What would happen if we front loaded the gains from looms? I think its the wrong way around how it is now. Should be the main bonus from +1, then a bit more from +2 and finally a tiny gain with +3. As it is now it only serves to buff guys that are already very experienced at the game, and nerf guys that are new and trying to get better. We should make the game more welcoming to new guys and take out some of the artificial buffs that make the game easier for guys simply because they played longer
The economy would change a bit and loom points would become less valuable but it would be worth it for making the game less about gear/build crutching and more about how you play
If you did that you might as well just remove looms and make the starting stats slightly better.
Too many people have too many +3 items as it is. They could then have triple the amount of loomed items. This would make looms drop in price rapidly, and everyone would have them.
As an extreme example Erzengel claims to have 29 +3 items in his "shop" and 6 looms. That would mean he had the potential for 93 +1 items. Which would be enough for him to have 18 characters with +1 complete armor set and a +1 weapon.
It would also affect strat, the PP system is designed on increasing the cost to go from -2 to +3 exponentially. People would just stop at +1 and you could have a village which could outfit an army.
As someone who plays without looms, I find my current advantage that I can use any weapon/class (some days I do better with different weapons). If +1 gave the biggest/most effective improvement everyone would be able to switch between weapons and I would join the league of loomers. Hence my point "you might as well just remove looms".
IMO A better system would be one where a loom improves 1 stat at the cost reducing of 1 or 2 others. For example if you chose to increase speed it would increase by +3 but damage would decrease by -2 pierce. Make it so you can loom an item as many times as you like but each time the reduction gets slightly greater, so you can't just loom each stat.
This would reduce the number of looms available, make weapons more personalised and increase the diversity of the market place.