First thoughts on Pipe Weapons

[Silverjohn]

(Note: These observations are based on Nomad level play with quality 1-2 weapons and no perks purchased yet.  I am not comparing them to higher tier weapons but to the Primitive Bow and Bone Knife which have, admittedly, received a boost in A20.)

 

So no early access for me so I've only had a couple of days playing with the new pipe guns but so far I have to agree with the consensus that the Pipe Machine Gun is overpowered, the Pistol seems to be fairly well balanced and the Rifle and Shotgun are pretty weak.  The Pipe Baton does seem like an upgrade to the starting club but not enough to make me switch over from the Bone Knife which is my default starter weapon.  To help balance them out I'd suggest the following:

 

Pipe Machine Gun

Make it so you can't stop firing it once you've pulled the trigger.  Each time it fires it empties the magazine (simulating a crudely made weapon that doesn't have effective sear).  This wouldn't make the gun useless as it would be powerful for emergency situations were you're getting swarmed but not something you'd use in every encounter.

 

Pipe Rifle

This thing is truly awful.  I was making sneak attack head shots from one block away against completely unaware zombies (through a hole I'd chopped in a wall) and they weren't even dropping.  Meanwhile, from several blocks away, the Primitive Bow is routinely blowing their heads clean off.  Maybe give the Rifle a sneak attack bonus similar to the bows so it does +100% damage with the first sneak shot.  Alternatively give it a bonus against armored zombies.

 

Pipe Shotgun

With a head shot at point blank range I could at least get the zombies to drop but it still wasn't impressive.  I'd also say it isn't really that much faster to reload than a blunderbuss that it replaced (which was the justification for making it do less damage than the blunderbuss).  Maybe give it a bonus vs unarmored but a steep penalty for armored opponents.