My notes on 'balancing' across the firearms. Did most of what I'll lay out in a17 w a simple "m" word.
Starting point was to mimic real world. Damage, magazine sizes (could only get close due to %'s), reload-speed, RPM, ranges, recoil, stamina, Accuracy.
Example-A: AK-47 vs. AR10(Marksman=MR)
++Upped MR damage to around 150. Made AKs around 100. (rw AK-47s use 7.62x39 not the AR10/NATO 7.62x51, roughly 2/3rds the power)
-Set MR mag sizes to 5, 10, 20 for no-mod, mag+ mod, drum-mag. AK went 30, 40, 60. (could go 20-30-40, or 30-40-75. lots of rw choices)
-Adjusted AK reload speed up a bit (+~1sec) (rw AKs mag seating is slower than AR pattern)
-Adjusted RPM for MR to I think 250, left cyclic rate alone on AK, meant to ck but forgot.
-Changed Dropoff & Max ranges for both to 150m (as discussed 'range' isn't an issue in voxel world)(may be game engine reasons but 'rifles', imo, should be able to hit any zed we can see w full power. trying to mimic rw energy decrease Max would have to be many hundreds of meters)
-Upped recoil on the AK a bit. Meant to see if it was possible to have different recoils for hip vs. shoulder fired.
-Minor reduction to MR zoomed in stamina drain.
-Tightened Accuracy a bit on MR, opened it up a bit on AK.
Now of course I'm biased, but these simple xml tweaks really helped to differentiate the two imo.
The MR/Sniper was still a solid upgrade from a Hunting rifle, but small mag size until you had a mag-mod meant the AK would likely be prefered for early-mid-game heavy clearing/bm horde. But for a stealther the increased damage of the MR offset the early small mag size for poi clearing.
For late game horde defense the base build really influenced which one I used the most. If base was built with e-fencing a ways out and funneled zeds into a corridor then the MR was well suited for aimed shots. A more free for all base where zeds could come in close quickly and from multiple directions then the AK was in it's element. MR still had a role even in SP regardless of base design due to increased damage; use against demolishers/rad-cops.
Point being if you could simply apply all the rw pros & cons to all the firearms in 7dtd they would each naturally be different, some wouldn't change that much, but some would be quite a bit different than they are/were(not on a19 yet).
Take the M60. Should exhaust stamina very quickly when shoulder aimed, it's a long ~23 pound (plus 100rd ammo belt=6.6pounds) hunk of steel after all. Yet due to mass it's recoil should be less than an AK-47, which weighs in at ~8 pounds (even factoring in less powerful 7.62x39 cartridge). Big thing that could reduce the M60s being the 'best overall 'rifle'' would be a greater movement penalty; slower to swing around, so not as ideal for tight spaces.
Annoying nit to pick: add-on suppressors do not reduce damage.
Yes a sub-sonic 7.62x51 round compared to a full power round has dramatically less energy, it's only moving at ~1050 fps vs. ~2600 fps.
And yes, there are some firearms that have an integrated suppressor where it's non-suppressed sibling may have a bit more energy, but those aren't in the game.
Nor is sub-sonic ammo. Now if TFPs want to add in sub-sonic and then adjust noise lvls so that you'd need to use a suppressor -&- sub-sonic ammo for no-wakey-every-zed stealth kills, that'd be great imo. That'd really cement the bow/crossbows place as a stealth weapon until much later on when players had both cans & sub-s ammo.
Won't bore everyone with the rest. I'll just say that, other than shotgun ranges, everything else I tweaked towards rw pros&cons improved gameplay for me. One missing bit worth bringing up again is lack of select-fire for the SMG. That alone would, imo of course, really up it's game and allow it to fulfill both a crowd control, and aimed-fire/mini-sniper role in poi clearing.
?