DISCLAIMER: The barrels I am referring to are not the internal ones, but the attachments that screw onto the end of the internal barrel or whatever it’s called. Basically, think of the barrel attachment point in 3.0. That’s what I’m referring to.
Now, as we know in 3.0, barrel attachments are trash. Suppressors especially. They last so little to be useful, so that’s why I’m suggesting a rework of these sorts of attachments.
Amount Of Shots
Currently in 3.0, the barrel attachments break after a certain amount of shots. This makes them very annoying to work with. So this is what I’m proposing:
Barrel attachments have a much higher health value
1 shot brings down the health by 1
The longer you burst for, the more the health goes down each shot
Shooting for long periods non-stop can eventually melt the barrel
To give you an example, let’s say I put a suppressor on an Eaglefire. I use drum mags, and shoot non-stop. The suppressor doesn’t last long. Now, the same setup (drum mag, Eaglefire, suppressor), but now I don’t shoot non-stop. The suppressor lasts longer.
The heating up of the barrel could be displayed as it changing its colour over time, like in this video
The Stats
In 3.0, barrel attachments all have unique stats. The muzzle reduces recoil and hides bullet trails and flashes, the suppressor reduces the sound and the barrel (military barrel, ranger barrel) reduces bullet spread. They’re all pretty balanced, but if 4.0 is really going to be a survival game, then the barrel and muzzles should also be of use when dealing with zombies. Here’s what I think the changes should be:
Suppressors
Reduce sound so that zombie detection is decreased
Slight decrease of horizontal recoil (weight)
Less damage
Muzzles
No flash or bullet trails
Louder sound from firing
Smaller recoil pattern
Barrel
Better ballistics (flatter bullet path)
High damage dropoff
Conclusion
Barrel attachments need a major overhaul in 4.0. One in which they all have advantages and disadvantages.
Now, let’s have a civil discussion in the comments. I’d like to see what you guys have to say about my proposed suggestions.
Edit: Read devlog 5, and it didn’t really cover anything I suggested. I’m just saying that this is what I hope barrel attachments are in 4.0, while making comparisons to 3.0 for examples of what not to do when making attachments.
Barrels definitely need some reworking in 4.x and I like the idea of spraying longer damaging the barrel much quicker. Overall stats like reduced recoil, more/less visible tracers, and louder noises seem nice.
The red-hot barrel seems unnecessary at first, but I guess it could be cool to see your barrel glowing orange after an intense pvp engagement. It should last a minute or two to let players know that you’re gun has recently been shooting loads of rounds. It’d also serve as a good warning that you’ve been shooting too much (which I believe was your intended idea for it).
I am confused about the barrel attatchment though. Better ballistics and shorter range seem to contradict each other. Could you go more in depth?
In addition to the complete overhaul with the stats system and how attachments will affect guns using multipliers on stats, Nelson has himself said that he doesn’t find the 3.0 durability system to make much sense.
I think we can expect plenty of improvement upon this in the near future.
Planned to make a detailed reply to this, but for now just want to remind people that they are “muzzle attachments” in version 4. “Barrel attachments” is confusable with the attachment slot for actual barrel gun components.
Well what would counteract that? If suppressors made you quieter AND less bullet drop, you’d need something that makes it so that the other attachments get used.
The only problem is that subsonic ammo would render suppressors basically useless if it’s another type of ammo.
The stat could be though that with a suppressor there is lower damage due to your ammo magically turning into subsonic ammo for simplicity’s sake, which would probably be better than changing up the bullet trail.
They don’t in real life. In fact they improve accuracy without reducing muzzle velocity (i.e. should not affect bullet drop). That said I think suppressors in the game are OP. They should reduce the radius within which Zombies hear and react to your shot by roughly half. Right now you can fire right next to a zombie and he won’t hear the silenced round.