Even the Minigun (which is the heaviest) weights 12kg for pete's sake, people are able to run with heavier and more cumbersome stuff. Moreover, if a young man is unable to run with something like that in his hands I'd call him a cripple. Besides some big guns (Bazooka) aren't much heavier nor do they look bigger than for example a plasma rifle - does running around with that look weird to you too?
Why would that be? Machineguns are not weapons used only at close range, they tend to reach further than your regular rifles, excluding sniper systems (that's if I understood you well and you want to have a "realism based argument"). And do keep in mind that the further the target, the less rounds impact - it's already in the game.
That's more like "rambo based arguments". Those weapons are being used at combat either being mounted to helicopter/armored vehicle or lay on the ground (on tripod). You can't use them well while just handling in the air otherwise your aim would be terrible.
Second thing is aiming which is done by tracer bullets. First bursts are inaccurative. Unlike smallarms and rifles.
Considering engine limitation lowering max range would be best option if we want to realisticly nerf them.
+10% blanket increase for SG isn't what I'd suggest, things like Pistol's power level are fine as far as I'm concearned - if anything perhaps an increase in the amount of crippled arms to encourage bringing a pistol along as a back-up weapon is all thats needed.Assault rifle class rifles, possibly an increase to single shot range for some of them - these (and sniper style rifles) would then be reasonable as far as I'm concearned, especially with a slight bumping up of some targetted shots. Having them as able to hit from out of range with the ability to strategically target enemies would be much better than simply normalising DPS over all weapon types.SMG/P90 seem fine to me from the numbers I have on them, but Shotguns could indeed do with a bump to their power, either in raw damage terms, weapon traits or ammo types - I would really dislike them gaining range as it would also be a step towards normalising all weapons. Greese/Tommy, not sure, pretty much just a flavour weapon at the moment I guess - so long as they form some kind of mid point between 10mm and p90's its not too bad.
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
Why not make it a luck roll? High EN is consistently useful anyway, it'd be nice to see luck have a bearing on more than your critical chance. And terrible luck characters would actually be unlucky, rather than just 'not lucky'. Critical rolls seem the kind of thing luck is built for.And I figure you should go one of two ways with crits: Either keep the current powerful damage and make status changes like blindness/knockdown/knockout very rare.orMake crits the way you 'disable' a target (rather than inflict 180 damage) while major damage dealers pounce on them. Crazy damage multipliers and getting knocked out every shot is a little much.
Stonewall work prety fine... I have this perk and it's very rare to knockdown me...
Being unlucky would be awful. Imagine having a black raincloud always over you casting curses and accidents on your path. That's not enjoyable gameplay. Being un-charismatic or physically weak can still be enjoyable, but having constant failures in everything just isn't even funny.