The Gemstone IV Update

Introduction
There have been a number of changes in Gemstone IV to the mechanics of archery. This update will try and give you a bit of insight into what these changes are and how they will affect the way you play and train your archer.

Defensive Changes
-Brawling no longer provides any type of defensive bonus.

Note: You finally don't have to train in brawling for defense. This is a welcome change and should free up quite a few training points
-The Ambush and Perception skills now provide a defensive bonus.

Note: This makes these two skills even more important for an archer. They now affect your AS, DS, and aiming ability.
-The enchant of the bow being used is now factored into your DS.

Note: Bows with high enchants are now more important since they will provide you with a noticeable increase in your DS.
-Bows provide more DS than crossbows.

Note: This change was probably made to offset the bonuses that you receive when aiming and kneeling with a crossbow. Unfortunately, defense is still the number one priority of archers.
-Bolt defense has been significantly dropped.

Note: This is probably the worst change that archers received. Archers will now have to be extra careful when hunting any creature that uses bolt spells.

Offensive Changes
-Kneeling while firing a crossbow only provides a +30 bonus.

Note: Crossbows used to provide a +50 bonus while kneeling. This change was probably made to offset the bonus to aiming when using a crossbow. Personally, I'd rather aim better than hit harder.

Aiming Changes
-There is a bonus to aiming when using crossbow and an even greater bonus while kneeling with a crossbow.

Note: I think this change makes a lot of sense. If it allows you to hit the eyes more often than it may be worth the hit you'll take in DS when using a crossbow over a regular bow.
-There is only a 1% chance of fumbling while aiming instead of a 5% chance.

Note: This change was put in place to offset the new combat mechanics that let you avoid an attack outright. I'm not sure how noticable this change will be, but any change that will let you fumble less is a good one.

Sniping Changes
-Chance of success is now based on ranks of Stalking and Hiding versus the target's level.

Note: This is one of the biggest changes to archery since it will allow you to successfully snipe at a much earlier age. In Gemstone III, you required 200 ranks of hiding to successfully snipe 95% of the time. Now it seems that tripling in hiding or doubling in hiding while using ranger spells is sufficient to successfully snipe a good portion of the time. Unfortunately this change and the changes to DS put classes that do not hide well at a disadvantage.
Natural Colors(601/611), Comouflage(608), and Sneaking(617) all provide a greater bonus when sniping.

Note: These spells all provide a significant bonus to staying hidden when firing a bow or crossbow. I don't go anywhere without them since the changes.

Round Time Changes
-Successfully cocking a crossbow from hiding will add 1 second to your round time.

Note: This change was made to offset the fact that cocking a crossbow from hiding is now significantly easier.
-Heavy Crossbows now have a minimum cocking time of 5 seconds.

Note: This is a welcome change for heavy crossbow users. 6 seconds seemed a little much before, since it took a minimum of 8 seconds to cock, load and fire a crossbow. Now it will only take 7.
-Dwarves and Gnomes receive a bonus when cocking crossbows.

Note: I think this is an interesting change that will certainly make Dwarven and Gnomish archers a lot more appealing to play from a statistical standpoint. Maybe elves will get some kind of bonus when using a regular bow in the future?