What are ranged fighters supposed to do now?

[shenan]

Ammo crafting was pretty bad before the patch, but this is hands down absurd... It literally takes me over half an hour to craft enough ammo for one *minute* of fighting now, nevermind how much harder the mobs are.

Oh, and crafting missions now give ONE TENTH the cash they used to, so its not like I can make a profit off that to buy mats for ammo crafting anymore either.

This sucks.

[kamagi]

Patience is the key thing here I think - Devs will adress ranged combat in patch 3.0 in a few months.
They will balance things for ranged combatabts by nerfing every other combat skill till its as bad as ranged combat - that way everyone will be happy.

[syneris]

?! have you tried doing any ranged crafting since patch 1? My rifle ammo is only 4 mats as opposed to the 9 it was before AND it gives a full 24 clip instead of just 15. Dmg is the same but thats fine with the new lower hp mobs. You can shot while running away so ranged fighters should be loving the changes made! If the issues you have a problem with are getting the mats to craft the ammo then that has nothing to do with ranged fight and rather is a complaint on the harvesting changes. Harvesting is going to be changed again to produce more mats and relieve some of the stress of focus. Did you read more mats? So you will be able to have lots and lots more ammo since it takes less mats to craft and more mats will be harvested with the next patch (probably not patch2 next patch but a hotfix type patch).

[tetra]

You can shot while running away so ranged fighters should be loving the changes made!
that works otu to like one extra hit dude... so two... maybe three shots before the mob comes and starts pasting you. Not to mention that hit is pathetic compared to any other type of attack.

If the issues you have a problem with are getting the mats to craft the ammo then that has nothing to do with ranged fight and rather is a complaint on the harvesting changes.
it has everything to do with it. You don't see fighters and mages collecting mats for hours so they can fight for minutes.

Harvesting is going to be changed again to produce more mats and relieve some of the stress of focus.
and keeping ranged usable (i.e. with ammo) takes exponentially more mats per day/week of playing than keeping a melee/mage weapon or armor. It takes 26 mats to make an entire suit of heavy armor, assuming you are right about the mat change then it takes the same amount of mats to create 155 shots of ammo. Go fight a mob and see how many times you have to attack it to kill it, now immagine if your damage was 50-25% or worse.

[mordred3]

The real problem with ranged fighting is all you can do is sit there and use default attack. I haven't been able to test the "aim" shots since the patch, but they were broken pre-patch.

Also there seems to be no real damage advantedge over magic/melee using ranged weapons, and "range" in this game is a very very small advantedge since everything closes with you after 1-2 shots at most.

So I'm left wondering why use ranged. Now I am happy with the changes they've made, but it's still a rather dull and lifeless skill line.


I can out damage my autolauncher/launcher with area bomb spells and I can out damage my rifle with pretty much..everything.

Then again, I realize ranged combat is probably on the bottom list of things to worry about for devs. I just wish it were a little more.. fun?

[gatineau]

Seems to me that tetra's main point is that a supposedly viable part of the game simply lacks fun. Having played many years of MMORPGs, I do realize that patience is required. But having to wait months for any hope of improvement, while we merrily pay our monthly dues, is simply unacceptable.

Since tetra (and many others of us) are still playing Ryzom, I think it is safe to say that we see many good and positive things about the game. I certainly do. But this new 'direction' that Nevrax seems to be taking has me rather concerned.

I have done a fair amount of computer programming, and am aware of many of the challenges. But ... game developers really need to ask themselves ever day ... is this game FUN?

I keep hoping that the MMORPG gendre will start to mature ... silly me.

[gatineau]

Just a wild guess, but is it safe to assume that my plans for a ranged combat character should stay on hold? :)

[mordred3]

Just a wild guess, but is it safe to assume that my plans for a ranged combat character should stay on hold? :)


Yeah. It's not a completley broken skill, but there is no real benefit or advantedge to going ranged. Nothing really stands out except you get neat looking guns.

[stellus]

I'm actually getting my Range up as high as I can so when it is fixed, I'm all ready to go =) Rumors of major Range overhaul in patch 2 or 3. We still don't know much about range. It's been unfinished it seems.

[mordred3]

I'm actually getting my Range up as high as I can so when it is fixed, I'm all ready to go =) Rumors of major Range overhaul in patch 2 or 3. We still don't know much about range. It's been unfinished it seems.


Patch 2-3? That's what. 5 months away? =)

[usinuk]

Just a wild guess, but is it safe to assume that my plans for a ranged combat character should stay on hold? :)

Well, I for one at least appreciate the fact that one of the four legs of the ammo fix have been implemented, even if its the least important.

Going from 4/3/2 to 2/1/1 for all ammo crafting helps a lot. Second, reducing ammo type requirements from 100 sps per ammo type to 40 sps per ammo type will allow me to buy a couple more types. Third, wondermats available up to q100 means I will now start making higher quality ammo.

The problem is that the DPS (damage per second) of mobs has gone up significantly versus the DPS of a range weapon type. If you have plenty of HPs, life got a lot easier. If you don't you're in real trouble.

Now we need work on distance, ranged skills, and damage. I'm not optimistic about that, but I'll take the fixes I can get.

[mikwana]

Ranged is great now. I thought it was okay before, but now with the lowered mat requirement, and lowered HP on mobs, it's fantastic.

The damage is easily comparable to other forms of attack. at level 35 ranged, the ammo I'm using does 106 (rifle). That's pretty much comparable to melee or magic. Killing Scampering yubo's takes 4 shots, gives 1400 xp.

As for harvesting for an hour to hunt 5 minutes, then you don't know where you are harvesting. it only takes 4 mats. One explosive, one bullet, 2 lining. That's only 4 harvesting actions, at most. Those who pull 4 or 5 per action can make masses of bullets fast, as long as you know where the mats are.

As for actions, Aiming and Accurate attack both work fine with it.

Ranged works, but just like melee, using basic mats it's not going to be great.

As for a mob catching up to you, enchant (or have it enchanted) your gun with fear (doesn't work well on izams, by the way), after two shot, click fear, shoot twice more, fear, etc. easy, dead animal.