No Arc in Archery: Difference between revisions
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If the arrow is shown in a close up or slow-motion, it will always travel straight as, well, an arrow. Real arrows don't: they bend back and forth and also spin, the direction determined by the angle of the fletching (the feathers at the end of the arrow, though most are now plastic). This is often also ignored because the trope tends to occur when trying to emphasize [[The Archer]] ideal; wobbles and arcs that make the [[Arrow Cam]] face up at the blank sky don't help that. Contrast that with [[Rain of Arrows]] where this trope will be averted with gusto when fired by a large faceless military unit and where it is now cool to obey the laws of physics. It also gets averted a lot in [[Video Games]] due to the fact that the player is the one firing the arrow and the technique of arcing is used as a skill challenge and to make the player feel personally competent.
Just as other tropes have transferred from the [[The Archer]] to the [[Cold Sniper]], we find this can happen for firearms. For firearms, the sight is calibrated for a specific distance, 200 meters for an assault rifle, for instance. At distances up to this (ammunition-specific) limit, the deviation of the bullets path from the straight scope-line-of-sight is less than about 5
Like firearms, arrows suffer from dispersion, which is to say that the exact same weapon firing the same ammunition with the same aim will land the arrow in a slightly different place. Dispersion is often much greater in archery (especially the preindustrial kind), due to greater variation from shot to shot in the bow, the arrow, the bowstring, and the draw of the bow.
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** Lampshaded beautifully during Kevin Smith's run on the comic; Ollie, after pulling out the last arrow in his quiver, and sees it's the boxing glove arrow: "Oh. You again."
** This is a guy who can put an arrow through a ''submarine hull''. Given that, it's not impossible that a heavier boxing glove arrow would act like a normal arrow anyway.
** Also [[Lampshaded]] in [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Justice League of America|JLA]]'', where Ollie's son, a Zen Archer who uses pointed arrows, grabs his dad's quiver from the League trophy room and reflects that only a genius or madman could have used the [[Trick Arrow
* Reversed in a recent ''Punisher'' comic. Frank Castle is targeted by a Skrull sniper using a laser weapon to shoot at him from over a kilometer away. Although a laser would be capable of moving in a straight line, the artist draws the beams striking at a severe angle. Grade-school geometry demonstrates the angle of the beams is not consistent with the distances described. If drawn accurately, the beams would appear almost parallel to the ground.
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** Partially. The trick was more that the bow had an incredibly high pull strength that only Odysseus could achieve. Since the finale of the story takes place within the courtyard of his house, between the really short range and the initial speed the arrow is getting launched, there might have been very little arc to be an issue. 'Course... this is a myth and most heroes tend to break all sorts of rules to begin with...
** Some interpretations have it that there was a trick to stringing it that no-one else could figure out, his defining feature being clever thinking (although prone to not thinking things out thoroughly...), not physical strength. This would imply the shot was set up with a trick to it.
** The stringing trick has echoes in real
== Video Games ==
* Early first person shooters with fantasy weapons, such as ''[[Heretic]]'' and ''[[Hexen]]'', avoided gravity effects entirely; the fights took place at such close range that the computations involved were generally not worth the processing time. Besides, you were firing ''magic arrows''.
* The vast majority of gun-using [[First-Person Shooter
* ''[[Bloodline Champions]]'' averts this for the Seeker... [[Short-Range Long-Range Weapon|because the arrows disappear after a short range before gravity would be noticeable]]. Other examples tends to be played more straight in it.
* In ''[[Dark Messiah of Might and Magic|Dark Messiah]]'' the arrows DO have arcs, though it's not as pronounced as in real life. However, one rarely notices this because if they're using the bow and arrow at all, most of the time they're sniping or otherwise close enough that the arc never comes into play. If you try to fire from a reasonable distance, you will become aware that your arrows do not travel in a straight line - often at the same time you realize that you missed and your arrow attracted the guard's attention. Ouch.
* In ''[[Warhammer Online]]'' archers always shoot at around a 30-degree angle, even in close combat(from about
* ''[[Warcraft]] III'' archers always shoot at an angle. At a .15 angle, apparently...you can change it to 0 in the World Editor, or you increase the arc to truly ridiculous levels, so that if an enemy is attacking the archers in melee, and your camera is above them, the arrows are practically saying hi to you through the screen before going back down...
* A somewhat smallish plot point in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: [[Fire Emblem Tellius|Radiant Dawn]]'', where Shinon/Rolf has to do ''~The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly~'' and shoot the rope to prevent someone's hanging with an arrow (which is even more implausible with an arrow), and when he shoots the arrow, it goes completely straight. Though the angle he was at was above the target, he was aiming down at it, so the arrow would effectively hit the person being hanged rather than the rope.
** This is a series where archers can ''shoot through walls'' when dealing with enemies inside buildings. The animations typically has them firing straight and level. (Someone on a ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' fan forum explained the shooting through walls as [[Epileptic Trees|being able to create wrinkles in the space time continuum so that the wall seems to vanish long enough for the arrows to go through]].)
** An aversion of this trope with conventional bows in any ''Fire Emblem'' game has occurred exactly once and just as a discussion. [[Fire Emblem:
** Whenever a ballista is animated in a game, its shots actually do arc.
* Averted in ''[[Half Life]] 2'', with the improvised crossbow bolts obeying the laws of gravity, but not so much in the original [[Half Life]].
** But played noticeably straight in the original with the bullsquid's acid spittle, which moves somewhere around 40 MPH and can sometimes be seen traveling hundreds of feet. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the crossbow plays it straight as well.
* Link always fires straight. Interestingly enough, he fires his arrows in an arc in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].''
** Averted in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]''. The arrows actually ''do'' arc (though, granted, they never come back down). Bombs fired from your cannon while sailing also arc.
** Averted again in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'': Arrows fired by Link or by Bulbins do arc, though Link's take a longer time to do so (presumably Link has a stronger shot). Incidentally, Bomb Arrows also arc, but they fly slower and fall sooner than standard arrows (they do have significantly larger arrowheads).
*** Also averted by the slingshot in ''Twilight Princess'', and it arcs much, much faster than the bow does. A skilled player can still make sniper-style shots with the slingshot, even with the arc, before acquiring the bow however (and it's fun!).
** Averted yet again in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'': The bow noticeably arcs over long distances, which only get longer as the bow gets upgraded.
*** SS's Slingshot has a huge arc, making it virtually impossible to hit far-off targets.
* Speaking of ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].'', the series has both cases covered as well, although the straight arrow variety tends to be magical (Pit's arrows, Zelda's Final Smash). The Cracker Launcher item from ''Brawl'' lets you adjust the angle freely. Diddy's Peanut Popgun also functions like Link's arrow in that regard, and items are all thrown at plausible angles.
* Both used straight and averted in ''[[Suikoden]]''. In regular combat, party members with bows fire straight shots. In army battles, however, your archers will fire in volleys. Which makes sense, really, since regular combat is fought at short range, so the arrows don't need to travel farther than a few feet. In war, they're shooting from long range.
* In ''[[Thief]]'', Garret's arrows arc. Most of them. The standard, rope, water and moss arrows follow the laws of physics, while the elemental arrows of Air (sleeping gas) and Fire (rocket launcher stand-in) fly straight and fast. Elemental air would probably be considered to have its own personal updraft...and hot air rises.
* Played straight in ''[[Fable]]'': The Lost Chapters'', where arrows fly on a flat path, then inexplicably plant themselves in the ground once they get out so far.
* In ''[[
* In most ''[[Tales (series)]]'' games, archers seem to shoot directly forward, unless that is, it's a technique. The 2D Tales games, especially Destiny and Phantasia don't arc at all but [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality|they probably weren't able to program it like that]]. However, in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'', Raven shoots his arrows at angles - rather weird angles, at that.
** [[Tales of the Abyss|Natalia]] also averts this somewhat. Her straight-fired special techniques aren't subject to gravity, but her normal shots are, limiting her normal range.
* Averted to some extent in ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] V''. Most archer units will normally shoot at a small angle, but when shooting over castle walls, they will aim at a much higher angle.
** Weirdly, this arch also applies to [[Magic Missile
** It's played straight in the first four ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' games, but then, the graphics in those games are so stylized it hardly matters.
** The human (Haven) archers in the fifth game also have a unique ability, not found anywhere else in the series, to spread their arrows for lesser damage over an area. Strangely, this ability is not shared by any other bow-wielding units, such as undead and elven archers.
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** The syringe gun and all of Demoman's bombs also arcs, while rockets too travel in a straight line.
* In ''[[Vantage Master]]'', the Blexe fires straight shots, although it uses a powerful crossbow and has fairly short range, whereas the bow-using Amoltamiss has no excuses. It's also averted with Ae-Ferrion, which fires (from a bow) a heavy arrow with a mace-like head; the shot arcs. This is actually an advantage, since it can be used to hit a target when a direct path would be blocked by other units. Additionally, standing in an elevated position extends the range.
** Amoltamiss actually has a 'medium' arc, which has a very very slight impact on play. It's likely that they didn't give her Ae-Ferrion's 'high' arc for balance
* From ''[[Monster Hunter]] Freedom 2'' onwards (when the Bow weapon class was introduced) the arrows of the bow do arc slightly, although the monsters you are fighting are generally so large as to make little difference to aiming. Similarly the Bowgun shots also dip with distance.
* Strongly averted in Bungie's ''[[Myth]]'' games: arrows arc and are even effected by strong winds. The archers also visibly aim higher to shoot farther, and gain increased range from high ground.
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* Averting this is a key part of strategy in the ''[[Ogre Battle|Tactics Ogre]]'' games. Arrows fired on lower parts of the map have less range and chance of hitting specifically because they arc down. Animation-wise, the arc also lets you shoot over characters and hit an enemy.
** This is true of its spiritual successor ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', as well. The Gameboy Advance and DS installments still have the arrows fired at an arc, but the range on a bow is permanently fixed, regardless of height.
* Averted in the ''[[Mount
** Played straight, however, when your character's archery skill is high enough - the arrows fly in almost a straight line. This could be partially justified by the character being able to handle a bow with a heavier draw weight, but the difference is really too dramatic for that.
* Averted with the Bow in the ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]]'' series.
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* Somewhat averted in ''[[Guild Wars]]''. Although the game auto-targets so it doesn't affect your aim, different types of bows have different arrow flight arcs, and each provides certain advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation. Additionally bows will be more effective firing downward from above or downhill (with gravity) than upward from below or uphill (against gravity.)
* Averted in ''[[Wii Sports Resort]]'', where the physics of the arrows take gravity into account in addition to the wind.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has gone from straight to averted. Due to the nonexistent physics engine, ''[[The Elder Scrolls: Arena|Arena]]'' and ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall|Daggerfall]]'' played it straight. ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|Morrowind]]'' was also a straight example, although arrows would visibly tumble if fired with a weak pull. Starting with ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'' and continuing into ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]]'', arrows do drop, though usually they fly pretty far before dropping too low.
** Unlike most videogame arrows, however, in ''Skyrim'' the arrow will actually arc up slightly in relation to the crosshair, so trying for a traditional headshot will just make the arrow fly over an opponent's head unless they're pretty far away. It is also possible to hit stationary targets with arrows fired into the sky, but very difficult.
* ''[[Chrome Hounds]]'': Every single projectile obeys the laws of gravity. From the most basic machine gun bullets to long range sniper cannons. However if you are using kinetic rounds(as opposed to chemical rounds), the damage decreases dramatically beyond their effective range, as does the rate of drop. It is, however, possible to destroy enemy HOUND's from halfway across the map with a ''shotgun''!
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== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' used a
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' uses this most of the time.
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[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
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[[Category:Archery Tropes]]
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