I wanted to talk a little more about the differences between the base weapons and how this can impact upon your approach to the game.
One of the key mechanics in the shoot-outs is the number of action points you use for aiming. There is a trade-off between using your action points for moving and saving them to ensure your shot is more accurate. Each weapon changes the impact of this.
RifleThe rifle is the weapon with the longest range, but it also the most limited in terms of shooting patterns (which I covered just a couple of posts back) and suffers the most from moving and shooting.
The base accuracy is very high to begin with, up around 95% (not taking into account any modifiers of the character using it and whether the enemy is in cover). However, this drops significantly with each step you take, as you have less time to aim. This drops down to around a base accuracy of 30% when you have just a single action point remaining.
This means the rifle is often best used either to pick off enemies that stray into you sights (or close to your sights) or used in conjunction with a number of skills that take advantage of its shooting pattern ("Pin 'Em Down" being a good example of this as it pins an enemy in place on their next turn).
ShotgunThe shotgun is the weapon with the shortest range, but can hit a target at any angle to the shooter.
The base accuracy starts at around 80%, which is quite a low starting accuracy when considering the significant impact that good cover can have on your shot. However, the base accuracy will still likely be over 70% with only a single action point left. This means that you can focus on getting an angle on your enemy so cover is not a concern. Combine this with a skill that allows you to target multiple enemies at once and you've got a pretty deadly weapon.
However, it's important to be aware of the trade-offs – the effective range is very short, and generally the shotguns hold very little ammo meaning you have to reload often. They are also more likely to wound an enemy when compared to the other weapons. Wounding is something I'll cover in a later post as it can have quite a significant impact on the game, not just in the shoot-outs but also in the main game.
PistolThe pistol falls nicely between the rifle and shotgun, in that it has a decent range, has a shooting pattern that spreads out in 8 directions and has an average drop off as you move.
Base accuracy starts up around 90% and drops steadily down to 40% as you move. It also generally holds the most ammo so you won't be reloading as often, which can certainly give you the advantage over your enemy as they fumble with their bullets. You've also got a decent chance of getting a headshot in, particularly when you've got a clear shot.
Overall a very balanced weapon, and particularly useful with a variety of the skills you can choose as you level up (I'll cover classes, skills and levelling up in a later post).
Knives and MolotovsI'm still working on these, but they will work something like the knife being an instant kill to an adjacent tile (which makes it very risk/reward oriented) and the molotov being an area effect attack that has a chance to wound but also a chance to destroy certain types of cover.
Upgrading WeaponsThe different models of weapons that can be found in the world may increase your chances of a headshot (instant kill) rather than a wounding shot and be able to hold different amounts of ammo, but generally will not change the accuracy drop off of the weapons.
The attributes of the weapons applies not only to yourself, but also to everyone else you meet in the world. This means that it's important to think not only about the balance of weapons and skills within your own gang, but also to consider how to take advantage of the distribution of weapons that the enemies have.
If you're lucky, you might not end up here: