MKMoose

A simple charge mechanic would be fitting and work well for bows as well. You could shoot three arrows per second, but at the cost of accuracy, range and power, with the only benefit being maybe raw DPS, at least against targets with a low protection tier. Alternatively, wait up to about a second (less for lighter bows, longer for heavier ones) for the aim to stabilize and to achieve full draw with higher damage, longer range and better accuracy. Then, if you keep holding the draw too long (more than ~2-4 s), you start losing not only accuracy but some of the range and damage as well. This along with potentially adjusted aiming would allow for much more skill expression with the bow while also achieving much more interesting tradeoffs with crossbows other than just the matter of damage and rate of fire. Crossbows could have higher alpha damage and would be easier to use by allowing much longer window for an accurate shot and more consistent range and damage at the cost of long reloads as well as much lower maximum range and lower accuracy than a well-timed arrow. If storing drawn crossbows is a problem, then it can be easily addressed by requiring to load the bolt again if it is stowed, or by having the crossbow slowly lose string tension (this could be fixed by replacing the string) and/or durability if cocked for too long. I love the idea for a blueprinted or Jonas tech weapon as well. Simple firearms could offer a massive-damage but low-accuracy endgame gimmick, and something more exotic could fill a gameplay niche that can't be easily filled with a period-accurate weapon.