[censored] this is annoying as fudge. Archers know what I'm talking about. You fire an arrow and it hits an invisible wall, and it's not like I'm even firing extremely close to an object either. Do you guys think this will ever get fixed or will it remain another example of Bethesda's lousy work?

Had this happen a few times, but more often, I experience an issue where the arrow will pass through the face of the person/animal I'm aiming at and thunk uselessly into the wall. Something about the hit detection seems a bit dodgy at times.

Do I think it will be fixed? Likely not. I wish I didn't feel that way, but there are so many other issues that Bethesda is hopefully focusing on that it is probably pretty far down on their list, if there at all.

Yeah man that is a problem usually associated with 3rd person shooters. Your crosshair is on the enemy but you characters gun is slightly behind cover. Ive experianced this where I think I have a good clearance on a wall or something(maybe 2 feet in game) and the arrow hits right next to the wall and drops. Once I was in a cave full of vampires and I was sneaking aroud sniping everyone with my bow and then I saw a really powerful vampire and ducked back behind cover. I drew back my bow and started peaking around the corner. I was out just far enough to be aiming directly at the vampire but not get caught and I was even thinking "man Im not gonna hit this wall IM like 3 feet away. I fired my bow it hit a slight invisibale barrier about 3 feet from the wall and the vampire heard it and said"what was that noise?". I stood uip and turned off the console before I even got detected. When I played again late that day I whipped out 2 swords and charged everyone lol.

It seems sometimes you can shoot through bars or railings in some dungeons and some you can't. It seems very non-consistant.

Being behind cover isn't always the cause of this. I have stood right in front of a chicken and shot him with arrows, but the arrows "bounce" off of the chicken and don't hurt it. I've also seen a video where this guy has this problem with all his arrows now and his video is him out in the open, shooting arrows and they are all hitting an invisible wall. I also saw another video where this guy was on a bridge, and every arrow he shoots barely goes anywhere. What I mean is is flops in a little arch a couple feet away. You can see and hear him talking about how he's pulling the string back all the way every time, and yet his arrows don't have any power whatsoever, no invisible wall there though I don't think. Also, I would like to add I have found 2 un-killable hawks now in my game. I can shoot the hawk with about 50 arrows so it looks like an arrow pincushion floating around in the air leaving the hawk in the middle of all the arrows barely visible. So I would have to agree, not only can arrows get glitchy/bugged, but the hit detection algorithms DO seem to be a bit dodgy at times.

I wonder if using wards creates a barrier that doesn't discontinue somehow? Shields up!

I suggest adjusting the resonance harmonics of your arrows to match or follow your rotating shield frequencies, thus allowing your arrows to continue through your shields to their intended target. I sometimes forget to do this with my Mark VIII Photon Torpedoes.

Sorry, I know people are looking for real answers, but this board needs more humor... it's all we have...

off topic - lol, and be careful about your power consumption. Especially when cloaking/decloaking (if your ship can do that, depends on whose side your on). I couldn't imagine trying to decloak, raise shields, fire, and fiddle with the resonance harmonics, all at the same time.

on topic - Actually I only experienced this once or twice, and it was just in dungeons. A reload of my last save fixed it, but then again, I haven't played for a while because of other issues.

It's just bad hit detection. It's when the model of a building/wall/etc. doesn't match with the actual hitbox ie the space that it occupies.

Btw I had to read the title a few times before I realized it doesn't say "invisible knees" @_@
Too much Skyrim.

Haha speaking of knees I shot a bandit woman in the knee one time and she screamed and fell down and begged for me to stop, so I shield bashed her and she died, laying on her back, one leg out and one leg with her knee up, arrow sticking out of it straight up into the air... I had to laugh.

But as for these problems just being collision boxes being "outside the bounds" of actual meshes, that can't be all that's going on here I don't think. Especially since so many different things are going on with arrows and how they are acting up..

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, one time, one of the arrows in my iron arrow quiver was all the way outside of the quiver above it. Like parallel to the other arrows in the quiver but not touching any of them and floating above them. No matter how I changed armor/arrows/loaded saves/died it was still there. It wasn't until I quit the game and came back it finally disappeared. I also had arrows stick on me or my followers in the same manner, like in my helmet and no matter what it wouldn't disappear until I rebooted the game.

Ran into a dragon fighting a giant killed both. We were on a frozen mesa. I found numerous steel arrows stuck in the snow in a circle around the dragon skeleton. I saw the fight start and no one else was near and the giant never fired an arrow. I only had dwemer arrows at the time. It was very strange.

well with the hawk that wouldn't die, the arrows can stay in him as long as u dont turn off the game.. maybe the dragon was experiencing the same thing when it attacked someone who had a bow, flew away.. but then when you came and killed it the arrows finally dropped off when he fell? idk sounds weird though....

This has become a bigger problem since 1.4 and I'm also finding that alot of my arrows go right through enemies, no damage.

It seems that since 1.4 every other arrow I shoot just flops to the ground as though I didn't hold R1 long enough to fully draw the bowstring. It's ridiculously annoying, and has gotten me killed on more than one occasion. At first I thought that maybe my controller was malfunctioning, but I've tried all four of my controllers, to no avail.

I have had arrows kill close target with one shot but instead of imbedding into the target the bounce back at me. Then I pick them up...

CK, there are videos of that exact problem on youtube. look them up.

I've had this happen when firing close to walls, objects etc..seems like the collision detection might be a bit off.

I'm a wood elf archer and yes it is very annoying to think you have a clear shot between two poles or just over a beam but the arrow suddenly hits an invisible wall.

It happens to me alot.

btw, sneak + archery = god mode.

SO annoying! Its definitely not your controller, unless its your controller and all four of mine. Handling of input events is just broken period.

And also, I don't think this is about the bow & arrow not being in line of site with the crosshairs, because unlike a gun the bow is drawn in front of your face. When it happens to me I can very clearly see that the arrow should clear the rendered surface.

I've never had this happen to me, and I've been playing archers since launch date.
It has happened where it's forgivable, like for example an arrow hitting "space" where a texture like a hanging moss or plant, or rock protrude a little out but the wire frame of the object is a little larger.
It must be infuriating...
Do you play in first or third person?

First. Third person is awful in Elder Scrolls games, it's the main reason why I never bothered to be a werewolf too.

i like walking around towns in third person, but never fight unless in first.

I do this too. Outside it works well, in dungeons things get hard to see/detect in third.

Beth readily admits that they define their games as first person games. So I can imagine the tird person stuff gets less attention.

At least one CAN play the game in third person. I mean it IS possible. In Oblivion it was almost impossible especially with ranged attacks since the crosshair was behind the player who was in the center.

I just wish the camera got a little bit closer in third with weapon drawn, and that I could switch shoulders (camera view side).