It seems to me that true melee range should be within 1 meter, and anything else should be ranged. If you were standing at 4 meters (about 12 feet) from someone with a rifle, pistols, hand blaster etc, are you going to hit your opponent or are you going to shoot them? Why do we even need a mid-range? There should be melee, up to 1 meter, and ranged attack for anything else. I don't really have any particular problem with HAVING a mid-range, but why do they need to go through and update the power sets painfully slowly like this, when they could just reduce the definition of melee and fix the power sets that having ranged issues? Wouldn't it be faster, easier, take less computer memory and cost less?
True melee range already varies by a large amount from your description. Melee with a handgun, sure, that's 1 meter. Melee with a spear, scythe, staff, great axe - we're talking a flexible range between 2-3 now. 4 for the exceedingly large category weapons in the hands of anyone over a certain physical height.
Okay, so you're talking about 2 handed and staff. MAYBE you could hit someone with a staff or great axe from 6 feet away(2 m), you're right, but not 9 feet (3 m).
I'm 6'4, my reach is just shy of 3 feet on a straight vertical punch, that's considering a straight back, square shoulders, and no extension or pivot. I have a German-style heavy rapier. It is 46 inches long, base to tip, roughly 3 feet of which extends beyond the crossguard. From a standstill, I have an effective striking range of 1.5 - 2 meters with the blade, and roughly 1 with the pommel and guard. On a lunge, assuming my back foot is the start point, that range increases to 2.5-3 meters, depending on the strike location and type. Even short strikes have an effect 5 foot reach from where I'm standing - that's with a 1 handed sword, and that's *without involving any stepping whatsoever* - just lunging with my forward foot. That's discounting any spear or staff, which adds another 2-3 feet (depending again on weapon type) from a far base grip, and also discounting any greatsword design - some of which are in excess of 5-6 feet in length. Melee range assumes effective striking range, and virtually *no* martial art including a weapon form discounts footwork in its training. So that's also a consideration to bear in mind. In game terms, we already have weapons like the Titan's Blade, which is a sword that is at least *my* height. We don't have whips, meteor hammer, kamagusari, et cetera at the moment, but you get the general idea. That said? Seven meters is a bit much.
