In patch 1, the bow started consuming stamina to fire a shot. Since the beginning of the game, the bow has looked like a joke. A one-handed offhand? One that uses the stats of a mainhand weapon. I think it’s time to make the bow a regular two-handed weapon with autoattack via the X button and four runes. And the ability to chant the same stats as other weapons, not just weight reduction
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Enemy AI cant really handle full ranged characters. Game becomes trivial now that bows got buffed.
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I don’t necessary see full on ranged becoming a part of this game. It seems they designed ranged options to be complementary to melee and I’m pretty satisfied with that, being a souls like. Can’t think of any other souls style game where you can just straight up rely on ranged, except for remnant I suppose, but that’s a straight up shooter and the roles are reversed where melee is extremely unreliable
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There are already a lot of full ranged players in the game. Patch 1 only made it easier to use the bow. But because of the fact that the shot from the bow is a rune there is a new bug that allows you to regenerate focus just by shooting. Plus new players who decide to try the bow have a lot of questions - they do not understand how the bow interacts with main hand weapons, which stats work and which do not. Gameplay nothing will change - just everything will become simpler and clearer
Enemy AI cant really handle AI now , the game is in Early Access , in 1 years time the game will hopefully change alot and maybe one of those changes will be better AI against ranged attacks if the devs decide to make it.
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I think there a lot of different and valid opinions on this matter. However I really love the fact, that you can finally play as a ranged character. Other “souls like” games implemented a bow, but it was so **** that no one (except challenge runners maybe) really used it.
I mean, why is there a bow if enemies just dodge and even if you hit, you deal so little damage, that you are just better of ignoring a complete weapon type!
So all in all, I love how bows are implemented. And btw. the crucible knight will dodge from time to time, you cannot stand still and simply shoot him as he will rush you down.
I have no strong feelings about two handing a bow, but it could be cool I guess. Would nerf it a bit, since you cannot melee anymore…
I think bow is pretty balanced in monster hunter!
They could change bow to use full stam on all its runes. Cone shot. Multi shot everything. Then when trying to make a bow build you’d have to allocate your stat points into stam instead of focus like every other build. And it’s balanced because you need stam to dodge and parry.
They could also add in cross bows with a quiver as an off hand and when you use the quiver off hand can change to different ammo types. Similar to bow gun in monster hunter world. So it’s balanced cause you have to farm for mats to make good ammo and or buy ammo.
In a 2D scenario, the “solution” is simpler, I think. Make the aim manual. That way, bow have high-risk high reward situation where it’s not just pressing a button to deal damage, but they have to actually aim, draw bow (in case it’s not a crossbow), and then release at the optimal time to deal maximum damage. But in a 3D situation, I’ve yet to find mechanics where using bow is a fulfilling experience that balances skill and reward. It’s either too easy (too easy to aim, high damage, low risk) or too hard (low damage, high cost, etc).
Same with some above, I don’t really have any suggestion that I’m sure will work, especially catered to this game in particular. But I do have some suggestion despite still not sure how this will work.
- Bow should uses arrow. It makes people not use it as they wish. But make it easy enough to craft. Perhaps with 1 iron ore + 1 pine wood => 10 arrows. This would open up more customization where instead of enchanted bow, you could enchant the arrow instead. Also make used arrow pick-able from the ground if it’s not broken. Don’t remove the stamina cost but make it smaller. Perhaps there could be a skill to craft pure magic arrows based on int, so there will be magical archer without physical arrows.
- instead of a dot crosshair, make the crosshair more of a circle that gets smaller. The longer you draw on the bow, the smaller it gets. Smaller crosshair => bigger damage / full enchant.
- Make enemies aware of the arrow, so they can dodge accordingly. Arrow shot from behind them will have bigger chance to hit.
- Make rune to facilitate bow play style rather than plain damaging rune. For example being invisible until the bow was shot, grappling bow to get between places, etc.
I believe most of these problems is because NRFTW is at its core, a melee-focused game. But I’m glad that ranged battle gets attention like this because it has so many potential. Ammo, throwables, guns, manual aim, etc.
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I went through Dark Souls 2 and 3 as a magician
There is a crossbow model in the game files