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"Best of the Best" - 1.13 Weapon Comparison Guide[message #199401] Sat, 18 October 2008 22:04 Go to previous message
Headrock

 
Messages:1760
Registered:March 2006
Location: Jerusalem
1.13 Weapon Comparison

Welcome to the weapon comparison study, brought to you by Headrock Independent Laboratories. The aim of this study is to come up with a list of weapons that can be considered the "best of the best". By the end of this article, you will know the best weapons to use, and the best to buy, at any point during your campaign.

WHY?

The 1.13 XMLized weapon list brought us a plethora of different guns (around 250 of them!), many of which are remarkably similar in terms of performance. This has made the choice of weapons very difficult for anyone who doesn't want to spend hours comparing weapons. Fortunately for you, I've got too much time on my hands, and so the 1.13 Weapon Comparison study was born.

GOALS

The study will attempt to show which weapons are truly exceptional, or rather, which weapons can be thrown in the trash. It will go step by step through each level of "Coolness", and tell us which weapons are best to use in each category, and which should be replaced. This way, we'll know which weapons to look for (or buy from Bobby Ray's), saving us the trouble of comparing so many weapons, buying attachments to see if they fit, and wondering about the minute differences.

CATEGORIZATION

Not all weapons can be directly compared to one another, of course. Weapons are split into several groups with similar characteristics, and are compared solely within those groups. For instance, it would be very hard to compare a pistol to a machine-gun, as they are supposed to serve completely different purposes. However, we CAN tell which pistol is better within the pistol group.

The Categorization doesn't follow the same one used by the game. The game's categorization is a bit broad, and some weapons seem completely out of place in their selected category. Instead I've chosen to compare weapons based on their abilities. For instance, a pistol is a one-handed weapon which can only fire single (or aimed) shots (albeit very quickly). Conversely, a machine-gun cannot fire single-shots at all, but can hold a ton of bullets in its magazine. Range is seldom important, although it does play a role with some weapon categorizations.

There are also sub-categories occasionally, where a single type of weapon branches into several groups. For instance, some pistols can have a scope 2x attached to them while others can't. However, the ones that don't accept it are often faster, so the two groups can't be directly compared to each other. Therefore, there are two pistol sub-categories: Scoped, and Non-Scoped. The sub-categories will be explained separately when they appear.

PREFERENCE

In many cases, a weapon will be better in one stat, and worse in another stat. Which stat is more important?

For the most part, range and speed are the two most important stats of a weapon, and most likely to be different between weapons. Draw speed is less important than firing speed. Accuracy can also be very important, especially for weapons that rely solely or mostly on aimed-shots. After that, attachments, which can make a huge difference, followed by auto penalty and auto firing rate (if any). The comes reload speed, although it's not very important. The rest of the stats, including reliability, repair ease, size and weight, are relatively negligible. They will only affect a decision if they are extremely bad (but not if extremely good), and for the most part won't even be mentioned.

Also note that price is not an issue. If you've got monetary problems in the game, don't even bother reading this. Use whatever you can afford!

TERMINOLOGY

This is important, so pay attention. I'm going to use a certain terminology, and a certain syntax, when explaining the different weapons.

Outclassing

Many weapons will be "Outclassed" by other weapons. This happens when one weapon is significantly inferior to another. The Outclassed weapon is removed from the contest. This means that if your merc has a certain weapon, and you find a new gun that outclasses it, the previous weapon can be dumped for the newer weapon. Please note that sometimes a weapon outclasses one weapon and is immediately outclassed by another - In other words, weapon A is outclassed by weapon B which is outclassed by weapon C. In such a case, weapon C is the best as it outclasses both A and B. If you only find weapon B, it outclasses weapon A, but should be dumped if weapon C is found. It's not terribly difficult, so no complaints please Wink

Please note that many weapons may have one or more advantage over another weapon, but also one or more disadvantages. In such cases, outclassing can be more difficult, as you have to choose whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. If it happens, I'll do my best to note why I've still decided that the weapon is outclassed (or not outclassed), so it's best to read the text before making any decisions.

Stat Comparison

In many places in the text, you'll find something like this:
Weapon A has a better firing speed than weapon B (3 AP vs 5 AP)
This is a comparison of the firing speed stat (called "AP to Fire" by EDB, it's a complicated value that doesn't actually appear in the XMLs). The first weapon is obviously faster as it takes less APs to fire. Get used to this type of comparison, as it appears many times in the text.

Please note that the numbers are always respective - in the example above, the first number refers to weapon A, the second number refers to weapon B. It can also be the other way around:
Weapon A has a slower firing speed than weapon B (5 AP vs 3 AP)
In this case, "5 AP" refers to the first weapon, which is slower.

Firing Rate value

Firing rate is always listed as a combination of two values. For instance:
Weapon A has a firing rate of 10 AP + 3b/5AP
This is a combination of the "APs to Auto-fire" value (in this case, 10 AP), plus the value called "Bullets per 5 APs" (in this case, 3 bullets per 5 APs). I wish it was simpler than that, but you'll have to live with it. The rule of thumb is, you want a lower "APs to Auto-Fire" value, and a higher "bullets per 5 APs" value. So:
10 AP + 3b/5AP is better than 11 AP + 3b/5AP and worse than 10 AP + 4b/5AP.

Attachments

I haven't bothered to list the possible attachments to each weapon, but I did make a point of noting when a weapon has better attachments available than others, especially if a weapon outclasses another weapon because it can fit better attachments. Most weapons in the game can take at least a Laser-sight/Lam-200, Relfex Sight, and/or 2x Scope. Many can take a 4x Scope or 4x ACOG Combo scope. In any case, if a weapon lacks the ability to mount an attachment which is common in its category (or at least common to other similar weapons), that will be mentioned appropriately.

"Out of the Box"

This means a weapon with no attachments except built-in ones (if any). Please note that while some weapons come with default attachments (I.E. they'll always arrive with one specific attachment when bought on Bobby Ray's or dropped by enemies), that attachment will be disregarded if it can be removed from the weapon at all, for ANY purpose of this guide.

COOLNESS level

Coolness is a value attached to a weapon, that will determine how far into the campaign the weapon will appear, in Bobby Ray's as well as dropped by enemies. Of course, maps may contain placed weapons which will appear REGARDLESS of your progress in the game, and you can set Bobby Ray's to sell weapons earlier than it should. However, the comparison guide will assume that you are playing at "Normal" bobby ray level, and that you won't find any weapons that are better than the currect coolness level. If you indeed find a better weapon, simply look at the appropriate coolness level to see if it outclasses anything.

Oh, here's the rule of thumb:
Current Coolness level = (Current Progress / 10), Rounded down, +1.
So, if your current progress is 15, the coolness level is (15/10=1.5), rounded down (to 1), +1 = 2.

To find your current progress, press V in tactical or strategic mode.

Variety vs. Gameplay Type

This guide only covers weapons which are available through Bobby Ray's, but makes no distinction between "Sci-Fi" weapons and "Realistic" weapons. If you choose realistic mode, some weapons may not be available at all.

Also, the guide makes little distinction between OIV and NIV. Some weapons are uncharacterstically large, and in NIV would fit only in larger pockets. The distinction is much simpler in OIV as it only has two different types of pockets. If the size difference is very important, it will be mentioned. But for the most part, it'll be up to NIV users to figure out whether the weapon can fit in a holster, combat pack slot, or backpack slot. Most if not all two-handed weapons will fit in a sling slot.

----------------------------


The only thing left to say is... ENJOY!

Pistols
Machine-Pistols
Small Machine Guns (SMG's)
Carbine Assault-Rifles
Mid-Range Assault-Rifles
Long-Range Assault-Rifles
Machine-Guns
Rifles
Sniper Rifles
Shotguns

[Updated on: Sat, 18 October 2008 22:16] by Moderator

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Sergeant Major

 
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