With the upcoming Meta change and the addition of a “Battle Rating System”, a thorough discussion about general weapon performance is needed.
Once the update hits, we will most likely see a lot of weapons having a very questionable BR, so talking about this stuff before it happens is advised.
Now, obviously there is a large range of preferences when it comes to gun stats and mechanics dependent on each of our own ways of playing the game, yet I would like to present my own view on what makes me pick a weapon, and I invite all of you to do the same:
-whats the role of the weapon?
Well obviously every gun is supposed to be used for shooting the enemy, yet this question should be asked nonetheless if we want to determine the overall effectiveness of said firearm.
When I pick a weapon I will ask myself: is the weapon a “close range, mid range or long range weapon?” Or is it even a generally useful gun at all ranges?
To give you guys an example here, the MKB is basically a mid range weapon that can defend itself well enough in closer ranges while still being accurate enough to be useful at long range combat. Now if we switch to the MP43/1-the next line up version of the MKB we will not meet a straight up “improved version”, instead performance and role will have changed, even if minor. A bit less accurate but with a higher rate of fire will lower its ability to fight at longer ranges, but will give it more power up close.
We see this with many weapons in the game, where the next line up weapon is usually just the same gun but with a higher rate of fire - which in general is making the weapon more powerful at closer ranges, but can on some weapons also be negative.
-whats the potential power of the weapon?
The logical next question here, yet before we ask ourselves this, we should again look at the purpose of a gun and how to use our arsenal in order to secure victory.
The whole gameplay “loop” consists of two teams pushing and applying constant pressure towards the games objective points, until one side gets pushed back enough to secure the said objectives.
Now lets imagine that a combatant using a "bolt action rifle, spots an enemy close by. He aims at him, shoots him and secures the kill. What will now happen is that his hostile will have taken over the control over one of his remaining AI Soldiers trying to do the same - this will go on until one of the players squads are “wiped” and beaten. Thus the potential power of a weapon is based on how fast you can use said weapon to “wipe out” squads. Potentially a bolt action with 5 rounds in its magazine will kill 5 combatants before needing to reload, while a STG with a 30 round magazine has the potential to quickly take out a large amount of Soldiers, the regular bolt action does not - HOWEVER what needs to be addressed again is the role of a weapon, and in a long range support scenario, a bolt action will probably outperform the STG.
Yet, since most fighting takes places at close to mid range, the STG remains overall “superior” and a much more logical pick.
-what then is the meaning of “DPS” in Enlisted?
In a classical shooter dps usually determines the overall effectiveness of a firearm, because the power of a weapon will always be compared to “how fast you can kill your opponent”.
In Enlisted however, your opponent isn’t simply one person. Thus squad wipe power will instead be the focus here.
Now of course there are exceptions to this, one player might for example pick a FG 42 over a STG because of its very fast rate of fire combined with more damage per hit but smaller magazine, resulting in a burst damage weapon - meaning that dps isn’t irrelevant in Enlisted, its just not the “main” attribute of a weapon.
-so what then is the true effective power of weapon?
If we now really want to know the true power of a weapon, we will have to combine all previous points and add the last important variable:
“Usability”
Because what good is a gun with a million dps that however can’t make you hit your target?
Or what good are great accuracy stats when your view is blocked by a horrible sight picture?
And whats the purpose of a low recoil weapon when its deviation is too bad to make accurate follow up shots anyways?
And to come to an end … what’s the point behind a super high rate of fire, when your magazine capacity is too small to make good use of it anyways?