Now, keep in mind, this is also a Star Wars game, and there needs to be some balancing for gameplay's sake. As of right now, I personally feel pistols have an excellent balance of accuracy (both realistic & lore accurate) and gameplay. Which is kinda laughable that LucasArts, an official LucasFilm division, couldn't nail this important element after all these years. *thinks about the Battlefront games and shudders*

To accurately compare real world weapons with those of the Star Wars universe, one needs to know how they operate. Theory or not, -=CT=- JaFaR did a bang up job explaining it.

If memory serves me right, accuracy is lost when a blaster is fired in rapid succession (either semi-auto or full-auto) due to the pressure of the tibana gas blasting the bolt from the emmitter nozzle, which causes the kickback that reduces accuracy with subsequent shots fired. Naturally, this varies from one blaster model design to another. The first shot is always dead on sight.

My only gripes with pistols in FS, really have to do with a few minor lore accuracy problems I'd love to see addressed. One is SFX. Like the DL-44 for an example. Also, and I know this isn't a pistol, but the T-21's little model clipping problem when your sighting it needs to be fixed.

Is there a dev blog on 1.4 to see what's being added/changed/removed?

Not that I'm aware of

Is there a dev blog on 1.4 to see what's being added/changed/removed?

Haven't we explained this all already?  Like, ad nauseam?  I'll break it down one last very simple time.

Lol! You sure have, but I bet you end up doing it all over again come 1.4!

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-We designed the weapon to follow the weapon usefulness progression of rifle-pistol-knife, not rifle-knife-nothing else.  To that end it actually had to be made useful.

-We designed it so that if all other things being equal it'd always lose against a rifle in that rifle's niche area.  In other words, at short range against a shortrange rifle it loses.  At long range against a longrange rifle it loses.  At any range against a medium rifle it loses.

-We designed it so that even if you were not in your primary weapon's niche area or don't have an anti-infantry weapon you'd still have an option in your inventory with which to defend yourself.  This is so you don't just get steamrolled for having "the wrong kit."

-We designed it as a long-range backup for when you have an extreme shortrange weapon.  To ensure it wasn't too strong the damage over distance drops dramatically, so that at very long range (dunes to flags on mos espa) it takes 6-8 hits (and obviously more shots) to kill someone.

-We designed it to match its performance in the movies, where many of our heroes all used pistols. The goal of this mod was for a strong Star-wars fantasy feel and atmosphere, not strict real life realism.

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So, in one single swoop we've managed to build a very well balanced, extremely flexible, versatile, dynamic, and lore accurate weapon without making it a strong overpowering dominant gamebreaking device.  If you have suggestions on how we can achieve all that and then something more please post  

((And this is just the pistols.  We put an even larger amount of time and thought into all the subtleties and dynamics of the primary weapons, the customization/class setup, and the soldier/vehicle dynamics))

But yeah, it's the Star Wars Universe. Space combat and hyperspace in this universe already establishes a disregard for Newtonian physics.

*snip*

If that was directed at my comment, I didn't mean blaster rifles, I meant real world rifles. Because of whats his face saying rifles should be more accurate based on real world physics and principles; thus my comment they should, based on real world physics and principles, but again, they aren't...Because its the SW Universe.

Now does THAT make sense? Why am I so hard to understand...

Blaster rifles don't have long barrels for accuracy or velocity, as you'd expect with projectile or magnetically-accelerated weapons. The barrel length is for expanded cooling, so that you can fire the weapon more rapidly. Blasters shoot out some very hot beams, that do a lot of burning to their targets... and in flight. While little baby beam of death is evolving, within the blaster's loving caresses, into the stormtrooper-gutting bolt that issues forth from the weapon, all that heat needs somewhere to go or something to counter it, or the weapon will overheat, with subtle or dramatic results.
Blaster Rifles can fire much more rapidly than pistols, in full auto or burst-firing modes, because the long length of the barrel gives more cooling potential. The faster the weapon can fire, either the more barrel length you notice, or the larger cooling systems on the weapon. Blaster pistols are designed to be fired semi-automatic and as a reliable, accurate weapon when blast quantity is not a priority or not possible; their barrel isn't long enough to handle cooling a rapid succession of shots. This logic applies to standard sidearm pistols, infantry assault blaster rifles, infantry light repeating blasters (which have the longest length to suit the fastest firing), the support rifles, and the medic carbines.

The sniper rifle probably needs the long length of the weapon to handle cooling the larger amount of energy stored in each shot, rather than for sustaining automatic fire. Same with the Medic long-range weapons.

Pistols are marksmen weapons in the Star Wars universe (Read: Han Solo, Wes Janson, etc.) because of their inherent reliability per shot. If you're a good enough shot, you don't need more than one or two bolts fired to down your target or accomplish your objective. Rifles and repeaters are better when you need to manage crowds or lay down a lot of damage in a small (albeit imprecise) area. They're not the standard infantry weapon, because of the relatively small amount of damage dealt in a given time; et tu, not enough firepower. Instead, they're a back-up sidearm (read, not last resort), when you need a few shots to count.

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Just my theory.

TY2D2 wrote:

NoubleDegative wrote:

Then by your reasoning, a Blaster Rifle should have the same accuracy as a pistol.

I don't see how his view points to that reasoning?

You assume too much, padawan.

Yes it does, if both the Blaster Rifle and the Blaster Pistol both shoot Blaster Bolts, then they should have the same accuracy.

If A(Pistol)=B(Blaster) and C(Rifle)=B(Blaster) then A(Pistol)=C(Rifle), which is not the case.  I'm not saying pistols should be less accurate or powerful, but their range is too long.

The point wasn't that blaster bolts are "ZOMG!!1 HAX!11!!" accurate. That's not what I meant. Rifles should be more accurate, obviously(More stable, longer barrel, etc.), but that's not the point. The point is it doesn't matter what things should be like, in the star wars universe, things are different.

That make more sense now? Good. Now calm down.