But I'm guessing your wanting to know about how they work ingame? The reason that throwing made so much damage was that any throwing build had 6+ power throw, which gave them 60% bonus damage. (Anything less than 6 PT and you are were a hybrid)
Add that throwing weapons also had more base damage than bows and xbows don't have any way to increase damage, they could do VERY high damage. This is why they were not that dependent on projectile speed as archers and xbows.
Well actually, I looked into it (60% really isn't that large of a damage bonus, their base damage isn't
that high), and here's what I discovered: lower projectile speed weapons get a larger damage increase from a positive speed bonus, and higher projectile speed weapons get a smaller increase from it.
...the damage bonus from target movement speed is rather low compared to weapons with lower projectile speed. Reason for that is that the bonus is calculated based on which percentage the movement speed has compared with the shot speed. For a high shot speed weapon like a sniper crossbow the possible movement speeds are small and thus the bonus damage is small too. Throwing weapons profits the most if the target is running into the shot because of their low projectile velocities.
There's also this whole big deal about air friction reducing projectile speed and reducing damage from it, and gravity also playing a part in projectile damage.
The damage of projectile also depends on the projectile speed. In the module.ini file there is also a switch that determines if this speed bonus scales linearly or quadratically. It has a significant effect on the damage, especially if it scales with power of 2. The bigger bows have a higher shot speed.
Oh god, no. The ingame speed-damage relation is only there to dermine damage gain or loss if the impact damage differs from the starting damage. That means if the projectile is fired point blank and does not alter its speed on the way, the damage is not related at all to the "shot speed".
However if a projectile is fired over a bigger distance or uphill it loses speed and thus damage. On the other side shooting at a lower target might increase the damage, especially if the initial shot speed is low like it is the case for a throwing weapon.
The ingame calc is based on the concept of kinetic energy(Ekin = 1/2 * m * v^2), that means the damage-speed relation is almost a square(^1.9) one.
Here some examples to make it clear. I'm using the square relation.
impact_speed = k * starting_speed
impact_damage = k^2 * normal_damage
1.
A crossbow is fired point blank at a target. The air friction can't lower the projectile speed significantly. Furthermore there is no height difference between shooter and victim.
k=1
impact_speed = starting_speed
impact_damage = normal_damage
2.
An arrow is fired at a far away target and scores a lucky hit. However the projectile velocity is lowered to 60% by the air friction during the flight.
k=0.6
impact_speed = 0.6 * starting_speed
impact_damage = 0.36 * normal_damage
3. A slow shot speed throwing weapon is thrown down a high wall and hits. The air friction can be neclected because of the short distance but gravity increases the speed greatly compared to the starting speed. It is 80% faster on impact.
k=1.8
impact_speed = 1.8 * starting_speed
impact_damage = 3.24 * normal_damage
4. From the same wall a heavy crossbow is fired. Again, the friction can be neclected but because of the initial high shooting speed of the crossbow, the fall can only increase the projectile speed by a small percentive(1%).
k=1.01
impact_speed = 1.01 * starting_speed
impact_damage = 1.02 * normal_damage
The short of it is that rain sucks. Running slow sucks, shooting inconsistent with your spec's normal performance sucks, it sucks. I wish it'd happen less often.
I love rain so much in real life, too.
