Ammunition Crafting? Gun Maintenance?

[Cheesey]

The zombie apocolypse.

A very rough senario that can be difficult to go through,

and you have to try your best to survive.

 

But let's be honest, you can't always be looking for bullets,

and your gun isn't always going to be at tip-top shape.

 

 

Ammunition Crafting and Gun Maintenance:

 

Weapons are crucial in the zombie breakout.

They protect you and make the scary things go away with a bang. The bang being your gun. However, guns aren't the same as a baseball bat. You can't just cover it in duct tape and say it's good. You need to use bullets and take care of it. This being you:

 

-Getting shells, gunpowder, and components to make the bullets

and

-Knowing your gun's problems, fixing them, and maintaining them

 

 

The problem thou,

is not everyone is a gun nut or gun smith. This is where a learning tree comes in. Overtime, you learn, adapt, understand, maybe even find a book to inform you more. Not to say this is how you will always find bullets, but you it's unreliable to rely on luck.

 

And no,

this doesn't mean you have to start mining for lead and steel to make bullets. I'm sure you'll figure a way to get the metal and powder. Maybe illegal fireworks and smelted down scrap metal, who know's?; and at least know what your shooting so that it doesn't blow up in your face due to lack of oiling.

 

It's hell out there, and you want to live as long as you can.

Every second counts, so make sure you know your safe for at least another night.

[TheCenturion]

Well, I suppose that's well thought out and all. One gripe though...

 

 

They protect you and make the scary things go away with a bang. The bang being your gun.

 

I'm afraid I have some bad news. Guns don't make zombies run away, and I imagine other players (if multiplayer comes through) will also be attracted somewhat. I think you've put too high a focus on firearms; I stockpile them, but I never use them, for example. Too dangerous.

 

While the concept sounds nice (and I know very little about real life firearms, so bear with me), I'm not entirely positive that modern firearms are so easy to make rounds for. I mean, they're factory produced, they have to be perfect in shape and quantity of... whatever's inside a bullet. Even with some amount of 'self learned' training, are you sure that's really viable?

[ZedHead]

Even with some amount of 'self learned' training, are you sure that's really viable?

Its not really. You require a lot of stuff to make bullets/ammunition for weapons today (from what I've seen and heard. Which of course I can be wrong.) so I doubt making these in game would be important towards gameplay if you want realism. Heck I know for a fact more than 80% of us here don't know how to create a working bullet so I wouldn't expect anyone to be crafting them in game unless they're using a musket rifle or something.

[TheCenturion]

 

Even with some amount of 'self learned' training, are you sure that's really viable?

Its not really. You require a lot of stuff to make bullets/ammunition for weapons today (from what I've seen and heard. Which of course I can be wrong.) so I doubt making these in game would be important towards gameplay if you want realism. Heck I know for a fact more than 80% of us here don't know how to create a working bullet so I wouldn't expect anyone to be crafting them in game unless they're using a musket rifle or something.

 

 

Hey... hey... that's a damn fine idea. Muskets! Or something similar! I mean, I'll be disagreed with, but they're so much simpler than modern guns and ammunition CAN be easily melt down.

 

Methinks I'm going to learn some modding now.

[Rathlord]

Muskets are unfeasible for the game due to there probably being incredibly few muskets in all of Kentucky, much less Knoxville county. It breaks a big rule of "what makes a good suggestion" in that the time spent programming wouldn't be worth the amount of times you'd actually find one while holding to any kind of realistic loot distribution.

 

Reloading, while not necessarily difficult, takes both specialty equipment and direct know-how. It's not something you can really just "figure out," nor is it something you can do without the proper equipment. I've done a bit of reloading (and shoot mainly reloaded bullets), so I can assure you it's not something that should be in stock PZ.

[TheCenturion]

Muskets are unfeasible for the game due to there probably being incredibly few muskets in all of Kentucky, much less Knoxville county. It breaks a big rule of "what makes a good suggestion" in that the time spent programming wouldn't be worth the amount of times you'd actually find one while holding to any kind of realistic loot distribution.

 

Reloading, while not necessarily difficult, takes both specialty equipment and direct know-how. It's not something you can really just "figure out," nor is it something you can do without the proper equipment. I've done a bit of reloading (and shoot mainly reloaded bullets), so I can assure you it's not something that should be in stock PZ.

 

Oh, no, no. I didn't mean it should be in stock PZ, I know reality wise it isn't going to work. I was just thinking it was time I learned a bit of modding myself.

[Gammlernoob]

YOu need machines to make bullets and i think its very hard to get some ( and if you have them you probably cant take them away from the place , which means you have to stay at the factory to produce more). One the one hand , i think it would be cool to have survivors living at a factory which can prdouce bullets and trade them for food&medicine and everything , but one the other hand there are probably just very few people in the apocalypse that know how to make them ( Eugene ) and that could lead to ,"Hey we just made 1000 Rounds , lets give the city a new red colour ! :D"

[harakka]

YOu need machines to make bullets and i think its very hard to get some ( and if you have them you probably cant take them away from the place , which means you have to stay at the factory to produce more).

You might want to go google about handloading and bullet casting for a bit. You need tools and materials (cases, percussion caps and powder) for it, but they're not exactly nonexistent in the US, where handloading is a fairly common thing among firearm hobbyists. From what I can tell Kentucky doesn't have very heavy-handed gun laws so these would be available both in shops and in hobbyists' homes.

[Gibbles]

A reloading press is the key item we'd need.

 

This will have to have the propellant (gunpowder), bullets, brass casings, and primers to go with it.

 

It'd make sense that these items would be either be rare finds or tied to some key locations, but they'd come in much larger quantities than ready-n-complete ammunition which will be what makes reloading valuable.

 

Alternatively, all those items would be consumables (like pill bottles) but your "skill" in this field - which may be just plain old crafting - will determine how much ammo you get from one use. Someone who sucks at crafting would benefit more (or just equally) from finding plain ammo. Someone who has developed skills beforehand will find this wonderful as it nets them more ammo than what they would find in the field.

 

Instead of 4 different items to use, this could be reduced to one item presented as a box of "reloading supplies" which implies that it will contain all the necessary ingredients with it. The same sprite used to represent it could be re-used with different colours to suggest what kind of ammo it will give you. Red for shotgun cartridges, for example.

[Rathlord]

The problem is that while it's plausible to find the stuff, if you aim even a little bit for realism as far as drop rates you'd NEVER find it enough in the game to make it worth while.

On the topi of stores that sell reloading stuff, it's not as common as you might think. If the two gunshops that I usually frequent, both sell reloading supplies but neither sell the tools. The place I work at now does sell them, but you wouldn't find this size and style of store in muldraugh.

[TinnedEpic]

Muskets are unfeasible for the game due to there probably being incredibly few muskets in all of Kentucky, much less Knoxville county. It breaks a big rule of "what makes a good suggestion" in that the time spent programming wouldn't be worth the amount of times you'd actually find one while holding to any kind of realistic loot distribution.

 

Reloading, while not necessarily difficult, takes both specialty equipment and direct know-how. It's not something you can really just "figure out," nor is it something you can do without the proper equipment. I've done a bit of reloading (and shoot mainly reloaded bullets), so I can assure you it's not something that should be in stock PZ.

Also, Muskets had a good chance of blowing up in your face anyways, especially if their loaded incorrectly and even more so if their old muskets.

Big Badda Booom! :3

 

However handcrafted potato guns might be an option. The concept is simple enough. I can't see it doing anything more than pushing a zombie over or creating low level noise to lure zombies away.

 

Now if we really wanted to get crazy, gas can explosives. From memory they did a pretty damn good job of clearing zombies in Dawn of the Dead.

[Rathlord]

Ahhhh, ahhhhh referencing Dawn of the Dead! Not exactly known for its dedication to reality (-;