Honestly, with how per-shot-damage the SMG does, being literally equal to an automatic pipe gun, it makes sense that it should use the same ammo as the pipe gun... We can just assume that in-universe, the fallout verse equivalent to the Tommy Gun actually uses .38, it is a slightly alternate universe after all. And it's just depressing in the base game that it uses a rarer ammo type but does the same damage as a cobbled together thing out of wood and rusted pipes.
This mod should at least sorta give it a semi-niche as a slightly better version of the automatic pipe gun, with a bigger magazine and probably other small advantages.
Edit: Sadly, enemies still spawn with .45 ammo, and can't fire their SMG's. I took a look in the .esp file for the mod, and i suspect it has something to do with the line "LNAM - NPC Add Ammo List|LL_Ammo_SubmachineGun [LVLI:00198DDD]". I'm not knowledgeable enough to know that's it for sure, and not daring enough to modify the .esp myself. But it's food for thought.
I feel offended for John Thompson. Also this messes with balance sooo much seeing as it's still worth around 100 caps while pipe weapons are basically worthless.
Unfortunately there isn't a perfect solution for the SMG. There's no real reason to use one as long as the combat rifle is in the game. You could solve that problem by giving the combat rifle 5.56, but then it would be too close to the assault rifle.
The problem of weapon identity is compounded by ammo properties being too simplistic in this game. There's no functional difference between .45 and 5.56 because the game doesn't have bullet velocity or trajectory, and ammo doesn't have any armour piercing or stopping power functionality, since for some reason that's handled by receivers or other mods.
The best "fix" I can think of, without opening the aforementioned can of worms, is to drop the SMG into a portion of the game where it can actually be used, and if people prefer the aesthetic of pipe weapons, then use those instead of my mod. Upping damage isn't a solution since legendary variants like explosive already shred everything in the game to pieces. Can you imagine how OP the SMG would be, with its fire rate combined with realistic .45 caliber damage, and explosive on top of that?
If there's a more elegant solution to the SMG having no identity in this game then I'm open to hear it.
3 comments
This mod should at least sorta give it a semi-niche as a slightly better version of the automatic pipe gun, with a bigger magazine and probably other small advantages.
Edit: Sadly, enemies still spawn with .45 ammo, and can't fire their SMG's. I took a look in the .esp file for the mod, and i suspect it has something to do with the line "LNAM - NPC Add Ammo List|LL_Ammo_SubmachineGun [LVLI:00198DDD]". I'm not knowledgeable enough to know that's it for sure, and not daring enough to modify the .esp myself. But it's food for thought.
The problem of weapon identity is compounded by ammo properties being too simplistic in this game. There's no functional difference between .45 and 5.56 because the game doesn't have bullet velocity or trajectory, and ammo doesn't have any armour piercing or stopping power functionality, since for some reason that's handled by receivers or other mods.
The best "fix" I can think of, without opening the aforementioned can of worms, is to drop the SMG into a portion of the game where it can actually be used, and if people prefer the aesthetic of pipe weapons, then use those instead of my mod. Upping damage isn't a solution since legendary variants like explosive already shred everything in the game to pieces. Can you imagine how OP the SMG would be, with its fire rate combined with realistic .45 caliber damage, and explosive on top of that?
If there's a more elegant solution to the SMG having no identity in this game then I'm open to hear it.