Problem with .50 calibers

[Admiral_Blunts 5]

1) You should need hearing protection if you don't want to destroy your eardrums.

2) You should not be able to fire more than 3 rounds standing. If a 12 gauge will destroy my shoulder after 20 rounds I could only imagine what a .50 would do after putting that many rounds downrange.

3) I am a navy vet with a reasonable understanding of firearms, but if you put a .50 cal in front of me and told me to clean and zero it, I would try but it would be messy and extremely time consuming if I was even able to deconstruct and put it back together. It would be like a layman giving stitches, it might work but it would be very ugly, gruesome and more likely than not would cause more issues than help.

Ideas for balancing:

Make it deployable, if you try to fire too many shots standing, muscle fatigue should make it near impossible to hit anything after the second or third round.

Increase audible range for ZEDS (easy fix, discussed many times)

Add a earplug spawn, if you don't have any and decide to fire a .50 too often, you run the chance of making your character deaf until death.

Make .50 magazines the rarest item in the game, you would still be able to use it by chambering each individual round, but it would be time consuming and give ample time to your victim if you miss with your first shot.

With weapon degradation being added, and if the .50's make it into the standalone, they should be the most time consuming to clean and service, possibly something extreme as 5 minutes to emphasize that this is a OHK kill weapon not a weapon that should be spammed, In essence make every shot count otherwise you will be sitting there for long periods servicing your rifle.

Just my thoughts on balancing the .50 which IMHO is slightly imbalanced and is currently the "EASY MODE" weapon of this game. Keep an open mind and share your thoughts on why the .50 is balanced or what you would do to balance them, or possibly if you lean to the side or removing them altogether.

[OrLoK 16188]

I like this.

[Dancing.Russian.Man 1631]

+1

If you were to try and fire a .50 caliber anything while just standing up, it should kick like a pissed off horse.

We're survivors -- not soldiers. (Realistically speaking some of the characters would be, but that wouldn't put everybody in the same situation which is kinda the point of DayZ.)

[taco241 393]

Ya it should take time to set-up a bipod and aim this oversized rifle. Standing shots should not be allowed while aiming through scope (maybe just hip shots).

OR, make it swing wildly if you try to aim while standing.

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

Having been fortunate enough to try out the M107 in my time served in the military, I will admit that it is a loud and powerful gun. While in the prone position it has next to no kick because of the bipod and general weight of the weapon when properly fired.

The weapon is long, and it is heavy. So even though it can be shoulder fired it isn't exactly like someone can hit something very accurately. It however won't knock you on your ass or something as some people would like to believe however.

As far as ear protection, even an M4/M16 can be loud especially in an indoors environment and fired multiple times. Though having earplugs in is a double edged sword as you cannot really hear your surroundings which is a problem in a combat environment where you must be extremely alert; and because of such unless we are practing on a range ear plugs are not in (I can't speak for everyone though obviously...)

I'm against nerfing in all aspects, as realistically a weapon can generally be cycled as fast as a person can pull the trigger. However, this and most of Day Z's weapons do need some skill. Rarely is recoil a problem, and pulling the trigger that fast and trying to maintain a good sight picture will most likely tend to pull the round from trigger squeeze. For accurate shots, I'd like to see you having to hold down the mouse after the shot for a second or something before releasing it and firing again; just as you would if you were pulling a trigger.

In the end we are playing a video game...

[terminal_boy 860]

Forget firing the M107, you'd need to be built like Big Arnie just to hold a 25 pound rifle in an offhand shooting position...

[colekern 1364]

1) You should need hearing protection if you don't want to destroy your eardrums.

2) You should not be able to fire more than 3 rounds standing. If a 12 gauge will destroy my shoulder after 20 rounds I could only imagine what a .50 would do after putting that many rounds downrange.

3) I am a navy vet with a reasonable understanding of firearms, but if you put a .50 cal in front of me and told me to clean and zero it, I would try but it would be messy and extremely time consuming if I was even able to deconstruct and put it back together. It would be like a layman giving stitches, it might work but it would be very ugly, gruesome and more likely than not would cause more issues than help.

Ideas for balancing:

Make it deployable, if you try to fire too many shots standing, muscle fatigue should make it near impossible to hit anything after the second or third round.

Increase audible range for ZEDS (easy fix, discussed many times)

Add a earplug spawn, if you don't have any and decide to fire a .50 too often, you run the chance of making your character deaf until death.

Make .50 magazines the rarest item in the game, you would still be able to use it by chambering each individual round, but it would be time consuming and give ample time to your victim if you miss with your first shot.

With weapon degradation being added, and if the .50's make it into the standalone, they should be the most time consuming to clean and service, possibly something extreme as 5 minutes to emphasize that this is a OHK kill weapon not a weapon that should be spammed, In essence make every shot count otherwise you will be sitting there for long periods servicing your rifle.

Just my thoughts on balancing the .50 which IMHO is slightly imbalanced and is currently the "EASY MODE" weapon of this game. Keep an open mind and share your thoughts on why the .50 is balanced or what you would do to balance them, or possibly if you lean to the side or removing them altogether.

A .50 cal actually has relatively light recoil.

I actually really like the red idea though.

Edited February 5, 2013 by colekern

[Dreygar (DayZ) 178]

Forget firing the M107, you'd need to be built like Big Arnie just to hold a 25 pound rifle in an offhand shooting position...

??? There are plenty of youtube videos demonstrating people firing .50 Cals from multiple positions... Standing, kneeling, etc. Firing it and hitting a long-range target are two different things however...

You don't need to be built like arnie to do a lot of things. The M249 is carried by thousands of soldiers, weighing in around 22lbs fully loaded... On top of all the other weight that they are already carrying with body armor, helmet, ammunition, water and so forth. Yet they can still walk dozens of miles and engage targets at the end of it.