Why bows with higher damage are weaker than crossbows?

[Dark Nero *=_VF_=*]

Difficulty: Nightmare. Bows skill level: 25. All bows are fully upgraded with King mods.

A Ranger Bow: damage 5500; a Dragon's Breath bow: damage 5852.
Both bows require 2 headshots to kill regular zombie.

Compound Crossbow: damage 3960; Upgraded Crossbow: damage 5280.
Both crossbows require 1 headshot to kill regular zombie.

Bows require 1 more headshot to kill a zombie despite having higher damage.

Why?

[StinVec]

Those two attributes are configured independently on each crossbow. I don't believe there is a way to change only those attributes globally on only crossbows via one setting, so they likely need to be altered on each of the different crossbow items. Unfortunately, crossbows are not all in the same file, though most are in just the one.

The headshot multiplier is controlled by this attribute on the item: DamageHeadMult
The falloff is controlled by there being different ranges configured and the different damage and force to inflict when it hits an enemy at that range

As an example:

Valentine's Crossbow
data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
Line 6989 ( CTRL+F search for ZZZZ3_Valentine_Crossbow )
DamageHeadMult(10.0); (on line 7006)

The falloff is set at three ranges: set 0, set 1 and set 2
Each set has the range, the force and the damage (and physics damage).

The range is in units, where melee swing range is about 1.5 or so usually.
Set 0 is range 10 (nearest)
Set 1 is range 25 (mid-range)
Set 2 is range 50 (farthest)

FirePointRange(0, 10.0);
FirePointDamage(0, 480.0);
FirePointForce(0, 100.0);
FirePointPhysicsDamage(0, 1.5);

FirePointRange(1, 25.0);
FirePointDamage(1, 480.0);
FirePointForce(1, 90.0);
FirePointPhysicsDamage(1, 1.3);

FirePointRange(2, 50.0);
FirePointDamage(2, 300.0);
FirePointForce(2, 70.0);
FirePointPhysicsDamage(2, 1.1);

So from 0-10 range it will use set 0's attributes, to the max of 10 units.
From 10-25 range it will use set 1's attributes.
From 25-50 range it will use set 2's attributes.
Beyond set 2's range the weapon will do nothing to the enemy.

You could also delete all of the 1 and 2 group attributes and only the group 0 will be in effect, and you can then increase its attributes to 50 or even to a very high number.

There is also bullet gravity falloff (BulletGravityFactor) attribute on the main weapon and also separately in the second code block of the same item name that immediately follows this item for while in zoomed/aimed mode (for different weapon behavior values while in aim mode). Changing this gravity to 0 on a firearm/bow weapon will remove bolts/arrows/bullets dropping as they fly.

____

Here are the locations of the different bow and crossbow weapons:

BOWS

Bow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 786
> Item name: ZZZZ_Bow

Bozak Bow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 847
> Item name: ZZZZ_Bow_Composite

Dragon's Breath
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 8257
> Item name: ZZZZ_Bow_Composite_Lunar

Deadeye's Bow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 8406
> Item name: Bow_Composite_DeadEye

Ranger Bow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_gen_dlc30.scr
> Line 194
> Item name: Bow_UrbanTrapper


CROSSBOWS

Compound Crossbow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 6818
> Item name: ZZZZ3_Crossbow

Upgraded Crossbow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 6905
> Item name: ZZZZ3_Crossbow_Upgraded

Valentine's Crossbow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 6989
> Item name: ZZZZ3_Valentine_Crossbow

Deadeye's Crossbow
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_special.scr
> Line 8320
> Item name: Crossbow_DeadEye

Heatwave
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_gaas.scr
> Line 1738
> Item name: ZZZZ3_Crossbow_PostApo

Gust of Wind
> data\scripts\inventory\inventory_gen_dlc48.scr
> Line 194
> Item name: Crossbow_SHU

_____

I hope this is useful to you and is sufficient for your question to help you configure these weapons in your game how you would like them to be.

[Dark Nero *=_VF_=*]

StinVec, thanks a lot for showing up in my thread. Not only you answered my long overdue questions, but also provided useful modding info.

How did you get to know all that info?

[StinVec]

I'm glad to help out! If there are other questions I can try to help with I will do my best and offer what help I can.

This is a little bit of my story relating to my adventures in modding Dying Light.
(I say a little bit, but I do tend toward excessive detail and verbose replies, so forgive me if it is not such a little story by the time I finish writing it)

_____
I started playing Dying Light when it released and shortly into the story you have a talk with Lena the doctor after a quest. During this conversation about fake antizin she mentions that if you find any empty antizin vials to bring them in for a reward.

Now, I had looted plenty up to this point and had never found any empty antizin vials. I thought that perhaps now they'd be found in loot. None ever showed up and it irked me greatly that they would have her say this and then not have there actually be any empty vials to loot and then sell/turn in.

This began my time with modding Dying Light, to fix this big oversight in the story that could have tied in with looting and turning in empty vials for cash. I started digging into the files and looking at the various loot items and worked on understanding as much about them and how items worked to then figure out how to create my own item. It resulted in my creating an "Empty Antizin Vial" loot item and worked out how to add it into various loot sources and it could be looted and sold to merchants for cash. My efforts were successful.

This was my first mod in Dying Light. As I had already been giving some mods on Nexus Mods a try, I uploaded my mod onto there and it released with just this one single item:

My "Created Loot Mod"
https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/127

Since then, I've added to and increased the custom items in that mod to over 150 custom crafting, valuable and consumable loot items. I also expanded to an optional version that adds Claim tickets to loot that can be exchanged to craft blueprints that produce 162 custom weapons currently that offer customizable attributes. Most appearances exist on other weapons in the game, but some have appearances that I dug out of the game files to put on them that aren't on any actual weapons you can normally find in the game. I also created various weapons such as my Hubcap Accelerator weapon that shoots hubcaps that sever limbs and stick into enemies among other custom weapons. I also created my E.V.O. Dismemberment Drone that flies around in circles above your head for a time and launches into and severs limbs from and can kill enemies, like a little 'Guardian' drone.

I split that weapon aspect of the mod off to its own mod later as well:
My CLM (Created Loot Mod) Weapon Pack
https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/202

I had also messed with combining different game functions, meshes, skins, animations and effects and made my Mutations mod that gives you 'special' elemental abilities that are in those mods, but I split them off to its own mod as well:

Mutations
https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/145

Over the last 5 years I've worked on and released a total of 25 different mods that offer different customizations and changes for the game. Many of them are a direct result of working on and expanding my Created Loot Mod that are included in it and also split off to their own mods that people can use separately.

Some of my mods are also just things I've seen people wishing for or who directly asked me if I could make them for them. My Expanded Hyper Mode mod was made because I saw someone on here asking for a way to re-enable the Hypermode effect on their games outside of the community event. I also made it 'expanded' so the hypermode effect could be enabled on any of the many weapon types and not just punches/kicks, and also able to customize how weak or strong the effect is.
https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/409

Some of my other mods try to help make up for what I believe to be shortcomings of different areas of the game, like expanding buggy loot items to also being looted in the Slums and Old Town so players aren't penalized from looting those parts if they want to go looting in those maps instead of being forced into the Countryside to loot them.
https://www.nexusmods.com/dyinglight/mods/348

Another was that the blueprint and crafting ingredient for the useful Night Hunter Booster consumable item is locked to taking part in multiplayer as you need to kill a player night hunter to loot the blueprint and craft part. I also added this blueprint and craft item to my Created Loot Mod as well that is off by default, but can be enabled so it can be looted from NPC Night Hunter/Volatile enemies for people who play single player only.

So I've put thousands and thousands of hours over the last 5 years working in the game files and creating different things.

I have a lot of incomplete mods I've done work on over the years, but I don't do as much modding as I had in the past. I primarily just keep my mods up to date with the current game version, add to what my existing mods offer, fix bugs or help people who have some problems with my or others' mods now. I also keep an eye on the forums here and on nexus for others like you who have an interest in modding the game and ask questions like you have asked that I might be able to help with.