Better Sniping through tweaks
I was getting a bit frustrated with sniping, so I looked it up on the googles to see if anyone figured out a tweak. I don't consider this cheating, personally.
What's frustrating to me is that the designers put an artificial cap on the distance from the player character that damage can be done to an actor.
I'm guessing that this stops odd things from happening in some rare circumstances, like it probably stops dragons from killing townspeople when you are nowhere nearby, but it also stops you from doing damage with your arrows beyond what seems like a fairly short distance.
To fix: open My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini
and add the lines:
While looking for that fix, I also found one which changes the default bow angle, so that it shoots directly forward through the crosshair (by default the bow arcs up a bit for you, which is fine for close to mid range combat, but makes sniping a bit tougher than it should be sometimes). In Oblivion, I would snipe by aiming directly at the head, and then when the arrow would drop slightly, it would still hit the character somewhere (no headshots in Tamriel), but in Skyrim, doing this sometimes results in the arrow going over the character's head, which is dumb. The arrow should never go up from where you aim, unless there is a mysterious updraft or a magnet on the ceiling or something.
So, to make the bow fire more like it did in Oblivion and Morrowind add these lines:
What's frustrating to me is that the designers put an artificial cap on the distance from the player character that damage can be done to an actor.
I'm guessing that this stops odd things from happening in some rare circumstances, like it probably stops dragons from killing townspeople when you are nowhere nearby, but it also stops you from doing damage with your arrows beyond what seems like a fairly short distance.
To fix: open My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini
and add the lines:
[Actor] fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000
While looking for that fix, I also found one which changes the default bow angle, so that it shoots directly forward through the crosshair (by default the bow arcs up a bit for you, which is fine for close to mid range combat, but makes sniping a bit tougher than it should be sometimes). In Oblivion, I would snipe by aiming directly at the head, and then when the arrow would drop slightly, it would still hit the character somewhere (no headshots in Tamriel), but in Skyrim, doing this sometimes results in the arrow going over the character's head, which is dumb. The arrow should never go up from where you aim, unless there is a mysterious updraft or a magnet on the ceiling or something.
So, to make the bow fire more like it did in Oblivion and Morrowind add these lines:
[Combat] fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0 fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0 f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7 f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7
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Comments
The distance problem was most noticeable when I was out in the plains of Whiterun Hold, shooting at mammoths, a pretty easy target, even at about 200 yards, but it wouldn't let me actually hurt them until I was within about 50 yards. That's when I even realized it was an issue. I'd run into it before, but against smaller targets, I had just assumed I'd missed, but against the mammoths, it was very clear that I hit the mammoth, and it simply didn't hurt.
I had this same exact thing happen just last night. I was on a cliff, aiming nearly straight down at my bandit prey, and could not understand how I continued to seemingly miss on every single shot, release arc and all. Now I understand why ...what a goofy damage system. Close enough to get an idea of the bandit's health bar, but far enough to have my ebony arrow turn into a toothpick upon impact.
200 yards is rifle range
A modern arrow has the velocity of 220 feet/s. When you do the math that equals 58 feet lbs. of kinetic energy
Large game, like grizzly bear or buffalo need >66 feet lbs. of kinetic energy to injure
So, an arrow hitting a mammouth at 200 yards WILL be like a toothpick
lots more math here, http://www.thudscave.com/npaa/articles/howhard.htm and, I may have read it all wrong
Also, keep your realism out of a game that allows me to shoot fireballs from my hands. :P
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There are longbows etc in the past that had in excess of 100lb draws, and a huge effective range. A 500 grain arrow would be going 315 ft/s at 110 lb draw (assuming 110 lbs * 1 ft draw distance = 110 ft*lbs Potential energy). If we assume that at target the 250 ft/sec at the target due to speed losses (I think conservative), there would be an average KE remaining of 69 ft-lbs.
My brother has a 90 lb draw on his bow (IRL).
A 200 yard shot is not out of the question with a bow... and if you're aiming at a mammoth, you can use a heavier (slower) arrow...
I have in fact seen (on TV) modern bows with much higher draws for hunting stupid things like rhino or elephants using compound bows. They typically went in close for head/neck shots and had rifle backup.
I think, this shot would not have injured the dragon pre-tweak. (I'm zoomed in, BTW)
I pretty much assume a spell like sparks shoots 10 yards in game.