Now, don't get me wrong, I like that patch, and the work that was done here is simply incredible ! New chars look gorgeous, the rags too, and the "You sons of sluts" stuff is nice too (as a taunt !). Great job !
Yes, I know I've been doing a lot of rambling these days. People may call me a whiner, or someone that doesn't know shit about game designs, and tell me that I'm just a player.. But still, I like being the guy that points out what is bad in his opinion, I like expressing my thoughts, and as one of the oldest members of this community (I know, far from the oldest, but still, pretty old), I feel I deserved to be listened too.
Now, to the rambling part.
DISCLAIMER : I KNOW, I know.. "This is a GAME !!" like some people told me. But still, I do not see things so simply. For me, realism (to a degree, yes, but to a much higher one than anyone might think) is something that can exist in a game and make it better, and more importantly, IMMERSIVE. And that's the whole subject of this lil' rambling.
If you absolutely disagree with the fact that I MAY be right saying that, and feel you can really not be convinced otherwise, then I suggest you do not waste your time reading this. As for the others, I will try to make it as clear as possible
This rambling mainly concerns the new archery abilities, and the general direction the game is taking towards actual realism and historical accuracy (of mechanics, I mean. I know this is another world blablabla..).
So, as you guys may know, there are 4 new BIG ranged combat abilities in the game, that should make it even easier to take people out from afar (because it wasn't easy enough already..).
So, first thing first, I'll talk about the new Bow abilities. Arrow to the knee, and the volley. Both of them make NO sense to me.
Arrow to the knee.. this one is just hilarious. I mean it, I really like the reference to skyrim, and it works well, as far as I tested it. For starters, this ability, when triggered, will make the next shot slow the target you hit down by 10%, and 50% if you hit the legs.
And.. I just don't understand the whole logic. Imagine you get an arrow in your leg. You would be slowed down, right ? Now imagine you notice the guy is a very bad archer, so, in the game he wouldn't have the ability.. would it be a reason why you would just stand back up and say "Ha ! You're so bad at archery, I don't feel this arrow stuck in my leg ! I shall now run towards the sunshine like a rabbit !".
That's what I don't like. It could be a LOT more immersive that you would be slowed down by.. any wound to the legs, including arrows. It would also make a lot more sense. And then what prevents the archers and crossbowmen from just going for the legs to slow you down continually ? ARMOR ! A few plates and with a bit of luck, arrow or bolt won't penetrate far enough, or at all, to wound you to the point of slowing you down.
Okay, so that's what I think about arrow in the knee. Now, what about volley ? .. Omg, volley. Really guys ? In World of Warcraft, it's okay, because it's not middle ages, there's magic.. it's fine.
But, in a game whose keyword is "realism", and that means, for a part, "immersion", it's simply unnacceptable to me. Let's say you're an archer by yourself.. why not shoot straight towards the enemy ? Why just start shooting in the air and hope the arrows land in time, and on their targets ? I did not test arrow volley because none of us has skill for it, but as far as I know, you just start shooting in the air and the arrows land where you aim in a "volley".
Again.. DIS MAKES NO SENSE ! A volley is something SQUADS / UNITS / PLATOONS of archers would use to demoralize the enemy, by suddenly killing a lot of them. Could also be used to better control the amunitions, when defending castle walls for example. That's IT. There would be NO reason, and it would be against common sense, to fire a volley of arrows by yourself.
Now, an easy way to suddenly make it a lot more realistic and immersive, would be to make it a squad wide ability. Basically, if you are leader, you could designate a target zone, and, provided you got a bow and ammo, you and all archers in your formation shape would fire at the same time towards that target zone. That would be AWESOME, and super epic for archers in large battles, in MMO. Think about it !
Now, let's go to the new crossbow abilities.. "Stoping power" and "Piercing projectile" or someting like that.
"Stopping power", for starters, is an ability that, when trigerred, will make the next bolt stun whatever it hits for one second.
Now, that's the one ability that for me makes the most sense (out of the 4 you implemented I mean). Yes, if you get pierced by a bolt, it's rare that you will just continue running. You will pause for a sec because of the sudden pain. But right now it seems to work no matter what, even against armored opponents.
This goes back to my thread about armors, and how arrows and bolts were not that effective against heavy armors like plate. So, if I may again suggest a change, make it more or less effective depending on how much the bolt actually penetrated. If it just glanced off, and did no damage, or very little, then no stun. But if it fully penetrated someone, make it stun for like 4 seconds, or even make the guy fall if it penetrates the legs heavily. That would be, again, more realistic, more immersive, and more epic in some cases
And finally, the fourth ability, "Piercing bolt" or I don't remember what the name is. Basically, it makes your next bolt be able to go through up to 3 players in a line.
And this one.. this one. Even the other abilities I'm more happy about them, because it is HUMANELY possible you might achieve it.
But, this one.. no. NO. NEVER, EVER would a bolt hurt more than one target. And even if it does go through the guy and keeps flying on the other side, which would already be incredibly rare, it would never have enough force to really be any threat. This one simply makes no sense. In my humble opinion, no way you could keep it, and still call ranged combat "somewhat realistic / immersive / whatever".
That's pretty much it. What I think about the ranged abilities, and how, again, in my humble opinion, they could be "fixed" (more like "changed") into something a lot more realistic and immersive.
I know, I can not tell Bobik how to do his job as a game designer. But when you call your game "realistic" (I will keep saying that until you remove the keyword "realism" from the frontpage of this website and from steam), you should not go against it. In the contrary, going in the direction of what I call "fun realism", that means, "realism without the boring life stuff like having to sleep, do long, boring things, etc.." will make this game simply ground-breaking, and I believe, a HIT in the MMO, and video game industry.
Oh, yes, as for the war cries.. I don't know, really. It seems wierd to me to implement "fear" in combat where player skill is the biggest factor. Maybe make the effectiveness of other's war cries and yours on others depend on your and your target's willpower ? Would be nice, because right now Willpower has no effect in combat, and thus, combat characters have very low willpower, which seems.. wierd.
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Now, I didn't want to create a new thread for that, but I'd also like to talk about the general view on "realism" in this game, but also in general, in the video game design world.
What I don't understand, for LiF, is that, so far, they have blindly followed ALL of the common myths invented by Hollywood movies in the 20th century : Plate armor being easily pierceable, just not slashable, "Chainmail" instead of "Mail", the existence of 100% leather armors, or studded leathers (those were NOT studs alone, but studs to fix plate armors to the leather, which were on the INSIDE of the so-called "studded leather"), axes breaking shields a lot easier than swords, or swords being primary weapons on the medieval battlefield.. the list goes long.
Why not try to break those myths and make a very original game ? No one has even tryed it before, so you can't say it would make something unbalanced / not funny right away. There are ways around such problems other than "make the whole thing full of myths".
That's it, that's the debate I want to start here.
Hopefully you guys took the time to read all of this, and for that, I thank you ! <3
Thanks mate 
-)
At least the name of it.
