As a result of the a post in the general discussion forum, I got myself thinking about ways to make Crossbow-wielding characters more effective relative to their longbow-wielding counterparts. The decision I came down to was to make Deadshot work with single-attacks as well as with readied attacks, and to ensure that at least one of the Vital-strike chain of feats isn't a feat tax. As a result, I decided on what would amount to a minor change to the crossbowman archetype:
Deadshot (Ex)
At 3rd level, when a crossbowman makes a single attack* with a crossbow, he may add 1/2 his Dexterity modifier (minimum +1) as a bonus on his damage roll. At 11th level, this bonus becomes equal to his Dexterity modifier (minimum +1)
This ability replaces Armor Training 1.
Vital Shot (Ex)
At 6th level, a Crossbowman gains Vital Strike as a bonus feat. At 11th level he gains improved Vital Strike, and at 16th level he gains Greater Vital Strike.
This ability replaces The bonus feats gained at 6th and 16th levels, and Armor training 3.
*[Alternatively, and possibly more balanced, but more clunky "when a crossbowman makes a readied attack or attack action, to prevent it from stacking with Pinpoint Targetting and Meteor Shot].
Essentially this only replaces Deadshot and Greater Deadshot from the original archetype; everything else remains as the original archetype. Alternatively, I thought about removing Meteor Shot and Improved Deadeye from the archetype, and just grant Vital Strike and Greater Vital Strike a level later than they'd be able to pick them up, but, I'm not sure whether that would just be an irritating disincentive to take the feats at 6th and 16th level. Also, penetrating shot is one feature I don't like, but since my goal was just to change the existing archetype to work better for a fighter who specializes in Crossbows, rather than scrapping it and making something new, I decided to keep it as is.
