I hope it is on both, I wouldn't mind fitting my companions with different style crossbows

I honestly don't see it as exceedingly likely, but it's precisely that elegance in the elven, & glass(which is pretty much just heavy elven) armor, weapons is what makes me so curious about what a crossbow from those materials would look like.
I reckon if there were elf-make crossbows that be very intricate, & just absolutely gorgeous.

I'm checking out a gamespot Dawnguard vid right now, and man I'm really liking Crossbows so far.

The reload time is pretty fast(I wonder how fast it will be with Quickshot), and I like that then quiver isn't so large, and in the way.

Can't wait for this DLC. Plus the Dawnguard armor looks really nice.


Why not? The Dwemer are Elves, and they invented Crossbows.

I think he meant more along the lines of the Altmer. Considering the glass, & elven equipment in Skyrim is of Altmer make.
There were Orcish crossbows in Morrowind, & elegant is definitely not a term most people label the Orsimer with.

If bolts are going to be craftable, I wonder if you'll be able to have the sort of area effects you had with archery in Oblivion; i.e. X points of fire damage in an X foot radius, and the like. Personally, I found those hugely entertaining in a almost game-breakingly over-powered sort of way... particularly liked wide effect demoralize when dealing with crowds of unruly Deadra and the like... Cyrodillic riot-control.

The only crossbows confirmed so far is Steel crossbow and Dwarven crossbow. I think that's the only crossbows we get, to be honest.

More than likely, heavy smithing. You'd think they would have advanced their methods for making a crossbow, but material is still a limiting factor. Metal doesn't tend to be particularly flexible, so it seems many of the crossbows, to be made of different materials, would have to have a wooden core for their arms.

As mentioned above, the Dwemer made the first crossbow, and long after they disappeared, the imperials tried to replicate it as a cheap and alternate means to training archers. Though a well trained ranger would still probably prefer the bow over the crossbow.

In Morrowind, what set them apart from bows was that they mostly lacked a damage range, and always hit the same. It was wonderful if you didn't use range a lot, and needed your occasional blow to count more. But once you had developed your marksman, a good long bow outclassed it.
Honestly, I hope for Skyrim, they ignore a part of the targets armor rating.

If we had that, then Crossbows would completely replace Destruction magic.

Actually, there were orcish bolts, but not crossbows.

Yes - but they were quite unique as far as elves go.

IIRC he mentioned in at least one interview crafting the higher tier crossbows - dwemer included.

Really? I was fairly certain there were orcish crossbows? Oh well.
Bolts imply bows. They certainly don't prove it, but there's an implication.

Not with Morrowind though. There were 2 crossbows but I believe 6 types of bolts.

Same story with bows. 6 types of bows, but 9 types of arrows.

Thanks for correcting me then, that is honestly far from the first time my recollection of details from Morrowind's been a bit off.
It's been a good two or three years since I've fiddled with it, & my memory is far from flawless.

Still, I stick by the statement that bolts of other designs, imply crossbows of other designs.
I mean one could argue that they just scavenged Dwemer crossbows, & supplied their own ammunition.

Well, my memory is fairly fresh. I just pulled out my old copy. I do believe they had created textures for an Orcish crossbow, but decided to drop it for lore.

I would imagine the crossbows for each type of Smithing class would be set under their appropriate Smithing specialties.

Ie Steel Crossbows would be under Steel Smithing, Elven Crossbows would be under Elvish Smithing, Dwemer under Dwarven Smithing... Etc

You could always just hold on your smith perks on your new character until you know for sure. Also- it isnt like material perks are necessary anyways unless you simply must have a daedric or dragonbone set.

Otherwise you can easily boost damage and protection to astronomical levels without any perks of material.

Get arcane smith and hold your perks concerning that tree till then?