Archery Blog 4I'm starting to get better at this concept of firing a non-explosive missile via wood and string with intensive projection calculations into non-moving targets and then pursuing the target to retrieve the reusable non-explosive missile fired via wood and string. Blah. Hoshposh. Books are not the way to go with archery.Archery is much easier than a person may perceive it to be. 4 weeks ago, I purchased my bow with intentions on getting a better understanding of marksmanship. So far I've come to realize the following:- Without strength, you can not be a good archer. So for all the video games out there that have user controlled stat builds, the common "pure dex, or all dex" builds are unrealistic. In order to be a good archer, you must have the strength and be able to sustain the strain presented by the bow string. Especially with repetition. If archers could constant shoot their arrows for hours at a time (an arrow every few seconds) they would have arms comparable to the incredible Hulk. - Archery is not all strength. You do need accuracy. But so many things contribute to accuracy. Every breath you take moves your body. Your fingers and arms are in constant motion (hold them in front of your face and observe). The weight of the bow puts a strain on your arm. Your arm bobs up and down as you try to keep it steady. Even without something in your hand. (Try to extend your arm and hold it straight out in front of you without moving your hand.) Do you know exactly what the word dexterity means? Below I've listed definitions according to many sources found on the internet.Dexterity (n.)- skill or adroitness in using the body or esp. the hands.- mental adroitness or skill; cleverness.Dexterity, manual dexterity, sleight(noun)- adroitness in using the handsDexterity(noun)- right-handednessDexterity(noun)- readiness and grace in physical activity; skill and ease in using the hands; expertness in manual acts; as, dexterity with the chiselDexterity(noun)- readiness in the use or control of the mental powers; quickness and skill in managing any complicated or difficult affair; adroitnessBased on the word, Dexterity, is directly related to skill with the hands and a person's level of control with the hands. How does this effect an archer in a video game? Well, based on my notes about body parts always moving, breathing throwing you off, physical strain on the arms, etc… A person with great control can compensate for these side effects. For example, with breathing, taking a deep breath or exhaling everything before you aim takes away the rising and falling of your upper body.If you know you have a hard time keeping something steady, you can always build strength to balance the forces out. But you can also use motion prediction to your advantage. Take lining up an arrow with your target. Your arrow will most likely bob up and down as you try your best to keep it straight. In order to get it right on the bullseye, you must predict right when the arrow will line up with that target and release it. It's skills like this that make an archer "better" without having more "strength". Call it technique.So dexterity in a video game should be the result of form and technique of the action being done. Both strength and dexterity impact accuracy in a real life situation. This explains their presence in rpg's today. But the idea of a person having all dexterity and out performing a person whose strength to dexterity ratio is more balanced is flawed. Most games will have a system that increases a person's attack or damage greatly with dexterity points and much less with strength points. This influences people to make such skill builds. An archer's strength of their attack should depend on two things. The force of the arrow, and the location of impact. The force depends on the strength of the bow (it's drawing weight) which will propel the arrow with a force directly related to the bow's rebound force and the weight of the arrow. F=MV. An arrow to the knee is not as likely to be as deadly as an arrow to the heart.Video games introduced "critical hits". You know why? This is their way of creating a some what realistic effect. For example a situation where your character shot an enemy in a vital spot and critically injured them. The problem is, you have no control over that. To make things better, video games typically increase your "chance" of a critical hit as you increase your "dexterity". More control with your hands = better accuracy = more likely hood of a critical hit.Having Strength and Dexterity "buffs" on equips do not make sense either. A bow does not suddenly make you better at holding and aiming with it. Nor does it make you stronger. Accessories on a bow make it easier to aim, but most video games only make use of traditional recurve bows. Not modern compact bows. So yea, those are some things I have questioned and answered through first-hand experience with archery. If I made a game with realistic archery, you would either love it or absolutely hate the technical parts of it.TL;DR: racecar
I read your blog backwards and something extraordinary happened - it said the same thing.
No but it is interesting. Videogames are terrible at simulating anything that requires physical finesse or exertion. Which is most things, as it turns out.I feel like a revolution in gaming will come and games will follow a path that includes more user interaction in the actions done by their characters. At least that's what I'm hoping. I'll be pushing for this. It'll develop a person's gaming skills to a new level and teach them more about the person representing themselves in the game. Rather than spamming an attack button, people should be more aware of everything that is really going on. HP bars, Stat Boosts, and the like are just a bunch of limited numbers. Where's the skill?
Cool photo. Good blog.
Yeah, it's your photo that reminded me about bracers. What I meant is that it's a tolerable item if you need something which buffs video game archery skills, even if it translates as something "cheap" like added damage rather than something more realistic like… Iunno, decreased stamina depletion from shooting?
I'm developing a system for my next game that allows the user to get better at individual skills through practice. It will depend on muscle memory of the movements needed to do a skill, and the condition of the body itself. Through practice you become stronger and quicker at what you are trying to accomplish. And if your body is becoming more fine tuned towards particular movements, then related skills would benefit from what you are doing.
Does it make sense that in some games you can sit back and shoot an enemy endlessly for hours (grinding) and with each level up you can increase stats such as your speed, intelligence, luck, vitality, and other factors that were unrelated to what you were doing? Not to me. I feel like the only "stats" a person should gain is the areas that were worked. If you're an archer that's drawing arrows repeatedly, it only makes sense that your skill at drawing arrows increases after time without point distribution. If you're constantly drawing back your bow and you upgrade to bows that are harder to pull back over time, then yes you may increase your strength stats because you've worked for a strength boost. Physically. Walking/Running/Dodging ability should rely on the user's physical state and reaction time. Not a helmet or pair of boots that give you a +10 speed and avoid boost. The boots are debatable. Comfort and restriction of the leg movements are factors in that.I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, but with my experiences with archery, I'm planning a much more sophisticated system of combat. Hope to put my ideas and theory into code eventually. I feel a person's character should be the result of the end user's efforts. Entirely.Take my avatar for example. This did not happen due to her making it to lvl 20. She was able to accomplish such a skill due to practicing the skill and developing the strength and coordination needed to accomplish it.The problem with grinding systems is that they will always be grinding systems, regardless of how complicated they are. They're based on suffering through tedium to gain rewards. If you make it more complicated, there are just more things to grind. The tedium becomes even more frustrating, yet the reward remains the same - you eventually get better at shooting bows.
Now perhaps it will be more realistic, or interesting, or educational, but it won't be any more fun.Game designers have realised this in recent years. Rather than making stats more complicated, they've been going in the opposite direction. Stats have been minimalised in favour of perks, which afford more strategic thinking. "Leveling up" now plays slave to character development and increasing strategic complexity, rather than the other way around. A good game is equal parts strategy and skill, and keeps grinding to a minimum. So yes to the good combat system, no to the complicated stats. But you won't have a good archery game until you have a good bow peripheral or more sophisticated motion sensing than is currently available combined with some serious haptic feedback. The strength required to use a bow is too important.Same goes for melee.