Feedback regarding LeMat (and possibly other Civil War revolvers), pistol bandolier issue

[RodriguesCIA]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Pistol bandoleer can't accept any of the paper cartridge rounds, which is a bit contradictory with the whole cowboy vibe. Unless it is justifiable by realistic considerations (paper cartridge rounds are too big, for example).

Describe the solution you'd like

The .44 paper cartridge might be, in my experience, the most easily accessible, high power pistol cartridge out there. Although I am using the over-pressured version from Cata++ (that might end up some day in vanilla), even the regular one, by my rough estimations, should be capable of delivering roughly the same performance (on bottom levels, plus some possible benefit for prolonged shooting).

You can, by chance, acquire sizeable stock of 45 ACP, however, chances are, this stock will have to fall from a zombie you killed. I made a character that is not particularly proficient in combat in any form (Wild West Gunslinger all 7s, but Int, at 14), so until I managed to acquire myself a nice stock of firearms and ammo for high intensity combat (9mm SMGs, 223 rifles usually, from a military bunker after scavenging a few Military dropsites), I was avoiding towns like the plague. Still, counting every single bullet in my rather unimpressive reproduction revolver, I decided to try my luck at night raiding for a gun store at the edge of a town (first tried a Mil Surp store, but alas, it was the "good" one, with clothing, MREs, and the like, not the "bad" one where I could get antique firearms). It was tough to say the least, eventually having to stab my way into the store, however, it was a "handload" store, so little ammo for anything there. However, still useful goods, and most importantly: a LeMat.

A small Odyssey later, using the last of my reproduction revolver ammo to kill zombie miners, a bit of grinding for skills, a bit of literal grinding for match head powders, and I finally got my first stack of ammo.

It hits like a train, and fairly accurate at it. At 51 damage (41 for vanilla, standard pressure), at most within its nominal range (I'd say roughly 12 with my character skills and stats, without drugs), it is reliably killing common zombies at 2 shots, one-shot critting weakers, and it offers adequate performance against soldiers (fairly tanky this time around, with the new ballistic system). The gun is fairly quick to find a target (by virtue of being a pistol), the 9 shots cylinder does a damn fine job, and to top it all, it reloads VERY quickly, 150 on weapon statistics, but I seem to get around 110ish with proper storage.

I managed to take on fairly sizable early hordes with it, without having to really worry about ammo (as I can just craft more trivially), although, when it gets really tough, the gun breaking apart due to clogging really starts getting to you. Still, never had such joy using any pistol before, as I consider them to be low-threat weapons for the most part. Specially with lowered hand-load performance, in which you really feel when you are not using first-hand ammo, it is fresh breeze to have one of these revolvers, even if said breeze comes with a whiff of black gunpowder smoke.

Describe alternatives you've considered

These things don't just drop from zombies, though, you have to get into cities, often large ones, to raid a gun-store, mil surp, and, I think, museum to get one. In these places, often, you may find stuff that at first glance, are better to play with (medieval weapons, modern guns, smokeless powder ammo). You will have to actually go out of your way to get these guns, and out of your way to make the ammo for them. I think this is fine, not allowing the great mix of performance and economics of these guns to completely overtake regular firearms.

Still, I think it could be beneficial for the players, and bring more attention to these, if there was a craftable black gunpowder revolver capable of using at least one of these calibers. If a character is too frail and unsuited for night raiding, it is likely a player will just not come across enough ammo drops to eventually be able to raid a city, specially if they got unlucky with getting Bunkers and Military ID cards to enter them safely.

Also, specially early on, being able to get pistol and large pistol primers from match head powders rather than oxidizer powder was a life saver, and I strongly encourage players who are handloading to use this option, even if they are not keen on pistols (or shotguns, for that matter).

Additional context

My concept of flintlocks dropped even further. What a musket could do for me, downing a single low level zombie with one shot crits at nearly point blank, and running from the approaching horde attracted by the noise, the LeMat can do almost 9 times. The extremely fast reload allows me to deal with small groups without having to fear for my life or run away all the time, or resorting to melee combat. All of this considered, I see no reason whatsoever to even bother with flintlocks at this point. You are better off going melee and night raiding for Revolvers if you are looking for economic ammo options. Perhaps this performance gap could be reduced if reloading these revolvers took a bit longer, specially if the craftable revolver doesn't have self-contained cartridges (and thus, reloading each chamber, with rod, would be more comparable to flintlock muzzleloading).

I didn't use the shotgun yet, neither saw reason for, really. I understand that it is there for realistic purposes, but even if adds pointless bulk to the pistol, the gun is very fine as it is.