How? No one is using outdated weaponry out of necessity. Guns are so prevalent that the legion has some members who refuse to use them; they are so readily available the men not using them stand out.

Every community has access to guns. White legs are as backwards as a tribe can get, and they use high caliber weapons, even having tribal names for some.

You also have to explain where the knowledge to craft and use one came from, despite no one having seen one in at least a hundred years.

I hope there's at least something similar so modders can go the extra mile to make them.

The legion does use guns, they even try to get their hands on energy weapons.

I'm reminded of Crysis 3's bow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuXHlMy-hqM

I wouldn't mind one as a stealth weapon, but I think they're generally trying to keep bows & blades in Elder Scrolls and guns in Fallout (hmm, Dwemer matchlocks, now there's an idea...).

"Electric Arrows: Disrupts Power Armor Electric System", yay?

True, and when you consider that a gun with a silencer/suppressor is still likely louder than a crossbow or bow, that sort of weapon seems like it should have a place in Fallout.

You said nothing about necessity. Contradiction was in you first saying that for example legionaries choose to use swords and such on purpose, then you said no-one uses them on purpose.

Where the crafting knowledge comes? Well the cavemen figured it out without a manual, so it's not very far fetched that someone would come up with it after seeing some bendy metal scraps and cable or such. People already came up with the dart gun which relies on the same principles of function. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to think about making a bigger version with heavier projectile (crossbow); then one might want a more portable version of crossbow. Well leave out the stock and there you go, you've got yourself a bow. Gun Nut perk (int3) would fit the bill in my opinion. Gameplay wise treat the bow same way they treat the dart gun.

Even if guns are commonplace in Fallout, it's still GOT to be easier to find (or create) a sharp pointy stick or metal scrap rod to shoot with a bow than to find a proper calibre of ammunition to fit your gun (which you have to meticulously keep clean and oiled and so on)....

Granted, a face off between an archer and someone with a machinegun will go poorly, but the archer isn't ~designed~ for that kind of encounter. Just like you would be better off with a melee weapon or shotgun while clearing a building with narrow, twisting hallways, instead of using hand grenades.... the grenades do more damage, sure, but in a close area you don't want to be dropping them at your feet. Different weapons for different goals.

In the Fallout universe you could even get relatively whacky with it, having "tranquilizer" arrows or "taser" arrows (miniature power supply fuels the zap).... and of course explosive-tipped arrows...

Unfortunately, as someone noted above, the game mechanics may make it difficult to seamlessly integrate a new ~type~ of weapon like bows/crossbows, etc. But then, that's where modders can step in.

Heck, for that matter, I would not be surprised if modders could create their own perks (Archer, Fletcher, TrickShot, etc) as well as the actual weapons (and animations).

Maybe it's to difficult to find good materials to make bows out of. Maybe it's to difficult to make a good bow. Maybe it's to difficult to use a bow as it certainly requires a level of mastery. Maybe arrows are to difficult to make.

Whatever the reason may be bow's are not exactly commonplace in Fallout, but i couldn't tell you if it's a deliberate design choice.

Bows and crossbows are nearly silent and would make excellent assassin weapons. Better than most firearms in fact. Why? Because silencing anything larger than a .22 caliber handgun is very difficult. Further, a compound bow is more deadly than a .22 to large beasts. I've seen videos of 180lb deer getting struck with an arrow that passes clean through them, and then, three or four seconds later, they keel over and die scarcely knowing anything had even happened! Anyone who has ever hunted with a bow can tell you how absolutely deadly they are even to very large game.

This is a long way of saying I think bows have a definite place in the game and hopefully it will be possible to mod them in. I would think a crossbow could be 'easily' added since you hold them more similarly to a gun than how you pull back a bow.

I would also enjoy using musical instruments as weapons.

I like bow's and arrows, in any game if the mechanic's feel tight.

There's also something...really comical about wearing Power Armor and lining up a shot with a longbow.

Like...Winter is coming, mother[censored]s.

Again, go play Skyrim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSLPH9d-jsI

This is where fallout lore and game mechanics cause friction with what we unconsciously expect.

FO 3 and 4 happen, what, 2 centuries after te bombs? Two centuries of too many survivors fighting over what's left, everything would have been used, picked clean, or rust/rotted.

The setting BEGS us to imagine modern wonders like fire-arms being a luxury of the elite, with energy weapons going to the elite of the elite. But everyone needs protection, and in such a world a man will take what he can find, build, and maintain. Bows are primitive AND effective.

So for the "go play Skyrim" crowd. Try a little less dissmissal and a little more imagination applied to the realities if the setting.

Imagine what one could do with a bow so strong you NEEDED power armor to draw it.

Alright, sure, bows aren't good in all-out combat, but bows would be fantastic for stealth attacks and not raising the alarm. Quiet, lethal, and quick. I would love bows and arrows of several varieties in the game.

If the Falloutverse was real world guns would be extremely scarce and would be prized weapons handed down by generations of warlords.

But that doesn't make for a fun game, so instead of hitting each other with junk metal swords and shooting dead wood longbows its back to guns. Also helps to differentiate it from TES.

Also handy when you just need to deal with some rats/dogs/roaches, and don't want to waste those last couple dozen rounds you're saving for the next Slaver attack. (looking at things from the standpoint of Joe Random Settler, not Super Hero Protagonist Man, who can go anywhere and loot thousands of rounds off the corpses of the fallen multitude. )

Ohh ole 2-caps revolver makes the most beautiful sound its note's are so clear. It is too bad the only song I can play with it is a Dirge.

(And I would not worry this will certainly be an early mod (bows and such) that I am sure will be quite popular.)

Also Thungrim I think you power armor assisted bow most likely would qualify as a ballista hehe

Just to clear up a couple points since people started dragging fact into things on this, any type of firearm that you put a silencer on your reducing the muzzle velocity of the bullet because of the gas baffles, making it hit a target with less force than an un-silenced round. The silenced .22 caliber pistol was actually only considered to be potentially lethal at contact, or near contact, shots to the skull.

Crossbows were designed pretty much as an anti-tank weapon against the medieval tanks, the armored knight on horseback. Inside, I think the range was listed at 50 feet, most crossbows hit with more velocity transfer than your average high power hunting rifle with a sharp drop off in the range and power curve after that. Effectively though, crossbows could punch through armor plating that your average musketball just knocked a dent it.

Bows aren't "terribly" hard to manufacture if you slip some modern materials in the mix, its the arrows that take lots of skill to manufacture by hand to keep them aerodynamic enough to get distance and accuracy from the shot.

Yep! Like modt things, modern manufacture has made us forget how hard it is to make the simplest looking things. At least after an arrow is fletched there's the chance it can be used more than once.

To add to the utility of crossbows, they also required far less training and strength to use. Crank-draw, point, fire.

No.

The game is meant to be play how you want. If you don't want to use them don't in my opinion.

An auto crossbow would be pretty kickass to have. Just saying.

You know there is a reason the modern army of today does not use bows, regardless of how great we could make them now. In FO where guns and ammo are abundant I just don't see any reason to go backwards as far as arms are concerned. And yeah sure anyone can come up with that one unique scenario where the perfectly matched bow would work, but all those scenarios can all be countered with the perfectly matched firearm.

The Fallout universe is pretty zany and really allows for almost anything an individual would want. There are Super Mutants with nail boards and cobbled hunting rifles (that use .32 ammo even though I don't know anyone who hunts with .32 caliber ammo), and raiders hacking at you with knives side by side with other raiders firing sub-machine guns. You also have laser and plasma weaponry that somehow exists in a world that never had circuit miniaturization...so yeah, no reason someone couldn't opt for a bow. If there was ever a game universe wherein very little is sacrosanct, it's Fallout.

I think it comes down to play style. I like to play abit more sneakily. Yes I kill every enemy in an area, but i prefer the idea of being able to take them down one at a time without alerting the rest. Maybe not so much a bow but a crossbow would allow that.

And since we are in the future, why not Auto crossbows? Realistically you could make a semi auto crossbow with magazine with bolts instead of bullets couldn't you? Wouldn't be any different to a pistol except quieter.