M16 Assault Rifle: Need to increase spawn rates.

[Toadstars]

Look, I get that there are very few places to find an M16. I understand that since it's a "machine gun", civilians, police officers, and gun shop owners won't have it. But this weapon is also the standard-issue service rifle of the U.S. Army.

In all of the times I have gone to the secret military research lab west of Rosewood, in the time that I have raided the Louisville border camp, I have never found an M16 Assault Rifle. This is with ranged weapon loot setting set to default (Rare). As of writing, I just recently raided the Louisville border camp. I was showered with 5.56x45mm and found many M16 magazines, but none of the actual gun itself. What the hell? Have all of the soldiers thrown their issued service weapon into the river? When I go to a military installation, I should be able to find at least one M16 there. The chance of finding at least one M16 should be very high at a military base. What's the point of getting all that 5.56x45mm and magazines if you can't find the gun to shoot it from?

From a game-balancing standpoint, I don't think increasing the M16 spawn rates will be overpowered. The gun itself requires a very high Aiming level to use well. So much so it is out of reach for anybody who isn't a hunter, police officer, or war veteran. For anyone that may believe that this will be "unbalanced", see Double Barrel Shotgun and JS-2000 Shotgun.

[Tails]

it weird that the zombie soldiers at the military base locations don't spawn with any gun on their back or a weapon in the holster not even any ammunition in their backpacks. This makes me wonder if the military didn't know how to kill a zombie or run away from one.

Edited September 22 by Tails

[HerrKazuya]

17 hours ago, Toadstars said:

Look, I get that there are very few places to find an M16. I understand that since it's a "machine gun", civilians, police officers, and gun shop owners won't have it.

Up until May 1986 (with the adoption of the Hughes Amendment) privately owned machine guns only required an NFA tax stamp, which costs 200 Dollars. To this day, everybody who can legally own a firearm, can legally own and transfer a pre registered 86 machine gun under federal law. Kentucky does not have any laws, unlike California for example, that limits the ownership or transfer of NFA items. So civilians and/or gunshop owners can and some do own full auto M16s. In case of gunshop owners, there is also another way to obtain a full auto machine gun. As a gunshop owner you are legally required to hold a federal firearms license (FFL) in order to do business. Technically Joe Average can also get an FFL without having a gunshop, but that would go to far from what I'd like to point out. If you have an FFL, you can become a so called Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT). Once you obtain a SOT class 2 license, you can build or convert as many machine guns as you want. Sale and transfer is a different story though, but owning those is perfectly fine. And before somebody points out that certain FFLs like curio and relics types don't qualify for SOT class 2 etc. I know, but the general principle I outlined applies. There is technically also SOT class 1, which would allow you to import machineguns etc. So in short: Owning a machinegun is neither banned nor made impossible, it just requires jumping through some hoops or forking out the cash for a pre 86. And in a gun friedly state like Kentucky, there are plenty of gun nuts who do, especially in the 90, since pre 86 items were a lot more affordable, than they are now.

 

Oh and weapons that are issued through the police department to the officers, are not subject to the Hughes Amendment either. So while the average cop probably won't have an M16 as a duty weapon, a SWAT member might.

[Nowthere27]

On 9/22/2024 at 4:31 AM, HerrKazuya said:

Up until May 1986 (with the adoption of the Hughes Amendment) privately owned machine guns only required an NFA tax stamp, which costs 200 Dollars. To this day, everybody who can legally own a firearm, can legally own and transfer a pre registered 86 machine gun under federal law. Kentucky does not have any laws, unlike California for example, that limits the ownership or transfer of NFA items. So civilians and/or gunshop owners can and some do own full auto M16s. In case of gunshop owners, there is also another way to obtain a full auto machine gun. As a gunshop owner you are legally required to hold a federal firearms license (FFL) in order to do business. Technically Joe Average can also get an FFL without having a gunshop, but that would go to far from what I'd like to point out. If you have an FFL, you can become a so called Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT). Once you obtain a SOT class 2 license, you can build or convert as many machine guns as you want. Sale and transfer is a different story though, but owning those is perfectly fine. And before somebody points out that certain FFLs like curio and relics types don't qualify for SOT class 2 etc. I know, but the general principle I outlined applies. There is technically also SOT class 1, which would allow you to import machineguns etc. So in short: Owning a machinegun is neither banned nor made impossible, it just requires jumping through some hoops or forking out the cash for a pre 86. And in a gun friedly state like Kentucky, there are plenty of gun nuts who do, especially in the 90, since pre 86 items were a lot more affordable, than they are now.

 

Oh and weapons that are issued through the police department to the officers, are not subject to the Hughes Amendment either. So while the average cop probably won't have an M16 as a duty weapon, a SWAT member might.

 

In other words, MAKE THE M16 MORE COMMON BABY!!!

[Toadstars]

Another thing about the M16 Assault Rifle that I would like to rant about is its short lifespan. It has 10 condition and a 1/60 chance of degrading, but with the amount of rounds that go through it (and considering its rarity), the lifespan should be much much longer. An M16 in real life wouldn't be almost broken after just a couple of magazines.

[CKyHC]

Well, the problem of excess 5.56 could be solved by introducing a new non-automatic weapon for this 5.56 (Ruger Mini-14 as a lighter/improved version of the M14?)

[Toadstars]

On 9/25/2024 at 5:35 PM, CKyHC said:

Well, the problem of excess 5.56 could be solved by introducing a new non-automatic weapon for this 5.56 (Ruger Mini-14 as a lighter/improved version of the M14?)

Perhaps the MSR700 rifle could also be allowed to accept 5.56x45mm, albeit that round is stronger than the round it was intended for... (can be dangerous)

[HerrKazuya]

Sigh... I'm dreading to write this, because I'm afraid, I will get some backlash, but here we go:

 

The .223 Remington and the 5.56mm NATO are the same cartridge and are perfectly interchangeable.

 

And before anybody starts writing about SAAMI standards. Watch Ian McCollum explain it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fmcdaAOkY4

 

I'd like to add Exhibit A:

Outside of the US it's usually the CIP standard that is used. CIP doesn't even list 5.56 NATO only .223 Rem

https://bobp.cip-bobp.org/en/tdcc_public

 

That's because the differences in the dimensions of the cartridge is inside the authorized tolerance levels.

see here: https://bobp.cip-bobp.org/uploads/tdcc/tab-i/223-rem-170406-en.pdf

and here: https://bobp.cip-bobp.org/uploads/annexe/annexeiii-en-cr1.pdf

 

Exhibit B:

Perceived pressure differences between the cartridges result from different measurement techniques between CIP and SAAMI.

While both modern methodologies use piezo pressure transducer sensors to generate pressure readings, differences in the test setup mean that the same pressures will often generate very different readings depending on the method used.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_arms_ammunition_pressure_testing

Since 1962, all mass produced rifles marked .223 Remington, that can be exported outside the US (ie all non-full auto rifles) have to be able to handle the .223 Rem standard according to CIP. (Else they would not be exportable) The .223 Remington became commercially available in 1960. So the only time where you theoretically could get a rifle of the shelves in a gun store that is marked .223 Rem, which might not be able to handle 5.56 NATO is in that timeframe. But I'm not aware of any actual examples. Gun owners in europe have been mixing .223 Rem and 5.56 NATO for decades now and all the naysayers can't point to a single documented case of an actual failure. There is diddly-squat.

 

Edited September 28 by HerrKazuya
edit formating

[CKyHC]

4 hours ago, HerrKazuya said:

igh... I'm dreading to write this, because I'm afraid, I will get some backlash, but here we go:

that's a good idea)

the only thing I want to note is that the MSR700 is a terrible weapon for that hard to obtain cartridge like 5.56(rare if you don't count military bases)

[Toadstars]

Perhaps the problem of too much .223/5.56 can be solved by removing the .223 Round from the game entirely and just sticking to the 5.56x45mm for both MSR700 and M16?
 

Contrary to what is depicted in Zomboid, 5.56x45mm is not a purely military cartridge and is still sold to the general public. 5.56 is a good varmint round indeed and it should be seen in gun shops and even in people's wardrobes.
 

Speaking of MSR700, that thing desperately needs damage buffs...
 

But here we're talking about M16, which needs spawn rate buffs and especially a lifespan buff. Like, I want to find more M16s from military lockers, I want to have M16s spawn on soldier zombies (Rosewood secret lab might be a worthwhile visit), and I want it to not be broken after a single fight.