Suggestions for ranged fighting

[lazarus]

It has been posted by Xavier that once outposts etc are complete and in-game, attention will be turned at long last to ranged fighting, an area of the game which has always been something of a red-headed stepchild. Anyway, I thought now might be a good time to come up with some suggestions for what we would like to see changed/added/removed as far as ranged goes.

I would request that this thread (should anyone actually respond to it ) remain positive and not become a rantfest about how ranged/Nevrax/whatever is teh suXX0rZ.

My suggestions:

1. Range
I believe ranged fighting should be just that - ranged. At present and as far as I am aware, the max range for a rifle is 40m. While I don't expect effective ranges of 300 to 500m as you expect for a real rifle, I do think that it should be possible to at least get out to 50m with a rifle. The 20m range of a pistol is OK IMO as pistols are not nearly as accurate at range as a rifle.

2. Damage
I'm not sure how this should be done, but ranged definately needs to do more damage. Not massive amounts more, but enough to bring it in line with the other fighting skills. Perhaps one option would be to allow the increase damage bricks to be used with ranged, although what the consequences would be for hp/stam usage I don't know. There is also an issue with pierce/slash/smash ammo seemingly completely the same with no advantage to any of them.

3. Cosmetics
At the moment, ranged weapons look nasty. It's not the shape, but the complete blandness of the weapons. I personally prefer the generic bowrifle from the Tryker ranged rite, but even that is just plain brown. Yesterday I bought the med quality Matis bowrifle plan, and it looks even worse. Please can we have some proper colouring etc for ranged weapons. Ideally it'd be nice to have the colours come from the mats, the same as armour, but I'm not sure if this is possible.

That'll do me for now, please feel free to add your own comments and thoughts, but as I said before, let's please keep this positive

[micrix]

1. Range
I believe ranged fighting should be just that - ranged. At present and as far as I am aware, the max range for a rifle is 40m. While I don't expect effective ranges of 300 to 500m as you expect for a real rifle, I do think that it should be possible to at least get out to 50m with a rifle. The 20m range of a pistol is OK IMO as pistols are not nearly as accurate at range as a rifle.

Did not much until now with riffles. But range should never be more then the magic skills. But i agree, it should also not less then magic.

From the technical point of view it would be interessting to know at which range a traget (mob) can no longer recognize who hit it. If there is such boundary every range above would be out of balance. Many would level as invulnerable sniper

[alibasil]

Maybe the devs need to look at the costs of being a ranged fighter too. If you are a noob - buying ammo for your gun could cost an arm and a leg!

*Doesnt want to see armless and legless homins*

[mmatto]

Main issue with balance and cost is that it is not easy to team and go shooting mobs when you want.

First you have to dig for ammo mats couple of hours before going shooting. You could have some ammo mats in storage but storage space is so limited that it is waste to store hundreds or thousands of ammo mats for long time.

When you are hunting you will soon run out of ammo and you must go to your mek or stables to craft some moret This will stop hunting for a while and you won't get too popular with your teammates.

[akm72]

When you are hunting you will soon run out of ammo and you must go to your mek or stables to craft some moret This will stop hunting for a while and you won't get too popular with your teammates.

How about parking your ammo-packer in a convenient safe spot not too far from the hunting grounds? Or getting your team mates to carry some spare ammo for you?

[aylwyne]

Maybe the devs need to look at the costs of being a ranged fighter too. If you are a noob - buying ammo for your gun could cost an arm and a leg!

*Doesnt want to see armless and legless homins*

So THAT'S why people keep buying one anklet at a time from me!

I really like the idea of ranged combat having more range. I personally feel it should be even further than magic (depending on the weapon). It's completely reasonable for a rifle to shoot 100m, although there should probably be a hit to accuracy the further out you are.

There was another thread a while back where we were trying to come up with new skills and ideas that could be added to range to make the skill more interesting. Yes, the damage/range etc. needs to be balanced with other combat skills, however, even if that were the done, I think range would still be a little bit bland due to the lack of skills.

Here's a couple of ideas I threw out on that other thread (http://www.ryzom.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10636)

"Warning Shot" - Fires a single shot which does no damage to the mob but causes the mob to flee (basically scares off the creature with the loud bang). This would only work on a mob that's not already aggrod on you. This could be used to prevent adds or to create an opening to sneak through.

"Use Cover" - You would fire from a prone position, using ground cover to evade detection. You couldn't move but would have a chance at evading detection for those first few shots. This would let you soften up the mob before it attacks you.

[pr0ger]

Save ideas for later, guys!

Xavier said that they will rework almost from scratch the ranged fight skill after outposts availablility.


in the mean time, we can all work on suggestions, of course, but bear in mind : balancing is the issue.

use a diagram like :
armsman :: strengh - weakness
magician :: strengh - weakness
gunsman :: strengh - weakness
to short out ideas and to find to "supplement" weakness in the same line, or to be helpful in the same column...

oh and about ammo : fight close to sources

[glipe]

I bring a packer with me when I'm sniping now. Means I can keep lots of ammo available. I've also noticed that, killing Kipees, if you shoot and run they can't catch up easily and you can still fire! They do catch up eventually but you can wear them down a great deal like this. I think it's wrong! I would like to try teaming up with a melee fighter and a healer, cause I think you could get some serious xp from aiming at a monster's head with a rifle to try to keep it stunned. Things to try I guess.

So if you see a lone homin with a gun running away from a Kipee, don't worry. The Kipee is going down!

[blaah]

I've also noticed that, killing Kipees, if you shoot and run they can't catch up easily and you can still fire!

circle around outpost ruins/trees to gain some range and they never catch you

[matteo81]

Many games I know are dominated by range or magic because of the range element. They would always see of a melee because of the amount of dmg they can do from afar.

re: getting materials, think should leave as it is, afterall those who lvl melee / ele without doing harvest (thats me) have to buyitems from other people.

Perhap make the mags have more ammo?

I like the idea of a sniper rifle, being able to zoom in on mobs...or homins for that matter, hehe,

Perhaps when you go pvp or gvg your enemy disappers from your radar, this would make battles a lot more interesting and fun.

I could just imagine using a gun on someone from over a hill and them turning round thinking 'what the hell', hehe, or using speed to run and hide!

...they should pay us for our ideas