Then read.

I did

Apparently you didnt. Not only does trajectory not work right, and arrows going higher than they should at close to medium range, but long range archery isn't even there. The arrows actually disappear before their effective range. then there are times where the arrow doest even leave the bow, and appears to leave from part of the body. Archery as is, is wonky.

It seems that this is what the forum is becoming, a lot of people who hate X and Z and [censored] a lot, instead of playing the game and learning how it works. Make it easy on them and they complain it's not realistic, make it realistic and they complain that it doesn't make sense in a fantasy world, give them the option to choose how they want it and it's too complex.

I wanted to be part of the so called "community", but this is why I play single player games I guess, because the real world really svcks.

You're not telling me anything new. I already knew these things about the bow. At close range, aim just below where you want to hit, at medium range, aim at what you want to hit, at long range (and yes it is there) aim above where you want to hit. If it's not hitting where you're wanting to at long range, then you're probably aiming too high. Either that or just get closer.

i have no issues with archery on 360. i think its because the draw distance is almost the same as arrow range.
on PC you can see stuff further away and its more frustrating.
also, the arrow is always above the crosshair, but that's as simple as aiming a bit lower... no big deal tbh

The last statement in that post you quote was sarcasm. It's a bit hard to relay that in text. I'm actually fine with the bow and arrow, sometimes I swear by it.

We've already explained how and why its broken. The range limit itself makes it broken.

Then your acknowledging that you know its broke. And no, long range shots are not there. The arrow disappears. Its been proven and tested by many people for many hours, including myself. Nor is it a realistic range for even real life long bows. King Henry VIII made archery ranges no less than 220 yards during his time. Your not hitting anything in game at that range, or close. Ive watched arrows disappear with the illuminated arrow mod.

The major problem with bows is there isn't enough energy behind the projectile. A good bow should be able to shoot 100 yards, especially by someone that can carry 250kg of equipment up and down mountains. And truthfully a trained archer could shoot well beyond that.

The CK will fix all that is wrong with archery though, so I'm not terribly worried about it. I assume bethesda made it kind of wonky so it wouldn't be the only weapon skill people used. Even as crappy as it is, it's the skill I use 75% of the time. Swords are for mopping up.

That's right, remove 90% of the post so it fits your argument. Fix the quote so it's back in context.

Oh, and while I'm at it, last time I checked, Skyrim was scaled down; that includes ranged combat. If the range of an arrow wasn't scaled down, you could hit Rorikstead from Whiterun, or there abouts.

Nothing else you said was relevant. Bow trajectory is wonky, as well as where the arrow leaves the player character sometimes. Range wise, the arrows disappear, which was my whole statement this whole time. Bows are still viable to kill things, they just don't work at longer ranges and they have wonky trajectory and fall. Therefore they are broken in some areas. This is known, otherwise there wouldn't be so many posts about it, or so many mods trying to fix it. A console command was already given earlier that makes arrows shoot longer ranges, but it should be a vanilla thing.

I wanted to not believe the problems I was hearing since release, before I made my first archery build. Then I experienced it my self and tested for hours with and without console commands and mods, as have many others. Its definitely broken in a vanilla game.

If the rest of the post was irrelevent, then so was the part you quoted, because without the rest of the post, it is WAY out of context. I wasn't admitting it was broken, just acknowledging that I knew about the arc of the arrow and ADAPTED my playing accordingly.

You were showing why its broken. That the trajectory shoots higher than it is supposed to when released at shorter ranges. Which is what that part of your post said. In the end, its not the semantics of the quotes, its the fact that it is broken in some areas. Which is a shame since Beth said they were going out of their way to make archery awesome, even basing it off of the very popular archery mod in Oblivion.

The fact that I'm a Bosmer, who's fundamentals about the bow revolve around trajectory and long range shots, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Marksmanship_Lesson, and the fact that the arrows actually disappear after medium range, is disturbing.

It's pretty simple. The crosshair is 'zeroed' at a certain point in relationship to the bow. In actual archery (in real life) we use sighting pins (or crosshairs dependent on how fancy you want to get) where you push a pin into some duct tape around your bow and can move it up and down and back and forth to compensate for the range of your target that you're zeroing in on. Then, when you take aim, you aim to where the tip of that pin is and it's essentially your crosshair for aiming the bow. This is what the crosshair in game is: it's already been zeroed at a preset range.

Skyrim has already done this for you, so what you need to do is find an archery target that is stationary (there's one by the broken tower near Whiterun or whatever it's called) and find out which distance your crosshairs are zeroed in at, which is to say at which distance away from the target your arrow will hit perfectly where your crosshairs are aimed on the target. Anywhere closer that that and you need to aim down, anywhere further than that and you need to aim up. It's really not difficult to work with. Would I prefer a non-preset zero? Sure, but the current system isn't exactly hard to work with so it's not a real big issue.

Hearsay isn't proof.

They programmed the game so the arrows followed an arc automatically. They did this so that the player need only aim at center of mass and will, more than likely, hit their target. Even if it's in the foot. Hit location doesn't matter in this game. It make no difference. They then made it so that the arrows vanish once they are deemed beyond their effective range. There is only a short window by which you have to aim high.

Now the arc makes perfect sense. Even the method used to aim a bow from the olden days (the kind of bows we use in the game) caused the arrow to follow an arc. Passing the line of sight twice, once on the way up and again on the way down. The part that is dumb and doesn't make sense is the arrows vanishing. They should go until they hit something (an enemy, tree, or the ground).

It isn't hearsay, its known that the arrows disappear, and long range archery isn't viable. And that there's inaccuracies in regards to the arrow leaving a still player character.

i hate to sound mean. but i played oblivion's archery (which is harder) without the cross-hairs on. Skyrim is very easy for the sneak&shoot types

I think 'broken' is a bit of an overstatement. I have seen some people complaining about long range; myself, I haven't had any problems but it isn't my primary attack; it just works for what I use it for. Hopefully something they may look at in the long run.

I can hit people with the bow as far away as I can see them. i just have to compensate for my arrow arc. I have hit a dragon from very far away. I have hit birds, and i have seen people do the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDmxtRPoGk

As talon mentioned on page 1, adding such a value to the ini file basically allows the arrow to travel a hell of a lot farther before vanishing. As for the automatic arc, there is another thread where you simply change an existing value within the ini file. Now, I don't know if by adding the first one if you are overriding an existing one or not but to change an existing one tells me that it's a feature they meant to have in the game. Thus it's not broken and therefore doesn't need fixing. If you would like to change it and are a PC user, the option is there.

everyone is saying it shoots higher than the cross hairs let on to "compensate", but thats not entirely true. if you've ever shot a bow and arrow you would know that the arrow shoots slightly higher than where your are aiming.

and seriously, you just svck at this game if you can't do archery. its pretty much the easiest way to play. i'm guessing the OP found himself in a hopeless situation where his crappy lack of ability to shoot an arrow got him killed, so he decided to complain.

They could've let the game do all the work if they wanted to. Simply point the xhairs at the target and the game automatically calculates distance and arcs the arrow enough so that it either comes up or down to meet the point of aim at the target. The higher the skill the more accurate the shot. 25 means you can hit a person simply by aiming at their center of mass but might hit their foot at a medium to long range while at 100 you can hit the person in their eye no matter the range. So all that is required is for the player to point and shoot and have the game do all the calculating/judging.

Ive been a RL archer for 25 years.. My arrows dont always go where i want them to either

Calculate wind for example has a big effect on the arrows.. Especially in the old school bows like in Skyrim.
And no projectile in the world actually goes straight forward, they all go upwards first.. Yes even bullets from a rifle/handgun.

I don't have so much trouble with the little variance in drop... it's having my arrows pass cleanly through an enemy's head without effect that gets my goat.

Oh well... Center of Mass does the job.

haha