Is it just me or do arrows not effect your bows damage like they used to

It was a glitch and it's been fixed.

NEW FEATURES

• Mounted Combat - Skyrim now allows you to do melee and ranged combat while riding a horse

BUG FIXES

• General stability and memory optimizations
  
• General AI pathfinding optimizations and bug fixes
  
• Optimizations and crash fixes for data leaks
  
• Fixed rare crash with lighting
  
• Fixed crashes related to loading and saving games
  
• Fixed crash with summoned creatures/NPCs
  
• Fixed rare issue where saves would be corrupted
  
• Improved logic for when ranged kill cams are played
  
• Fixed issue with ranged kill cams while killing a dragon
  
• Fixed rare issue with certain ranged kill cams not playing properly
  
• Fixed issue with nirnroot lighting not properly cleaning up
  
• Fixed issue where bow damage was being calculated incorrectly
  
• Fixed rare problem with werewolf kill moves would not finish animating properly
  
• In “The Break of Dawn” fixed rare issue where Meridia’s Beacon would disappear from player’s inventory
  
• Fixed occasional issue where followers would disappear after player pays off a bounty after committing a crime
  
• Fixed issue where certain creatures and NPCs would fail to respawn properly
  
• Fixed rare issue with dialogue subtitles not displaying properly
  
• Fixed issue with water appearing blurry when loading a saved game after creating a save underwater
  
• Fixed issue where map cursor would occasionally disappear after closing a message box with Kinect enabled (Xbox 360)
  
• Fixed rare issue with shouts only performing the first level and not other unlocked levels with Kinect enabled (Xbox 360)
  
• Fixed issue where the shout buttons would stop working properly if users mashed LB and RB during cooldown with Kinect enabled (Xbox 360)

This was a bug with patch 1.5. It miscalculated the intended damage in the display screen if the inventory. The bow actually delivered the correct damage to the enemy. This display error was fixed in 1.6.

Haha yeah my deadric bow said 349 with deadric arrows before the patch now its on 230ish lol.

Ya I went from 524 to 389 kinda upset

You were actually doing 389 before. that has not changed.

I am slightly gutted about not being able to use spells on horseback.

Or at least a staff! Staff would be epic cool, and a reason to actually get one, excluding Staff of Magnus.

I haven't patched my xbox yet but my daedric bow said it was doing 700+ damage, I know it's more like 500 where it should be.

The damage you're doing hasn't changed at all, the only thing that's changed is the number being displayed when you check your weapon.

Basically, in 1.5 it could have displayed 50 damage but was actually 40 damage. In 1.6, it would display 40 damage and do 40 damage. Nothing has changed, don't panic.

I'm not, if anything I would have preferred it to do less. As it is I can one-hit nearly anything even on master as a sneak khajiit.

That may not be accurate. See, e.g., http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1364580-did-bound-bow-get-massively-better-in-15/, in which Sandslice and others tested archery damage in 1.5. Their results indicated that damage in 1.5 was substantially increased vs. 1.4, and there was a display bug that showed even higher damage than was actually being done. It worked like this:

Before 1.5 (and in 1.6, it looks like), the damage formula for archery was (Bow Base * Skill Bonus * Perk Bonus * Gear Bonus * Potion Bonus) + Arrow Damage

In 1.5, testing revealed the actual damage formula changed to (Bow Base + Arrow Damage) * Skill Bonus * Perk Bonus * Gear Bonus * Potion Bonus

In 1.5, the damage displayed in the tooltip added the arrow damage to the above total. So you were, in fact, doing less damage than the tooltip indicated, albeit not very much less, unless you had low skill/enchants/perks.

In 1.6, assuming they have reverted the damage calculation back to what it was before, you very definitely are doing less damage with archery than you were in 1.5. Depending on what mix of smithing, skill, perks, enchants, and arrows you were using, your damage could have gone down very significantly.

For example, if you are using the Mystic Bound Bow, with maxed skill and perks, and +180% damage from enchants, in 1.5 you did:

(24 bow + 24 arrow) * 1.5 skill * 2 perks * 2.8 enchants = 403 damage (427 displayed).

Before 1.5 (and now again in 1.6 apparently), with that same exact loadout, you instead do:

24 bow * 1.5 skill * 2 perks * 2.8 enchants + 24 arrow = 225 damage (225 displayed).

That is a massive, massive decrease. Certainly would be very noticeable, and would account for why tons of people have been reporting that their bow "feels" like it does a lot less damage in 1.6 than it used to in 1.5. Many of these have been http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1377474-bound-bow-nerfed-to-the-ground/page__p__20849886__hl__bound%20bow__fromsearch__1#entry20849886

That is way too much for me to take in. So I will just say...ok.

It has been a while since I tested this and it was not to the extent that was conducted there.

I guess the real matter is not as much as, what it was, as it is, what it is now. That being fixed, from what I can tell.

EDIT : Good info!

That was directed at the OP and woodelf 4ever (who said he was upset), but I have to agree with you that one-hitting stuff does get old really fast!

without smithing upgrades, enchantments, potions, etc., the max damage a regular daedric bow does if you reached 100 skill in archery is only around 29 (double that if you purchased all five overdrawn perks). how's that for perspective.

also, when people talk about "base" damage with a weapon, is it really calculated as being separate from their skill level? for example, the base damage of a daedric bow is '19' i believe, but isn't that value derived from a level 15 skill in archery? i've been under the impression that your base damage IS your skill rating. at the very least, the math seems more sensible and "cleaner" that way. i admit, i would like a definitive on this since i'm still seeing equations floating about that factor "skill" as a separate variable apart from the weapon's "base." essentially what i'm suggesting is that there is no absolute base value, the base value IS the skill rating and is always relative, and if it isn't calculated that way then i would further suggest that is some seriously sloppy math.