A slight point you guys might be missing:
Can it not be that what you feel as loomed archery is not really overpowered, but to get those items you need to be an archer for around 6 gens and thus have a lot of xp and be able to shoot decently?
Example: a MW rus bow does no the same damage as a long bow, but with better accuracy and shoot speed, according to
http://alpha-lider19.ru/MB/ The total damage increase is of +5 (+3 from bow, +2 from arrow). Melee weapons receive +3 damage (unless very powerful, such as great maul (+4).
However, a bows accuracy increases only by +2, so it effectively increases by
-1 from the bow damage (i dont know if arrow damage reduces accuracy as well, if it does this is -3!).
So you get a more damaging, less accurate, with slightly higher missile speed (+3).
To do this, however, you have to spend
twice as many gens as any melee (maybe shielders not) to get a slightly higher advantage. In this 3 gens, the melee can get a +3 armor, which, for mail and above (what most people use) is +5 (at least, maybe more for plate).
Using the calculator above and 6 PD, 163 wpf (18/21 build, the runner) and rus bow + bodkins (28 p) v 30 armor gives 4/5 less damage than against 35 armor with MW rus and MW bodkins. This is at the cost of the slight accuracy (balanced by the higher missile speed i think) and loss of speed bonus from higher missile speed (This is why if you charge an archer head on you get hit much harder, so dont run straight at him...).
EDIT: this damage increase is only the difference between consistently needing one less arrow when before the archer let you with a few hitpoints, now he actually kills you, which is what looms should do imo
And one last point: Even with high end equipment and barely breaking even goldwise (rus + 2 bodkins, the archer only gets 34 shots and running, whereas the melee gets unlimited hits.
And you say now that loomed archery is OP? I dont think so, I just think after 6 gens (or more) as an archer, youve learnt enough to shoot properly and actually damage. This is the reason why "loomed archery is OP" blab la bla.
Also, less QQing, more raiding!
