One thing (actually, one of the only things) that I think seems... somehow "off" is the current progression of weaponry through the game, with both enemy gun choices, [color:#009900]sometimes merc starting equipment choices (despite the neat new 5-options thing)[/color],

What improvements do you suggest? I tried to make them varied and viable choices.

If you're volunteering to maximise NCTh, i'd be up for giving you a hand. People seem happy with what wil has done for UC. Maybe that's a godd starting point.

IIRC they started a "project" in the AFS section to resort guns by coolness to better reflect NCTH.

I understand that there was to be some sort of +10% to hit thing in the works to help longarms out, and maybe that addresses the problem, but to be honest I don't feel a ton of confidence in that solution. Proper optics balance seems a key factor to me until it gets sorted.

Mostly what I notice is that any kit with a decent rifle on a more expensive merc is wasted for an Omerta drop unless they come with a scope of some kind. Single shots with a standard AK or what have you are really not much more accurate than with pistols... in fact if I'm reading the right topics, that seems to be some of the earliest criticisms for NCTH? I understand that there was to be some sort of +10% to hit thing in the works to help longarms out, and maybe that addresses the problem, but to be honest I don't feel a ton of confidence in that solution. Proper optics balance seems a key factor to me until it gets sorted.

• no sci-fi guns
• cut out a lot of pistols because of too similar stats
• all two-handed weapons have an inherent +15 Percentcap bonus
• most assault rifles don't accept battle scope 7x any longer (only the 7.62x51mm variants remain)
• most 7.62x51mm assault rifles have their accuracy greatly reduced similar to AFS
• weapons with integral attachments appear earlier than the respective seperable attachments
• no trigger group allowed, so weapons with burst appear later then those with auto-only
• other tweaks i forgot to mention

EDIT: remember that AFS being a mod, I do have more freedom to do things like redo coolness/EGC for NCTH (as Headrock intended). Stock v1.13 does not have that freedom, leading to another source of frustration with NCTH. Quite frankly, what makes sense in NCTH may not make sense for OCTH, so there will need to be some split. Better to have stock v1.13 stick to OCTH, and have mods be designed for NCTH with no compromises... if the modder chooses.

I think it would destroy a lot of the fun/balance of the game if you landed in Omerta with scoped weapons.

And by your own statement, if it's the case that scoped weapons in Omerta would destroy the balance of the game, then there should be *no* options for them. And yet a select number of mercs, such as Lynx or Scope, can already get them. Even the aforementioned Ivan, I believe, if you pick the right kit.

I think this is more an issue with NCTH than weapon choices if a pistol out performs an assault rifle at range. There are scopes available, normally in Kit 5, or in some cases K3+4.

While i agree you should get some bang for your buck, having Ivan start with a scoped weapon is a bit of overkill on day 1.

It seems silly for both teams to have only pistols and watch the gunfight turn into a close-range farce in Omerta and Drassen, so yes, I agree on having older rifles and SMGs in Drassen and Omerta--bolt-actions, SKSes, Winchester 94s, and the like. Additionally, FN FALs and other 7.62 rifles are given an absurdly high coolness value at the moment, a holdover from the pre-aimed-autofire days. I suggest having battle rifles be available before assault rifles, along with 2x scopes.

Also, it should be safe to have RPD and PKM machine guns available midway through. Neither gun can mount optics aside from the reflex sight, and neither are good enough for the late-game role (which is what the AUG HBAR, RPK-74, and Minimi are for).

Scout rifles, too; 7x scopes would be lovely and rare.

Most of our pistols are still at Coolness 1-2, and sniper rifles start appearing much later in the game - but this is completely wrong in NCTH, it doesn't make sense. Instead, some SRs should now be appearing in the first few Coolness levels, as should some Machine Guns - and conversely, pistols, MPs and SMGs need to spread out over the mid and high coolness levels. The reason, again, is that with NCTH every weapon has its downsides and upsides in combat, which means that we NEED a wider range of weapons in each coolness level to keep things balanced. For example, really basic rifles like the M1 Carbine need to start appearing at Coolness 1 or even equipped on some low-level mercs by default, early SRs like the Zastava M76 or ColtCanada C7CT should appear at level 3 at most instead of level 6! Conversely, instead of appearing at Coolness 5, the Five-seveN might be pushed back all the way to coolness 8 - given how terrifyingly powerful such a pistol can be in close-range encounters with the enemy.