Alrighty, as the one who actually made the pistols I should probably comment here1) The pistols are staying the same. Different pistols have different balances. The rebel pistol fires slower but does more damage (both closer and at further range). The imp ones are faster but weaker. This doesn't include the squadleader dl-44 pistol which is on par with rifles (endless months of testing demonstrated just how strong that weapon is dispite being single shot).
2) Our pistols are accurate for a very good reason. Namely, they are made to be a low power long-range backup weapon for times when you're trapped with only a shortrange weapon. their accuracy at range though is offset by their severe damage loss. At the long ranges a sniper performs you usually have to hit someone 6 to 8 times before they die. If a sniper can't peg you or be bothered to get up in that amount of space then he deserves a kill. Beyond that though they are there to support you when you need range, not be a super sniper weapon. In that role they do very well.
3) The weapon progression should be (and for the most part is) rifle->pistol->knife. The weapon strengths are balanced on the principle of that linear progression at average distance. The knives themselves are also balanced towards this goal; they aren't a guaranteed 1-hit kill (generally it's 2 to 3 hits though they have a larger slash range). This excludes non-direct infantry weapons like the PMG or missile launchers. But pistols will not be made any stronger because then they would challenge rifles in the logical usefulness progression.
4) Why would we want to make our pistols behave the same way regular bf2/2142 weapons behave? The way they function now is vastly more liberating than dealing with the constant reloading, poor sights, uselessness beyond 10 feet, and weak damage output. Changing one part of our pistols to function that way will force us to rebalance them the rest of the way towards being 2/2142 pistols, which we're not particularly interested in.
If you need to be able to kill someone fast then take a rifle. If you want a backup for when that rifle fails, or when you're walking around with a different piece of gear, or need a long range gun to help out your team at a distance, then use the pistol. But please, don't expect us though to make the pistol (or the knife) a super weapon capable of being more effective than the weapon above it, but rather something you turn to when you have no other choice (which is how it should be)
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(Assuming you are the same Vreki)
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