Arrows - my only massive complaint

That’s the way I’d fix it…

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I can get the idea of them being somewhat oversized to be able to easily identify them when you’re being attacked but that’s too much.
And at the very least, they should make proper contact with their targets and fly at a normal pace. How could they showcase this publicly as advertising material?

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Look at the way they stick on the soldier, its absurd.

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EDIT: I was too absorbed watching the arrows and didn’t notice that in this exact scene the red soldier is just attacking the air :smiley: with his opponent (blue) being a few levels below him in the wall’s debri, seemingly stuck

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I think we need to take into account that the gameplay zoomed in, no one I know that plays age has their view that zoomed in.

I noticed one section that went for less than 2 seconds that represented the approximate zoom %.

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Lol that castle has a MG42 trhowing arrows jaja

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I seriously hope this gets fixed. AoM or aoe3 arrows are perfectly fine. They should get inspired from these.

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I really hope to, i like the overall, but the arrows boder me alot

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I think I am not the only one that complains about the arrows in the extended game play showed fews days ago. I suggest that there should have an option to changes between a regular arrows and the new ones on AoE 4

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In age of empires 3 all types of projectiles look very natural.

Glad there’s a dedicated thread for this,
There’s a few good vids on youtube where people do some indepth analysis into whats going on with the arrows, including game designers.

As someone who is a hobbiest game-maker , the question of why the arrows don’t follow conventional physics is extremely interesting. I am almost certain the devs know that the arrows look weird in the game-play trailer at many of the angles they were recorded from.

No one I’ve seen has pointed out that the Nest of Bees (the chinese seige weapon) actually has a perfectly smooth arc of fire. I’m convinced the reason it looks fantastic here is because it doesn’t shoot arrow objects, and instead just generates an aoe effect where its targetted. In contrast the arrows that are shot may have some complicated physics to make them both deterministic (very important for game-balance and multiplayer syncing) but also as arrow-like as possible, and as cheap to calculate as possible.

I would like to see more communication from the devs as to the reasons behind these things - especially given the relatively large amount of community back-lash around the arrows in particular.

It may be that they are prioritising something they thought was more important but doesn’t reflect the majority of the communities wants, or it may be they are doing something perfectly reasonable and this is just the result, and the trade-off is actually worth it from a mechanics perspective. Without more information its hard to know rather than say … the arrows don’t look right.

tl:dr, the devs know how to make arrows everyone, look at the flight path for the streaks in the the nest of bees. Something else for single arrow flight paths is complicating this. It would be nice to have even just a dev-log in response to community concerns?

Personally I think AOM has the best arrows - they’re less noticeable - darker in colour, and have a beautiful high arc, they appear smoother than the aoe3 arrows in comparison which move a lot faster.

I would say AOE3 have more a realistic flightpath and speed, but there’s something cinematic about the ‘volley’ you see in aom, (aoe2 has a high arc too, but 2D game so is a bit difficult to compare mechanically)

High Arcing arrows feel better for the player imo?

regarding your comment re the stuck and air hit, If you look carefully, whenever a wall breaks the rubble makes very obvious ramp. and unit appear to be able to walk up and down it. He’s attacking the air above the other unit for sure, but you get the same issue on any hill (which is what the ramp in the wall has become - a steep hill).

I think its neat that to get onto the wall you can break a gatehouse (or perhaps anywhere) along it and walk on up… sounds like it gives alternatives to seige towers depending on circumstances

‘this footage was taken months ago and has improved since then (including arrow size and arc)’

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Thanks for sharing this, nice find

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Arrows are now laser beams :grinning:
I’m secretly hoping for a mod now, for that real authentic experience.

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Never been a huge fan of arrows in AoM, they feel a bit “sloppy” and lacks punch. You don’t get that sense of deadly razor sharp “needles” being launched from draw weight. Though a lot of this may be down to the lack of clear keyframes in the archer firing animation, and maybe the sound design too, rather than the arrows themselves.

This is what arrows are supposed to look like.

image

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did they fix it? I mean its almost release date and still feels like a auto-tracking ballistic missile. its so annoying can’t ignore this bs

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They still fire with 100% accuracy, with high arcs instead of relatively direct ones like in Age 2. Ships fire the same, but the cannonballs actually go very much in a straight line.

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almost forgot yes 100% accuracy is another bs. maximum historically accurate my as* xD

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arrows are better even if the disappear straight on impact. The yucky static animation while everything else is moving is what ruins it. There i s no way at all to make an arrow that stays in the target look good.

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