[Feedback, text only] - the Crossbow, one player's experiences & suggestions.

[_Mandrake_ 49]

Greetings, community.
 

[Preface]

The purpose of this post is to provide active testing feedback for further development.  The Crossbow is a much loved item for a subsection of the DayZ community, as well as recent inductees into the "Crossbow Life" who wish to emulate certain characters - notably Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead.

 

[General Feedback]
The initial experience of the Crossbow excited me, as I was a heavy user of the Crossbow in the DayZ Mod.

• The new Crossbow features a magazine for 1-in and 4-ready Bolts and iron sights, two very welcome features.  It also has the capability to use a 'speedloader' type attachment in the form of a 5-bolt quiver.  More about attachments below.
• Damage is slightly above the appropriate amount for defeating The Infected, effectively killing them in one shot including arm and leg hits.  It is this humble tester's opinion that the damage against Infected could be reduced to a 1-hit body kill, 2-hit limb kill (with a single limb hit leaving the Infected with a sliver of health).
• Damage is above the appropriate amount for defeating other Survivors.  Though landing a hit should be rewarding, I do not believe a player should be killed outright from "Healthy" to dead in a single bolt, unless that bolt impacts a head or unprotected centre torso at short range.
• The Crossbow's sound profile is appropriate, being very quiet and does not alert Infected when shot (unless other Infected are in eyesight of the killed target, in which case they aggro).
• The Crossbow itself is more "user friendly" due to clear aiming points compared to the Mod, whereas the ammunition is not.  More about Bolts below in "Ammunition".
• The Crossbow becomes increasingly less accurate at distances beyond 30m - see "Bugs & Problems" section below.

 

[Attachments]

• The Crossbow accepts a number of optics, namely sights used for the M4 weapon platform, such as the Red Dot Laser-Sight (RDS), or the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG).  Another very welcome addition over the Mod. 
• The bolt quiver acts as a speedloader.  Whilst I like the idea, it seems of limited use and takes up significant inventory space (x2 high, x1 wide) for just five bolts.  Visually it is very pleasing to look at, with an engraved front and is easily identified when looking for items.

 

[Ammunition]

The Crossbow uses steel bolts with broadhead tips.  These bolts can potentially be found anywhere ammunition can spawn, including at military installations.  When a bolt quiver is found it contains five bolts.  When bolts are found on their own they need to be "emptied" by right clicking the bolt, I usually gain 5 bolts from this but on occasions I have received a single bolt instead.

• Bolts are currently never retrievable after hitting an Infected or Survivor.
• Bolts can sometimes be retrieved from walls and trees, depending on the type of wall struck.
• Bolts stack up to five per 1x1 inventory slot, and can be stored inside ammo boxes.

 

[bugs and Problems]

There are some minor issues which I believe can be ironed out with minimum fuss.  Here are my thoughts.

 

• Bolts not being retrievable - it is this humble tester's opinion that bolts should be often retrievable from Infected and Survivor bodies, either by using the same method as the Mod (which could be a little clunky at times) or by placing the bolt in the victim's inventory.  There should be a percentile chance for a bolt to be ruined after striking a target.
• Accuracy at range is an issue.  Bolts deviate much more widely than anticipated, especially left and right.  Also, depending on the optic used, they can also shoot very high:  to hit a stationary Infected with an ACOG sight at 70m, I had to aim for it's foot, at which time it was struck in the head.  A Crossbow should be a 'skillshot' weapon, with minimum or no deviation left and right (when not affected by wind), and needing to zero to account for projectile drop.  Striking a horizontally moving target should be very challenging due to projectile time and drop.

 

 

[Closing and acknowledgements]

I have great expectations for the Crossbow in the DayZ standalone, and look forward to further development.  I would like to acknowledge Coyote, my partner, whom has been exceedingly patient in the active testing we have performed.  Also thanks to you for taking the time to read this.

 

Please add your own thoughts below, I welcome all viewpoints (provided they are not inflammatory).

Edited April 28, 2014 by _Mandrake_

[stolenbanjos 110]

Nice info. Maybe you could clarify something for me: I have found many loose bolts (no quiver) and they were not stackable on my hardcore or regular character. "When bolts are found on their own they need to be "emptied" by right clicking the bolt, I usually gain 5 bolts from this but on occasions I have received a single bolt instead." Are you saying you must right click the loose bolt, separate however may be in the stack, and restack them to get 5 bolts in a 1x1 inventory slot?

[Etherious 907]

I thought you could pick the bolts? Because I remember killing some armed hero back in the NWAF and it was with the only arrow I had. I went to loot him and there it was in the vicinity inventory. *Shrugs* Anyways good post. :)

[_Mandrake_ 49]

Nice info. Maybe you could clarify something for me: I have found many loose bolts (no quiver) and they were not stackable on my hardcore or regular character. "When bolts are found on their own they need to be "emptied" by right clicking the bolt, I usually gain 5 bolts from this but on occasions I have received a single bolt instead." Are you saying you must right click the loose bolt, separate however may be in the stack, and restack them to get 5 bolts in a 1x1 inventory slot?

 

That's correct, you right click the bolt to release what seems to be 1-5 bolts inside.  Effectively what you pick up is a sort of carton, such as you find other bullets in.  You can then stack them.

In fact, what you pick up can't even be loaded into the Crossbow until you "Empty" it.

 

[_Mandrake_ 49]

I thought you could pick the bolts? Because I remember killing some armed hero back in the NWAF and it was with the only arrow I had. I went to loot him and there it was in the vicinity inventory. *Shrugs* Anyways good post. :)

 

 

Interesting.  I've shot around a half-dozen would be bandits, but have never found a bolt afterwards.  I appreciate the response!

[stolenbanjos 110]

That's correct, you right click the bolt to release what seems to be 1-5 bolts inside.  Effectively what you pick up is a sort of carton, such as you find other bullets in.  You can then stack them.

In fact, what you pick up can't even be loaded into the Crossbow until you "Empty" it.

 

Gotcha. I tested about an hour ago, suhweet!

[Arnie69 0]

Nice post, I didn't realise the one bolt I found was actually a pack of five. Awesome. One thing I'm having difficulty with is combining loose bolts together. If I have one bolt in one slot, and two bolts in another, I can't seem to combine them together to make three. The combine option that appears for other types of ammo doesn't appear for bolts. Is this a bug or am I not doing it right?

[_Mandrake_ 49]

Nice post, I didn't realise the one bolt I found was actually a pack of five. Awesome. One thing I'm having difficulty with is combining loose bolts together. If I have one bolt in one slot, and two bolts in another, I can't seem to combine them together to make three. The combine option that appears for other types of ammo doesn't appear for bolts. Is this a bug or am I not doing it right?

 

Sometimes when you find a bolt, it either "Eject"s into five bolts, or one bolt.  If bolts are not stacking or combining (or loading into the Crossbow or quiver), then it needs right clicking to either Empty or Eject.

 

Edited April 29, 2014 by _Mandrake_

[MarchmelloMan 16]

Hmm then I'll just copy in my thoughts on the crossbow. From the point of a pure pvp player

->

I found a couple of crossbows but actually never wanted to keep one, cause I actually don't know why. It takes forever to reload, a mosin with LRS is by far more precise and does at least similar dmg, and compared to a M4, the crossbow just sucks in low-middle range if your enemy knows how to strafe.

Its only advantage is that it is quite silent.. but most enemies are dead anyway if you can open fire first and your enemy has to locate the shooter (no matter if loud or silent shooting). So it is actually only good for roleplaying.. in serious fights I wouldnt know a reason to choose it..

/edit: im talking of pvp not against zeds

Edited April 30, 2014 by MarchmelloMan