OK, to start with, it looks like a pretty decisive verdict on the poll. I'll be strengthening horse archery shortly -- thanks for everyone's input.
Merentha,
Good idea -- I'll have to add a "bow progression" to match the weapon/armor ones. ... However, I'm not 100% sure that I like the "Fire Emblem 4 + Star Ocean" weapon progression. I think it has its merits, as the mod is intended to be a little fanciful or abstract (I hope no one seriously thinks that the female troops we see here are 100% realistic

), but on the other hand, that 'fancifulness' does
not connect
at all well with the mod's larger "setting," and now rather than later is the time to deal with it -- and besides, these weapons may be a little
too good at the fancifulness side.
So, regarding the RPG-style weapons, do you (and others on the board) think I should keep or remove them? (Of course, you don't know my end objectives here, but I'll interpret your responses in light of them -- and it'll be really useful to see what people are thinking in these regards.)
jhmanter,
Notwithstanding what I just said, I'm not interested in realism here past a certain point. Regarding weakening horse archery, I'll (obviously) go with what Armagan settles on with the subject -- but bear in mind that although archery in general is very much a learned skill, it can be learned.

I'm sure that someone who grew up learning to shoot on horseback would be a better shot than a modern attempting the same thing for the first time at or near adulthood. After all, if the Mongols and the Japanese could have whole armies' worth of horse archers, I'm sure it wasn't
impossible... (Standard disclaimers about army sizes, however, apply.

)
However, reading down a little, I agree that arrows should be revised in the way you describe -- if they aren't already. I think that as it is, if only we could give coherent orders to a few thousand archers while at significantly long engagement ranges, English-style archery would be the natural way to do it -- but that's quite an if. Bear in mind that M&B combat is occuring over ranges much smaller than real ones, I suppose...
Tuckles,
I mean, it wouldn't be fun if you wasted all your arrows with only one of them hitting an enemy in the arm dealing 0~1 damage.
Please provide me with a copy of your installer for M&B .808. I'm afraid
jhmanter got to mine...

(I must not have the patience to get past that stage -- or rather, to level up off some other weapon until I can advance horse archery past that stage. I need to spend more time playing M&B, I guess...)
I'll certainly take the archery advice, though.
Fisheye,
Don't worry.
