How to balance the game across all fireamrs skills? It is very difficult task. If we want to balance weapons. In
http://fodev.net/forum/index.php?topic=4313.msg38973#msg38973 point 1) i descibed how is Fallout constucted. If you reach progress, you are able to use new, better weapon, there is no need to use your old weapon. It is naturaly, because the weapons was created for single player.
So we need to create differences among guns not depending on game progress. But there is one major problem.
How to hold balancing under control? There are dozens of weapons. We need to create one thin line connecting all (most) of the weapons. And i found it.
Its name is Mr. Bullet
In real world, the bullet is making damage, not the gun itself. The damage is made by weight of the bullet and speed of the bullet. I.e.: 7.62x51mm NATO, bullet weight 9.50g, velocity 840 m/s, energy 3,352 J.
The weapon inself only determines on how long distance you will shoot the bullet, how many times per minute, accuracy, manoeuvreability,.. Yes, it can little reduce or increase the speed of bullet, only little.
So i suggest, lets set that
bullet will be the major factor in calculating damage. Weapons will have other atrributes (fire rate, distance, clips, needed strenght,..) and only little possibility to modify the damage (to make nuances among guns, i.e.: 1,1 multiplier, 1,2, 1,3 max). So if we set enough level of ammo damage, we can balance all other weapons only by setting their own multiplier.
So
damage your gun will do is equal to
bullet dmg * number of shooted bullets * gun multiplier. (Reducement of dmg will be another chapter).
So, what will be the difference among guns, only damage? Damage and distance!! If we set the distance and damage on correct level, each weapon could have its own purpose. The problem i see, is to set distance of crossing lines correctly. This will determine the use of weapon (interior, streets, city squares, free planes,...). Than we can make minor changes in each weapon class (i.e. magazine, total distance, price, AP needed, dmg multiplier)
I.E.: