Gunsmith - Three Golden Rules | Forums

[Hugo-FOU]

There’s no doubt the gunsmith has improved. The features we have now, are far better than release and it doesn’t need to go too much further to be where we were at, three and a half years ago with Wildlands.
(For the record, I’m being both sincere and sarcastic. Ubisoft have made great changes, but still deserve a friendly ribbing for it being so bad in the first place).

Rule 1

Be logical!

It’s a game so I understand that some things have to be balanced. You don’t want one weapon being too far superior to another.

But be logical in the decisions. Don’t just pluck numbers out of thin air.

For example. Take the 516 vs the M4A1 CQC vs 416. All fitted with short barrels, these weapons are extremely similar. They are all based on the same platform, yet they have some unusual differences.
Despite almost identical barrel length and presumably the same ammunition, they each do a different amount of damage.
Despite the M4A1 CQC presumably being designed specifically for close quarters, it has the worst mobility of the three, yet better range and despite having a flared mag well, it has a slower reload speed than the 516.
The 416 has a slower ROF than the 516 yet has worse recoil and handling!

We may have balance, but it sometimes seems to be at the expense of logic!

The individual attachments aren’t, in general too bad, but there is the odd anomaly, like extra range or slower reload speed from a foregrip.


Rule 2

Let the player make the choices!

Variants can be fun, but actually, it can be more fun to create your own.
What is a 416 Assault, except a 416 that has had a set of longer rails and a flared mag well fitted.
It’s great being able to fit a short barrel, but it’d also be nice to fit long rails instead and create our own assault variant.

IMO, variants should just be pre-tuned versions of weapons we can create ourselves via the gunsmith, but optimised toward a particular area. Of course they can also come with unique paint jobs or wraps.

Rule 3

Don’t Dumb It Down!

The current mark system is far too basic. We should be able to improve a weapons stats, but also have the opportunity to invest in a particular trait, even if that is at the expense of others.

As far as I am aware with my limited knowledge, the game equivalents that can actually be tuned IRL are, ROF, accuracy, range, (slightly), handling and recoil. (Not damage). These are adjusted by changing such things as the gas system, the bolt carrier, the buffer spring, trigger and type of barrel.

Range is effected more by barrel length. Reload speed comes from the mechanism fitted and items like a flared mag well.
It could be argued that greater range means increased bullet velocity which surely increases damage, but if this is the case, these should be linked, not separately adjustable traits.

So ideally, the gunsmith would allow us, not just to customise the weapon visually, or it’s behaviour purely based on a couple of attachments, but really fine tune it via a more detailed weapon tuning system that encompasses every part of the weapon.

[El_Cuervacho]

Great post, Hugo, and yeah Ubisoft is in dear need of some systematizing of their features and mechanics.
If I can make a suggestion though, I'd give also more emphasis to ammo types, calibers and their different capabilities, which would fall neatly into your "don't dumb it down" category.

[AI BLUEFOX]

Definitely the way it should have gone after its first appearance. With a wider and more variable selection of parameters for the player to experiment with, based on real physics as opposed to game tropes, the players could individually set up weapons that are unique to them.

[Hugo-FOU]

Great post, Hugo, and yeah Ubisoft is in dear need of some systematizing of their features and mechanics.
If I can make a suggestion though, I'd give also more emphasis to ammo types and capabilities, which would fall neatly into your "don't dumb it down" category.

Good point. That’s another variation. The player could take their own ammo initially, which performed a certain way and if they had to restock from the enemy it could perform differently.

[Hugo-FOU]

Definitely the way it should have gone after its first appearance. With a wider and more variable selection of parameters for the player to experiment with, based on real physics as opposed to game tropes, the players could individually set up weapons that are unique to them.

Exactly. Players wouldn’t just be sharing their Ghosts and Weapon appearances, they’d be sharing performance data too.

[JohnnyPlays91]

Exactly. Players wouldn’t just be sharing their Ghosts and Weapon appearances, they’d be sharing performance data too.

Yep, stuff like this creates replayability and long term motivation. Like so often I see people ask for "builds" and I am like "What builds? There aren't anywhere near enough different parameters to have build diversity..."

[El_Cuervacho]

Good point. That’s another variation. The player could take their own ammo initially, which performed a certain way and if they had to restock from the enemy it could perform differently.

Indeed, If we're to believe BP's whole "survive enemy lines" premise, ammo availability becomes a PRIME concern.
Having each weapon's caliber correctly represented in the game, would automatically make choice of weaponry have a far more meaningful effect on your experience.
For instance, say Sentinel are mostly armed with 5.56 ARs, having an 7.62 rifle as your main weapon will pose some issues regarding ammo as you wouldn't be able to loot it from dead enemies but rather you'll be forced to raid a base's armoury to refill your mags (or upon returning to base). Same goes for even more exotic rounds, such as .50 BMG or 5.7 ammo to name a few.

[ArgimonEd]

And at the same time, you could have the gun you want, without being annoyed at how it sucks.
How terribly slow you are with it.
Or how it doesnt do any damage to the enemies.

[AI BLUEFOX]

One of the things I really like about the Codemasters' F1 game (same Developer as Operation Flashpoint) is the variability and settings for tuning the car's handling. You can adjust angles and pressures of multiple parts and do so with settings that go from 1 to 10 or even fully variable. As you get used to the game the replayabilty comes from getting deeper into the settings, altering the car for different circuits and different weather conditions. Players love to discuss the set up options and what they do and how they interact together to get the best lap times, but one of the really great aspects of such control is that there isn't a "best" set up because it also depends on you the player and how aggressive you are in both you approach to driving and how you use your controller/mouse/steering wheel; one player's perfect set up is another player's disaster. Come the race you also need to decide how much fuel to carry, what type of tyres to use etc.

We could be here talking about the best weapons, attachments and weapon set up for specific missions and how we tend to approach them. I'd rather have fewer weapons if it meant total flexibility of attachments and a deeper access to a meaningful set up.

[Hugo-FOU]

Yep, stuff like this creates replayability and long term motivation. Like so often I see people ask for "builds" and I am like "What builds? There aren't anywhere near enough different parameters to have build diversity..."

Builds seems a very RPG, MMO, sort of thing, but it doesn’t have to be. If they have realistic weapon tuning and kit, players would be merrily creating builds, because they’d actually make sense.

Indeed, If we're to believe BP's whole "survive enemy lines" premise, ammo availability becomes a PRIME concern.
Having each weapon's caliber correctly represented in the game, would automatically make choice of weaponry have a far more meaningful effect on your experience.
For instance, say Sentinel are mostly armed with 5.56 ARs, having an 7.62 rifle as your main weapon will pose some issues regarding ammo as you wouldn't be able to loot it from dead enemies but rather you'll be forced to raid a base's armoury to refill your mags (or upon returning to base). Same goes for even more exotic rounds, such as .50 BMG or 5.7 ammo to name a few.

And that create another way to add replayability.

And at the same time, you could have the gun you want, without being annoyed at how it sucks.
How terribly slow you are with it.
Or how it doesnt do any damage to the enemies.

Players would really feel invested in their weapons, because they’d spent time tuning them.