IRL, most guns, except shotguns, have very little spread. Even the "inaccurate" guns are pretty accurate.
The Thompson had high recoil because it fired a large pisol round, but it could fire a lot of bullets quickly. Excellent at close range. :gun:
As for "unreliable", It couldn't be any more unreliable than the M16A1. Unless by "unreliable" you mean not very effective most of the time.
1. I am not neccessarily a Thompson expert. My real forte is service rifles.
2. I am not aware of any reputation of the Thompson for unreliability. It was an expensive and intricate weapon to produce, even after they simplified it with the M1 version. All I've heard, and that's at best second hand, is that it is a pretty solid piece of gear.
3. On the subject of spread, you have to remember a few things:
a. As a game mechanic, spread is not only used to portray a weapon's ballistic accuracy. Since there is no other mechanic abailable, it also has to incorperate the inaccuracy of a weapon due to recoil and muzzle rise in full auto. The .45ACP is not neccessarily famous as a flat shooting high velocity highly accurate round, but it's accurcy is certainly not problematic. All the .45ACP bullseye shooters out there would certainly argue that. So some of the spread will model the actual accuracy, or bullet spread, measured in minutes of angle; some of it will model the relatively moderate recoil of the .45ACP round; some will model the fairly large bullet drop due to the round's low velocity and but most will be there because of the muzzle rise in full auto.
b. Not only is the round a factor in spread, but you also have to factor in weapon specific effects. You've got to look at barrel length, as longer barrels on weapons firing similar ammo will increase accuracy. You've got to look at recoil compensating factors, eg: muzzle brakes, recoil compensators, fore grips, etc.. You've got to look at inherent weapon design features like weight, center of gravity, bore height, stock drop, etc. The Thompson has a pretty high stock drop, with the bore, and therefore all the recoil at a point high above the shoulder weld of the shooter. This will cause a higher muzzle rise than on another weapon firing the same round.
So the Thompson should have a decent health, but degrade at a higher rate like all the full auto weapons. It will have reasonable accuracy, for a full auto, but not as good as the higher velocity or lower recoil weapons. In gameplay balance terms, I expect it to have an item health around 500, with a spread of around 1.8. It has a longer barrel than most smgs in the game, so it should be a little better than the 10 & 12.7mm smgs. As far as ROF, we could see something around 12 rps if Josh uses the realistic number of 720 rpm for the M1928, which our version is since it accepts drums, but he will probably go with 10 rps, or 600 rpm like the later M1 version.
PS I appreciate the nice words, guys. I don't know everything about firearms, but I know a thing or two and I accpreciate the opportunity to pass some of that knowledge along. I also agree, for a guy who started shooting not too darn long ago, Josh has amassed a pretty big resevoir of firearms knowledge.
-Gunny out.
» Thu Dec 09, 2010 12:12 pm 
bliviongate: 
