Kongamato
03-14-2003, 21:53
I wrote this as a reply in the JF, but I think I will get some replies here. I want to know what you guys think about an idea I had on increasing the effects of archers without messing around with their stats.
"Archer fire is supposed to have a destructive effect on enemy formations. I have an idea on how to make it more destructive without making bows a superweapon.
I noticed in several games that when men die, they hit the ground fast and hard, perhaps unnaturally fast and hard. During the death animation, the dying man remains stationary and takes up space. This causes the men around him to be blocked temporarily from battle. With such quick death animations, the dying unit does not block his fellow troops long enough to disorganize the formation.
If death animations were slowed down, it would consequently take longer for a unit taking casualties from archer fire to reorganize itself. This could wreak havoc on advancing enemies, and would also give a slight advantage to having disciplined units in the front line. Also, angle of fire would play a key role in this, as non-crossbow units' rapid fire would absolutely ruin organized formations. Another tendency of Bow units, the capability of hitting not just the front of a formation, but the back and center, would actually give them an advantage when firing on advancing troops. These two attributes of Bow fire seem to be what the Longbow is missing in MTW, and to a degree what the shortbow lacks as well."
What do you guys think? Would this work?
"Archer fire is supposed to have a destructive effect on enemy formations. I have an idea on how to make it more destructive without making bows a superweapon.
I noticed in several games that when men die, they hit the ground fast and hard, perhaps unnaturally fast and hard. During the death animation, the dying man remains stationary and takes up space. This causes the men around him to be blocked temporarily from battle. With such quick death animations, the dying unit does not block his fellow troops long enough to disorganize the formation.
If death animations were slowed down, it would consequently take longer for a unit taking casualties from archer fire to reorganize itself. This could wreak havoc on advancing enemies, and would also give a slight advantage to having disciplined units in the front line. Also, angle of fire would play a key role in this, as non-crossbow units' rapid fire would absolutely ruin organized formations. Another tendency of Bow units, the capability of hitting not just the front of a formation, but the back and center, would actually give them an advantage when firing on advancing troops. These two attributes of Bow fire seem to be what the Longbow is missing in MTW, and to a degree what the shortbow lacks as well."
What do you guys think? Would this work?