5 seconds is a long time man, no expert on the subject but I don't think longbowmen in cRPG shoot that slow. Funny that when I google 'longbow firing speed', the fourth hit is cRPG and most of the others are other RPG's.
Yup, you can fire 18 times per minute in c-rpg with a longbow. A little over 3 seconds per shot. Shooting 50% faster then what is possible in real life seems kinda... a big deal for superhuman qualities. I have never heard of any military bow being fired faster then once every 4 second, and certainly not for large powerful bows like your 5 second longbow.
If you get a machine gun bow, then I get a forcefield shield.
Real life called, it said you should do a little research before inane typing.
Yes I laughed at the overwhelming irony.
For a guy who says "research" I was amused. *shrugs* Apparently he researched the RL thing but not what the game does.
Still, even if he is full of shit on that, I still want to hear more of this "knocking down people with arrows" as using the average velocity of a longbow and the average mass of a clothyard shaft, I am not seeing all that much to knock down a stationary 180lb man wearing 40 more lbs of armour and gear with every shot, though certainly I can see staggers.
My google fu also failed me on finding reputable sources on knocking people down with arrows without penetration.