I’ve also noticed (and been infuriated by) Archer weapon switch problems. Specifically, and these are probably all just one simple problem with cludgy animations/interruptions:
–Getting hit from range while drawing my bow: causes a stagger, which is fine. However, my character then attempts to draw the bow again, and incompletely draw it at that before I can do anything else with my weapon - whether it be draw it for real, or switch to melee weapon.
–While fighting someone who’s closing with me, if I get hit either with a long weapon from them or from range while drawing the bow, pushing ‘2’ for melee weapon switch does not register until the above-mentioned buggy-incomplete-fakedraw of the bow has completed. This often results in not being able to pull out a melee weapon and all, and subsequent defenseless death.
The solution to this? Fix it so that if you push ‘2’ (and I am always mashing ‘2’ just as fast as I can) during your stagger, it doesn’t attempt to draw the bow. My hunch is that the faildraw is caused by holding M1 and being interrupted, and the stagger does not properly clear what you were doing when you got staggered. And because of human biology, you won’t release M1 until a split second after you were staggered and the game will thus think that you still had M1 down, and thus attempt to draw the bow again immediately after the stagger ends. Only then will you pull out your shortsword, but that’s 3-4 seconds later, and you’re usually already dead.
Also, in general, I think that the arrow velocity penalty for aiming at a higher angle is too high. It makes archers just a little too ineffective at decent ranges, unless they are elevated, which leads to them needing to get closer, which leads to a higher frequency of the extremely infuriating stagger/faildraw/weapon switch problem I’ve detailed above.
Other than that and agreeing with optimal range being needed (especially for the long-shafted weapons), which are both really minor fixes as you can adjust your play to cope with the unrealism ( ;) ), the most frustrating issue I have with this game is OHMYGOD THE COLLISION MODELING IS HORRIBLE. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck on a rock, unable to get off even by kicking (which shouldn’t be necessary to get yourself unstuck from the side of a hill in the first place), while I get shot to death by an archer. Or how many times I’ve been backing up to my teammates, only to get stuck on a 3-inch twig sticking out from a tree and not be able to back up any further - even if I am also side-stepping while backing up!
Which reminds me of one other infuriating detail: shooting people who are interacting with a siege weapon, battering ram, etc., is extremely buggy. From the side or at an angle, they are often not actually where the game displays them to be. I can’t tell you how many arrows I’ve seen disappear into a knight’s chest while he was working the battering ram at the gate, only to not get a hit. He’s stationary and I aimed carefully, following the projectile with the camera, and it just disappears into his body. He takes no damage from that arrow, nor any of the 3 that follow. And don’t tell me it’s because I’m just bad at the game - I’m not so bad at archery that I miss a target that hasn’t moved in 5 or 15 seconds, multiple times. I will admit that I have sometimes missed with the first shot, but that’s how I know the following shots should have hit :P .