Currently, focusing on the crossbow means that you need to commit to playing the bulk of your playthrough on foot, since the Mounted Crossbowman perk doesn't come until skill level 175. Just leveling up to that point takes ages, since crossbows have a pretty low DPS. Even on foot, you'll wind up getting way more melee hits than crossbow hits, and even your melee development lags since you're constantly stopping to reload the crossbow and falling behind the melee troops and then its hard to get a clean shot because your infantry's in the way. Its not like being a foot archer where you can lead out in front, pop off a few shots, switch to melee, switch back for a few more quick shots and so on. And even when you do finally make it to the Mounted Crossbow perk, you've been playing on foot all game already and have focused so heavily into athletics instead of riding, that the perk isn't really that desirable anymore.
All together, this makes the crossbow a very neglected class, which is a shame because they're pretty cool weapons. They're especially fun in sieges where you can take your time lining up your shots like a sniper. But I don't think a lot of players ever use them because they limit your playstyle so much. That's why I think we need some light crossbows that can be used on horseback from the beginning of the game so we can work on our riding and crossbow skills at the same time. That would make them much more versatile as a weapon class and I think a lot more players would use them.
All together, this makes the crossbow a very neglected class, which is a shame because they're pretty cool weapons. They're especially fun in sieges where you can take your time lining up your shots like a sniper. But I don't think a lot of players ever use them because they limit your playstyle so much. That's why I think we need some light crossbows that can be used on horseback from the beginning of the game so we can work on our riding and crossbow skills at the same time. That would make them much more versatile as a weapon class and I think a lot more players would use them.
