Oblivion Crossbow?

[cryocry]

Well, I don't think I can do this, but a crossbow could be a bow type, but fires arrows, so I guess it'd have to be very long. Second, you would have to be pretty good at adding animation to it. Third, it would be easiest to pull back the string in the animation, to animate, that is, which I don't think anyone has conquered, so you wouldn't pull a trigger, you would pull the string back. However, if it is a staff type, to hold it like a staff (unless you can alter that, which I think would be impossible, because you would have to add new animation), and have a miscelaneous object called "bolt" and create a scripted enchantment that shoots the bolts and use them up after a while. Someone has a similar mod that lets you throw shurikens. That's what I would think that you have to do to get a crossbow.

[fireforge124]

Maybe if you could find a way to always keep a bow sideways and not have the person be in sneak mode, you could make a bow design that added a "stock" under that, you could sorts make a crossbow. But it may not be possible to make a bow stay sideways like it is in sneak mode, even when the character wasn't in sneak. I'm not a modder myself, so im not sure what's possible and what's not. And even then, the hand would be in completely wrong position. Just something to throw out there.

[Peregrine]

i find it hard to believe that a crossbow would be inacurate.

 

Unlike you, I've actually studied the design for the Chinese repeating crossbow. The firing method consisted of "brace it against your chest, then slam the lever back and forth as fast as you can". It's a decent weapon for mass army battles if your opponent isn't using much armor (or the bolts are far too weak to penetrate) or if you dip them in poison, but it would be an awful rpg weapon.

 

They don't even bother with sights, stable aim, etc. The design is just inherently inaccurate, as the price of getting the high rate of fire.

 

tes is in a state of evolution and i think that the game varibles should be in that same state suchas the crossbows for oblivion should be more rapid fire type.

 

Think again. The only way to increase crossbow rate of fire is to slash the draw weight. The minimum real-world crossbow considered necessary to penetrate armor was already a slow-firing weapon, simply because the high draw weight required a complicated lever or pulley system to load it.

 

as for the semi auto-matic crossbow being impossible this is computer gamming and it was impossible to play oblivion a few years ago or months ago if you want to be accurate.

 

Oblivion was impossible because it hadn't been published yet. A semi-automatic crossbow is impossible because it would have to violate multiple laws of physics to function. See a difference?

 

so why is it that you think that a semi-automatic crossbow would be impossible.

 

A crossbow functions by storing potential energy in the spring (through whatever method used to draw it back).

 

Once the string is released, the crossbow converts that potential energy into kinetic energy, which is passed on to the bolt.

 

When the shot is finished, you have an un-bent spring, and no potential energy left. The only way to re-draw it and reset the system is to pull it back the hard way, which takes time. There is no possible mechanism to have the spring re-bend itself.

 

 

A semiautomatic firearm, on the other hand, uses gas pressure generated by the burning powder to operate the action and load the next round. Not only are the needed forces much smaller (since the loading system of a gun doesn't provide the kinetic energy for the bullet, unlike the spring of a crossbow), but you have an extra energy input from the burning gas.

 

 

 

 

If you disagree with this, you are wrong. Period. Do not even try to argue about this explanation.

[loveme4whoiam]

Peregrine is correct on this matter - now let's drop it, eh? The original post in this thread was about introducing a crossbow which had "slower rate of fire, more damage, greater distance/ speed, and better accuracy." Now, while this might not be accurate either (a skilled longbowman was easily superior in all these aspects to a skilled crossbowman) it would work much better for gameplay in Oblivion.

 

For instance, crossbows were used because they were quick to manufacture and easy to learn to use (the Crusades took thousands of them rather than bowmen) - this should be easy to replicate ingame by simply making the crossbows you can initially acquire more powerful and more accurate than bows. Then, as the player progresses with the Marksman skill (although there really should be two seperate skills for this - curse you Bethsoft!) the poewr, speed, and accuracy of bows would overtake the advantage given by the crossbows. Might take a bit of balancing, but would be worth doing right.

 

But this is, of course, a moot point for now

[lyth]

A semi-automatic crossbow is impossible because it would have to violate multiple laws of physics to function.

 

So does magic.

 

Frankly, if someone wants to do the mod, or someone likes the idea, that's up to them. If you want to help with giving ideas, that's great, but arguing about how someone's idea isn't feasable due to physics really doesn't belong here.

 

The original question is about crossbows and how to implement them in Oblivion. Whether you choose to make them faster or slower, stronger or weaker, etc is up to you as a modder. Use of the mod is up to you as a player. Personally, I agree with loveme4whoiam when he suggests that the crossbow should be easier to learn, but be relatively weaker as you progress in skill. You might be able to use some sort of logarithmic curve calculation to determine accuracy and damage relative to skill with the crossbow in order to simulate that.

 

As far as answering more of the original question.

 

Crossbow:

As far as implementation, the staff idea should work in essence, although you might have to tie loading to the end of the attack animation so that the bolt is loaded for the next shot rather than trying to pull it back by holding the mouse like the bow does. If you do this, though, you will be stuck with the bow until you reload instead of being able to ditch it and draw your melee weapon. You also end up assuming it's loaded with the current ammo already whenever you draw it. However, since we aren't constantly unstringing and stringing our bows in Oblivion when we equip them, I don't think that last part is any more of a concern.

 

Ammo:

I've seen torch mods out there that take torches as sort of ammo for a droppable quick-item queue. You could probably use a similar methodology for implementing the crossbow ammo usage.

 

Skill:

You can probably script it to take into account the bow skill, or make a new skill variable and tie it to an inventory item as has been done by similar skill mods.

 

I hope this helps someone get going in the right direction.