I'm not sure i understand you perspective @dgh, could you explain how you imagine everything and the firearm selection without describing it as "going hog wild" with adding guns? I partly understood your perspective with the lever actions adding all calibers, as well as the overall "better" gun thing. "If they just have a single lever-action rifle chambered in 30-30, this does create a problem when using a realistic rate of firearms loot.  But what if you can find a less common rifle chambered in 45-70?  More powerful but less plentiful."   That is what i struggle to understand a bit. Because there could be so many "better" guns whether range, damage or both etc. So i want help to understand your perspective if you imagine a smaller selection but wide caliber availability, or wide selection (and how wide) for guns and calibers etc.   Personally, i see the game like it could go with the "1 gun 1 caliber" concept only because that seems to be mostly what we have right now. That's not entirely true but i have that feeling like that is the case. And although the US is the easiest country to get a firearm in, i never looked into the counties and how easy/difficult it is to get one there, what are the regulations like California has for example.   With that said, i don't think that adding a great vast firearm arsenal would be good either. It could prove too difficult for a casual player to understand what all and any of what they are, what's the difference between stats etc. My vision for the firearms isn't for players to loot a gun, see it has better stats and replace it. No, my intention here is to describe a "the right tool for the right job" concept. Where the guns aren't determined by their stats but what their use case scenario is best fitted for your gameplay and intentions with it.   This in my opinion would strike that middle ground of adding more than enough guns to suit all and any needs, while not being overwhelmingly cluttery with just sheer amount of all the various guns and you cant even tell the difference between them, especially not if you don't check their stats.   This concept could allow guns to also gain reputations by players like I've stated "The m16 or m4, the all rounder. Mp5, the compact. Glock, the light weight. P226, the reliable. M249, the herd thinner." Instead of having a lever action and just better lever action with no clear distinction as to what makes it better. (note: i misunderstood your quote that i mentioned but i wrote too much to redo it all, i thought you meant that a lever gun would be in the same caliber but just "better"  don't ask how i did that...)   As for "Since the developers have signaled their intent to use fictional brands/models, it would probably be easier to just provide a couple of rare, fictional bullpups without directly referencing an AUG, FAMAS, etc." While that is cool, it does kind of diminish the whole US vibe for me personally. At that point add a lightsaber. (UNLESS they do that to cars and whatnot also to balance it out. would be kind of weird to have all cars based on something real and guns are all fictional) Im worried the devs could exaggerate thing's like that and instead of adding a gun that makes sense they come up with stuff like the Trapper (no idea if that's a real gun or one of their own fictional ones, but its nice to see them work on a PCC concept even if its not what i expected.)   But okay, okay. Enough talking and let me provide some context. While i don't outright disagree with you, since you seem more informed and educated in the matter to provide better historical details, suggestions for guns that would suit the game etc.   I say that for now, for the time being adding more "crucial" guns are what need to happen. So like i said with the "The m16 or m4, the all rounder. Mp5, the compact. Glock, the light weight. P226, the reliable. M249, the herd thinner." Not being the full limitation for the rest of the game but to sort of be the baseline for what else could be worked on. Like if we use the M249 example, you could have a another gun with a stronger kick being the M60 but that's not the priority to add variety at the moment to the category of LMG's but category overall. Imagine it like on a detectives drawing board with pins and lines, you have "one gun for each caliber - one gun for each category of firearms - finally expansion on both ends." But the topic of the matter is only time, and when that expansion would come not to outright dismiss it. But the first two points are the priority to just have something already as the base to further work on. Because i sure wouldn't mind running with either the m249 or the m60 now in game because we have at least one thing of something, rather than wait months just to get 2 guns that do the same job at different paces where it more becomes personal preference.   I'm sorry if i am cryptic in my explanations sometimes or going in circles. When i do that or haven't provided good information please call me out on it so i can correct myself and help you understand!

That would be lovely and it would make it easier to justify carrying heavy light sources like the propane lamp.

TL:DR I believe they should stick pretty close to the period-accuracy but they should also go hog wild with whatever fits in to the setting.  Believability should always reign supreme however; no finding any M249 style light machine guns in somebody's dresser, but maybe in an appropriate military setting and never in large quantities.   I also mostly agree with @CKyHC's take.  There is no real need to provide uncommon foreign guns.  Since the developers have signaled their intent to use fictional brands/models, it would probably be easier to just provide a couple of rare, fictional bullpups without directly referencing an AUG, FAMAS, etc.   *** In practice there is a big disparity in what players want.  Some players basically hate the setting and want it totally modernized, especially regarding guns and cars.  The duty of the devs is to take a balanced approach when their artistic vision conflicts with player outcry; to interpret whether that outcry is truly representative of most players or simply a vocal few.   The setting's intended region and time period has proved to be a worthwhile self-imposed limitation.  They would be wise to remain as faithful to it as possible.  Some minor deviations are expected when fun wins the argument but if they deviate too far in one area, it just opens a can of worms and suddenly the year is just a meaningless number.   30-30 is by far the most common lever-action caliber.  Even .357 and .44 Magnum are more common than 45-70 so I don't see a problem with that particular example.  However, in my opinion, there should just be models to cover all of those calibers.   The idea to provide an excessive selection of firearms (and ammo) has a hidden purpose beyond simply "more is better".   One of the common complaints about the setting's realism is the lack of firearms in one of the most firearms-friendly regions of the US.  When this comes up, invariably the complaint is met with pushback from players who view firearms as overpowered and thus detrimental to the game; a somewhat valid claim from a certain gameplay perspective, though I still disagree with that position.   If they just have a single lever-action rifle chambered in 30-30, this does create a problem when using a realistic rate of firearms loot.  But what if you can find a less common rifle chambered in 45-70?  More powerful but less plentiful.  Peppering more model variety across the loot spectrum creates variables that slows down the gun churn and demands that the player is more selective (or opportunistic) with their decisions.   Or maybe you found a fancier (better, rarer) model of 9mm handgun, but you only have the 1 magazine that was in it.  This creates motivation-- something to preoccupy the player's mind while they're looting.  Always on the lookout for extra mags that will fit the cool gun they found.   So to return to your original question, the reason I don't have 1 or 2 particular models of firearms I want in the game is simply because I think they should go full bore, overhaul the repair system and just add dozens of models to make the spread of loot more chaotic around the edges.  That allows them to provide a realistic amount of firearms while scattering the consistency of firearms loot.  They wouldn't even need to rely on the bog standard FPS gamer list of guns to do this.   Using fictional brands and designations is good because it adds unique flavor to the setting and it gives them wiggle room when they want to fudge the real world factor a bit.  The "Old Guns" category provides a similar mechanism of mitigating loot glut.  In the real world, it's common for a household to have a single inherited gun.  "Jimmy, go get the gun," and it's Grandpa's old single action Colt revolver that has seen better days.   Now whether to have black powder or muskets or whatever..?  I'd agree that less relevant technologies should probably have a lower priority for immediate developer attention however given that they are creating conditions for a resurgence of more primitive technologies as society collapses, these are probably things that need to be kept in consideration.

Additional findings after further testing: I have now spent several more hours testing this save and noticed a pattern that may be relevant. After a fresh game restart, performance is completely normal. There are no stutters, freezes, or noticeable slowdowns. However, after several hours of real-time play (not in-game time), periodic freezes begin to appear. These are not FPS drops but actual brief game freezes of roughly half a second. What is particularly interesting is that the interval between freezes appears to decrease over time. During my latest session I observed approximately: 20 seconds between freezes, then 18, then 16, then 12, then 9, eventually reaching around 4-6 seconds between freezes. As this happens, other systems also become progressively slower: Inventory windows take longer to respond. Context/right-click menus become slower to open. The map becomes less responsive. Animal zone management windows become slower as well. The important part is that saving the game, completely exiting Project Zomboid, and then reloading the same save immediately restores normal performance. The freezes disappear and the game runs smoothly again. This behavior seems more like a progressive runtime issue than a location-specific problem, because the freezes occurred while travelling across large parts of the map and were still present even when standing completely still. The save is also still exhibiting the previously reported animal-related issues: duplicated chickens, duplicated chicks, incorrect animal counts, animals appearing to be renamed or overwritten, extremely rapid hutch dirt accumulation, and mass chicken deaths inside affected zones. I cannot say whether the performance degradation and the animal issues are directly related, but both are occurring in the same save and both appear to worsen over time during longer play sessions. Hopefully this additional information helps narrow down the cause.

I can write down what types of weapons I would NOT like to see in the game - these are AK, Steyr, and other FAMAS that ruin the immersion in the American outback (even if someone says that these types were in Kentucky or something like that)