Archer AI vs longbow
 

Noticed today that easterling archers wont close the distance against a longbow. They tend to sit there and just take it, which seems a little silly.

Close the distance and then what? Engage in melee? I'd love that as a melee guy who carries a long bow, but it sure wouldn't be in their best tactical interest. I'm not sure what's wrong with archers just continuing to shoot.

Just to clarify, the archers are in range of my bow whilst I'm out of range of their bows.

For some reason they continue moving away from me then stop still in range of my bow. So closing the distance to their bow range or moving out of range of mine would make more sense.

I get the feeling most of the AI is built round short bow range. I've seen fleeing monsters stop within longbow range too.

I've never noticed this, but then I've never played an archer.

A similar exploitable thing with archery is with "nearsighted" monsters, which as far as I know only includes deathblades. Never heard of it with easterling archers.

Were they fleeing? I've sometimes had few archers "stuck" in place, since they started fleeing after few of their friends died, but they don't have an escape - they won't shoot, but they can't escape, so they end up grinding themselves into corner furthest away from me.

Nope. Not fleeing, not cornered either. They were standing in the centre of a well lit room. I was in the next room joined by a corridor. I'll take a screenshot next time I see it.

Clearly you are not up-to-date with the latest Hollywood longbow fighting techniques. From the thread on the Hobbit movie:

At least fleeing doesn't work with logic such as "sufficient distance" or whatever, but there is a calculated morale each turn. It is not simulating, but behaviour emerges out of a few interacting rules. Temporary effects wear down per turn, instant effects change according to situation. As much as turning around a corner and losing sight of fleeing mates can bring back an enemy from flight - and stopping to flee gives an instant morale boost, so if Gorthaur comes back from flight, he probably will now stay in the fight. This probably leads to odd situations, but hard coding special cases into it, will probably even be easier to exploit.

Still, the archer AI probably needs tweaking. Best would be if they would deny you the opportunity to engage them one by one but await you in a situation where they can all engage you at once when you enter the room, but leaving you without target if you retreat into a corridor. (If they would do so, having a shot at the higher end of longbow range would be pretty rare once they noticed you.)

P.S. Don't the easterlings have a longbow as well?

You certain on this one? I'll double check next time I see a fleeing monster in a long corridor, but I'm pretty sure if there past a certain distance they'll flee towards you if you move away from them. They certainly do when out of site. Will get back to you on this one.

Edit: An example
http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=2505

Possibly. I had str 3 which is range 20. Oddly enough just took a glance at the monster memory for easterling archers: He may fire a longbow (+8, 1d7) - so it says longbow but looks more like a str 0 shortbow. There range is certainly a closer match to a shortbow.

Edit: Did a forum search. The monster memory is a bug. They are 2d7??. I suspect there range is still closer to a shortbow though.