The three “standard” crossbows, (crossbow, composite crossbow, and compound crossbow) are all pretty much a linear progression, with the slight exception that the composite crossbow takes longer to reload than the crossbow.
The pistol and repeating crossbows are both fairly awful in terms of damage, but have a fire-rate on-par with most bows, although bows would probably be far more damaging.
Bows are generally 3-6 times faster than crossbows.
The Pneumatic Bolt Driver (PBD) is fairly overpowered comparatively, basically a cross between the compound crossbow and repeating crossbow on steroids, but it’s also fairly unrealistic, so is going to get nerfed a bit in future, though the skill requirements to make it will also go down appropriately.
The huge crossbow does a lot of damage, but takes a LONG time to reload, so it’s also fairly worthless.
IMO, the compound crossbow is probably the best of the bolt-type weapons. It has higher damage and range, and reloads faster than the PBD. Mathematically, if you start with a loaded PBD and loaded compound crossbow, the compound crossbow doesn’t overtake the PBD for quite a few shots, so the PBD is better for large amounts of damage in a short time. However, if you prefer attacking at longer ranges without the chance of retaliation or plan on being in ongoing combat, against a horde or just while looting in an unsafe area, the compound crossbow is flatly better than the PBD.
