Archery range bug

[Carl]

The chance of hitting should taper off at longer ranges if the archer is shooting at a specific man. This automatically happens in the old engine because accuracy is a small error added to the trajectory of the arrow so the further away the target man the larger the positional error of the arrow when it reaches the target.

This is pretty much what I just described the M2TW system as, I just used less technical language, let me answer a few more of your points and I'll come back and re-explain it to you using some of your terminology now that I know it.

Loss of kinetic energy due to drag isn't modeled, so that makes all projectiles that hit at longer ranges have a greater penetrating power than they should have. The continual reduction in chance to hit at longer ranges in the old engine tends to offset the non-declining penetrating power, but of course they don't exactly offset in such a way to give the same result as a more realistic ballistic model.

Actually this feature has been put back in for M2TW, arrows that come in flat have a higher chance of getting a kill than one that comes in from above. The effect isn't that noticeable with arrows, (although it is there), but it's much more noticeable with Crossbows and Muskets.

The old model seems better here since the arrow is fired at a 45 degree angle at the open fire range. This means they can't shoot any further than their open fire range on flat ground. That range is described as the weapon's effective range, but it's less than the weapon's true maximum range. LongJohn explained that the effective range was chosen to be less than true maximum range so that the battles would have a larger and more epic feel to them.

Red Harvest did tests on arrow velocity in RTW, and his conclusion, as I remember, was that the arrow velocity was unrealistically high. It's definitely much higher than it was in the old engine. This is why you get those extremely high arc trajectories when the low trajectory is blocked by a structure.

Well the velocity is much closer to what it that in M2TW, my tests show that arrow velocity is just high enough in M2TW for the arrows to reach 180, (the range of muskets, the best bows are 160 for reference). So they still fire at less than 180 when firing at their maximum listed range, but only just, (you can't tell visually).

Each archer aims at a man. If the man moves, he won't be on the spot at which the arrow was fired when it arrives. If the target is far away, the arrow will miss even if the accuracy error was zero. You will get some secondary hits on men that were not the primary target. You can also get secondary hits on stationary targets if the accuracy error on the arrow's trajectory is large enough. MTW introduced the lethality parameter, and it's much easier to control the effectiveness of projectiles with that parameter rather than using the accuracy parameter. Also, LongJohn did say that he made a change in VI that should improve the archers ability to hit moving targets, but he never said what the change was.

What you've just described is very similar to how things work in M2TW. I'll give you that explanation know to help explain what I mean:

The first thing I need to go into is to mention that their are 2 types of Positional Error.

Type 1: This is used by projectiles that DO NOT have an absolute fixed Accuracy value. Arrows and Crossbows use this kind of offset. What happens here is that the accuracy value for the projectile is consulted and it is then determined from this weather an arrow will hit or miss. If it is determined to be a miss then a positional offset sufficient to cause the arrow to miss both the targeted man and the unit he is part of. However the value used is the one that would be used if the weapon was firing at a 45 degree angle. At shorter ranges where the angle into the air is less, the Positional Offset may not be high enough to cause the arrow to miss the target, at which point you still get a hit and it still counts as a hit, just as it did in the older engine. (Anything without an accuracy value listed in it's Descr_Projectile entry will use this type)

Type 2 Positional Offset: This is identical to Type 1 with the exception that the offset is calculated to match the angle being fired at, so regardless of the range between the target and firer the arrow will miss is the accuracy calculation says it should. All Gunpowder and Art weapons use this. (As does anything else with an accuracy value listed in it's Projectile entry).

Fixed Accuracy: Just to explain this a bit more clearly. Absolute Accuracy is when a projectile has an accuracy value assigned in it's Projectile entry. It is as the name suggests absolute and if it says the projectile will miss then it will. It is simply impossibbile for the projectile to get secondary hits against the target unit. (as detailed under Type 2 Positional Offset).

Non-Absolute Accuracy uses a combination of the accuracy values and (at angles below 45 degree), secondary hits from shots whose positional offset was not sufficient to cause them to miss at the current firing angle.

Position: This is where the real difference between the two systems seems to be. The old system probably used a system similar to what I described for Non-Absolute accuracy and it's attendant type 1 positional offset.

However, in the old engine, (according to you, I can't confirm I'm afraid), the target position was always the point occupied by the man at the time of firing.

In the new engine however, it is the target man's current point, or the positional offset point relative to the CURRENT position of the target man. Thus no matter how the man moves, an offset of zero will always cause a hit and an offset of 5 meters to the east will always cause the arrow to land 5 meters east of the targets current postion.

The purpose of this is pretty clear to me. It ensure that no matter how much someone may move, the absolute minimum number of hits never changes. No matter what at least some will hit the target. They probably did it to stop people wasting someones arrows by running into and out of missile range all the time.

Now that i understand how the old system did it, it looks a lot like it uses the old system, but with positional tracking added on.