Some assistance on ranged weapons, pls?

[sylvanos]

Hello guys,

I did a forum search regarding distinctions between pistols, bowpistols and bowrifles, but my results turned up a few old (like, beta-old, i'm pretty sure) threads and that's about it.

what IS the difference? the lore (read: item descriptions) don't give any insight as to the capabilities of each individual weapons, and from reading previous posts, the ranged tree is being reworked? Would i expect rifles to operate at long distances and at higher damage than bowpistols? And, what IS a bowpistol? (i'm imagining a high-tech crossbow ala chewbacca's as in star wars)

This wouldn't be a problem if i was just buying a rifle/bowpistol, but i'm a crafter primarily, and i role-play a crafter. At lower levels, i am still limited by a lack of sp, so i want to choose a crafting plan that will actually suit my purposes.

Could anyone give a brief rundown of the main differences please? That would be a great help, and much appreciated.

Cheers =)

PS> so has the ranged skill tree been reworked yet, or is that still to come? and what will happen to the people who have already invested in that tree? do they get their points refunded and the ability to choose again?
- - -
Mysstri - (still in zorai starter island )

[mmatto]

Hi Mysstri,

I would refrain from going too far in ranged tree unless you really like doing that. Its quite funny to do sometimes

Main problem currently is that benefits of ranged do not outweight the ammo requirement. Also, elemental magic damage is much higher at later levels without any ammo requirement. Although elemental has other limitations (credit cost, light armor, disrupted incantations...), general feelig is that ranged is too weak compared to elemental. Rework is due after outpost implementation, so it is not done yet. I don't know about skill points refunds.

Bowweapons do not have much difference normal versions. Bowammo just uses much more mats to build. However, bowweapons can use ammo from normal versions.

I like to use bowrifle with rifle ammo, because I like bowrifle graphics Rifles are best ranged weapons if you consider inflicted damage to weight/bulk and cost of ammo.

Pistol shoots faster than rifle but has lower damage and range.

Launchers and autolaunchers are siege weapons that has highest damage potential for multiple targets but ammo is very expensive and you can't carry many rounds. Not that usable in normal situations.

I don't know rationale for bowweapons, my guess goes for underwater combat. There is some other hints towards underwater combat like specification "land kitin" in aim stanzas and picture of a whale like animal in Ryzom web pages.

Mikos - Abyss Eye, Diljoleth, Beanna

[norvic]

What Mikos says is pretty accurate, ranged is my main skill but you gotta be abit nuts to do it because its very hard work compared to melee or Spell chucking.

Have been many mentions of a re-work to range fight but except for the rapid fire brick nothing has been forthcoming yet.

If you nutty enough to join the select band of rangefighters out there i would recommend the Rifle as the everyday workhorse weapon of choice

[walls124]

Well my vote is allso the riffel. The pistol is faster. But the shorter range and doing less damage (You need even more ammo) Means that the riffel gets to be everyones choice. the riffelammo gives the highest damage per shoot for the mats you need to craft it. Didn't know you could use riffel ammo in bowriffels ??? But if so... Why not. The damage they deal are the same after all or so I supect.

Besides if I remember right the autolauncher and launcher are first accessibel at lvl 50. But where you can carry 1000 bullets for a riffel you will only be abel to take 18 / 6 whit autolauncher/launcher. If you strip down you might be abel to bring more. But that is often only enough for one kill.

[asyne]

I would refrain from going too far in ranged tree unless you really like doing that.

ranged is too weak compared to elemental

Okay, that is one of the faults of ranged fighting. But, consider this: ranged weapons can be fired while moving with no penalty, and have a longer range than magic. Therefore, a dedicated range fighter dueling with a magician of equal level would be able to easily win, as the mage could not keep the gunner in range long enough to pop off a spell.

Bowweapons do not have much difference normal versions. Bowammo just uses much more mats to build. However, bowweapons can use ammo from normal versions.

I've been just as confused with the differences in the weapons, but there is a difference. I did some testing, using identical mats and stanzas to craft a bowrifle, a rifle, bowrifle slashing ammo, and rifle slashing ammo.
Attacking a yubo, here were the results: rifle + rifle ammo = 146 dmg.; bowrifle + rifle ammo = 146 dmg.; rifle + bowrifle ammo = 145 dmg.; bowrifle + bowrifle ammo = 147 dmg.

Now, this was all q60 gear, and I am not very high in ranged, so I believe that the difference will increase with range level and item quality. Also - and this is only a hypothesis - I believe that the high level speed stanzas for range allow the range fighter to fire signficantly faster than a mage. And, if you ask any melee fighter, speed is one of the most important things, as an increase in speed kicks up the total damage per minute much more than an increase in damage of the same level.

And as for the ammo, that can be a problem. Getting good at crafting and harvesting can offset that, but it one of those things where what you put into it is what you get out. If you spend time keeping range craft up with your range fight and can harvest the mats you need by yourself, all those skills lock together.

[roninpvp]

Okay, that is one of the faults of ranged fighting. But, consider this: ranged weapons can be fired while moving with no penalty, and have a longer range than magic. Therefore, a dedicated range fighter dueling with a magician of equal level would be able to easily win, as the mage could not keep the gunner in range long enough to pop off a spell.

Mage spells can have range up to 50 meters. Very difficult to find/make range weapons with good "range". Kinda hard to beat that

[akicks]

Mage spells can have range up to 50 meters. Very difficult to find/make range weapons with good "range". Kinda hard to beat that

*coughs*
52m-range (try it)
*coughs*

[drizzeth]

Mage spells can have range up to 50 meters. Very difficult to find/make range weapons with good "range". Kinda hard to beat that

Exactly mage spells have a 50m range, rifles have a 40m range, i see a gap of 10 meters

Besides, what is 10 meters (even if range had the advantage) if a level 250 mage cast 3k damage on you and you hit the guy for 496 dmg a shot roflol

Im a Master Rifleman, i craft ranged on q240, calculated what q250 would be , been a while, 496 could be off a bit but i think i recall that was to be q250 100% dmg. Could be even only 469 dmg, im in doubt now lol.

[sylvanos]

So is ~50m the general max range for all ranged attacks, both magic-based and physical?

And if on l250 one expects to do 500 damage, when mages can nuke out 3k, then i guees my next question would be, how LONG did you spend getting your ranged up to l240? =P. If ranged weapons can fire faster than spells, then with an aimed head attack (stun), would that be what most riflemen do? To offset lesser damage, that is.

Thx for your input guys; its been invaluable =)

- - -
Mysstri, Zorai
Mimikai (alt) Zorai
Socianne (alt) Tryker

[mmatto]

@asyne

In PvP ranged role is in skirmishing, using their mobility to advantage and attacking weaker opponents such as mages disrupting them and dealing some damage when opposing armies are still moving to contact. I agree that ranged could be theoretically used effectively in that role after some more PvP balancing like proposed healing nerf.

However, I think that 1-2 point damage differences between bow and normal weapons are due to roundings in formulas, these ammos and weapons use different composition of mats after all. So, I think they do not grow more significant at later levels.

@sylvanos

Training ranged is not slower than other skills except what it takes to dig ammo mats although this will make significant difference making it many times slower.

In team you still get xp at same rate with rest of people, but you have to get more ammo after a while. Soloing ranged is easiest of all combat skills as you can take full advantage of run&shoot tactics. However, you have to deal all damage to mob with ranged and this uses lots of ammo. You can use magic enchantments in your weapon to help as that won't affect your xp distribution.

Efficiency of aimed shot is reduced by low chance of critical hit that is required for stun effect. Last dev feedback threads mentioned something about increasing chances of critical strikes for melee but I would suppose that same increase will benefit ranged also.

EDIT: about 50m is max for both ranged and elemental. Elemental has to make sacrfices to get that long distance as credit cost for double missile spell is high. In duel ranged fighter can move around 49-51m distance to mage, each time he gets past spell range, mage spell is disrupted and mage has to start new incantation I haven't really tested this, but I suppose it works like that as Synae suggested.