[MUD-Dev] Source data on Crossbow

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 16 Jul 1997, Cynbe ru Taren wrote:

> |  http://www.gci-net.com/~users/w/wolfsoul/medieval/crossbow/cross_l_v_c.html
> 
> Excellent!

Groovy!
 
> NB:  While velocity (fps) is prolly a good measure of ability
> to hit a moving target or such, damage done to target is likely
> to scale with kinetic energy, i.e. velocity squared.  So the
> modern bolts travelling twice as fast should be four times as
> destructive, by and large.

To quote the simplified version of NII:

F=ma

also bearing in mind:

a = (v-u)/t
s = ut - 1/2at^2
s = ((v-u)/2)t

Given these formulae, and with the assumption that the missile being fired
is a particle, it's relatively easy to calculate the distance it will
travel (given launch angle), and the force of impact.

KE = mv^2

For kinetic energy will give some indication of the energy of the missile
at any point along its path (and is probably more useful if you actually
track energy in your systems).

> | NOTE: through the use of modern engineering and advanced materials,
> | modern crossbows are now much more efficient. The Excalibur Exomag has
> | a draw weight of 185 pounds, and is able to send a bolt at 290 fps.
> | The 165 pound draw weight Excalibur Exocet looses bolts at 270 fps,
> | and the 150 pound draw weight Excalibur Vixen looses bolts at 250 fps.  
> 
> The descendents of the longbow haven't been standing still either, of
> course!  When I was into archery ca 1970 or so, a novice bow had a
> draw weight of 15lb or so, and serious bows I think 50-80lb.  That was
> before the modern compound bow with eccentric cams, wings, fins and
> scopes like something out of Star Trek made the scene :).

If anyone is interested, I can try to turn these fps figures into impact
forces given average missile masses. I'm not terribly good at applying the
above, though. :)
 
> (We might note the existence of footbows, which allow the use of back
> and legs to draw them.  As far as I know, they've never seen military
> use, however.  Good for setting distance records.  Might make for sort
> of a light artillery in some game settings.  Seems safe to presume
> they can reach 2-4x the draw force of a vanilla longbow, which has to
> be drawn by one arm instead of two legs, but I haven't seen any
> numbers.)

I've not really seen much of such things, although I did know of their
existance (ie: saw them in a book once). Are there any other (un)commonly
refered to missile weapons to consider here? Perhaps ballistas.. although
that gets us into seige weapons ...

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Never enter an arsekicking contest with a porcupine."-Cohen The Barbarian