DayZ Gun Awareness Part 2: Comparative Lethality/Rarity of Dayz Weapons

[bazbake 456]

This is part 2 of the 2 part series in which I discuss two things.

Part two.

http://www.dayzwiki.com/wiki/Weapons

After all of the posts about the servers being flooded with AS50's and M107's, I got curious about drop rates. I realized that I had found two M107's in helicopter crashes but had never even seen a M1014. This got me curious about the bias toward certain guns shown by players and, even more, the bias toward certain guns coded into the game by the modders.

Everything changed by a mod is a specific decision. Players talk about not punishing or favoring certain playstyles, but they don't notice it was done from the beginning. For example, the Light Machine Guns in Arma II take up both the rocket launcher and primary weapon slots. In DayZ, they are no more encumbering than a shotgun or assault rifle. This was done to encourage their use at the cost of realism.

So, I thought about what players would want in a gun: to shoot longer without reloading, shoot fewer rounds to kill, and hit someone from further away. Then I calculated a rough lethality based on magazine, damage, and effective range. And then I put down some broad drop rates.

Note: All of the above are important for killing. There are other reasons to carry a gun, though.

Rate of fire wasn't calculated for most weapons since there's no accurate measurement listed. But...

• Most weapons have high fire rates.
  
• The weapons with moderate fire rates are usually weak anyway, which means it's not an equalizer.
  
• I listed exceptions next to rarity.
  

Note: I'm a Yank. We use colons for multiples of 1,000.

These numbers won't give you a perfect measure of your likelihood of killing a person. But they do broadly measure how dangerous you are if you are carrying one to someone you stumble upon while running around.

Rarity goes Common > Uncommon > Rare > Very Rare > Extremely Rare. [Mag Size * Damage * Range] = Lethality.

Here is a list of firearms organized by class and lethality.

Sidearms

Makarov (Common) - 8 * 889 *50 = 355,600

M1911 (Common) - 7 * 1389 * 50 = 486,150

Revolver (Common) - 6 * 1389 * 100 = 833,400

M9 (Rare) - 15 * 889 * 75 = 1,000,125

G17 (Rare) - 17 * 889 * 75 = 1,133,475

PDW (Rare/Very High FIre Rate) - (15 | 30) * 889 * 50 = 666,750 | 1,333,500

Submachine Guns

MP5 - 2,667,000

Shotguns

Double Barreled Shotgun (Common) - 2 * 4500 * 100 = 900,000

M1014 (Rare) - 8 * 4500 * 250 = 9,000,000

Remington 870 (Rare) - 8 * 4500 * 250 = 9,000,000

Winchester(...it's...a rifle) (Common) - 15 * 4500 * 150 = 10,125,000

Assault Rifles

AKS-74U (Rare) - 30 * 2722 * 200 = 16,332,000

AK-74 (Uncommon) - 30 * 2722 * 300 = 24,498,000

M4A1 (Rare) - 30 * 3555 * 300 = 31,995,000

M16A2 (Rare) - 30 * 3555 * 400 = 42,550,000

AKM (Uncommon) - 30 * 4500 * 400 = 54,000,000

Sniper Rifles/Battle Rifles

Lee Enfield (Common) - 10 * 6722 * 400 = 26,888,000

M24 (Rare/Slow Fire Rate) - 5 * 8000 * 800 = 32,000,000

CZ550 (Uncommon/Slow Fire Rate) - 5 * 8000 * 800 = 32,000,000

M14 (Rare) - 20 * 8000 * 500 = 80,000,000

SVD Camo (Very Rare) - 10 * 8000 * 1000 = 80,000,000

DMR (Rare) - 20 * 8000 * 800 = 128,000,000

Light Machine Guns

M249 SAW (Very Rare) - (30 | 200) * 3555 * 300 = 31,995,000 | 213,300,000

Mk 48 Mod 0 (Very Rare) - 100 * 8000 * 400 = 320,000,000

M240 (Very Rare) - 100 * 8000 * 600 = 480,000,000

Anti-Materiel Rifles

M107 (Very Rare) - 10 * 37,552 * 1200 = 450,624,000

AS50 (Extremely Rare) - (10|5) * (37,552|174205) * 1200 = 450,624,000 | 1,045,230,000

Same weapons organized by rarity and lethality

Common

Makarov - 355,600

M1911 - 486,150

Revolver - 833,400

Double Barreled Shotgun - 900,000

Winchester - 10,125,000

Lee Enfield - 26,888,000

Uncommon

AK-74 - 24,498,000

CZ550 - 32,000,000

AKM - 54,000,000

Rare

M9 - 1,000,125

G17 - 1,133,475

PDW - 666,750 | 1,333,500

MP5 - 2,667,000

M1014 - 9,000,000

Remington 870 - 9,000,000

AKS-74U - 16,332,000

M4A1 - 31,995,000

M24 - 32,000,000

M16A2 - 42,550,000

M14 - 80,000,000

DMR - 128,000,000

Very Rare

SVD Camo - 80,000,000

M249 SAW - 31,995,000 | 213,300,000

Mk 48 Mod 0 - 320,000,000

M107 - 450,624,000

M240 - 480,000,000

Extremely Rare

FN FAL - 64,000,000

AS50 - 450,624,000 | 1,045,230,000

Some early observations:

If you ever felt that this game has become a sniper party, it's probably because Rocket is encouraging it with drop rates. These weapons are exceptionally lethal at every level of rarity compared to their counterparts.

By the time you get a combat shotgun, you're guaranteed to have a much more lethal weapon in your inventory already. Which is probably why no one carries combat shotguns.

The FN FAL is as rare as the AS50 but its lethality is equivalent to the AKM. I think this is why I have never personally seen a FN FAL except as a spawn.

There are of course plenty of arguments to make about these weapons and the value of one element of lethality compared to another. However, barring the subjective nature of weapon preference, comparing two similar weapons gives a concrete idea of how dangerous one is compared to the other if they are suited for the same task (comparing types of weapons, for example).

[dev0 19]

I see what you did there.

Why do you use multiplication for lethality, why don't you add the numbers instead? Is magazine size really a factor for lethality? Don't all weapons have a significant large enough mag to kill a player? Isn't weapon range more important in most cases than weapon damage? But it's raw value in meters is usually smaller. Maybe you should use centimeters instead of meters?

I hope you get the point why randomly selecting some weapon stats, crafting some arbitrary formula out of thin air and trying to compare the effectiveness of these weapons based on the result of the formula is not going to get us anywhere.

[Bredpath 0]

The Makarov definitely doesn't. I've been shot like 7 times with it and I still had 7000 blood.