Psychoyeah: I did account for powerdrawbonus, but not wpf(crpg blackbox alchemy) the numbers are accurate enough for comparison.
Strider: The ammoamount is correct, I wrote MW Bolts, not MW steel bolts that makes the dmg even higher.
The point here is not if 1slot crossbows are equal,sligthly better or worse.
Its that dedicated melee can have the same capabilities as archers at no other cost than 3697gold.
The real upkeepcost from archery comes from repairing those bodkin arrows. While the bolts cost almost nothing to repair.
Archers face camping heavy armor shielders that 1-2 shots.(headshots are more likely ,since its easier to aim with crossbow,and harder to dodge).
Should be so lucky to actually hit them the brief second they are in line of sight ,the arrow does little dmg to their heavy armor, The crossbowuser just shields up and either moves to safe location or come running at you shield infront.
The restrictions placed on archery stem from earlier versions of crpg, where noone would consider playing crossbow, since it was so lame.
Inorder to curb the massive frustration with archery dominance,some maybe ill advised req. were put in place and has stayed this way.
No req on crossbows makes sense from a historical perspective, it displaced bow and arrow.And eventually the armored knight.
Archers wore proper armor and sidearm aswell, but somehow that is not what crpg wants archers to be.
Ingame this makes archery somewhat redundant as a class.
Crossbows have stats balanced to rival a level 30 archer
And they can be used by anyone at almost no cost.
I and many other archers play with bows no matter what, because that is what we think is fun.
But would be more fun if not pushed into beeing a pure noveltyclass.
It will happen as more and more infantry equip crossbows.
