MTA:DayZ: AK-47 Buff Poll

[Balrog]

I was asked a few days ago to buff the AK-47 - both range and damage - and I said I'd make a poll about it so here it is. Personally, I think the damage should stay as it is. I know the AK is more powerful than the M4 in most games, but in San Andreas it's always been quite a lot weaker and I think most people are used to it and prefer it that way. The range, however, is awful and I hate it. I would love to increase it a bit, though I wouldn't do it by as much as I have on the WSBG server, where it's got almost the same range as the M4.

Anyway, please vote to let me know whether you think it should get a range buff, a damage buff, both, or neither, and then we can discuss the amounts, if any, afterwards. I'm going to try and leave this poll open for a while before I make any related changes, so that more people have a chance to vote and it doesn't end up being just one group of friends, all backing each other's votes

[Rick_Jones]

I think we should definitely buff the damage though, to be slightly more than the M4 (maybe nerf the M4?), and only slightly increase the range. The recoil/accuracy on the AK is dreadful compared to the laser-like accuracy of the M4, so buffing the range won't help much after the first half-dozen bullets, but upping the damage would help counter this. And the M4 would still be very viable against it due to the superb accuracy it has.

[Balrog]

Yeah, a range increase with the same crappy recoil could encourage tap-firing though (kind of), like in CS. I don't care how accurate or inaccurate CS is - that's the game I judge guns in other games by I dunno about buffing both range and damage though - I don't really think it should rival the M4, I'd just like it to be less useless against one. A lot of the people asking for this were hoping it would get a major buff though, so I might be the odd one out.

[Sean]

It's always been the range that's the issue, the damage is fine. The only reason it's not viable is because people with M4's can shoot at you before you can shoot at them.

I guess you could take the realistic approach of making the AK more powerful but I don't think it's a big deal. People are used to the way it is now. If you buffed it too much then it would just end up being the other way around and it'll be the M4 that's no longer viable.

I say buff the range and leave it at that, I'd even say make it equal to that of the M4 to compensate for it being the only buff. And they're both rifles anyway, why would one have more or less range than the other?

Let the M4 remain the powerhouse that it is and allow the AK to be used as a more reliable alternative. If people tap-fire it then they will have a very good chance of beating people with M4's if the range is balanced.

[giorgakis32m]

I think it should be both . I recommend the following thing: from close distance ak should deal lots of dmg and ofc more than m4 but this doesnt me it mustn't be buffed to the shooting range . To sum up I would ak should be stronger than m4 in close distances but less accurate from far distances

[Balrog]

As far as I know, you can't make the damage vary over distance, or at least not without adding code that's resource-hungry every time you fire an AK. I will look into it though because you're the second person to suggest it.

Edit: Actually, from reading random forum posts, it sounds like that code wouldn't be as "expensive" as I was thinking, so it probably would easily be possible to do this.

[Balrog]

Well, the results are looking pretty even, with buff both winning slightly, so I think I'm going to try the mixed idea. I'll increase the range to the same as on the BG server, just a bit lower than the M4's range, and I'll slightly increase its damage at close range. We can test that for a few days and see how it goes, and then change it if necessary.