Power Draw for Crossbows

[Lucidvizion]

I know this hasn't been suggested yet. I ran a search

I know power draw obviously has no effect on the range or damage of a crossbow for obvious reasons. BUT, wouldn't it make sense that it should reduce the 'redrawing'/'reloading' time of the crossbow?

My 2 denars.

 

[Volkier]

Crossbows were designed for nearly ANYBODY to be able to use them. What you actually do, is step on a small 'hoop', and use a small 'leaver' to pull the bolt upwards. It takes long, but very little strength is required.

What I DO find a bit strange though, is the ability to load crossbows on horseback. I never tried it, since I don't have a crossbow, but I find it pretty difficult to imagine unless u have 3 hands lol.. Maybe power draw can be implimented there however? ::\ Nothing too much to worry about though in my oppinion... Crossbows still take a lot longer to load than bows...

 

[steelmax]

strengh makes more sense

 

[Lucidvizion]

strengh makes more sense

I suppose but you could also make the same case for power draw with regular bows.

Crossbows were designed for nearly ANYBODY to be able to use them. What you actually do, is step on a small 'hoop', and use a small 'leaver' to pull the bolt upwards. It takes long, but very little strength is required.

What I DO find a bit strange though, is the ability to load crossbows on horseback. I never tried it, since I don't have a crossbow, but I find it pretty difficult to imagine unless u have 3 hands lol.. Maybe power draw can be implimented there however? ::\ Nothing too much to worry about though in my oppinion... Crossbows still take a lot longer to load than bows...

I was always under the impression the lighter crossbows(hunting and light, perhaps?) were always hand drawn while the heavier, foot type crossbows had the foot hoop. So on top of this suggestion I'd even throw in the ability to load a lighter crossbow when on foot without having to stop. Then again, the majority of my knowledge of middle age weaponry comes mainly from pen and paper D&D games

 

[Busses]

I have seen an example of a crossbow that is reloaded simply by pulling a lever underneath that draws the string ready for firing, this could work on a horse but I doubt it. To much strength would be needed to actually pull this lever into place. Il try to find the source of this "knowledge"

 

[Lost-Lamb]

There also was the Goats foot

 

[Damien]

Historically, two basic 'types' of crossbows exist.

The first is the famous type that has a stirrup which you step into and crank some type of lever to pull the string back (the type of lever/crank would depend on the style of crossbow).


The second type is a much lighter style of crossbow. You simply hold the crossbow as normal, brace the butt against your chest, and yank the string back until it clicks into place.


The second type of crossbow are not very powerful and their range is pretty pathetic (by comparison, at least).




As to the OP's suggestion: In theory it's nice, but if Armagan is going for some semblance of realism in Mount & Blade, I can't foresee him using anything like what you suggest. Crossbows -ALREADY- load far faster than they would in real life. Wanting to load them even faster is just silly, if you really think about it.

 

[svart]

I would assume someone who used crossbow for a few years would reload crossbows faster than someone who used it for say a month.

If the power draw skill would be used to make crossbow reload faster it would mostly be useful for people that primarly use crossbows, and won't be useful unless this effect will be noticable. (which is a bit far fetched)
On the other hand if the main crossbow skill would be used for this, than crossbow would stay as a secondry weapon, since you can't really focus on improving this skill.

Skills represent the various knowledge concerning weapons, so either of these two would somewhat make sense.

 

[Hansundfranz]

All stronger crossbows had levers, or winches to help pulling the springs back

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow

 

[Archonsod]

IIRC all crossbows made use of a lever, crank or similar device to load.
The stirrup version only appeared on arbalests, which were a slightly later invention. The stirrup was needed as both hands were required to operate the windlass (kind of a double winch) which drew the string back.

 

[Volkier]

Well, was talking about the 'stirrup' version, since thats what the graphic indicates currently when the troops are reloading.. Then again maybe they are just bending down cuz' they got cramps.. u never know :

I'm happy enough with the current system personally, even though I would think it would take longer to reload a crossbow while on horseback ::\

 

[Manu]

Historically, two basic 'types' of crossbows exist.

The first is the famous type that has a stirrup which you step into and crank some type of lever to pull the string back (the type of lever/crank would depend on the style of crossbow).

Another design had a stirrup and fetured a hook passe in the user's belt.

You bent dow to catch the rope with the hook, then stood up to pull the rope into firing position.

 

[LavaLampMaster]

The second type is a much lighter style of crossbow. You simply hold the crossbow as normal, brace the butt against your chest, and yank the string back until it clicks into place.


The second type of crossbow are not very powerful and their range is pretty pathetic (by comparison, at least).

if I'm not mistaken, didn't people who couldn't use a bow but could afford a horse use those for skirmishing and such things?

 

[calandale]

As to the OP's suggestion:  In theory it's nice, but if Armagan is going for some semblance of realism in Mount & Blade, I can't foresee him using anything like what you suggest. Crossbows -ALREADY- load far faster than they would in real life. Wanting to load them even faster is just silly, if you really think about it.

So, the obvious solution is to go in the other direction, and make the current speed the quickest that they can load. The speed isn't that bad for a fairly light crossbow, but it is ridiculous for anything with the power that some of these seem to have. Then again, given the range at which the damage seems high, none of these bows may be all that powerfull.

 

[Eisenhouwer]

What I DO find a bit strange though, is the ability to load crossbows on horseback. I never tried it, since I don't have a crossbow, but I find it pretty difficult to imagine unless u have 3 hands lol..

This could sound strange but than again if you use a bow on horse you also need both hands to use it so...

About crossbows I like the way they are, sure they lack the damage if your a high level but let me ask you this why was the crossbow invent for in the first place?

 

[thesneakster]

What I DO find a bit strange though, is the ability to load crossbows on horseback. I never tried it, since I don't have a crossbow, but I find it pretty difficult to imagine unless u have 3 hands lol..

This could sound strange but than again if you use a bow on horse you also need both hands to use it so...

umm... he's refering to the fact that with some other crossbows you need to rest them on the ground, standing above them (which is impossoble on a horse)

 

[kaziowichura]

crossbows are ok. at least the light version, the heavier one should be reloaded slower (about + 2-3 seconds to what is now) but they also should have higher dammage (like 60-70 dmg for sniper xbow)... and please change the dmg of bows - they shouldn't do 15-20 dmg to dark knights, i know that some will start mentioning the agincourt, crecy and so on but we need to keep in mind that the main reason for using xbows was the fact that arrows were rarelly able to penetrate a good armour.