The reloading element definitely sounds like a place where things can be quickened via the addition of other squad members, and further quickened with certain perks. If research can be done on the matter to figure out the limitations of how fast the machine can usually function and to what degree it’s based on the strength/skill of the crew, then this would be a fun one to implement.
In my opinion it would require too much effort. It’s a game, not a simulation, so it can and should have certain simplifications.
Splitting the gun performance improvements to crew upgrades and upgrades of the gun itself should be enough. Values of certain upgrades should be based on the balance instead of some kind of speculations over human performance (unless you are able to make scientific experiment on that matter but I doubt you own Flak 38).
I indeed don’t own a Flak 38, unfortunately. Just that howitzer in the backyard that I occasionally modify to make it a slide for the youngsters. That’s a joke, obviously, and also unfortunately. Anyhow, agree to disagree. From a very early age I’ve desired realism in games and it carries on into my adulthood, for instance I loved that sprinting drained your fatigue in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind but that they got rid of it in Oblivion, and on top of that, I wanted a hunger/third/sleep element included too ever since Morrowind. Well now I have Oblivion and I have mods that not just the slow running in the game but sprinting that drains even more fatigue, and there’s hunger/thirst/tiredness. I digress, like I said, to each their own. I find that the degree to which I can really enjoy and get invested in a game is quite linear with the degree to which they remain faithful to reality. Minecraft is still dope, though. Cheers!