Before you ask, claim, etc. this is not a thread created for the sole sake of complaining. Rather, it's to sate my curiosity regarding something simplistic. Basically, my question is this; why are there no crossbows? Using the same weapons again and again gets tedious & boring and there's no excuse for it outside of the lack of a desire to implement variety. There are plenty of medieval ranged weaponry Bethesda could add and I certainly don't see anything wrong with developing something new. If magic exists then so too should crossbows, bolas, throwing knives/stars, etc. Again, I'm not trying to complain (though I'm doing a good job of it anyways), I'm just wondering why all we get is a bow.

I'm going to say they will be in DLC along with spears. Think of the money they would make.

To put it straight I meant they could be included in a big DLC pack and not a small one. Surely they would make more money with this type of stuff in.

Crossbows and throwing knives and such do exist, they were present in Morrowind. They're just not playable in Skyrim (weren't in Oblivion either).

Stopped listening right around here.

Because with the exception of one Chinese weapon, crossbows can fire one bolt at a time. And they take a long time to reload.

So basically you'd have to want a weapon you can use once per fight.

And even if they do an unrealistic crossbow, it can't do anything a bow can't. So what's the point?

Yeah.. a little variety in the archery department would be cool. And it doesn't seem like it'd be as difficult as with the spear.

they removed them cause it was redundant to keep them.

Yes. Drossbows, and otherthrowing weapons are preferred. You're not alone on this.

Not to derail this, but why do people think there's a possibility new weapon types will be added with DLC? As far as I know, nothing like that has ever been done in this series. What is the basis for these hopes?

They were present in previous TES games until Oblivion. Now that people are 'used' to not playing with them, when they started from scratch with a completely new engine, code, graphics, spell system, combat system, etc...they just didn't find the time, just like a dozen other things I'm sure they'd LIKE to put back in the game.

The problem with adding them in a DLC later is the fanbase- the moment they do that, thousands of people will descend upon them screaming "If you can add that, why not add X? If you can add crossbows, why not spears? Why not throwing knives? Why not spellmaking? Why not levitation? Why not bananas???"

You see the problem...where does it end?

maybe it's much to animate and just because magic exist doesn't mean they should

Omitting spears is understandable due to the sheer volume of animation work that would have to go into it. Not only attacks, blocks, and staggers, but unique kill animations, multiple ones even, for every single creature in the game. Crossbows is another thing. It could work with the exact same physics as bows and be differentiated by much longer load time, shorter range, and heavier damage. Not even that many animations to implement, either. Same with throwing weapons. It's baffling that they refused to include these simple things, as it would have required minimal effort.

Your question could of fit in the topic title. Stop baiting people to click your topic.

Well, not with bananas, that's for sure.

Variety and verisimilitude. Crossbows already exist in the TES universe. No good reason there shouldn't be a single one in Skyrim.

Bethesda tries to strike a balance between one's options having depth and variety. You can't have everything you want and make each one a complex, unique experience - it takes too much in the way of developement resources. The Elder Scrolls is a game about giving players lots of options, but they also don't want that variety to be superficial. I suspect Bethesda didn't want to include crossbows if they were just reskinned bows, and they didn't feel that they had the resources necessary to make them different in terms of gameplay.


Yes, like that crossbow & spears DLC for Oblivion that made Bethesda millions.

Bethesda's DLC and expansions tend to have a lot of user-requested features and what not, but I wouldn't expect something like this.

Really, I just feel like these kinds of threads are "gimme-gimme threads." These aren't even really that special... I mean, a crossbow wouldn't exactly "add to the variety" because if we had it, I guarantee that even then people would be like "Why no spears? Why no halberds? I want banana's"

And besides, this is a gameworld that is rigidly set in a medieval setting. Crossbows were around, I won't deny, but the Bow fits more perfectly... and if a crossbow hit, wouldn't the already increased Bow damage effect be like, amplified a hundred times over?

I guess I'm rambling... but honestly, people should be happy with whats in the game.

If Bethesda wanted o include weapon variety, they had 5 years to do it for Oblivion. don't hold your breath folks, the damage is done. we're Use to it now tot he extent that anyone who even suggests it returning gets assailed by the hounds.

I believe M'aiq the Liar said it was silly to throw weapons or to load really, really slow crossbows. How insultingly funny. I suppose it just adds on top of all the other weapons Bethesda's already making. Adds on top of dev time. Eventually they had to cut corners, and those just didn't make the game. Simple answer, but I won't defend it. I did like throwing knives.

I'd be happy with the level of variety Morrowind had. I had no complaints about wanting more types of weapons with Morrowind. I did have complaints when they got rid of a good third to a half of the variety with Oblivion.

its because it doesnt add much to gameplay there is a lot of other things to focus on

the point of crossbows was to have more power and range sort of the reason to tying a stick to a dagger to increase range and in fantasy both items are the most used against dragons and guess what the theme is?

M'aiq's comments on thrown weapons and other ommissions is just the devs poking fun at Forumers, its not about gimmie gimmie gimmie, its can I please have the options I had in past games? and I find comments about how it doesn't add to gameplay or that there wasn't time void and null.


See Marriage, the late feature that is dual wielding, and "bar Brawls"

They were present in Morrowind, they are lore friendly.

What's funny is that the advantage to using a crossbow in Morrowind was that it had a quicker firing rate. Which was ludicrous.

Their reload speed in real life leads to an argument that says they are unrealistic for the 1v1 type of character you are in Skyrim. Here are some silly people showing a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HagCuGXJgUs. Although, in my opinion, they would be great for the first shot for a melee type warrior or something. Shoot from afar, drop the crossbow and charge.

I'm sure that crossbows and spears both got nixed because of the development time it would take to put them in. Although, crossbows do seem to be a lot less animation intensive than a spear. Sounds pretty easily modded.

When you develop a ridiculously open world game like Skyrim, you sacrifice things to make other things better. Or even add other things completely. This is probably a good example of that.