@betsill LONG POST BEWARE - I feel as if you contradict yourself a lot and/or not looking at it at a more practical point of view.
Such as
as long as shot placement doesn't matter, it will always be "which gun can reliably output the most DPS.". The only thing that matters in SoT close range fights. The pistol and EoR both suck at hitting ranged enemies.
With
In a dual of pistol vs EoR the pistol will almost always win because they both take 2 shots to kill and the pistol has a faster reload and faster/easier aim.
Then the blunderbuss is king (If we do it this literal) and completely over-valuing the 24 longer to reload of frames of the sniper. You are also forgetting underwater fights (Which is very common).
But how about this:
but the main reason the EoR is better than the shotgun is because the shotgun was overnerfed.
So, was the EoR weaker because the blunderbuss was too strong? Again, taking things too technically and not practical at all. Blunderbuss still 1-shot kills, but it is more practical/consistent to 2-hit kill with the EoR as it gives you ton of other benefits.
You also argued of the fact that guns only need to hit anywhere on the body to do its damage as a bad thing. Reflecting what you said at the beginning:
If they added a headshot mult then we could talk about a small body shot nerf.
Headshotting in other games has mostly always resulted in an instant kill. It also furthers the gap between controllers and M&K, which I see why they opted for a more friendly method, which is having no difference in where you shoot them. This then has you argue of how its all about hitting and being close quarters, which makes me question where blunderbuss falls in that argument again.
But anyway, You dont actually disagree with nerfing the EoR
The only change it really needs is the reduced hipfire accuracy maybe
I agree about hipfire accuracy.
So what is the problem?
The guns in SoT are, very simple. They dont have headshot multipliers, they only have 5 shots, all reloads are almost the same. That is the Standard that I was mentioning at my original post.
With that standard, the only differences are in some numbers and others a uniqueness. The pistol does less damage than both guns but is easy to wield. The blunderbuss has a spread of pellets that is effective close, but not at all Long. The EoR has an accurate Aim for long range, does 80 if you hit, is pretty much the same as the flintlock... what the hell is its drawback?
That is the conversation, trying to reduce the EoR to its intended role because it currently satisfies a blunderbuss mindset as well as its own Long Range mindset. What is more damning about this is how players are opting to use the EoR for that blunderbuss mindset.
I personally do not find a 2 hit combo of a long range shot with an EoR and pistol to instant kill be a problem. Instead, I find it a problem that EoR is being used as a short range weapon that trumps the other 2 guns.
Here is a thought:
Pistol- Bullet now starts to drop sooner (To make EoR more desirable for the range)
EoR- Hipfire accuracy is now a complete gamble
Blunderbuss- Hip fire accuracy is the same as aim accuracy.
Even at close range, the EoR wont be useless because what a player wants to do then is to aim down. This is what is absolutely Ok. If he can forego the drawbacks of a terrible hip-fire accuracy with simply tunneling in at CQC, then so be it. (Question then will be; How easy is it to ignore the bad hip-fire accuracy with aiming down?`Is aiming too quick to give accuracy? etc. I dont think it currently is that easy, so after a bad hipfire nerf it should be ok.)
Even with all that said, someone is going to come here and say how the EoR is not an issue, or hasnt any without giving an argument as to how or why that is as opposed to my argument.
@betsill you make a good argument and I do believe you are actually going in depth with your thoughts, but you seem to wish for an overhaul. I would too, but I try to stay within the boundaries of what we have and figure out a solution there. That boundary is of course, the very simple gunplay as well as swordplay because the heart of the game is adventure and not just combat.
Sorry for the long post, I just always feel the need to repeat myself for some reason but differently ._.