Missile speeds is something I am thinking about again and again and I can see how the system right now feels kinda awkward but I am hesitating to propose a change yet. This is why:
Prior to the low tier bows missile-speed-buff, next to nobody used them. Other than melee weapons, bows dont have a lot of stats than can be messed around with, which makes it pretty difficult to make bow tier progression interesting and diversified.
Melee weapons can have very diverse combinations of stats, drawing from a large pool of modifiers such as weight, length, speed, swing damage, swing damage type, thrust damage, thrust damage type, balanced, unbalanced, bonues against shields, crushthrough, 4 directional, 3 directional, 2 directional, knockdown, horse rearing, no parry and probably more. This is why we have a metric ton of melee weapons which, more or less still all feel different and come with their distinct benefits and downsides instead of just being straight upgrades or clones from each other.
Bows on the other hand are very limited in that regard. Pretty much the only stats that matter for bow performance are speed rating, damage, accuracy and missile speed. Sure, bows have weight as well but the weight of a bow will have no impact on balance when it comes to the actual shooting performance. An arrow from a 2kg bow will have the exact same ballistical properties as an arrow shot from a 10kg bow, contrary to melee weaponry where weight actually affects turnrate, knockdown probability, movement speed and block stun probability.
Even accuracy is a bit problematic to look at as a balancing factor IMO since it is a non-skill related modifier and not a constant that can be mastered by player skill. To give yet another example, no matter how low the speed rating of your melee weapon is, a skilled player will know the limitations of this low speed rating and be able to act accordingly. You dont try to outspam a katana with a longspear but rather keep your distance and take advantage of your reach so the low speed rating is least likely to get in your way. With an inaccurate bow though, it does not matter how skilled of an archer you are, if RNG decides to mess up your shot you cant do anything about that and this is not good gamedesign at all.
With this said, I'd rather not touch accuracy if its avoidable and rather work with damage, speed rating and missile speed. With only 3 variables at hand though, the possibilities to create an interesting and fair progression among bows is obviously quite restricted. This situation begs for the implementation of a new mechanic such as "reticule sway rating" or something alike. However, I talked to Tydeus about these things a lot and unfortunately the gameengine is just too limited to realize any of that.
So what are we left with ?
We can have low tier bows with fast reload, low damage and slow arrows ( old system ), we can have low tier bows with fast reload, low damage and fast arrows ( current system ). Giving low tier bows more damage than high tier bows is out of the question and giving high tier bows faster reload than low tier bows also seems a bit weird.
I repeat, the current system is bugging me as well every now and then but when considering all the alternatives this engine can offer, I think the current system is still the one that offers the most fair bow progression IMO. This is why I am hesitating to propose anything different yet. For now, I am afraid any attempts to "fix" internal bow balance might break more than needs to be repaired. At least unless cmp will come up with some magic that adds new balancing tool for ranged into the game.
This is how I look at it. Nevertheless, I appreciate any form of constructive criticism or suggestions as long as they are more elaborated than "nerf missile speed" because that would require a stat rework for all bows in order to keep bow progression at an appropriate proportion.
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