1 dismissal [1 Dismissal] Ballistic Reforms

[DatBerry]

Ballistics right now outperform lasers by a long shot and the difference between calibers makes no sense.

i have two issues with ballistics, firstly:

Shrapnel

right now all shrapnel works the same way, dealing damage to your internal organs when you move, even if it was a 9mm parabellum.

i suggest having two types of embedded bullets, fragmented shrapnel and bullets that embed as a whole.

the first work will very much the same as it does now:

• Very lethal
  
• Does damage every time you move
  
• Awful to remove surgically

 

now to bullets that don't embed, those are either bad RNG or pistol caliber bullets

• Not so Lethal
• Adds permanent 10-15 Haloss for each embedded bullet
  
• so easy to remove antags can do it themselves (scalpel/glass shard > hemostat/wirecutters)

 

both will have high chances to deal damage to organs in the body they penetrate.

what this will do is change the fact that one lucky ballistic round from a .45 or .38 can fuck over an antag, yet still be an issue that needs to be dealt with or otherwise you will limp and then succumb to pain (pain killers/surgery/self surgery can be used)

secondly, Caliber Performance

Right now our bullet performance is all over the place and makes no sense, for example, a 7.62 deals the same damage as a .45 while a .357 can turn your thigh into liquid gibbs.

but this isn't the only issue, shoot someone with 2 rounds of .38, 9mm, hell even .45. all lethal. they will almost never drop, i suggest we give all rounds a supplementary special kind of haloss, similar to rubber bullets where if you are to shoot at an armored person, you will only deal the brute damage, but if you shoot an unarmored person, they will take both brute and haloss, say for example if .45 does 25 brute, but also have supplementary 25 haloss, an unarmored target shot twice will not only receive 50 brute, but also 50 haloss, knocking him down. the halloss will depend on RNG, you might end up downing someone in 2 hits, but if all your bullets miss vital areas (RnG fucks you over and deals no haloss) you will put them down the old way.

this will give ballistics more stopping power, you may think "but ballistics are already OP, y u buffing them?" this will not effect fire fights between two armored personnel/groups, this will only apply to lethal bullets for obvious reasons, and if security pulls out lethal ammo on you and you're not putting on armor you're doing something wrong. (or they are)

this will actually make people die less and here's why:

• Security will no longer need to shoot your ass to critical condition/death to stop you from moving(im looking at you, detectives), if you wish to keep going until the last drop, any kind of armor should do, such as engi voidsuits
  
• No more unarmored rambos who think they can survive a shot or two for a chance at disarming, you get shot, you drop.

a more ideal method would be knockout from bloodloss/spinal cord/brain stem damage but our medical system isn't that advanced

another thing mentioned earlier is caliber damage, i suggest we re-work some things. we would add a fragmentation chance, and a more robust penetration variable.

(this list pretends we have more calibers)

• .22Lr: Damage 18, Haloss chance 40%, haloss 15. Penetration: crap, fragmentation: 30%
  
• 9mm: Damage 20, Haloss chance 70%, haloss 20. Penetration: crap fragmentation: 5%
  
• .38 Special: Damage 20, Haloss chance 70%, haloss 20. Penetration: slightly less crap, fragmentation: 10%
  
• .357 Magnum: Damage 40, Haloss chance 90%, haloss 50, Penetration: medium (no more liquefying thighs while still fucking people over) fragmentation: 30%
  
• .357 SiG: Damage 20, Haloss chance 40%, Haloss 20, Penetration: medium, fragmentation 0%
  
• .40 S&W: Damage 22, Haloss chance 50%, Haloss 50, penetration: crap, fragmentation 5%
  
• .45 ACP: Damage 25, Haloss chance 70%, Haloss 30, Penetration: crap fragmentation: 5%
  
• 5.56: Damage 25, Haloss chance 70%, Haloss 40, Penetration: good, fragmentation: 80%
  
• 7.62: Damage 35, Haloss chance 70%, Haloss 50, Penetration: ok, fragmentation: 40%
  
• .44 Magnum: Damage 50, Haloss chance 90%, haloss 40, Penetration: medium fragmentation: 40%
  
• .50 AE: Damage 65, Haloss 90%, Haloss, 70, Penetration: medium, fragmentation: 50%
  
• 12 gauge slugs: Damage 50, Haloss chance 90%, Haloss 50, Penetration: meh, fragmentation: 5%
  
• 12 gauge shells: i think these are fine as is.

 

if we ever decide to add more calibers, some of these numbers i've just pulled out of thin air but this is a general idea of what i think calibers should scale to.

another point is, low penetration = more effective armor, meaning you will have a hard time filling an officer wearing a heavy vest with an SMG if you aim at his upperbody, but so will the .45 be less effective against merc voidsuits.

and on the note of ballistic changes, Improvised weapons (the handgun and shotgun) would have lower penetration, haloss and damage due to lacking a rifled barrel and lacking proper pressure handling.

i have other plans in the future for ballistics but i think we should pass this bill through the congress first.

TL;DR:

1. make shrapnel not as awful as it is now

2. make ballistics stronger against unarmored plebeians.

extra: add more gun calibers

[Ron]

Voting for dismissal. I don't see this happening for a while unless a developer would like to take it on.