Topicstarter is trying to show all "+" of crossbows and all "-" of bows to compare these weapons as 2 classes. Remember that it's not correct to compare absolute numbers, i undrestand that people look on stats of crossbows and compare them to bows => qq about xbows being OP because they don't understand how things work. I'd like to make it more clear:
Crossbows (Arbalest) vs Bows (Long Bow)
1) Crossbows have better accuracy (even though it was nerfed by ~7% in the last patch). Yes, it's truth but crossbowmen often twice time to aim in comparison to archers. That's why they can make more successful shots instead of spamming arrows without precisions. Actually I would rather prefer high WPF than high PD to make more clear shots.
2) Crossbows have better projectile speed (But people always look on Arbalest, have a look on Crossbow, it's the most powerful 1slot crossbow and it has 8 less missile speed than an Arbalest. And now have a look on Horn Bow, it has only 1 less missile speed than Long Bow. And I don't even want to compare Hunting Crossbow with -17 missile speed or Light crossbow with -14 to -3 Short Bows and other bows). And everyone forgot (or probably didn't know) about rain penalty which is 25% for crossbows and only 10% for bows, so Long Bow loses ~6 points of projectile speed while Arbales loses ~18 points of projectile speed (as you see the difference is 12 projectile speed points, 1:3). Invisible rain (server-side weather change without visual effects) makes crossbowmen herp-derp and then rage.
3) Crossbows have better damage (even though it was nerfed -2 for 1 slot crossbows) but still they have 25% rain penalty while bows have 10% (bolt speed affects damage like 1% to ~1%)
4) Crossbows can hold attack to aim the infinite amount of time without increasing crosshair size.
5) The weight of Longbow is 1.8, the weight of Arbalest is 3.8 (2.0 weight or ~210% difference). The weight of Steel Bolts is 2.3 (12 steel bolts, ~0.192 weight for each bolt), Tatar Arrows has 3.5 weight (18 arrows, 0.194 weight perch each arrow). Difference in weight per ammo is ~1%.
6) Archers can take much more ammo due to the amount of arrows per quiver and free slots (Crossbowman with Arbalest barely can survive with no melee weapon or 0 slot hammer because of the countless harassments from other enemies).
7) Headshot made by Longbow kills pretty much everyone like Arbalest. Aim better.
8) Horse Crossbowery is pretty ineffective, while Horse Archery can still do something.
9) Stats of crossbows can't be affected by your attributes or skills. And this means that 35 lvl archer has much more benefits than 35 lvl crossbowman.
10) You can't reload crossbows while moving. And this makes you a perfect target (especially on open fields where crossbowmen just can't survive) for everyone. You might say that crossbowmen can find a shelter on the most of maps. I agree, but it requires time to find it and to run there => less effective shooting speed. And this also means that crossbowmen can't kite (yep, those run-jump-shoot thingy)
11) Crossbows are much slower (MW Arbalest lost 3 points of speed in the last patch, from 21 to 18, 14.2% speed loss + 7% loss from changed wpf multiplier => ~23% speed loss last patch), my calculations (all wpf spent on ranged ofc) were 8 bolts per minute with Arbalest and 20-21 arrows per minute with 6 PD longbow (262.5% difference or 12-13 more shots per minute). And this is with ideal circumstances, which are not possible because you don't have any time to aim with or move with your crossbow in this test so crossbowman was potentially dead.
12) Damage of Longbow is very variable depending on PD, heirlooms and WPF that's why i didn't make calculations. But still the difference is not even close to 262.5% like in speed. I think that 10 PD longbow deals the same damage as arbalest.
13) Crossbows can jam and it's a very big problem because you become unable to use any crossbow (warband bug) till the next round.
14) There are not that many crossbows on Strategus battles, because crossbows are expensive and not as effective as crossbows in total.
15) Longbow can still 1shot peasants.
16) Crossbows have a big attack delay because of warband mechanics (weapon speed define the animation speed => glitching animation with the fire-delay). I recall some archers whining about it on their bows, just imagine how big it is with crossbows.
17) If you hit an invisible wall with the bow you just aim a bit to the side of it and no problem. If you do this with a crossbow you lose lots of time. You can't make fast aim corrections with your crossbow, because the enemy will not be on the same place when you'll be able to make the second shot.
18) Crossbows can penetrate shields (I'd say only crossbows with very high damage and only shields with low armour. Even if you penetrate a weak shield with a crossbow the damage you deal is very gimped because it gets consumed by a shield and armour)
19) The length of projectiles are different. Due to warband mechanics you can hit by any part of your projectile (even with a feather of your arrow) and it will deal the same damage as if it was an edge of it. I didn't test it personally because it needs tools which i don't have, but it seems to be working (Need someone to test). 63 length of bolts versus 95 of all arrows (except 91 of bodkin), 150% difference. Means that you have 1.5 more chance to hit a moving target with an arrow than with a bolt if your projectile is close to it.
20) WPF penalty for archers is 2x more then for other classes (including crossbows). But this was made only to prevent high-armoured archers. I think that everyone who played early versions of crpg remember plated archers with deadly bows and 50-0 scores, that was disgusting.
21) Crossbows don't require anything except strength, it gives some extra skill points to crossbowmen. And it's very important because of the amount of involves to melee fights so PS is highly needed. But this also lock crossbows to agility builds, because if you don't have a good amount of WPF and athletics then you're a dead crossbowman.
22) Archer > crossbowman in duel (unless it's a point-blank range and crossbowman shot archer with very light armour or made a headshot). Due to the attack delay, impossibility to move while reloading and very bad reloading speed archer can just lock a crossbowman and kill him.
23) Crosshair size of crossbowmen and archers (and even throwers) is affected with the same factors when you move/jump/rotate your camera. So the one who said that you can jump with crossbows and lose less accuracy then doing the same with bows was wrong.
24) Crossbowmen rarely show better KD than archers.
So to sum up. If you still think that crossbows are that OP then i invite everyone to try it and then say what you feel about it.
