[weby]

Well for too high acc:
You could just halve it(round down), like they basically did for firearms.

As for the damage:
The examples you give 3d pi++ and 1d+4 imp, the 3d is way better in many cases as it has a single shot kill probability against unarmored people and much more damage

Against unarmored average person:
the 3d pi++ has 50% probability of going over their HP and thus giving a kill probability.

The crossbow can still take him down well but no instant kill.

Now add a DR 5 breast plate and suddenly the crossbow can at best do the 10 hp to take the target to 0 at 1/6 probability(and no damage at all 1/6), whereas the rifle has 50% probability of doing that(and even a 5% probability of requiring death roll).
(make it a dr 7 corselet the crossbow is out of the running: only half the hits do any damage at all whereas the rifle still averages 7 hits and has a 25% probability of doing the 10 damage on single hit)

Also remember that if the target has a shield he can parry the bolts but not the bullets.

As for the range advantage, you really need a good skill to gain benefit of it as 100 yards is allready -10 to skill.

So with typical soldiers skills of say 12:
Probability to hit: Crossbow quick fire 1 sec aim/crossbow full aim 3sec/Crossbow quick fire halved acc/crossbow full aim halved acc/rifle full aim
20 yard: 10/12/8/10/11
50 yard: 8/10/6/8/9
100 yard:6/8/4/6/7
200 yard:4/6/2/4/2

(the rifle is set at aiming full as te few extra seconds are so much less than reloading time)
So even with the full acc firing at> 100 yards is kind of pointless with the crossbow unless you have unlimited ammo. With halved acc even more so.


The same at "low point" PC skill values: skill 15:
3sec/Crossbow quick fire halved acc/crossbow full aim halved acc/rifle full aim
20 yard: 13/15/11/13/14
50 yard: 11/13/9/11/12
100 yard:9/11/7/9/10
200 yard:7/9/5/7/5

At these skill levels you can actually fire out to 100 yards if you have plenty of ammo and time, but more than that requires the crossbow with the full acc.

Raising the skills to more heroic levels ofcourse changes probabilities so that you start hitting further and further out.

As for historically:
Hitting the broad side of a barn(=enemy unit standing there trading salvoes) in combat was a highly improbable event for any single shot even at fairly short ranges at TL 3-4, less so at tl 5 with the breech loading rifles and such.