I just crafted a Combat Rifle into a sniper rifle using the .308 mod, and now it's probably the most powerful weapon available before I can access Science!.

When compared to a fully modded and suppressed .308 Hunting Rifle, it has at least three times the rounds in the mag, a slightly faster reload speed, infinitely better fire rate, a noticeably smaller AP cost, 3% better damage, and a marginally worse range as the only downside (this amounts to like a foot difference in VATS accuracy at an already impressive range).

This is quite disturbing, as the only reason I would ever use the Hunting Rifle now is for the "bonus critical damage" from the receiver mod or because it's been chambered into a .50 cal.

Also, the best stealth pistol available is the bolt-action pipe pistol, because it has the highest base damage out of all the suppressible pistols. And it uses the same ammo as the Combat Rifle, only to again be outclassed once it becomes a rifle through modding the stock.

I understand the mods have brought more variety into the guns than ever, but it doesn't really feel like it when a select few straight up outclass the others like this...

There has, and always will be the "this weapon is better then anything else of its class" In fallout 1 and 2, energy weapons were 100% better then anything else near endgame, literally no reason to use anything else. Fallout 3, the combat shotgun was OP, you could literally SNIPE with a shotgun, yeah....., Fallout new vegas had laser rifles compared to plasma, no reason to use plasma in New Vegas at all, energy did everything it could, but better.

I'm not that deep into the game as yet, quite a few hours but I've not been pushing forwards just taking my time but I'm already beginning to 'feel' that being able to craft the bests weapons as described by the OP against 'finding' them as Loot (which can still happen?) is maybe going to far away from the older games? I like crafting/upgrading in Skyrim but has FO4 gone too far in the fact that maybe all possible weapons and armour can be crafted/upgraded to levels far beyond what the NPC's can possibly carry? Not sure as I've not seen enough of the crafting or the game in depth to tell but even Skyrim's lesser 'upgrade' system allowed the player to always have higher levels of equipment, as to the Combat Shotgun especially the Unique in FO3 if you then added the WMK (weapons mod kit) mods it became a game breaker.

Pretty limiting, I put my .50 cal away as it just wasn't doing as good as a laser sniper (which had minor legendary better criticals). The handmade pipe gun should be a weak anything highly modable. It also seems the laser rifle and pistol are the same gun but with mods. It looks like the plasma rifle is different from a plasma pistol as i didn't see and rifle stocks for mine. never considered the combat rifle as a sniper. I'm currently trading everything out to take a turn as an automatic. A .38 auto rifle, the laser auto rifle, and combat auto to spread out ammo use. .38 svcks but it takes care of my light work and i can fire it indiscriminately.

Constructive criticism follows:

I have truly enjoyed the weapon mod systems, but I personally think the base weapons are far too few and that damn assault rifle....just no. That thing is out of left field being based on a some sort of Maxim - Vickers hybrid that's pretty much the only thing that uses 5.56mm, but weighs a ton.

Not too happy with weapon types. Wanted a real battle rifle like an M1 or M14 (like was in the Wanderer video), an M1911, and assault carbines based on AR and AK series weapons. 2 percussion based pistols (outside of pipe guns), and 2 shotguns? Not good, no matter how many ways you can mod them. Pump shotgun maybe?

Not a deal breaker, I'll just wait for the inevitable mods, but they should have gone the extra mile on weapon types after New Vegas, and not rely solely on the mod system and pipe guns to carry them through it. The mod system is fun, but sometimes I just want to pick up my trusty AR or AK and throw a suppressor on it.

This should be addressed in DLCs by the developer not the modders.

I figured that on top of modded weapons we'd see other more varied weapons as well. But that hasn't been the case.

The thing about modding that feels weird to me is things like gun mods not fitting onto their counterpart weapon even though the counterpart uses the exact same stock, barrel, scope, etc. It also feels weird that you can't just freely remove mods for weapons. You can for armor so you'd think that weapons also would have a base non-modded state so you could easily rip all the mods out of the weapons you find.

I'm enjoying modding in the sense that I haven't put any perk points into modding at all and am basically just taking mods off of found weapons and armor to upgrade my weapons and armor. So far it works quite well and I don't feel like I'm left behind.. It feels pretty well balanced.

I definitely don't like how anything is named. "hardened psychic angry leather chest piece" Doesn't let you know if it's any better than something you already have. The only way to do that is to look at the stats. When it comes to finding sturdy or heavy armor pieces those modded names leave out the most important fact.. whether or not it's regular, sturdy or heavy.

Yes I agree, too many hand built pipe styled weapons, as said before I'm not charging ahead with FO4 but all I'm seeing is hand made stuff apart from the 10mm pistol and a shotgun (so far) Yep I got the minigun but that's not a sneaking around the wasteland's type of weapon. I know hunting rifles are in there somewhere but why is nearly everyone using all these hand built things? we had these discussions with FO3, America has one of the largest if not the largest amount of weapons per population in the world. Work it out the defence forces, home guards, police, weapons shops and every home has a gun or two? why is everyone running around with these pipe things, yea it's 200 years but weapons if looked after can last and could still be discovered in brand new condition packed in transport cases or storage hidden away here and there?

Not much variety IMO, just need to wait it out for the modding gun nuts to add them in 3 and NV...

But overall modding is OK...Not great but OK.

A few weapons I'm quite happy with.

As a handgun aficionado in real life I truly enjoy the art and effects in default game of:

10mm pistol (when craft modded)

and

.44 (mag) revolver (which kicks major [censored] with craft mods )

Others worthy of note that I enjoy from art and effect in default game are:

Double barrel shotgun .. up until one can get the...

Semi auto combat shotgun.

Sniper Rifles 308 ,

The 50 caliber default sniper was a huge let down. It was absurdly weak. It is a 50 caliber for crying out loud.

This had to be fixed by a mod I found on Nexus and am using the 1.5 multiplier on it now to get in the range of total rampage devestation that

weapon should deliver. So that one is fixed by a community mod.

Assault rifles or full autos of most any sort of ballistic weapon.

Very dissatisfied with the art on these.

I want my AK's and my M16 style full autos. I want select fire and full auto. I have none of that.

This entire tree will have to wait for toolkit mods to both fix art with full mesh work done, and actual mechanics of the guns with hopefully proper select fire mode.

The 38 caliber weapons of the entire range I'm unhappy with, especially the 'pistols'.

I won't be happy until full mod kit arrives with a 357 Smith and Wesson style revolver is in game.

I also want to see a .50 caliber Smith and Wesson insane over the top style revolver and or semi auto pistol. Ever shoot one in real life? Don't. lol.

Energy weapons, I have no comment on. I melt those or sell to vendors. I never was a fan or user of those in FO3/ or NV .

That is because I'm a old grumpy man who likes guns that go BOOM.

I can see the art direction Bethesda went with vaires vastly from NV and I can understand why they did it. That said, I think they went

too far into the 'simpleton and idiotic' design of the weapons. Just a bit too far.

Come to think of it, the odd exceptions are the 44 mag revolver and the snipers.

I almost forgot to mention .45ACP (I presume the .45 in game is meant to be ACP rimless and not a Colt rimmed case). I'm let down

as you can probably guess from my chosen forum icon. I will have to wait for months for a mod to hopefully incorporate a Colt 1911 or modern Glock

type design semi auto. I can tweak said mod when it arrives to have what I envision proper damage in relation to this game, as about same

as the default 38 caliber revolvers in the game. It need not be OP nor should it. So far though, in default game. All my 45 weapons are

closet Nancys. They stay at home. I see no need to bother with them.

None of that whine above matters. Mods can and will fix to user taste for all of us.

PC users first, which is by divine right.

I am using a number of mod texture fixer uppers for sniper and my 44 revolvers which are doing fine for me. No mesh work needed on those.

I think that the variety of firearms is fine. I can't wait to start seeing the .50 cal arms start dropping. I will probably take the Gun Nut Perk once I get my first .50 cal pistol. I want a Suppressed Powerful pistol of that variety so bad.

This times 10. The entire naming scheme is a mess.

I want a mod that at least properly sort my weapons based on Caliber and type (in case of energy weapons) So, sort order, ballistic by caliber in order

of handgun or rifle, then energy weapons by handgun or two hand, etc etc.

The naming scheme I'd make much simpler , at least we can rename though. I made up my own scheme on crafted guns but I can't sort properly with

default foolish sort scheme Bethesda came up with. Lack of options .

there is no .50 pistol, only a single weapon uses it and it is a sniper rifle only, cannot be changed to anything else

NV was silly. No need for tons of different weapons and ammo when all is needed is a few specific types for any encounter you have, especially when only one or two guns outclass everything else. Everything else is just clutter in the world and inventory - there's no point.

However, what we do see is, once again, a total bias against energy weapons and towards ballistic weapons. Boring, to say the least. Developers need to learn different energy types and realize that it is possible to create a wide variety of weapons using said types just like ballistic weapons use various types of ammo.

i think weapons are just fine. Weapons type are base on level to, i notice that after some points i star seeing more combat rifles and combat shotguns, same as plasma pistols/rifles.

What happen with all those ppl with pipe weapons is they just rushing the main quest or the game so they just getting pipe weapons or laser weapons.

For me this time around i was happy i wasnt stuck with the same weapons like happen to me on NV and on 3, (on NV after i get the unique plasma rifle i never remove it, same with the 50cal snipe rifle)

I like how i can mod weapons to end been something else.

I think it's great, and the base weapons with mods cover all of the bases. I don't have any problems with the variety - although I fully expect the expansions to add at least a dozen more modifiable weapons. Mods will be a great boon, too.

One word: "lacking." At least for the "Guns" category. If everything was as customizable as the pipe weapons, things might be a bit better. For example, I can make a pipe revolver into a revolver rifle/sniper, but why can't I do that to my .44? I can turn a bolt action pipe rifle into a bolt action pipe pistol, but not a hunting rifle into a hunting pistol? A pipe pistol can become a rifle, why can't the 10mm pistol? There's only a handful of "Guns" once you move past the crappy pipe weapons. The combat rifle, combat shotgun, double barrel shotgun(which you have no reason to use once you get a combat shotgun), 10mm pistol, 44 pistol, hunting rifle(which can't even do it's job as a sniper since it does lower damage than a max damage combat rifle, even with the .50cal mod), SMG, and AR. Hell, I'd be happy if we could just get lever action weapons(a "mare's leg" that could then be modded into a rifle or shotgun, for example) and a nice 12g shotgun/hunting shotgun(seriously, how do you leave out the most basic shotgun?). And would it have killed Bethesda to make the mods for the body of the weapon change its appearance? a .50 cal hunting rifle looks the same as a base hunting rifle.

bc reasons..... Pipes weapons are weaker that other types that why u can make everything from pipes.

I love the game, but the weapon variety is very, very constrained compared to the rest of the series, and honestly doesn't make sense in some cases. There would be pistols chambered in .38 and .45 that were not made out of plumbing and scrap wood.

Why are none of the pipe guns shotguns, even though the smooth bore would make sense there? Why do energy weapons and pipe guns without stocks count as pistols, while rifles without stocks still count as rifles? Why are the Institute laser guns completely worse than the jukier "standard" ones? What, they can make automatons, but not a decent laser gun?

There should absolutely be more than one 5.56 rifle in the game. The .45 "assault rifle" should be a carbine or a subachine gun. The actual submachine gun is pointless, since an automatic 10mm outpreforms it. The pipe .308 should be as accurate as drunk wikipedia due to a lack of rifling, but it shoots just fine. Heck, without rifling, they shouldn't be "rifles".

And on a personal note, WHERE IS MY .223/5.56 PISTOL? That thing has been a mainstay of the series, and is my favorite gun. It is no where to be found now. this is upsetting.

Base weapons are still too far and few. It's disappointing, having waiting for 5 years for them to improve upon the New Vegas inundation of weapons. This is the one thing I feel was a bad design decision. Like I said above the mod system is fun to play with, but there's not much here for gun nuts to latch onto, with no basics like pump shotguns, assault rifles (that maxim-vickers thing doesn't count), and antimateriel rifles that do the overpowering damage they should. Everything looking like a PPSh-41 (with design nods to the BAR and Thompson) in everything, really gets old after a while.

In my view, they totally skewed the game to energy weapons and power armor, and those things that look best while wearing power armor.

I hope they hear this criticism from more than a few players, and don't stay so entrenched in the FO3 view of weapon design. $#!+ man, this is Fallout where our primary means of engaging the world is from the business end of a gun...and it's AMERICA. Good gosh, the number of weapons in homes scattered throughout the nation is astounding...whether in the real world or the FO world, regardless of timeline splits.

Having said all that, I do truly love this game, and if Bethesda is wearing their deaf ears on this issue, and insists on being entrenched in their vision of things, I know the modders will begin flooding Nexus with great weapon designs in the near future. But c'mon Bethesda, fix it, and give us all the freedom you so proudly hail that you do.