Reloading speed of crossbow.

[Andronicus]

Is there any plan on to slow the loading speed of crossbow?
At this moment there isn't much diffarence between a bow, and a real crossbow would take about 20~30 second to load the bolt.

 

[svart]

And in reallife you could also afford to reload in half a minute, since the distances would be much bigger.
And in reallife you could dock behind a rock while you reload, and here you can't and are vurnable.

There is a lot of difference between a bow and a crossbow ingame btw.

 

[Wood]

In real life you would most likely have a palisade shield to hide behind and shoot over. I think the crossbows are fine.

 

[Damien]

Even for the historical-minded it is often necessary to, at least, bend the truth to find a happy medium between 'realistic' and 'enjoyable/functional for a game.'


These types of decisions are made easier, as Wood and svart pointed out, by a lack of other variables that occur in the real world which do not occur in the game. These variables must be made up for in some way. That way, for crossbows, is by making them reload faster to make up for the fact that you're much more vulnerable than a real crossbowman would have been.

 

[Andronicus]

What I'm saying is, at this moment the crossbow is much more powerful then bow.
It has longer range, more damage, and the reloading speed is only only slightly slower then bow.
And While you need to use several skill point to use some of the powerful bows, you only need some STR to use a crossbow.
The only advantage I can see in using a bow in this game is when using it on horseback, but with new 0.700 you can now use light crossbow on horseback too(although loading time on horseback is much slower then on foot).
So what I'm suggesting is to make the crossbow reload slower to give a advantage to both side.

I want to see

Bow:low damage and range, but much faster loading time to crossbow.
Crossbow:High damage and range, but much slower loading time.

But at this moment its

Bow:low damage and range, and only slightly faster then crossbow.
Crossbow:High damage and range, and only slightly slower then bow.

So there isn't much point in using a bow isn't there?

 

[Narcissus]

Andronicus,

While at the lower levels of the game ... you are correct. Later on, however, is a different story. Power Draw is a skill to increase damage from bows. There isn't a skill for crossbows that increases damage. At higher levels ... bows do much more damage than crossbows.

Also, bows actually shoot quite a bit faster than crossbows. At least in my opinion they do.

Granted, crossbows load and fire in the game faster than they do in real life ... but it is to create a balance in the game.

After you reach a high level with both a bow-user and a crossbow-user ... I believe you will understand what I'm saying. Bows are still way more powerful than crossbows.

Narcissus

 

[Tarrak]

Also, light crossbows were not all that slow. There is a reason why the footstep and hook was only invented later on (and didn't increase reloadspeed), crossbows got heavier and heavier. An arbalest would indeed take half a minute it load if you only had the footstep and the not the hook.
But none of the crossbows we have aer in the category of an arbalest as none of them have steel strings.

A good crossbow would take about 4-5 times longer to reload than a bow (you can't count firerate really as that includes laying aim), and since bows could be reloaded in a few seconds easily then the reloadrate as it is is not that bad. It is perhaps a bit too fast.

Also you forget the mobility of the archer, he can move while reloading, the crossbowman can't. That is of vital difference when those infantry reach you. As a crossbowman you have to switch to melee, not always the prefereable choice, as an archer you can continue to pump arrows into them.

 

[Jhaerik]

Hehe, test this, cheat and gain XP to around level 20-30 and try a pure bowmen. You'll never think the crossbow needs to be slower again.