Archery range bug

[Puzz3D]

I certainly consider that to be improvement over the horrible drawn out pav fights in MTW yes. With VI we lost the powerful arbs in high era and gameplay deterioated because of that. But the slow reload of arbs were still not good for gameplay.

Yes. The request to CA was to remove the pav from high era, but what they did was to remove arbs from high era. This is a very good example of how a request from the player community to CA gets twisted into something they didn't ask for. NC correctly foresaw that removing the arbs would hurt the gameplay.

In RTW and M2 the side of a soldier that carries a weapon is supposedly weaker protected against missile fire than the shield carrying side.

This is also true in MTW. The shield provides added protection from projectiles to the front and left. We measured this in tests in MTW, and it works. I've learned the hard way that you have to test features to make sure they are working.

[Puzz3D]

This is also true in MTW. The shield provides added protection from projectiles to the front and left. We measured this in tests in MTW, and it works. I've learned the hard way that you have to test features to make sure they are working.

This isn't correct. CBR and I ran tests last night in MTW/VI v2.01 on a flat map with no rain and no fatigue, and found that shields add protection to the front. For 8 archers (60 men, 28 arrows) shooting at 8 chiv sergeants (100 men in 10x10 blocks, armor 3 + shield 2) at a distance of 80 meters, total kills out of 800 men were:

183 front
466 left side
495 right side
433 rear

Another test suggests that the shield protection covers an arc somewhat less than 180 degrees. CBR found a post by LongJohn that supports these results.

Troops shot from behind count as having lower armour, if they have shields (as their armour includes the effect of the shield ). The game doesn't look at whether a unit is being shot from the unshielded flank, because of the graphical limitations that mean that the shield can appear on either flank depending on which direction you look from.

Troops who use two handed weapons don't get the benefit of their shields while fighting.

We also did a test of 8 archers firing at a unit which doesn't have shields, 8 swiss armored pikemen (96 men, armor 4), 6 ranks deep at a distance of 80 meters which shows no bonus for rear shooting. Total kills out of 768 men were:

389 front
372 back