Yes I know that... But the point I am trying to make is the degree of an arch that a bow is able to make over a firearm or a crossbow. You cant point a firearm or a crossbow in the air and be able to accuratley hit a target. A bow on the otherhand has the ability to do such a task.

Those were more like cannons that were small enough to carry around, but still very large and bulky. Even so, we are talking fantasy settings here, not actual medieval history. I maintain that firearms and compound bows have no place in a fantasy setting. Modern archers also use bow sites with different colored crosshairs for different distances so they can dial in their shots, provided they know the distance, but I would not want anything like that popping up in a fantasy setting either.

Hmm im not sure... if we are able to fling fireballs and lignting from our hands then why cant we have a slow reloading firearm or crossbow?

Hmm. I've been shooting bows since I was eight years old but have never shot a crossbow, so I cannot really argue that but I am not sure why it should work so much better with a bow that a crossbow. I suppose it would depend on the muzzle velocity of the crossbow, but the muzzle velocity of a crossbow cannot be anywhere near that of a firearm. I suppose if the muzzle velocity of the crossbow were fast enough it would make aiming that type of shot tricky. Also the slow reload speed of a crossbow would make them less capable of volley shots.

Crossbows were in Morrowind.
Crossbows added to Skyrim.
In B4 Morrowind did crossbows better.

They're cool and they are fun to use.
It would be good to have the option.

Its a physics problem. I forget what the two kinds of forces are, but the crossbow has a higher tension force and velocity, and the longbow has... a different kind. That is why the crossbow is shot straight on and the longbow was often shot in an arc. Crossbows were more effective against armor for this reason: A crossbow could shoot straight at you and hope to punch the armor, longbows needed a volleyshot and the downward force of gravity to match this. The crossbow danger and the ease of their use is why they were banned by the ?church?, they were hardly an impotent weapon.

I picture the crossbow being sort of the Archery version of a Dagger. Lower overall benefit in straight combat, but amazing for single-attack sneak bonuses.

Firearms are kinda banned from tolkienesque universes, that is just a rule of thumb. Crossbows are not.

- If you want some rabid hate-posts: start a thread about wanting firearms in skyrim.

Well, harkening back to my physics classes in college, which I admit has been a number of years, the only information you need to know in order to calculate the trajectory of a projectile such as an arrow, bolt or bullet, is the initial position and velocity of the projectile. Projectiles with a higher initial velocity and the same initial position) will go farther before hitting the ground (disregarding friction of course). I don't think there are different types of forces at work here, but the difference in initial velocity would make a diffrence if the initial velocity of the crossbow were fast enough.

I think it has to do with the projectile weights and shapes, there is a source somewhere in the first couple search pages. Yeah my physics knowledge is leaving me and I'm still in college- haha. Also Arrows have different fletchings than bolts do.

If it has to do with weights and shapes, then it probably has to do with friction caused by the projectiles passing through the air. Galileo proved that a difference in weight has no effect on the gravitational attraction on two falling objects with his leaning tower of Piza experiment, but that experiment did not account for friction. I will take a look for those earlier posts.

All rangers have are bows. And the fact that vampire feeding was found along with crossbows actually isn't surprising. If they add anything to vampires, they MUST have crossbows! It's the trademark vampire hunting weapon.

https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTuSfvHivrIj8k_wlURpWnpViSvJBTrIOlJmbvOK7h34rAStOw71g

http://moviecitynews.com/archived/arrays/2004/images/van_helsing.jpg

It would make more possibilities for rangers. Warriors have a bunch of different weapons, for one handed and two handed (still not much), mages have a bunch of different spells (less so than in other games but still a good amount). Rangers only have a bow. Thieves and assassins can use daggers I guess, but there needs to be more range weapons. Add some variety. Hopefully they make it more balanced than morrowind. Like, twice as much damage and twice as long to reload.

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

The difference is very heavily related to the projectile. The crossbow bolt packs more mass into a smaller package. It has poor flight characteristics and therefore poor range. However, it is a compact mass shot at high velocity, so within its range it packs a greater punch. Bow and arrow is the opposite. The velocity is less but the flight characteristics of the arrow allow for much greater range.

Second difference is a result of the flight characteristics. The crossbow bolt has its greatest velocity when fired and loses velocity thereafter. The arrow, fired in an arc, loses velocity until it reaches the top of its arc but then regains velocity as it falls.

They are really very different weapons. Give me one shot at close range and I will take a crossbow. Ask me to hit something at range and it is the bow. Ask me to stop a mass attacked by charging knights and I will take a group of longbow men. Even if they don't penetrate armor they will kill the horses. With the superior range and rate of fire arrows will rain down on the attackers all the way through the charge. Ask me to take a bunch of untrained peasants to stop a charge and I will arm them with crossbows. They probably won't stop the charge as they will get one, maybe two shots at best, but longbows take training where crossbow training is minimal.

So, why crossbows in Skyrim? To me they were always the ultimate "guard" weapon. I don't see guards as well trained warriors but rather as ill trained militia. But that's my $.02 and may not be shared by all.

It is the drag of the bolt that explains the difference in the range of the two weapons. Also the lighter weight crossbow bolt will not travel as far as it does not have the same kinetic energy.

THANK YOU for pointing this out. I'm so sick of the fantasy cliche of girls with little spindly arms using bows. Or skinny little rogues using bows.

In reality, with longbows it was the big, tough guys who used the things. Drawing a bow takes strength. Even more so to hold it while you aim.

ha you know what i meant...switch fire for reload

So its friction then.

Truth, I am disappointed they removed the stamina cost for holding a drawn bow- as it would be very very taxing on the muscles.

If only we had a strength attribute and a min-req for using certain weapons

Yeah, it takes quite a bit of strength to draw a 55 pound bow, and that is considered a pretty lightweight bow compared to what you would need to have any hope of piercing armor. You have to be really strong to draw a 100 pound bow, considering you are pulling that weight back with two or three fingers.

This seems like a good explanation.

Obviously you have never dealt with the guards in Oblivion.

Thats true, if they sent those guards up to Skyrim the war would be over in about 18 minutes.
Stop right there criminal scum! or I will chase you from one side of the map to the other!

To make the Crossbow different from the bow they need to do the following: Have the Crossbow deal more damage than Bows. Also, when shot at armored enemies, have the Crossbow ignore the armor rating completely.

(And/OR do the obvious 2 things as well:)
1: Instant first shot (no need to nock an arrow and pull back an already readied crossbow)
2: long long reload.

If they do instant first shot- the advantage cannot be overstated.

You won't hear me arguing about the longbowman being a bit slow, there are far faster archers like in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yorHswhzrU (actual shooting doesn't start until around 2). But what I had in mind when linking the video was mainly to show that some crossbows are not as slow as some people seem to think.