– The MAIN difference I’ve noticed regarding ranged attacks with the current release is that EVERYONE (your starters, new recruits, and presumably your enemies as well) has HIGHER ranged skill and so gets in hits more often (hence more noticing of the insane potential damage they do)
– Another small change is that (without mastery) crossbows have been upped to 50% of damage potentially ignoring armour (up from 45%), but there was a time when it was 65-70% without needing the mastery perk (which didn’t exist at the time)
– The increased incidence of hitting non-intended targets (even ones in shieldwall with a kite) has existed ever since the injury+perk update when crossbows were made less powerful (i.e. armour-ignoring ability lessened without the new mastery perk, and no longer able to fire at enemies blocked by comrades without severe risk of hitting comrades)
– I think the idea behind it is that the shieldwall is formed with the intention of blocking blows in melee, not to stop a stray bolt/arrow from ricocheting off the edge of someone else’s shield/armour/weapon (nor to block a bolt/arrow unleashed from behind you by a comrade)
– I think that, without the Bullseye perk, the chance to hit the intended target is 50% of what it would be if not blocked, and then the other 50% of the unblocked chance is divided into a 20-25% chance to hit either of the two blocking tiles (or 40-50% if there’s one tile blocking in a straight line) and probably a tiny % chance to hit any of the other adjacent tiles
– My companion crossbowman had the Quick attribute that increases initiative, and I gave him the Dodge and Anticipation perks to protect against enemy fire, but then got killed in a crossbow duel when he had a height advantage and an unblocked target, and came back to life with partially collapsed lungs
