Firearms & Cover

Firearms and Ammunition

Though Firearms use the Ranged Weapons skill for skillchecks, they do not function like other melee or ranged weapons. Firearms require specific ammunition like other ranged weapons, but unlike other ranged weapons they must be reloaded in order to fire, rather than being fired automatically with ammunition being deducted from your pack automatically.
Weapons have magazines determined by their type- a revolver has six shots, a double barrel shotgun has two, a musket has one, and so on.
When you equip a firearm, you will automatically attempt to reload it, and will be unable to fire it until it has completed reloading. You may halt and start reloads with [haltreload and [reload, or manually unload a weapon with [unloadfirearm. Halting a reload before it has completed may result in a partial reload for weapons with a magazine that holds multiple shots. You may only have one loaded weapon at a time for balance reasons. Un-equipping a firearm to your backpack or other container will result it saving its reload state, but equipping another firearm will immediately unload the weapon. Weapons placed on the ground are not subject to this rule, but may be picked up freely by anyone.

Types of Firearm

As with all other weapons, all Firearms have a base DPS of 6. Unlike all other weapons where DPS is simply calculated with swing speed vs damage, firearms take reload speed into account. As a result, a weapon like a revolver fires very quickly, every 0.9 seconds, but has a reload speed of 8 seconds. Single-shot firearms like the Musket are subject to the same reloading mechanics, and can be immediately fired upon reload. Firearms are split into three categories, pistol rifle and shotgun, but due to the nature of firearm design there is no simple damage to speed ratio of low/high mid/mid high/low like there is with other weapon types. A revolver fires very fast and does decent damage, whereas a flintlock pistol fires more slowly and does more damage per individual shot. A musket fires slowly and does massive damage, whereas a lever action rifle has a large magazine and fires very quickly, but does lower damage per individual shot.

It is more useful to break firearms up into their tiers and ammunition:

• Black Powder Single-Shot, slow firing, higher damage
  • Flintlock and Musket - Crude Cartridge Ammunition
  • Blunderbuss - Crude Shot Ammunitiion

• Breechloaders Single or double shot, moderate speed and damage
  • Breechloader Pistol - Pistol Cartridges
  • Breechloader Rifle - Rifle Cartridges
  • Double Barrel Shotgun - Shotgun Shells

• Modern Firearms Multiple shots, fast firing, low to mid damage
  • Revolver - Pistol Cartridges
  • Bolt Action & Lever Action Rifles - Rifle Cartridges
  • Pump-Action Shotguns - Shotgun Shells

Firearms are subject to the same [sling and [holster commands as melee weapons, though most Pistols require a Holster item to be obtained and applied to the pistol first. You may also use [readyfirearm to make hammer-cocking noises on command for those tense standoff RP situations.

Cover

Cover, simply put, is hiding behind a person or object as to lessen your chances of being hit. Bullets always treat the first mobile in a direct path between the shooter and the target as their target when making to-hit checks, and will damage that mobile if they are hit. Friends and innocents can be hit, so be mindful of your target and what lies beyond it. Shooters can negate this by using the Aim Special Weapon Move.
Items, both static and non-static, act as cover. The higher the object relative to the shooter, the more cover is granted. Items placed on the ground such as crates and other objects function as cover, and stacking objects on top of each other to make the barricade higher will result in a higher bonus. Cover is not perfect though, and can at most give a 50% bonus to your defense chance from ranged attacks. Enemies who are above you will have an easier time shooting at players in cover, but do not gain any hit bonuses beyond that.