How to use arrows long range in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Akshey]

I used the bow and arrow a lot in Oblivion, and I am certain I had an above average shot. I hit targets that were insanely far away first tried, and I hit moving targets with their eratic behaviors with ease. Sorry if this bragging is annoying, but I have a big problem with Skyrim and I'm certain it's not a skill issue. All of my short and medium range hits have been great and I'm loving my Assassin, however after spending a long amount of time trying to snipe a certain person at a far distance I finally came to the conclusion that there has to be some sort of bug going on. I tested a still target that was standing still about 10 seconds of sprinting away. I shot extremely low and then moved just a very small bit higher and higher each time to try and get a feel for the sweet spot until I was clearly shooting too far. The target would become aware of my presence each time but nothing seemed to hit.

[Enos]

It's very frustrating; I prided myself in clearing dungeons at the furthest distance I could in Oblivion, now I have to basically get into detectable range just to make a shot. I tried sniping a mammoth, but no matter how many times I hit it! I didn't get any damage. You pretty much have to be right on its butt to do any damage, which is odd because spells behave, completely different. You have longer range with spells than you do arrows.

[Shikamaru Nara]

In order to gain in archery you must damage the target. Straightforward enough, and a concept everyone can understand. However, damaging a target with archery while in Sneak mode effectively splits the experience gained between Archery and Sneak. Not good. So, in order to gain the full effect of the damaging shot in Archery, one must exit Sneak and stand, becoming easily detectible by said target. It's quite easy to gain levels (perk points, actually) through sneak but not get the expected advancements in Archery. Splitting the experience gained from a sneak shot between the two is, in my personal opinion, a mistake. If I want all my bow shots which cause damage to help level my Archery, I cannot make any shots whilst in Sneak. Same with One-Handed. This is counter-intuitive. Sneak should be sneaking and damage done should count toward that weapon's experience.

[Badmannah]

I'm level 20 and both my Sneak and Archery are around level 60 and I'm quite happy with that. I haven't felt that either skill has been held back by anything. The triple damage sneak attack plus all the damage bonuses from equipment and perks means I one or two shot basically everything. It's pretty joyous. Around 15-20 though I started finding harder things and have been attacked a bunch recently, but after building my own armor and improving it my armor skills are raising (sadly!) and I'm still doing well.

[DevenderD]

The arrows have an arch or trajectory, just like in real life. This is a realistic imitation of an arrows flight pattern, the same physics and principled apply to a bullet or any projectile. I to have had this problem while trying to hit a bear. I'm not sure if this is intentional or a glitch, ranged shots seem to be a bit random to me. Also I find it annoying when objects, like walks or bits of scenery have invisible hit boxes surrounding them, have messed up many a sneak shot by hitting solid thin air. Wish we had an archery kill cam as well.

[Halle]

I have made all my shoots at the ranges I have taken (but the fact that the arrows arch on their own really messed me up at first, I am used to having the physics applied to an arrow shot straight like in oblivion) I don’t think I have shot far enough for this to happen to me but i will keep training, maybe it will maybe it won’t.

[Daksha90]

This is a real problem that needs to be patched. Let's not derail the topic with complaints about skill raising and trajectory. The plain and simple fact is that after a certain distance the arrows simply don't hit the target! That's right they pass right through the enemy. This is what happens there is no arguing it, it's not an ambiguous problem anymore, and it's time for it to be fixed. This is the one glaring problem with what amounts to easily the best archery in a game experience I've ever encountered. Please fix this; if an actor is rendered there is no reason for the arrow strike to not register. Even the arrows striking surfaces register, in fact enemies are still alerted to your presence and start looking for you when they should actually be dead with an arrow sticking out of them.

[Chakradevroy]

The changes there is still problems with hitting at long range, it removes what seemed like an element of 'auto-aim' that boosted the initial 50 or so yards of the arrows trajectory, making it almost laser straight. It could be that this is in fact the problem, the engine is having difficulty registering hits because of some purpose built 'feature' that Bethesda have put in for god knows what reason. We'll need to wait for the CK to come out to know for certain. Just how much it can be modified and altered will only become clear then.

[GaganGang]

The arc problem is only an issue at close to medium range, (just aim low, or "center-mass" as they call it) it's negligible when you get to targets that are behind the initial up-arc that they put into the bow because as players we automatically "learn" how to compensate while we play. It's just a matter of learning that extra millimeter of compensation. I actually like the stock settings for this because it makes long range shots overall more possible with less pointing at the sky (keeping your quarry actually on screen.) Ironically enough, as you said those long range shots aren't even making contact with any of the actors anyway.

[MACALL]

I also like how Archery is currently implemented with the exception of this 'Archery Range bug.' I was trying to shoot bandits off the tower bridge between Whiterun and the Riften valley and I was able to hit the closer NPC just like usual (estimating around 100yards in-game distance) but his buddy further out on the bridge was immune to my arrows. They just passed right through him and caused him to become active.

[Irene-I]

The archery system is fun enough that I still play it religiously, but it definitely cripples gameplay potential. Some caves are set up for perfect take downs of targets if you can manage to get up into the perch, and if you aim just right shoot into small holes in the wall for long range assassination, however this bug has made that impossible. Imagine how gratifying if mobs weren't suddenly ghosts after 100 yards.

[TheWindandRain]

I too have noticed this bug; it's very sad because it makes it hard to eliminate your targets before they see you and start clubbing you to death in melee combat. I haven't found any evidence online that Bethesda is aware of this bug or plans to make any patches for it. I am at level 16 and my sneak and archery skills are at 44/43, there's no turning back now to make a melee combat player. I guess i will have to lower the difficulty so that I can kill my targets with less shots before they get too close.

[TheWindandRain]

not sure what's wrong with this website but it won't let me edit my last post.
anyways i found the following workaround:

Add these lines to your Skyrim.ini ( "C:\Users\{username}\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Skyrim.ini" )
[Actor]
fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

"The side-effect of this is that enemies will have the potencial to notice you from proportionally further away"