Rifles as a skill feels underwhelming and incomplete.
to go from 10k to150k in weapon cost, with no middle ground, except a shotgun.
Please add 10-11mm or something. There's literally 2 Carbines in the game.
I imagine sniping is intentionally limited to 9mm or gatekept behind norinco for how extremely in-direct it is, having 10/11mm readily available sniper rifles would be just quite broken.
Or is it just to have a rifle as alternative, but without being able to mod it into a sniper?
Shotguns have less armor pen then rifles. This means, if you are swinging at someone in good armor, you are kind of better off using a cheaper 9 mil, then a shotgun. Or so conventional wisdom goes.
The niche this fills, is the ability to fight someone in a real loadout, without needing overwhelming numbers.
It's a little sad they are gatekept like this. There really needs to be a middle range, even if it's just 1.
Look at swords, they have a middle range
look at pistols, which can snipe, they have a BROAD middle range.
How would I fix the sniping issue?
Maybe make the new round's damage falloff after a couple of rooms, making it fine for shooting down a block, or maybe a rooftop, but hovering safe in an AV would be a big detriment
Am I a firearms expert? No.
Am I going to be able to present cool solutions? No.
But I do see where SmokePotion is coming from in that aspect.
That actually means there is more choice in rifle skill than pistol or SMGs, as there there really is no choice, just straight up progression through calibres, with some traps.
I'll just say do not rely on common wisdom, pay an expert icly.
Also, there should still be a middle line option for sniping. Maybe make something around the 75k range, so it's still pricegated pretty high.
But I admit, I do not know the behind the scenes math here, to know how much wiggle room there is. But yeah, the rifles branch just feels underwhelming. Maybe it's perception, maybe the 12gauge is the answer I need. But… There is something to be said for style and personal preference too. Just saying. I would really like to see more rifle styles.
Even if they are more bullpups that are quicker firing then a shotgun, but not great at longer range (there's another niche)
And sure, I would love more gun optiosn for flair, or really all weapons, not just 1 per tier but that also has the issues of bloat of options, even more mechanical confusion where in reality in terms of balance those would have to be all more or less the same or balancing it will be insane/there will be 1 correct option anyway.
As for mid range sniping, nah, I dislike it, you wanna fight someone - fight someone.
My reasons
- Market is confusing already. From what I understand there was a reskin of weapons in the old days when dinosaurs still hunted man. Now there is the question of whether this .357 does this or that and which one is more accurate. Adding more rifle names will just confuse people learning the firearms of the game.
-Rifle skill covers shotguns. Not sure why people are pretending double aught buckshot tickles but it sure as fuck doesn't. And I'm not exactly sure where 20 gauge falls in with the other calibers but I'm pretty sure it competes as well with the 10 and 11 in terms of bang for buck.
-With one exception, the carbines that are represented are essentially the standard models of long arm calibers that would exist in 2110. Your 6mm is the AR-22 for varmits and school children. 9mm is the Winchester repeating carbine slightly adjusted for sanity because it's close enough to the .38-55 that the 1984 used. That's for your lightly armored targets. Once you go past 9mm there isn't any commonly produced rifle round for anything until you go to the 7.62mmx51mm NATO that is chambered by pretty much all standard sniper weaponry in the modern day. Outside of the Type 56 most of the producers of any type of automatic infantry weapon in the 7.62mm range come from a region that turned to glass with WW3 in 2020, and most Chinese styled Type 56's were probably in that region when the bombs dropped so good luck finding one. This might be like Epic Quest reward, including finding an arms tech capable of fixing it. 7.62mm is minigun ammo without the minigun.
The 5.56x45mm NATO currently being used is about the only extra caliber carbine that could be argued to be added to, however at the same time… fully auto pew pews are the domain of submachine gun and 5.7x28mm does exist. And I'm willing to bet that specific caliber was chosen because in the early 2000's the FN P90 was everywhere. It was THE firearm to use for the futuristic evil police force. Or if you were a bitch who couldn't win at Goldeneye unless you used Oddjob. I see you Gen X coders. Don't hide.
So yeah, while we could have the 5.56x45mm, it would just add code bloat and unneeded confusion. Full auto pew pew over our fictional timeline could have gone smaller, more compact, and less collateral damage to urban infrastructure until it finally adopted the full sub-machine gun stylings.
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All of this being said though, I believe that an average new player's concept of what a rifle is in our Cyberpunk universe may not be that well defined. I think that the Help Combat Skills file should be updated to describe Rifle as being the skill that covers single shot rifles and shotguns, while the submachine gun is left as describing it being the one for burst fire and the automatic pew pews. That may help clear up the confusion that rifles may kinda be more for the country bumpkins than it is for the citified corporate warrior.
