You only have to do it once, then your arrows are fixed forever.

yes, but without aiming it up more i doubt it would fly in the ark it does in skyrim, the skyrim ark is overkill i think

(p.s. iv watched my cousin and his dad shoot before but iv never shot a bow myself)

Great, mods... Still leaves the console version broken. I'm not too bothered by it, but it can get annoying.

Actually the sight in the game is acting realistic, people just don't understand how weapon sights work. There is no "anti-gravitational force" as you say. A weapon sight is set to a certain distance so only at that distance will you be able to point and shoot it exactly at that spot. For any distances closer to that distance you will shoot higher, past that distance you will shoot lower, all due to gravity and the sight setting. Gravitational force is very prevailant in archery as it is a less powerful weapon. A sniper doesn't just put the crosshairs of his scope on the target then shoot. He has to zero out the scope to account for windage, elevation and distance by adjusting two knobs on his scope, then he puts the crosshair on his target and shoots. Since bows dont have these type of adjustments you have to do them manually by aiming higher or lower or left or right of your target (not applicable in Skyrim as wind isnt a factor).

I think they're great.
Maybe you have no idea how to use them

Archery works fine for me, but I play with the crosshair disabled so I've never experienced the issue you people are talking about.

I also did the trick to extend the shooting range but keep in mind that it introduces a glitch, every one and then a full drawn bow will result in an arrow shot only a few meters ahead of you. Looks like the physics engine can't always keep up with a very high shooting range.

You have to be standing still or else the arrow will just go everywhere.

you miss the point, the cross-hair is where the arrow should go if all wind resistance and gravity were turned off, but that is not the case, my character is aiming the arrow upwards, it is compensating for somethign on its own yet i think the player should have to do that

Well you can shoot arrows at knees now

Cheers

How easy does it need to be? As it stands the range allows for some pretty good "sniping". Any further and it would be too easy.

Because gravity exists in Skyrim /geeky joke

I havent tried archery in Skyrim yest

I have a question: Do the accurasy get better by improving the Archery skill/perk? Or does it only improve the damage?

Archery is to accurate at low level if you ask me, its rather easy to hit target over range and rushing you, dragons are harder to hit but the slow mo either has no limit or is very long or bugged on my game because its super easy with full slow mo, but feels silly slowing it down for that long.
In addition, not sure if anyone else has noticed this there is a bug where the arrow will fallshort, ive never had it in my game but, watching my gf play the other day she couldnt hit this mage on a tower kinds midium long rang, after afew shots, i start say where i thought she should aim really didnt understand what the deal was we tryed loads of increments, in the end she unequiptreequipt and shot it first time. when we walked forward the arrows were all over the floor, as if the bow hadnt been pulked back all the way, it was dark so we never saw the arrows dipping, so i dont no if they fall short or glitch out.

It's fine at long range but if you try shooting a dead body a point blank then the arrow won't hit where you were aiming most of the time. But archery is great for one hit kills if you take that path.

I've not had a single issue with this except when far out of range. hey, it IS a bow and arrow...

Sweet, I'm gonna have to do that.

As for the trajectory. It's called an arc. The game automatically arcs your shots for you to a small degree allowing you to simply point at center of mass for a greater distance without the need to compensate for gravity.

http://www.crossbowmen.com/trajectory-2.gif

With my compound I use 4 pins, starting at 20 yards and increasing by 10/pin. Any distance within 20 yards I just use my 20 yard pin and will hit within 2 inches anyway (accurate enough to hunt with which is all I use it for).

In Oblivion, the trajectory was straight and by that I mean that the arrow left heading towards the point of aim directly but began dropping immediately. The meant that you had to compensate for distance unless the enemy was basically within melee range.

Personally, I'm glad that archery works as it does. I'd find it endlessly frustrating to have to aim up into the sky in order to hit distant targets.

No it is called they screwed it up since Oblivion. I will say one thing about OB, the bows worked more natural where I had to arc it up to get a good distance shot more realistically. I loved Morrowind but the archery is more linear like that game, where you have to aim exactly at your target no matter the distance....LAME!!!

No issues here with bow and arrow, long range (the allowed upper limit of default settings). I've even hit the occasional rabbit/fox in the distance and the 3x sniping perk is good for taking out saber cats from a distance. Just takes a bit of practice and patience, to get the shot off right (and a bit of waiting or quick loading, if your target is alerted by a missed shot).

If you'd like it to behave realistically then you wouldn't be able to hit anything until you learned how to use a bow. It's a game that is already pretty lenient on making the bow easy to use, if you guys are still having problems, I'm not really sure what they could be, the bow pretty much aims itself. I did a little bit of archery as a kid for fun, and I can tell you hitting anything more than 100 yards a way is pretty difficult in real life. Also these characters have pretty epic arm strength to launch those arrows like they do using a regular longbow wow. And for anyone who knows physics no trajectory is a straight line, they're all parabolic, so be glad the game gives you a hint and arcs up a bit.

I play as a archer/mage and I love shooting the heads off skeletons.

i thought it was as clear as i can possibly say it but i guess not, i do not want or even like the auto arc, it is a pain in the ass and i would much rather my arrows fly like they are supposed too

simple physics lesson (that would apply to skyrim and the cross-hair): the arrow, without any other forces other than the draw string acting on it, would fly perfectly straight (not the arc) and hit at the cross-hairs, and there is no force produced (under any conditions in skyrim) that would propell the arrow upwards after realeasing the draw-string yet it still goes up, therefore there is noway for the arrow to arc in anyway unless i aim up, which i do not (in skyrim at least)

Its called they made the Archery System more realistic, you can't just point a bow and pull the trigger and have the arrow fly straight to the target, It arcs to make it more realistic, just like in real life, when you shoot an arrow it arcs, i have no problem shooting the bow in the game, after the first few times its easy, you can't hit things hundreds of feet every single time you shoot, that would be dull and boring, the fact that it has somewhat of a challenge, were you have to actually aim a little, makes it more interesting.

Try shooting a bow in real life, a real long bow, see how hard it is to pull back and hold, and then shoot, then you will be thanking Skyrim for making it easy lol.

"A good craftsmen never blames his tools"

In this case, the craftsmen is the player and the tool in question is a bow. It's pretty obvious to me that the problem you're having with the bow is actually your lack of understanding of it. I don't mean to try and insult you, there, just pointing something out and it's something that can be worked on.

Of course bows have a maximum distance, and that depends on the angle your fire (assuming the bow string is fully drawn). It's no good trying to shoot a target from across the plains, which is actually rather a vague term. The plains stretches from Rorikstead all the way to the road leading North past Chillfurrow Farm, so anyone is going to have difficulty hitting anything at that distance. An arrows maximum distance is lucky to reach Bleakwind Basin from the Western Watchtower... in fact, I don't even think it'd reach that far.

My point is, bow and arrow isn't broken, just people's understanding of how it works

Its already been proven broken, not only does it not have the range it should, but the trajectory and where the arrow fires from is screwy as well.

Proven? I see no proof that it's broken. What I see is a lot of people complaining about something that other can use to great effect. I, myself, just cleared two dungeons using melee weapons ONLY as a last resort. I used what I knew about the in-game bow and arrow, and the enemy barely ever got near me... yeah, it's broken