Just some thoughts on the Service Rifle:

- It's too heavy. 8.5? Seriously? The service rifle should weigh like 5, and the marksman carbine 6 or 7

- Too slow. It's semi-automatic, dude! What are you waiting for! BAM BAM BAM BAM

- It's too inaccurate. Waaaay waaaay too inaccurate. The service rifle should be the one that you're using to shoot at people that are 4 pixels on the horizon, not the Trail Carbine. The .44 magnum round has an effective range of around 150 meters, after that it's just too slow and too inaccurate to be worthwhile. M-16's effective range? 550 meters. The pistol-caliber carbines and the rifles got their accuracy values swapped for some reason.

The power is acceptable, in my opinion, if the rate of fire and accuracy were improved. 5.56mm ammo is common, cheap, and comes in AP.

Something is very wrong when you can make a reasonable case for carrying a 9mm pistol (barely less accuracy and damage, higher DPS thanks to steady rate of fire, 20% of the weight, also uses cheap and common ammo, cheaper to keep in top condition) to replace a semi-automatic 5.56mm rifle.



No they wouldn't. You're in deep poo if you lose your issued weapon. <_<

Just watched a Mythbusters where they armored up a Car with phone books, it was pretty much proof againt 5.56mm ball. only took like 2 layers of books and the door.

Talk to a few vietnam vets .Although the guy i spoke too was slightly traumatized.He grabbed me by the throat and picked me up sorta funny -_-

The service rifle is far more accurate in vats then the varmint rifle and in vats I remember it fires bursts of 3 shots per vats attack. The cowboy repeater only uses pistol ammo so no armor peirce.. but then it does alot more damage too and fires rather silly fast but it only fires 1 shot in vats.

So if you use vats the service rifle is for you at that stage of the game.

As for a 9 mm pistol.. by the time your in range for that gun you should already have killed the target with a service rifle.

Yes, but in NV maximum distance you can shoot is perhaps 100 meters. If not less. At that distance pistol round can be as accurate as 5.56 if fired from long enough barrel. Given semiauto action and probably shorter (I was not measuring it) barrel of service rifle, those accuracy values are not necessarily off. What might be bit off is damage.

But it is just game, and not overly that realistic after all.

I remember trying to use automatic weapons end-game against the legion.
Pretty much svcked without AP rounds.
So yes, they do feel underpowered and somewhat unrealistic when using standard ammo against heavily armored foes (invisible head armor anyone?).

But it is a game and there has to be some gameplay balance.
A One-weapon-fits-all-gun would cause even more discussion about how this weapon is hugely overpowered.

And don't forget that enemies would use it, too.
While the game is probably too easy, I remember FWE for FO3 intoducing some pretty overpowered automatic weapons.
Being ambushed by a couple of raiders with automatic weapons means pretty much instant death...
(Which is, of course, realistic, but it is not really fun)

Well, how about bringing back the SAW and 7.62 caliber? Maybe it should have high DAM and lower DPS. I missed the SAW 7.62 from my good old days with Fallout Tactics (sorry, didn't get to play FO1 and FO2 )

I think Obsidian made the right call with automatics in this game. the chinese assault rifle in Fallout 3 encouraged lazy gameplay - just hold down your fire button till target is dead, don't worry, you'll cripple something and make them unable to shoot back for the duration. It also had a nasty effect of making virtually every gun before it obsolete, all you needed in that game was DPS after all and what gives better DPS than a full auto gun?

The return of DT and the way ammo has been implemented has been great for guns users. Pretty much every gun has a role, ammo type, shot placement and reloads have to be more tactical and every gun has a much longer lifespan of use than in Fallout 3. It's simply better and more thoughtful game design for it to be this way.

By the way, the assault carbine, minigun and LMG are perfectly fine against most enemies with some AP ammo and the service rifle has a massive magazine size, is really durable and has low requirements. It's balanced fine.