Really? A Crossbow?

Why are people against this? It is the 29th century, and the TR still uses firearms (which are becoming old even now). Go back a couple more centuries, and one has a crossbow, which is in many ways better than a gun (not quite suitable for front-line combat, but excellent for infiltration). In addition, I would expect there to be some futuristic technology improving the crossbow to be better than its modern-day equivalent (especially for VS and NC). If you do not like the crossbow, then do not use it. I myself would like some more weapon variety.

Weapon variety would be great, assuming they had already properly created niches for their current weapons. Which becomes glaringly false when you look at Scout and Battle Rifles. There are several options for infiltrators, but if you're going CQC the only choice is SMGs.

Hell, even before SMGs it was more effective to put a 2X scope on the semi-auto sniper and take that into CQC. The scout rifles prove they haven't already balanced their current variety of weapons, hence they should not attempt to create something else that most think will fit into a similar niche as a scout rifle.

Furthermore, I subscribe to the "why the ***** would you introduce medieval weapons into a game so far in the future" group. While surely one could postulate that firearms MIGHT not make sense, that in the future you would have some more epic death laser guns, I can for **** sure guarantee there wouldn't be crossbow weapons since they are currently 100% not a viable weapon used by CURRENT cutting edge military forces. In certain under developed nations I'm sure there are still those who hunt using spears, this however does not create a compelling argument for their use in a game taking place in the 29th century.

There has been a visible progression of weapon design over the course of history, and this would fly in the face of this logic that results from the infinite arms race that has permeated the entire history of mankind. It's not about realism, It's about the logical progression of weaponry. While I can't say without a doubt firearms make "sense" in the 29th century, I can 100% guarantee crossbows would not, considering their CURRENT lack of use.

Finally, concerning Tray's tweet that said "if [a crossbow] is good enough for Chewbacca its good enough for me", I have only one thing to say: that's funny, I don't see "Star Wars" written anywhere in the name of the game I'm playing. It only says "Planetside 2". If that's the kind of logic you use for game design then I want Light sabers and pod racing. Or perhaps you have no shame in ripping off ANY successful franchise, in which case please add a Quidditch minigame and Hobbits.

Lances for flashes

crossbows do make sense from a weapon perspective and are still used by special forces today, think of it this way, the cross-bow has been an effective weapon for hundreds if not thousands of years, as has the bow, and the knife, planetside soldiers still carry knives, so why not cross-bows? if a cross-bow can stay effective for a few hundred years and weapons technology not progress far past that of the present where the crossbow is still used to the point in planet-sides history ignoring vanu tech, why doesn't it make sense that the crossbow would still be viable?

Energie arrows.

I'd imagine it'd end up being somewhat like Star War's wookie crossbow. Wonder if the plasma-dart-thingies will bounce off walls like Jedi Knight 3.

I could see this replacing my TSAR-42...

I completely withdraw my previous anti-crossbow statements if these are added. Makes as much sense, but 50 times cooler.

Let SOE know: lances or DEATH!

I don't like the idea of a crossbow in PS2.

I used to do archery for a long time and at a friend's farm they had weasels going after chickens so we thought about shooting some with my bow, one went straight through a weasel's head... lol

This point has been made and unmade in another thread. Crossbows are utilised by some special forces units, but as a tool for deploying grapnel hooks and the like, not for killing people... Well, they may have been used by as a killing tool by modern forces in a few very unique and select scenarios (perhaps they couldn't find any sub-sonic ammunition or a moderator in the armory) but that in no way qualifies them for general military use.

Again, someone has already tried making this point. It's nonsensical. The reason the knife is still a viable weapon today is because nothing has superseded it technologically. This is in DIRECT contrast to the crossbow, which, as a ranged killing tool, has been made obsolete in every possible way by modern firearms.

Your argument seems to be "If crossbows are effective today, why wouldn't they be effective in Planetside?" Well, firstly, they aren't remotely effective today, not in comparison to guns, which is why they aren't used by any capable top-tier military of today as anything other than a grapnel deploying tool.

Secondly, Planetside is set 800 years into the future, and only one of the factions uses conventional weapons, the other two use energy weapons and magnetism powered weapons. With technologies like these available, why the hell would any military choose to field medieval weapons? Considering that they aren't even in general use today.

Unless they make it an infil only weapon, and allow them to shoot recon darts at long range, or to kill people without triggering detection (a la suppressor), or to deploy aforementioned grappling hooks, or to shoot tranquilizer rounds, or some kind of flashbang bolt, or a jammer bolt...

So the devs can sell it for $10 bucks a pop and perpetuate their denial of being on the cutting edge of game design!

/thread

Because the weapon variety sucks: most of the faction guns look the same(look at the 2 NC smgs, the vanu carbines look like their shotguns, and there are many other examples of unimaginative work). So why are they adding this in when everything else before now has been of very poor quality? I say they fix what they already put in the game, let's get the guns looking good before we add more weapons.

If we want to talk about realistic future warfare, then we should all be playing UAV's of some sort trying to kill each other, and most conflicts should be solved with a high payload missle or two. This, however, would not be very fun.

Or a Liberator.

Arrows will go through normal body armor when bullets wont. So will knives...The xbow should ignore body armor if they want it to be realistic at all.

Well, since BF 2142 came out in 2004 and PS1 came out in 2003.

I would say BF 2142 copied from PS1.

If it works like the ones in battlefield 2 expansions were you can make a wire to cross gaps or even rope up to things with it as well kill. Than I welcome our crossbow tyrants!

Yea but I like 2142 hell of a lot more than this. If they did add titans and mechs I will buy a sub for this game once I get a job.