Crossbows are too weak as in is, in both members and free. They're slow, bolts are only equivalent to iron, so they're weak, and bolts are too hard to get in my opinion. The other bolts are too hard to get as well, so nobody bothers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So heres some of my ideas to remedy this situation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. As it is bolts are far too hard to get, needing tons of opals, pearls or archery tickets for a pathetic amount of heads, thats without needing the bolts too. I think the amount of Heads you get should be increased, I think you currently get 2 per pearl or opal and I'm not sure how many for tickets, I think this should be put up to 6-8, considering how annoying these items are to get, especially pearls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Improve crossbows by having a new bolt type, equal to Rune Arrows; Bone Bolt, made from using chisel on dragon bones to make 6-8 heads, then attaching in same was as others, members only. This would put the cost at between 400-300 per head plus the cost of bolts, dragon bones being 2.5k. They are also easily available, provided you've got the cash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Give more bolts to free players, currently crossbows are exceedingly underpowered in free, with only bolts, compared to adamant arrows. I propose making both opal and pearl bolts available in free, and purchasable from varrock and rimmington archery shops. It would also allow members to craft them, and sell them to people in the free world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Make bolts more readily available by making them smithable, 5 or 10 bolts per iron bar, because at the moment, the only place to get them in free is varrock archery shop, and I believe it only stocks about 200, compared to 600+ of every arrow type.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Make better crossbows available, normal crossbow gives a pathetic +6 ranged attack value which is less than normal shortbow or longbow, and being slower than bows I don't see why they have to be weaker too, the only thing good about them being you can use a shield, which any half decent defensive one lowers your ranged attack anyway, leaving you really with a dragonfire on free, or god book on members. I think maybe make better crossbows of better metals, make normal crossbow iron or steel, then go on up from there, making iron, steel and mith for f2p and the others members, possibly giving the rune one a special too, 100% drain, fires 5 bolts super fast, but with lowered power (Just a random idea I thought might be cool for special :)).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok thats me done about crossbows :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On my 5th point, I'm thinking make crossbows fletchable, needing 1 log (fletchable into crossbow frame), a bow string, and a metal part, that you can buy from ranged guild, but also is smithable (I'm thinking 10 per bar, putting rune at about 1.2k, and around that price in shop, the total rune crossbow being about 2.4k). It would be normal log and bronze, up to magic log and rune. This might of course make it too complicated to make and nobody would bother, so any idas would be appreciated. Im thinking 5 fletching levels more than the longbow, putting rune/magic in at 90, easily makeable by tons of fletchers.

I think having bronze-rune crossbows would be great. You make the bow and metal bits from 2 bars, and fletch the reast froma corrisponding wood. Bronze=normal, iron=oak, steel=willow, mithril=maple, adimantite=yew and finally rune=magic; and finally adding the string. Maybe you would have to use crafting to complete it, mixing the 3 skills together making more people train crafting. Seems like a good idea.

bolts = iron

 

 

 

pearl = steel

 

 

 

opal = mith

 

 

 

barbed = addy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 handed, only way to do dragon slayer on a ranger... (f2p, without pray)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what to improve? its just bad at f2p... thats why peeps are p2p :lol:

If it isn't bad, why does nobody in members use it? I want crossbows to be improved so they actually see some use. I'd use it if only barbed bolts didnt take hours of shooting targets to get even a tiny amount, and even then I could've got pre-fletched arrows that hit more damage for my tickets.

I agree, differant metals on crossbows and bolts would be awesome.

And when they were created crossbows were better than bows for attack but slower

i agree crossbows r weak and slow so thers no point using them

I might be wrong but, isnt their "brutal bolts" or are they arrows? If they are bolts, I think theres from bronze - rune.

agree with you

 

 

 

was using my phoenix crossbow to train my range today ( i had stored up several hundred bolts in my nooby days that i never used) and i was thinking the exact same things

Brutal is arrows, you need ogre compostite bow to fire :)

I might be wrong but, isnt their "brutal bolts" or are they arrows? If they are bolts, I think theres from bronze - rune.

 

 

 

barbed rune bolts :shock: owned plox...

I wholeheartedly endorse this idea. Crossbows are insanely underpowered at the moment and no use to anyone. It would be great to see crossbows as a serious competitor to the... um... other sort of bow.

i agree

me too

If anyone who supports is a member, I've posted same thing on offical forums with a couple more ideas :)

Awesome idea :D

Ok edited in some ideas I had on offical forums now :D

Well, since x-bows are 1 handed and normal bows are 2 handed weapons, normal bows should have the edge on which is better. :s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not that you need to wear a shield while you're ranging though.

i agree, ive got 600 b bolts, and being able to smith my bolts or make a better crossbow would be great.and they could coincde with targes (small -wrist worn shields that are the rangers' best friends

i think it could stay tat way.. but making bolts smithable would be good... source of income.. and range ammunition to p2p newbies..

What about craftable wooden shields (carpentry?) to use with x-bows? That way they could remain less powerful than normal bows but allow extra defence without sacrificing ranged attack.

Karils X-Bow.... but some better bolts would be awsome.

Yeah I agree with this, especially the part about making the cross bows both a fletching and smithing. I think their should be more corss skill weapons and armor.

i use crossbows all the time and i hav hundreds of opal tipped bolts.opals arent that hard to get you can just get them from general shops in varrock.crossbows are slow but when the do hit the do way mor damage than there corresponding arrows.CROSSBOWS ARE AWESOME

I can't see varrock general store stocking opals that often myself.....and with 2 tips per opal, for only 100 heads 50 opals is alot of gem mining.