Crossbow's......... Really that effective ?

[Gather]

The point of a crossbow is the archer's arm dosen't get tired holding the weapon ready to fire: it's excellent for timed attacks: a target popping out from behind a wall and the likes.

Crossbows were also just point and shoot. A lot cheaper to make an squad of men who used crossbows then longbows (And I think it was a lot faster too).

As to why they are good? Witchhunters. Those guys be sporting the trusty ol' Crossbow.

 

[Jiggabyte]

They can also take a while to reload. Eternal Darkness (oh god he's on about it again) had a crossbow as one of the character's weapons. It worked quite well on killing Trappers but anything else it was pretty pathetic against. It took about 3 seconds to load after each shot, easy, and it dealt less damage than a sword as I recall.
Explosive bolts would help, but can't you buy explosive arrows and bullets anyway? The latter would be far more expensive, but effective.

 

[aaronx83]

well... it doesent if it only works when im stiking it up my nose. Zero Punctuation!!!!!!!!!!

 

[antigodoflife]

I can't actually think of any games which mix gun and crossbow. I don't play those kind of games...

OT Crossbows were the shotgun of the medieval world, the only problem with them was the amount of time it took to reload.

So it's like a shotgun in everyway then...

 

[toapat]

Thats a crossbow right? Dont say it is less awesome then a gun

Btw it makes a perfect trap weapon in Bioshock and that couldnt be done with a gun

thats the crossbow mark 3, also known as a rail gun

that owns

 

[Borrowed Time]

Sure, if you can get well within its range. Xbows are quite limited compared to a well crafted sniper rifle.

Then again I was also speaking from an everyday user standpoint, not a surgical strike team that has a very specialised need. =P

If you wanted to pull off a silent murder... not that I would condone such a thing.

I'd actually go for a poisoned dart or a good old fashioned laser edged knife. Er... I mean... :shifty eyes: You'll never take me alive!!!! ::runs away with arms flailing in the air::

 

[Spitfire175]

It takes skill to use making it only useful for the person who has extreme training in it.

I thought one of the big pros to the crossbow was the fact that it could be given to people with little to no training and have them point it and pull the trigger thus killing whoever is directly in front of them. Sure you're not gonna be an expert marksman with it without experience and practice, but that goes for pretty much any weapon, even guns.

Regardless though, I don't know where you get this idea that crossbows are overhyped, most games and movies I've seen treat them as they are, a projectile weapon with often more force than a normal bow, but with a slower firing rate.

You pretty much just nailed it on the head, except for fire rate. I believe that they were faster than firing a traditional bow. It was another of the advantages of the crossbow when giving it to green soldiers. The disadvantage was that they couldn't cover the same distance as a regular bow.

WRONG!
A crossbow can put 2 bolts down range in a minute, where as a regular bow can manage 6 or even more. And now we are talking about proper, old fashioned crossbows, not high tech stuff with hydraulics and automated loading systems. Also, the range of a crossbow is approximately the same as a regular bow, the projectile just reaches the target differently. A bow is maxed when it is fired in an elevated position, and the arrow falls down on the target. Same thing with the crossbow, except that aiming in the elevated firing position was nightmarishly difficult. A crossbow bolt, while having higher kinetic energy, but having poor flight qualities due to length, is better off fired directly at the target. Crossbows are not long range weapons. The bolt is at its best when fired at the distance of 25 to 100 metres, as a horizontal wave. Bows are better for raining death at the enemy from distances up to 300 metres. Also, bows were fired en masse, in volleys, sometimes in units 5 ranks deep, while crossbows had to be fired in line formation.

 

[C_sector]

I can't actually think of any games which mix gun and crossbow. I don't play those kind of games...

Half-Life?
Half-Life 2?
Deus Ex?
Bioshock?

Those all more or less make sense in context, too.

Half-Life's crossbow was intended to deliver tranquilisers, though they're effective enough to make a good weapon, too.

In Half-Life 2 it's the closest thing the human resistance can get to a sniper rifle with what the can get thier hands on.

Deus Ex uses the crossbow for stealth or non-lethal purposes; the normal bolts are good for silent kills, the tranquilisers are good for people who want to make a non-lethal run, and the flare bolts are good for making distractions; again, good for stealth characters.

Bioshock is a little harder to justify, though Trap Bolts are something that would make even less sense in bullet form... I guess this is the one that falls under 'just don't think about it too much'.

Don't forget Fable II

Furthermore, creating a regiment of crossbowmen was much cheaper and faster then a regiment of archers in medieval times because they required less training. Archers needed to be specialized in archery while mere peasants could be trained to become crossbowmen. The only downside of the crossbow was the rate of fire.

Also, with the invention of the bodkin arrow allowed archers and the cheaper crossbow men to pierce through chain-mail armor, allowing them to kill knights relatively easily, fielding a regiment of knights was far more expensive, nobility needed to be traced, horses needed to be breed and a lot of effort and resources was put in their weapons and armor. cross-bowmen and the bodkin arrow where eventually replaced with early firearms though.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I can't actually think of any games which mix gun and crossbow. I don't play those kind of games...

Timeslitters 2 has a crossbow in the weapons list and it's an awesome game.

OT Crossbows were the shotgun of the medieval world, the only problem with them was the amount of time it took to reload.

I thought they were considered the sniper rifle because they fire where you point them and are pretty shitty in close range as there is no spread and you usually get 1 shot.

OT: Weather conditions affect everything not just crossbow bolts if you want to bring that into the equation what about rockets those are heavily affect by weather. Crossbows are light and accurate which does not require a lot of training to use. although the bolts don't have to be massive they could be made smaller and say explosive tipped which would make for a better weapon than a gun.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Here's a Bow I can carry and fire with one hand, leaving my free hand for stuff like, oh I don't know... A GUN!?

If you have gun, why use the bow?

Well, its because of the following-*BULLSHIT MAKER ENGAGED* The word "cross" symbolized the Catholic religion's centerpiece of faith, and using a "cross"bow makes you feel like some kind of religious badass. Gordon Freeman's Crossbow from Half Life is Valve way of saying that Gordon is some kind of symbolism for Christianity and the Combine ar-*BULLSHIT MAKER DISENGAGED*

 

[Kycho]

forget about crossbows.

wookie bowcaster for my part.

crossbows against the rushing pikemen
and bows to thin out the ranks behind/enroute?

 

[nathan-dts]

Have you been playing Uncharted 2?

Who cares about realism, they are cool!

Plus they kill those smurf things in TWO hits, TWO I say.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Have you been playing Uncharted 2?

Who cares about realism, they are cool!

Plus they kill those smurf things in TWO hits, TWO I say.

You had to hold on to those for your life while playing the final level on hardest difficulty!

No easy task, I'll tell you that.

 

[Tiny116]

I thought they were considered the sniper rifle because they fire where you point them and are pretty shitty in close range as there is no spread and you usually get 1 shot.

I can't actually think of any games which mix gun and crossbow. I don't play those kind of games...

Timeslitters 2 has a crossbow in the weapons list and it's an awesome game. OT Crossbows were the shotgun of the medieval world, the only problem with them was the amount of time it took to reload.

That's true, I'd forgotten about Timesplitters. However, how on earth are they like shotguns...? That's just illogical.

I was putting their power into perspective. Compare the power of a handgun to a shotgun...thats the relative difference between a bow and crossbow, they used to use them to take down armoured troops because the bolts had that much power behind them. {I wasn't saying they fired like shells XD}

 

[lockeslylcrit]

Considering that even an untrained peon could use it (it took years of training for a longbowman to be suitable for war), it's just as accurate as a normal bow, it doesn't take much strength to use (only to cock), and that it pierced armor easily made it the reasonable choice of upgrade for warring countries in western Europe until the arquebus arrived on the scene. Even after the introduction of gunpowder, crossbows were cheap enough to be used in militias and army reserves.

 

[Spudgun Man]

The crossbow is considered more powerful for the reason that its a mechanical rubber band that fires bolts of metal at alarming strength and speed.

 

[Deleted]

Because its the perfect blend of mechanical parts and primitive design.

A bow could get more shots off than a crossbow though, but crossbow bolts should do more damage to prey.

 

[Daveman]

keep teh ammo and re-use it. my zombie apocalypse weapon of choice because I live in england and we don't have guns.

 

[El Poncho]

The fact that they are awesome means that reality has nothing to do with them

 

[zauxz]

Well they never jam. Another plus.