If anyone remembers the Road Warrior, you'll remember how scarce guns and ammo were in a post-apocalyptic world. Some of the characters used crossbows and compound bows in lieu of convential firearms.

I always thought that bows would be an interesting weapons' option for those players that want to experiment in something other than guns and energy weapons.

What are your thoughts on this? I'd like to see a developer's input as well.

I don't think it would really fit the newer games, maybe a fun mod but fallout is made with guns in mind. There might me mods for that if your on PC :thumbsup:

The argument could be made that Mad Max was misleading. I would think a stock of guns and ammo that's anywhere close to the pre-disaster level would last a very long time with a greatly reduced population.

But! We can assume that most military stockpiles where destroyed in the war, and gun stores would quickly get looted.

Most guns in the Fallout universe are hand-made or civilian owned.

Really? well it is USA so

Stockpiles destroyed from a nuclear exchange? Not very likely. There are individual military installations, armories, warehouses, and weapons factories and I can't see an enemy targeting anything related to small arms with weapons as expensive as an ICBM. Add to that a slew of sources for civilian weapons and I figure those that are left would be pretty well armed. For ammo there are always reloads.

Which is suprising because before the war the government was getting very paranoid and started trying to enforce gun-control. Ugg... don't get me started on "gun-control" legislation...

Edit: Also, Mad Max was in Australia, which is astronimically different concerning the regulation of firearms.

OT: Also by now in the fallout universe new weapons are being manufactured.

OFT: Alright I can see how a lot of weapons would survive, it doesn't make sense to target a small warehouse :sadvaultboy:

Yes I know it takes place in australia, I was talking about how a lot of weapons suvived in the US

Existing stockpiles would last a long time, but it's also *been* a long time. The Great War was in 2077, and it's now 2281. That's 204 years. How many machines from 1807 do you own? Heck, how many machines from 1807 are still operational even when we have today's massive amounts of resources available to keep them going. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that 204 years of post-nuclear neglect and decay would be even more damaging to structures, machinery and infrastructure than 204 years of explosive population growth and economic prosperity.

I have also wished for bows in Fallout. I think it makes perfect sense for them to exist for a variety of reasons. Though, granted, as time goes and reconstruction continues, you would see more and more availability of *some* types of firearms and ammunition, frex, the Service Rifle and 5.56mm rounds since they are what the NCR manufactures.

Yeah, i tought a crossbow would've been a perfect workbench schematic weapon for Fallout 3.

Yes but after 200 years the ammo level would be running pretty low.

Not really. Gun powder, primers, bullet casings are not too hard to manufacture. In fact you can make bullets in your garage pretty easily.

Yes i know that but still. Where you gonna get the gun powder from??

Any homemade powder that'll explode enough. Won't be good, but it's something. People can be resourceful.

Black powder is extremely simple to make. Just need Saltpeter, Charcoal, and Sulfur at the right proportions and there you go. Of course it's horribly dirty and will [censored] up anything that is semi-automatic, automatic, etc., but hey it works. If you want something for automatics, then you just need to find something that burns fast.

let me take a look at my special forces manual, look at the ingrediants for black powder, hell it even tells my what commonplace items i can get the ingrediants from, manure, detergents, bananas even. Hell, i can make napalm using gas and soap, this book tells me plenty, then you have books like Mantrapping, telling you all sorts of things, like how to disable a tank, or immobalize a troops transport vehicle, sabatoge piers.

I think most Americans would do okay after the apocolypse, you can find people hunting praire dogs with a .50BMG Sniper Rifle on youtube, man, i'd like to see any country try to invade us. I think we'd manage.

Love this country ^_^

There is a *huge* difference between black powder and modern propellants (mostly based on nitrocellulose), the modern propellants being vastly more efficient. Ever notice how ye olde muskets are .50 and .60 caliber and lob giant subsonic bricks of lead, while modern rifles shoot .20 and .30 caliber bullets at Mach 3? Yeah.

I think that Bows/Crossbows should be added to the game.
I also think that it isnt that hard to find small metal objects to make makeshift bullets. Forks for example would be more deadly then most sniper bullets.

Lolwut?!

Yah what are you talking about. A bullet going past the speed of sound compared to a arrow....no.

If powerful enough to stick into your flesh. You can walk up to the dying man, pull out the fork and enjoy a nice lump of human flesh whilst the victim's body has a massive hole in his body. Preheat the forks to cook the meat before you eat!

This makes no sense what so ever.