Primary weapon diversification (giving the intruders and guards different primaries, with stats and rationale)

Made this post after a discussion on the Discord with Chor about the potentiality of eventually diversifying intruder and guard primaries. These are a few ideas on how to make each weapon feel unique, play differently, and compliment the theme of each class.

Intruder’s SMG

Stats (in comparison to the current stock SMG)

• 15 rps (+50% rate of fire)
• Only does 20 balance damage (-25 balance damage)
• Only does 90 damage on headshot (stock SMG onetaps)

Flavor text:

An impressive rate of fire makes the Wasp a superior choice in close-quarters encounters. However, the lower momentum of the rounds means each individual shot lacks stopping power.

Guard’s carbine:

• 35% less recoil per round
• 20 round magazine capacity (-10 magazine capacity)
• 50% louder (affecting both volume and audible range)

Flavor text: The greater mass and armspan of this weapon makes the Condor a more stable platform, suitable for accurate fire and suppression at longer ranges. However, the stabilized assembly makes for a significantly larger audio footprint, and less magazine room.

Rationale (why I picked these stats):

Wasp

For the intruders, I wanted something that would feel very compact and very deadly in close range. When the intruders holster their Panthers and forgo stealth in favor of greater firepower, I want their primary option to be brutal and fast. A greater ROF means your ammo runs dry faster, so this weapon would be used selectively to mince guards inside of tight spaces.

I really didn't want to tweak health damage values for either weapon, because that's so often a crutch in weapon balance and I wanted to see if I could do well without. That's why I chose to instead decrease the balance damage of the Wasp. This would place more emphasis on killing the enemy while they're still standing, which I feel is an interesting dynamic and would give the Guards a chance to knock the intruders flat before they are turned into swiss cheese.

Finally, I took away the Wasp's onetap headshot because I feel it would be cheap to give a weapon with such high rof the ability to instantly kill you. The Panther is already an excellent onetap weapon at the Intruders' disposal, and I like the idea that you can always survive at least one round from the Wasp and stay standing. This further emphasizes the weapon's playstyle of getting multiple rounds on target quickly.

Condor

I found it difficult to find stats for this weapon, because again, the obvious choice for a bigger gun would be more damage. I really didn't want to encroach on the Shrike's high damage per round, so I instead went for the stability route. I feel like a more stable firing platform would compliment the Guard's theme of occupying an area and zoning enemies out of certain sightlines. A more controllable weapon would make it a daunting task to peek a guard down a long corridor, or contest his territory at range. 

I chose the volume downside because it stays consistent with the theme of denying an area. A louder gun will telegraph your location to the enemy team, so a flanking guard may be less effective if he's careless with his fire.

Finally, the magazine size decrease was exciting when it came to me, for multiple reasons. It gives the game a nice symmetry of both guns having 2 seconds of full auto time per magazine, which discourages the guards using more mag uptime to copiously suppress at range. The other reason I like the idea is that it will encourage the use of the Shrike in extended fights as your primary magazine runs dry. I was a bit worried that one of the pistols would get overshadowed in these changes, so giving them an opportunity to be relied upon when you've shot your 20 condor rounds is a dynamic I'd very much like to see.

The Sound Footprint Problem

One of the greatest issues with giving the guards and intruders different weapons is that they would sound different, which would change the current dynamic of not knowing who is firing their primary. As Chor suggested, I'd like to include the ability to take the primary weapon off a kill. This would both reintroduce uncertainty as to who is firing based on the sound, and provide every player who just won a firefight a unique choice as to which weapon they prefer in the situation they find themselves in. I think it would be an excellent dynamic to consider whether or not to take the enemy's weapon.

That's all for my first forum post! Feedback of any kind is extremely appreciated