Ranged weapons have a HUGE advantage that you keep avoiding to mention - You don't have to stand in close melee! Crossbows just got a huge buff with the new might system on them and long bows are as far as I know pretty powerful already.
*sighs* The advantage of not needing to be close is
already negated by several DISadvantages built in to the game engine itself;
1) In order to do good damage with a mighty ranged weapon, you need both Strength
and Dexterity, Dex for AB and Str for damage. Melee's need only Strength for both. Making a build with high strength and high dex both not only makes a character that's extremely limited in non-combat options (skills, charisma, etc) it also just basically makes a melee who's wasted her or his points on the dex and should have spent it all on strength because.... (see numbers 2 and 3)
2) There is no limit to the amount of damage bonus from strength on melee weapons, whereas a ranged str bonus for damage is limited by the value of it's mighty property, so the aforementioned STR/DEX build would have been better off putting all their points into Str to get melee AB and damage both from a single stat. Except for in the case of a monumentally badly designed melee, a melee will
always be doing MORE damage
per attack than a ranged AND gets more of those attacks if they so choose. See numbers 3 and 4
3) Melee's can get 6 attacks per round (improved two weapon fighting) whereas the most a ranged with longbow can get is 5 (rapid shot) and the most a ranged with crossbow can get is four, and you need rapid reload for that (the most my char will ever get is 3 with rapid reload).
4) Melees can get ADDITIONAL free attacks through
Great Cleave and Whirlwind Attack. No such options exist for ranged.
5) When an opponent breaks off from melee and goes after the archer (which happens to me fairly often), that archer is then forced to either switch to a melee weapon they're probably not very good with (due to having spent so many of their feats on archery), or continue to use their ranged weapon and thus give the opponent a free attack every time she or he shoots. Point Blank Shot feat does NOT negate attacks of opportunity from using a ranged weapon in melee, despite what some people who haven't ever tried it think.
So you see, ranged is already far, far weaker in every way than melee. The "not needing to be close" thing is more than compensated for already, not to mention that you don't always have any
choice about how close you are. There's no need to cripple it further with a lack of equality in weapons. We need +1 ranged,
especially crossbows, which are even weaker than longbows and are too heavy for your average archer to carry more than one of.
My point is, server is designed for parties not solo play - and not every weapon is available in every form.
Because of the attacks of opportunity caused by using a ranged weapon in melee combat, no one in their right mind is going to solo with a purely archer focused character, IMO, except against foes that are ludicrously weak. The whole POINT of ranged is for party play: to give rogues and buff-mages something to do in combat itself other than just stand there.