Weapons and damage

One of the things we’ve been working on is an overhaul of the weapons and ammo systems in UW. In the current release, both weapons and ammo have their own quality levels, for example. This meant you could mix low quality ammo into a high quality gun and vice versa. Behind the scenes, a series of complex calculations were performed to determine how factors such as ammo, the weapon and its degradation, the target's armor and all of their respective quality levels factor into the amount of damage being dealt. Aside from being hard to understand, choices such as having each ammo type with multiple levels of quality also required you to do more micro-management of items.

For the next update, ammo quality levels were removed, the number of ammo types reduced and loadout variety achieved by having greater differentiation between weapons themselves. Whereas ammo used to be the primary driver of weapon stats, the next update will introduce a more conventional system in which weapons have their own stats that ammo does not factor into.

Where things were made more complex is in how engagement distance factors into damage and accuracy. The current version uses a simple linear falloff for both.

Old vs new weapon UI:

Many weapons in the next update follow a more trapezoidal damage model. The highest damage and accuracy values can occur within 0 and 42 meters.

Here are some visual examples: (note that these stats may change in future for balancing purposes)

Think of damage as the “tumble point” of the bullet, where it’s at just the right velocity to shatter or tumble within a target. Hit rate is meant to reflect the weapon at its best point of handling. A 130cm bolt-action rifle isn’t ideal for close range combat.

The suppression value of a weapon is of equal importance to damage and accuracy. When a unit is suppressed, it breaks their morale, which reduces their accuracy, can force them to hunker down or even flee the battle. Suppression applies to all bullets that fly near a target.

You might be in a situation outside the ideal hit rate or damage range of a weapon, but you will always be able to build suppression. However, the suppression amount per weapon is different per gun. For example, high damage output guns like shotguns and bolt-action rifles have poor suppression, while automatic rifles have high suppression. Suppressing enemies keeps you soldiers alive and gives you the edge in combat.

Positioning and composition matters. The types of weapons you bring into a mission will have a substantial effect on combat. You could go for a very balanced approach with a mix of weapon types. Or take on a fight with exclusively handguns. Whatever your playstyle, take careful consideration the weapons you’re using.