"Arrow damage now scales with velocity instead of being fully randomized (MCPE-161077)"
The new arrow velocity changes now affect crossbows. Because arrow damage is now tied to velocity, players must now expect arrows to deal significantly less damage at distance. This is especially evident with crossbows.
Prior to the update, crossbows on Bedrock dealt 9 points of damage. No more, no less. However in this update, the damage will consistently low roll to the lowest possible damage at distance. It is not possible to achieve a higher value of damage due to the crossbow velocity being fixed at 3.15 blocks per tick and then decreasing at distance via air drag penalty.
On Java edition, damage output is completely independent from velocity, with damage ranging from 7 points of damage to 11 points at any range. This range is not available on Bedrock. The cap damage is presumably still 9 points but now decreases at distance.
This bug is easily recreated. One example would be Ghasts in the Nether. Simply get a crossbow and an arrow of decay. Prior to the update, an arrow shot by a crossbow at any distance would leave a Ghast at half a heart - the crossbow will deal 4.5 hearts of damage 100% of the time and the Ghast has 5 hearts. With an arrow of decay, the Ghast would die in the next tick. In this update, this is not possible. A normal arrow would deal a minimum of 3.5 hearts at distance and require the arrow of decay to need 3 ticks to kill rather than 1.
This issue has been reviewed by our team.
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