The Implications of the Removal of Crossbows/Potion Launchers

I think I didn't actually do what the thread asked and voice a full opinion, so here goes.

This sucks and is a bad look, to me.

I can empathize with the people it affects because of their class fantasy, and while I don't share it explicitly, I do like that weapon and the things some games do with it.

The reason given for the change seems really suspicious to me, and has tipped my group much closer to 'sooo... what's your refund policy again?' territory.

We want to care about this game still, but certain things are 'making it difficult'. That's fine, not every game is for everyone and changes are part of development. Some changes will lose some people. Crossbows alone will not lose us, but the implication of the reason Steven gave for their removal sounds like it may lead to a game we won't end up playing.

For whatever that's worth.

We have not received permission from Abarat to share the quoted post.

It doesn't create a bad look because it is untrue.

It does it for some people (at least me and everyone I know, especially my animators), if you accept it as completely true.

It is considerably harder to properly get a good animation-feeling for a melee weapon swing than a crossbow, as I understand it. Maybe they wanted a level of fidelity in crossbow-handling animation that is not the norm for games with this weapon, and they cut it because they were not willing to compromise on it.

But that doesn't seem like it should be a unilateral decision either in this type of development.

"Hey guys we couldn't make all of your characters load the crossbow perfectly in the animations so we decided to just cut them out of the game entirely."

Huh?