I love Crossbows and would very much like to see them return. As well as throwing weapons (Knives, Stars, Darts, etc...) and Spears. All 3 are weapons that NEVER should have gone away.

Gotcha. I actually realized after I posted that's probably what you meant, as I didn't know for sure if Spetz was a counter terrorism unit. I always assumed they were just an elite military unite like Seals, Berets, and Marine Recon.

I'd imagine your right, after all, a weapon that can only be fired two times per minute would be a little impractical from a gameplay standpoint. But if crossbows were implemented, they probably should reload slower than bows, just not quite as slow as in real life. Although I seem to recall that in Morrowind, the main advantage that crossbows had was that whereas other bows required you to pull them back all the way to fire the most effective shots, for crossbows, no pulling back was necessary. Crossbows being easier to use though could be reflected if the game has something similar to New Vegas' skill strength requirements for weapons, with crossbows having a lower requirement than longbows. If this were done something like how New Vegas approached it where you could use all weapons in the game at any time but they'd be less effective if you didn't meet the requirements, I wouldn't mind it. Now if it's like some games where the weapon magically can't be equipped at all if you don't meet an arbitrary requirementm, than I'd hate it.

Of course, any discussion of how crossbows should be implemented becomes irrelevant if crossbows aren't in the game at all.

English and Welsh longbow men were required by law to train with the bow from the day they could walk. Only a mature and fully trained man could draw back the bow and actually use it. You can actually see on the bodies of ancient exhumed longbow men that they have heavier bone mass on one side of the body due to years of drawing the bow.

It is recorded that the Welsh and English Yeomanry had an almost supernatural accuracy with the long bow and as a result were feared and hated across Europe, especially by the aristocracy. Any British longbow man caught would instantly have his bow drawing fingers cut off. This is why the English put two fingers up to people as an insult, to show that they still have them.

What part of your anatomy do you actualy use to reload dual-weilded crossbows?

Anyway, on topic, I wouldn't be against crossbows, they fit the lore fine and I can't imagine them being so hard to ballance like others suggest, they don't have any sort of intristic overpowering features (unlike a spear's reach for example)

Ah, very very true. Anyone could pick up a crossbow in Morrowind, Oblivion, or even most likely Skyrim and easily pickoff a target, whereas, I personally choose a bow because it's personally gratifying to pick someone off with a bow :hubbahubba:

There's two books by the guy who wrote Sherlock Homeboy (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) called The White Company, and the prequel Sir Nigel. Basically show the bowmen of England to be badass brawlers. I think it's Sir Nigel where a dude named Samkin Ayleward outshoots a crossbowan with his longbow. Obviously fiction (though maybe possible) but it's just a good novel overall.

*what I meant to add was, I hope this is the kind of archer we can be in Skyrim. Not some Legolas pansy. I want a dude who gets up close, drops a couple peeps with 1-2 shots, then busts out his broadsword and cleaves the rest.

I agree. Longbow men were easy to spot ( so you could cut of their fingers ) because of their massive shoulders. Basically a longbow man could kill you with one punch. Another good book is Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell. :thumbsup:

you have been playing to much modern warfare games. spetznaz would win vs most american things. http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSd5Fb3-2Q2z_-bxvdPwx_qwlHFdmc810rbtlVBNlByVdQcm711 and http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRToi14x-333BhcFWp6k5zBGZL1ubFw1DsRvZNWoZXVYlmYtHNL


anyway...


bow- load,draw, aim, shoot

crossbow- aim,shoot,load

I'm wondering how damage would be dealt with. with marksmanship in Oblivion, damage was related to strength, but if strength is not a limiting factor when using a cross bow (it seems reload time is the primary disadvange to their use), then how could it possibly fall under a marksmanship skill that is governed by strength?


Despite penning a timeless character known for unshakable reason and unshakable adherence to logical inquiry, Conan Doyle was actually very supersticious, he attended seances and psychic readings. http://www.neatorama.com/2010/01/04/the-end-of-a-beautiful-friendship-houdini-and-arthur-conan-doyle/ that his good friend Harry Houdini has supernatural powers despite Houdini's repeated efforts to show him that all the magical apparitions and happenings were merely trickery or coincidence. I have personally not read any Sherlock Holmes, and though i'm sure it is every bit as good as people have said, I feel a certain disinclination to grant him credit towards any supposedly factual revelations know his background. Call me discriminitory, but greatness is rare on such multiple planes.

S.A.S. :ninja:

Actually, what we know about the British longbow men is historically correct. There are countless records. It would not have been too hard for Conan Doyle to access these.

Yea, he was a pulp author really, I wouldn't ever look to his books for historical accuracy, although it might be fun to fact check that White Company book against the real wars it was based on.

But RoadRunner is correct about the bowman skeletons, who have bone spurs on their arms from where oversized biceps were attached.

I'm well aware that the skill require to weild a longbow probably limited their use to pretty burly dudes, i was mostly just in the mood for dogging on Doyle.
sorry, what a heinous sidetrack. Back to crossbows.

If crossbows to make an appearence, i really hope that the bolts are more than just thin little slivers. http://www.adrax.com/watsons/dart.jpg of that time could be pretty hefty to give them the punch to bust through multple armor layers. The bolts in morowind just seemed pitiful. I know that nowdays, crossbow bolts are made of thin shafts of carbon similar to modern arrows, but and the most streamlined ones and not as small and feeble as the crossbow bolts in morrowind (not to mention the fact that they were damn hard to find if you dropped them)

Yeah a trained English yeoman archer could fire over 20 arrows a minute, which would be too fast even for a game. I think their doing the right thing by slowing down but powering up the archery, it was lame in Oblivion. As for crossbows I'd like to see some, but they'd have to feel heavy cumbersome and really powerful. Bolts can't simply ping out of them like they did in Morrowind, they need decent sound effects.

Lets not forget that we are not Mere mortals we are sort of super human in this game (Because we're the last of the dragonborn of course)

Huh????

:facepalm:

*Imagines a lot of strange and sometimes erotic images*

:P I wonder maybe they have bolt magazines hehe

http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FET/2PYJ/G1QWB4FL/FET2PYJG1QWB4FL.MEDIUM.jpg http://steelcloset.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/van-helsing-crossbow.jpg?

Once you pop a magazine or ammunition carriage onto a crossbow and start adding automatic or even semi-automatic firing mechanisms, i think it will become far too bulky to manage one in each hand.

GIVE

nice and shinny crossbow of death.

They were in Morrowind...I'm not sure if I need to say anything else to counter this statement.

Yes yes, you love it and would like to have one (I know i would). But notice that never once does Van Helsing pick up another and go charging off after those undead with his arms all akimbo. why not? because it would look rediculous. Even if he got lucky and hit them a couple times, his enemies would dies laughing first, and we just can't have that because Van Helsing is a classy guy. With his hat and badass crossbow and cocky smile that makes women want to have his babies (I know i would). Running around like some rush week fratboy in halo with two weapons perched precariously at your fingertips instead of shouldered securely with the enemy right in your sights is just going to get you quickly made into a leaky sack of meat.

Unless of course you are using hand crossbows, which are basically small crossbows with a pistol grip and darts. They're nowhere near as cool as a proper corssbow in my opinion, but they are certainly possible to dual wield if you have some skill, and the darts can be poisoned like any weapon for great effect.

those fit with lore, how exactly would you propose they even animate 2 xbow's being reloaded at the same time? I know magic isn't real, but it exists within the game... yet people still have only 2 arms in TES games making dual weild xbow's completely useless and impracticle.

The game using magic is not an excuse to put ANYTHING into the game no matter how stupid. It just means things don't have to be completely realistic.

My ides wouldn't upset to many people seeing how iron warhammers do less damage than glass maces and magic rings allow you to breathe under water. dual crossbows would be silly. I'm saying a crossbow with a sword or something. I'm talking about a minature lever action bow, with a magazine. The typical lever action (im not talking about shotguns) I've seen require you to pull. but if you reversed it to push, you could use your hips or shoulder to rechamer each shot. That idea or an even smaller crossbow fitted on your wrist.. VERY low damage VERY low accuracy but it doubles the effect of poison or paralyze

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out both weapons would be low damage and low accuracy

And one has to consider the quite unique structure of even normal bows in TES. They're a metal core possibly covered with wood laminate or simply a curved piece metal or glass (i have no idea how that works) with a piece of incredibly tough string joining the two ends together to make a bow. The strength necessary to draw these would be immense (but people in Tamriel can carry several suits of metal armor around with them with only average strength) and the release of the stored energy could probably match the power of an earth crossbow.