Flaming Arrows, should they be removed?

[Red Harvest]

I'm considering modding these out of the unit capabilities for a couple of reasons. I want to approach this from two different directions:

1. Do the flaming arrows match their historical purpose/usefullness? Or are they used in a fantasy style?

2. Do they have so many bugs that they should be removed? (Not necessarily permanently, but until a patch fixes them.)

What I am seeing is the AI using flaming arrows against my infantry and cav at times. (I'm not sure what prompts it to do so since it doesn't do this all the time.) I highly doubt that this would have been a good use of archers, but the AI does so anyway. In the game the flaming arrows seem to have some morale penalties and they kill well. When I've tried to use flaming arrows against legitimate targets like battering rams I have been unsuccessful. (And why doesn't siege equipment show an actual percent damaged? It has a display for it, but when I've seen my tower or ram destroyed they went right from "0" to destroyed.)

Flaming arrows should work against elephants to make them run amok, and that is a legitimate use. However, archery was not a prominent player in warfare of the time and was rarely decisive. Pointy sticks and javelins were the main anti-elephant weapons. Not that javelins do any damage to elephants in RTW (or arrows for that matter, except for the flaming variety.)

Even with some of the flaming arrow graphics disabled, I'm still seeing permanent slowdowns from them at times. Right now, the combination of non-historical abuse of flaming arrows coupled with the crippling slowdowns is pushing me toward removing them from the game. The deciding factor is: would the game be better without flaming arrows? At the moment, for me the answer seems to be "yes" but I would like to hear more about flaming arrows of this period before disabling them.

[chemchok]

I think the AI only uses flaming arrows when the defense rating of your troops makes regular arrows relatively ineffective. Just a guess though, I haven't really seen the AI use them often enough to be sure.

[Shottie]

I agree with you, I hate flaming arrows and I try to stay away from them all together. They slow down my system and they really have no purpose. They should have Javalin throwers more powerful, so they can counter Elephants easier, because as of now I send about two units of archers after the Elephants, and a wall of men, and thats a waste compared to the other enemys that need to be fought. I think they should be taken out, so add 1 more vote to your tally.

[Ldvs]

It slows down my game too but I really like to have some archers firing flaming arrows at the batterings rams when I'm besieged, that's the only time I use them, otherwise it's inaccurate...and therefore useless.

[Red Harvest]

Well, shoot. I thought flaming arrow ability would be listed in there like "phalanx" or "wedge." However, it looks like non-formation special abilities like flaming arrows and war cry are not in the units file. I did a search for "war_cry" as text and foung it in the .exe but not anywhere modifiable. So it appears that it is hard coded. DRATS!!!!

Edit: Found the same thing for flaming arrows, "fiery" is found inside the .EXE. Projectile stats file doesn't help either.

[Colovion]

Um. What about if I want to burn those rams before they reach my walls?

It's the only time I use them...

[Red Harvest]

Um. What about if I want to burn those rams before they reach my walls?

It's the only time I use them...

I agree, but we don't have any way to limit the AI targets to historically legitimate ones (wooden structures, wooden machines, and animals that spook.) At this point it looks like I can't eliminate the fire arrows at all, so this could be a moot point.