to spot it)
I have no real idea on the arrows behavior semi to Long range (think say 50 to 150+ Meter ranges)
I am using the floris mod if that makes any difference...

You guys got any tips on how to properly shoot long range? Like i said i cant see the arrows land, so i have no idea on my range (the game tells you like 140 meter shot ) But again i have no way to gauge what 140 meters is :/

Any help would be appreciated xD

[General Sherman]

If you're a mounted archer you shouldn't be worrying too much about long range shooting. Half the point of mounted archery is to ensure that you stay at close to medium range from your target at all times.

As for long rage arcs, it varies from bow to bow, and on your skill; but one thing is constant, arrow drop increases drastically at long range. Meaning, past a certain point the arc will go from moderate to extreme, and this happens very suddenly at long ranges. This makes it even harder to use sight of the arrow at long range to compensate for arrow drop, because chances are the point at which you lose sight of the arrow is also the point at which the arrow starts to drop much more rapidly.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by TWC dutch81:

Press shift to zoom a bit, with the Floris mod the drop is very significant and it is quite hard to get a good shots. I tend to take a horse and run around some looters to get my rating up to somewhere decent before I rely on my archery skill. Also keep in mind that in that mod each faction bow plays rather different from each other, so find one that works for you.

That's one of the things I don't like about Floris, is the changes to bows. It is a more realistic form of combat archery, but it makes archers completely inferior to other projectile units, with crossbowmen having far superior range, and throwing weapon users having almost as much range as bowmen. The only archers I found useful in floris that werent the player character were horse archers. I also truly hate the flat damage bonus polearms get against cavalry. That is truly the WRONG way to balance horses. Proper way would be to reduce the HP and armor the horses have.

Originally posted by General Sherman:

If you're a mounted archer you shouldn't be worrying too much about long range shooting. Half the point of mounted archery is to ensure that you stay at close to medium range from your target at all times.

As for long rage arcs, it varies from bow to bow, and on your skill; but one thing is constant, arrow drop increases drastically at long range. Meaning, past a certain point the arc will go from moderate to extreme, and this happens very suddenly at long ranges. This makes it even harder to use sight of the arrow at long range to compensate for arrow drop, because chances are the point at which you lose sight of the arrow is also the point at which the arrow starts to drop much more rapidly.

Crossbows are far worse than bows for sudden drops at range. Crossbows have a relatively flat trajectory until a certain range, where it is like they suddenly hit a wall of water or something.
In all honesty, it is a waste of ammo to fire your bow at targets that are so far away that the arrow loses visibility before it hits.

[PuraajTV]

Thanks a bunch for the tips guys ^^ i've incorporated some of your tips into my shooting already.

short range / medium range is becoming much more consistent, long range still kicks my ass xD (elevations can be pretty offputting aswell)


edit: i dont see the floris mod interefering with the NPC archers at all, arrows are still flying past my head at ridiculously long ranges

[Mils]

Excuse me, sorry for the necrobump, but : How do you see the range in meters ? All I have ever known of is an abstract number from 1 to 14 representing the difficulty of the shot, but no true meters ranging... Please tell me.

[TUNA!]

Not all if it is practice. Having a high archery skill helps a lot. For example create a new file and fight 2 battles with your archery skill low. Then cheat and level yourself up and max your archery skill and try it out. You will find it not all skill, well real skill anyways.

Good luck M8.

[Tuidjy]

In some mods, high archery can make you absolutely accurate, i.e. the arrow will always follow the same path when released from the same spot and in the same direction. In these mods, you still need a lot of practice to shoot from horse back, or to judge range even when standing still. The posters who said that it is about practice are correct... but a good portion of luck helps.

Here's a video from a mod where high archery on a character makes him absolutely accurate. Nevertheless, that first headshot (at a gunner in partial cover on elevated platform) is practice and luck, more than anything.

In other mods, no matter what the archery skill, you will never be accurate. This is a lot more realistic, because historical bows were not physically capable of sending each arrow exactly the same way. In such mods it is even more about luck, but once again, practice helps.

And anyone who tells you that what you gets from practice isn't skill... has something to sell you.

[PuraajTV]

Originally posted by Mils:

Excuse me, sorry for the necrobump, but : How do you see the range in meters ? All I have ever known of is an abstract number from 1 to 14 representing the difficulty of the shot, but no true meters ranging... Please tell me.

Those meters are just distance markers i use myself, i dont think there is anything in game that straight up tells you

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

In some mods, high archery can make you absolutely accurate, i.e. the arrow will always follow the same path when released from the same spot and in the same direction. In these mods, you still need a lot of practice to shoot from horse back, or to judge range even when standing still. The posters who said that it is about practice are correct... but a good portion of luck helps.

Here's a video from a mod where high archery on a character makes him absolutely accurate. Nevertheless, that first headshot (at a gunner in partial cover on elevated platform) is practice and luck, more than anything.

In other mods, no matter what the archery skill, you will never be accurate. This is a lot more realistic, because historical bows were not physically capable of sending each arrow exactly the same way. In such mods it is even more about luck, but once again, practice helps.

And anyone who tells you that what you gets from practice isn't skill... has something to sell you.

Yep. No matter what the character's archery skill, the player's ability to judge arc and potentially spread cone is just as important.

[Atomicbean]

Originally posted by Mils:

Excuse me, sorry for the necrobump, but : How do you see the range in meters ? All I have ever known of is an abstract number from 1 to 14 representing the difficulty of the shot, but no true meters ranging... Please tell me.

Install the Floris mod.

Not sure if there's any other mods that add it, but it's a feature in floris.
No way to get this in native without modding, unfortunately. (though you can probably get pretty close to native with the base floris mod and just turning everything off.)