Weapon development - How about crossbows?

I know that there are plenty of bow types out there already, but with some of the threads I've been reading about bows being underpowered, I started wondering about the next step in their evolution.
Historically, crossbows were developed to counteract advances in armour (eg plate armour) so if characters can get plate armour, surely there should be some scope for more powerful bows.
Crossbows were normally quite a lot slower than longbows but with much better penetration and a longer range. Perhaps these could be incorporated into the template for this new weapon type?
Damage could be equivalent to a hammer, perhaps even greater, but the rate of fire would be perhaps half or 2/3 of current bows.
What do people think?

Um, no.

You'll have to wait until GW2 for any new weapons. Until then, there's no chance of getting new types of weapons, since they'll be no new professions.

agreed...gw2.

been hoping for a hand-to-hand combat too...

Eh, there are a lot of inconsistencies with the addition of crossbows. No.

Actually, crossbows fit the Hornbow description:
Slower, nice precission, armor penetration.

They could just make crossbow skins for some hornbows, there are not many hornbows.

The only problem is animation. They would require another animation to be fired by rangers.