Semi, Burst-fire & Full-auto!

I am unsure how turns & ticks are calculated.
Suggestion:

Full auto:
A. Fires as many rounds as the weapon is capable of firing in one turn. Base this on IRL rate of fire.
B. Fires as many rounds as the weapon would be capable of firing if bursted the entire turn.

Burst-fire:
A. Base this on how many shots would come out of the weapon if the trigger is depressed for 1/2 a second. So, An m16 with a cyclic rate of 800 would have a burst of 6 rounds, a mac-10 at 1200rpm would fire 10, an AA-12 at 300rpm would fire 2.
B. Base this on an arbitrary number that fits the gun- m16 with 3 or 4, mac-10 at 15, m249 at 25.

Ideally one can fire multiple bursts/semi-auto shots per-turn, while full-auto would take the entire turn.

Feel free to make your own suggestions and discuss them!

Tangential:
Remove the ‘You must reload!’ message and let us try to shoot an empty weapon- “Click!”

‘Semi-auto’ would generally always be an option and behave like firing normally does now. One aimed shot.

‘Short bursts’ might require more time and a handling check (and/or a check based on a weapon’s quality) to fire as many as intended, but would not require the firearm to be automatic - you’re just shooting it faster, albeit not as fast as an actual automatic. Individual firearm skills could increase accuracy and expand your options, from ‘fire wildly’ at level 0 to ‘fire precisely six shots’ at level (whatever), but there would need to be a way to keep it from being too fiddly. I recall individual firearm skills affecting reload times but don’t remember if it also affects the time it takes to shoot - if so, this could be reflected in your maximum number of shots available per burst.

Then ‘full auto’, for times when you don’t mind spending up to an entire clip, that might work similarly to how a short burst works for non-automatics, except faster and more difficult. Bridging between full-auto and small burst-fire would be those automatics with a three-round burst function, skipping the fire control step and shooting precisely three bullets.

Each setting trades fire speed for accuracy and extra checks for things going wrong. Higher fire rates should have a dramatic effect on accuracy, and skill levels themselves should have a dramatic effect on this penalty. Certain firearms might not have access to certain settings, e.g. some SMGs either fire automatically or one at a time, LMGs have no semi-auto, and most pistols can’t empty a clip in one turn.

No matter the skill level, some weapons would have a cap on how fast they would fire, 100 moves being six seconds. We might be well-served making any speed boosts also increase the base fire time of a weapon, or else let people who are faster than normal warp time and space to let firearms shoot above their rpm.

EDIT: ‘time to shoot’ in most cases means time spent acquiring the target, aiming for weak spots, managing recoil, picking your nose, etc. I don’t think any weapon should have an in-game rate of fire that reflects its maximum theoretical speed while maintaining any accuracy.

I like the tangential idea, as long as the “Out of ammo” message doesn’t take any time. For bows, slings etc.

One thing that bugged me slightly, is how prevalent automatic/burst weapons are. You shouldn’t be able to get a full auto ar-15 from the gunstore, or find an m249 in a house. I can understand gangsters having smgs, and military drops, but that’s all really nitpicky in the end.

CataWorld’s gun laws were specifically quite a bit less restrictive than IRL gun laws.

The world was an Arch-Conservative paradise right before the world ended.

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CataWorld’s gun laws were specifically quite a bit less restrictive than IRL gun laws.

The world was an Arch-Conservative paradise right before the world ended.[/quote]

I’d love to have seen that news report (and the following nuclear melt-down on tumblr) “Government laxes laws on automatic and assault weapons in light of recent rioting”

“WAT” “WHY TEH GOV DO STOOPID SHIT” “LOLZGUNNUTS” etc, etc

Back on topic, I’ve always wanted to double tap a pistol and be able to shoot both barrels of my double barrel shotgun.

Yah, I like Ander’s idea about short bursts being available for semi-autos as well.

I still think full-auto should be the option for holding down the trigger- having minimal accuracy is fine if you’re treating the gun like a lead hose.
(and sometimes I want to treat the gun like a lead hose)

Additional modes beyond ‘semi’ ‘burst’ ‘full’, like ‘3-round burst’, might just clutter things up though- I’d treat burst as a catchall that functions as max-damage for semi-autos & medium damage for automatics, and leave it at that.

If semi/burst modes wind up not taking a whole turn, I’d have the ‘Click!’ take the same amount of time as a semi shot. Just for that “OH SHIT” moment, and players kick themselves for not keeping track.
Hmm, there’s a case to be made for bows/slings being less apt to forget the ammo count, (heavier, continually reaching for & fondling the ammo, etc). Perhaps have a message that announces it, but let the player forget they’re out after that and possibly waste time?

“That was your last arrow!”
“You reach for another arrow, but there’s nothing there!”

I have no idea what you’re trying to suggest here, and I have no idea what’s wrong with adding a special burst function to firearms that have it. If it turns out to be too much work for whoever codes it - fine. If not? It could be interesting, a unique advantage conveyed that can be taken into consideration that isn’t ‘one degree less dispersion’ or ‘three more damage’ or ‘five more clip size’.

I wanted to make a new thread for my short burst suggestion but a quick search dug this thread up instead. I might as well post it in here, despite doing a semi-necro with this.

The current burst duration is quite long. 10 rounds for an M4 seems a bit excessive . So why not add an optional short burst for non-triggerhappy skilled operators with equal or more than 3 levels in firearms and the respective weapon skill? The burst count could then be dived by 3 and rounded up, leading to a 4 shot burst for the M4 example. The option to go full retard in a moment of danger would stilll be there but a short burst feels much more appropriate for an experienced shooter in most situations.

You already can. Change the firing mode to ‘automatic’ and it fires both barrels in one action.

It should actually be noted that most automatic rifles come with an actual “burst” mode, which is set by the rifle itself. I.e. the M16’s three-round burst.

Maybe a system that exists in a game called Silent Storm (look it up, it’s a great alternate-WW2 tactical TBS) would work here?

Single shot - S2 had accuracy modes, a-la “snap” and “aimed”, but here it’s probably all snap. A single shot.
Burst shot - Depending on the weapon, this a 2/3/4 round burst. Takes more time than single, but not outrageously so.
Full auto - The shooter keeps shooting until one of three things happens. A: the weapon runs out of ammo or jams, B: the shooter runs out of action points, C: if the shooter is skilled enough, he stops shooting when his intended target is dead.

For Cataclysm, we could probably have the B condition of full auto use the standard interruption mechanics - i.e. “monster dangerously close, stop shooting? y/n”. A is a given, and C might also work. The other two firing modes would work as normal, just with saner burst sizes - two, three, or four rounds, just like the real weapons. You’d need a new parameter though, like “autofire cost” - the time it takes to fire each consecutive shot in a burst, be it short burst or full auto.

Rivet, you’ve changed your avatar!

AND YAY FOR DOUBLE BARRELLLSSS

Whoop, now it’s gone.

It changes on its own.

This is now a thing.

WHATTHEFUCKWHEN1?!

It has been worked on for a while. It currently allows the player to switch between different automatic rates, like 3, 8 round auto on the MP5. Double barrel shotguns are using the old system until an actual DOUBLE rate of fire is added. NPCs can use the system in 4981.