Chris Taylor leading the Fallout MMO project

[Monte Carlo]

But the differences should be distinct and noticeable, always. Even when you get into bigger weapons like rifles, you can still make some clear trade-offs: a low-power, high-RoF lever-action vs. a high-power, low-RoF bolt-action. They might even out to the same DPS (or MDPS or whatever the kids are using these days), but the feel would be much different to the player.

 

Without de-railing us into firearms geekery, most practitioners will tell you that a modern 9mm pistol is a 9mm pistol is a 9mm pistol (I know someone is going to point out that the action on this pistol is superior to the action on that pistol yadda yadda but really, it's a RPG, what's the point?). I think a blend of different eras to represent calibres and respective stopping power is fine, but you only need a few weapons to do that:

 

Example:

 

.38 revolvers (generic)

WW2 era automatics (with all sorts of calibres from .45 to 9mm but not as polished and maybe slower on the action point front)

Modern 9mm pistols (fast and reliable with better access to peripherals - i.e. you can't plug a laser sight onto your WW2 Walther)

Monster pistols (Your auto-Magnums and Desert Eagles)

 

Then add to the equation ammo (i.e. Glasers / AP / dum-dums / frangible etc)

 

What would be cool, however, is to concentrate more on skills.

 

The handgun skill tree might look like this (bear with me, it goes from gritty realism to John Woo freak-out)

 

Entry Level - Basic handgun awareness (i.e. you can shoot without penalties)

Specialism - Weaver / basic instruction (increases accuracy)

Specialism +1 - Close Quarters training (as above but fire on the move)

Specialism +2 Advanced CQ training (as above but increase rate of fire / accuracy quotient)

Specialism +2a / b / c (environmentally specific - i.e. sense of direction bonus in low light, urban combat training etc)

Specialism +3 Akimbo / advanced Ninja stuff (You know the kids'll love it, what about that bullet curving trick from Wanted?)

 

So, a few basic types of guns, some cool peripherals like sights and different ammo and a menu of skillz = firearms coolness. Maybe not hyper-realism, but something a bit more immersive and three dimensional.

 

Cheers

MC