There certainly are solutions that I already tried to explain to Tydeus multiple times but apparently rolling a dice when it comes to stats is more fun.
1. Lower the missile speed for bows/xbows to a point where hitting shots consistently over medium range is difficult but not impossible:
- Number of "casual" ranged players would drop, are forced to become better or quit the class, leaving only dedicated ranged players at the servers.
- Ranged would not be able to shoot inf/cav across the entire map because of heavy arcing projectiles
- People decent enough at anticipating/reacting to incoming projectiles would actually have the time to react
- The amount of teamhits would presumably drop immensly since you can lob missiles over your own troops instead of trying the shoot through the gaps between them
2. Remove kiting via a dedicated mechanic and remove workarounds like the artificially increased ammo and weapon weight where it hurts melee capabilities. This could be done by, depending on what the engine allows for:
- Prolonging the weapon switch animation when pulling out a ranged weapon
- Decreasing the walkspeed when aiming/drawing a ranged weapon
- Decreasing the players maximum turnrate ( as it is with melee weapons ) with aimed/drawn ranged weapons to a point where normal aiming is not affected but those "run away and 180 turn quickshots" are not possible anymore
- Prevent people that carry ranged weaponry in any slot from reaching sprint speed ( not walk speed ). <- That way player acceleration - which matters greatly in terms of footwork - is not impeded in any way, yet ranged that chooses to run away indefinitely can be cought even by average ath melee builds.
With kiting eliminated and quivers and ranged weapon weight consequently reverted to a more realistic value:
- Ranged players would have more incentive only option is to fight in melee instead of running away or even implenting some PS in their builds instead of going full ath to not be outrun by a plate crutcher.
- Ranged payers could stand their ground in melee as well as defend from cav instead of constantly being dependant on melee acting as babysitters.
3. As compensation for the loss of missile speed, buff damage to point where high damage/weapon combos like a 33/18 longbower really make a difference.
- Playing ranged would be vastly more of a rewarding experience if the player posseses the skill to cope with the slow missiles instead of spamming some guy 3 times in the face with a lazer bow where the skill ceiling of your class is basically limited by the amount of headshots your target survives.
4. Remove damage drop off over range. It may not be realistic but in terms of gamebalance it helps nobody
- The problem of ranged dealing fucktons of damage for easy close-range shots and negligible damage for really hard long-range shots would disappear.
- Ranged damage would be far easier to balance with another variable out of the way.
5. Lastly, ease up on the armour restrictions a bit
- The build restrictions, especially for archers are severe enough and will not allow for a highPS/highWPF combination as long as you want to have at least decent ranged capabilities. The armor weight multipliers like for the gloves, which count at a factor of a whooping 6x is just way over the top for a class that already needs the highest skillpoint and attribute dedication of all the ranged classes. Archers shouldnt be tanky of course, but maybe being able to put on enough armour to at least survive one more swing would be nice.
In the end, ranged would be harder which equals less ranged on the server but also more rewarding to those who can handle the class. Melees: happy // Ranged: happy
The removal of kiting would mean no annoying ranged-runners anymore who are just waiting to turn around and shoot as soon as you break off your persuit but rather ranged that has capability and incentive to pull out their melee weapons. Melees: happy // Ranged: Well, sorry Artem and Vesselow but I guess most will be happy
Lower number of ranged + slower missiles means that actively dodging projectiles would portray a matter of playerskill and awareness instead of the current situation, mostly luck. Melees: happy // Ranged: happy
So what the hell are you waiting for Dupre/Balance team ? Do you want to keep this nerf buff nerf buff nerf cycle going for the rest of eternity ? Fiddling with the stats WILL NOT FIX this issue in an acceptable way for both parties, even if you proceed this way for another 5 years.
All of this only works of course if the melee lobby is able burry the hatchet just for this one single time and approves certain ranged buffs which would be a non-optional compensation for the types of nerfs listed here. I am not really expecting much cooperation but then again, I cannot imagine you 2h and pole heroes like to be range raped either everytime the balance team decides to give ranged some stats a "tad" too good.