Revolvers are a simpler mechanism and generally can be easier to maintain in working order and less susceptible to environmental factors like dirt.

For a "Craphouse World" game scenario they are also easier to make at lower crafting standards (the very first ones didnt even have cartridges - you loaded them with ball and cap and powder etc...)

Wow, didn't expect the thread to still be going.

Ehh... On the first, no, they're not simpler, in fact, revolvers are more complex and are akin to clocks in their method of manufacture and function, which ties into the second, that being they're incredibly precise in being built because if the timing is off, your gun will literally explode in your hand and will no doubt disfigure it.

Third, they're just as suseptible to malfunction as any other quality built auto loader, to the point where reliability between a revolving action and semi automatic is negligible.

Otherwise they become to similar to pistols, so why have both?

Welcome to the reason why nobody in any military uses revolvers.

Consider that even if the projectile doesnt penetrate it can still have a significant effect on the target -- maybe not a fatal hit , but its being converted to blunt force against part of the body - bruising, concussion, wind knocked out of you, knocked over, damage to any equipment being carried, etc...

For fleshy stuff, a good gunshot from even an M16 or AK47 depending on if you're using level III or IV armor, can still kill you because of internal bleeding and in Full Power rounds, you do need professional medical examination.

as you can see, its not so much the type of gun as the bullet being fired. until you get into large weapons (like a standard .50 cal round) vs personal body armor.

Different types of rounds penetrate differently. As I said, ammunition that isn't even labeled AP will still pierce armor.

I spend like half an hour typing out an explanation but to KISS

Have Three regular types of ammunition.

Ball FMJ. Basic, okay penetration of armor, okay damage against fleshy stuff.

Hollow Point. Leans towards fleshy stuff, horrible penetration, high damage against fleshy stuff.

Armor Piercing. Leans towards armored shit. Great penetration, horrible damage.

And from there, just adjust each weapon depending on the round's natural ability to deal damage on this triangle axis. A PS90 obviously would penetrate armor quite well as a stat, but have lower damage over all. A basic M16 would be more middle of the road but if you use a M4 which is lighter, it would also have worse damage, still relatively accurate, only suffering a minor debuff, but that would all depend on the ammo you use. The reverse would apply to AK47's, 74's and Krinkovs. Do great damage wise with short barrels but have horrible accuracy, both cases being lower than that of the M16's, only if it's an AK47 and Krinkov 47, while the 74 having longer range but doesn't penetrate as well. A Battle Rifle like say the G3 has high damage, good penetration but small magazine size and carrying capacity while also being heavy.

This allows players to gravitate to certain weapons for certain play styles.

Going up against zombies and want to remain quite because close quarters?

Take a Krinkov 47, slap a suppressor on it and get ready to rock.

Need something medium to long and need lots of ammo? M16 or M4, depending on if you need that extra weight saved, somewhere else.

Going against Robots?

Bring out the FN57 and PS90 which both use the same ammo, giving you a huge ammo pool, big mags, penetrate armor really well regardless of ammo type used and wouldn't matter concerning damage since robots should be incredibly weak to piercing since if they don't have redundant systems like high level robots should, then they'll be critically wounded from the spray.

Lots of low level enemies?

SMG in 9mm with a variety of different ammo types to fill different rolls as they come.

Need to be far away or have few powerful enemies?

Sniper or battle rifle.

Each gun is going to need to be picked out by hand with gameplay in mind and have individual stats assigned to each, with round type augmenting the already existing stats listed.

Also revolvers are stupid. If you're going to do it, just straight up have it be a .44 magnum with a hunting scope on it and make it a light sniper platform because people actually hunt like that.

I think your stats are fine but you should leave some room for a gradient of armor pen.

Instead of having classes of armor pen, why don't you just use a numeric value? I'm not a huge fan of vague tooltips like "high" or "medium" armor pen.

Armor pen 0-100 means it penetrates 0-100% of armor.

So a gun with 37 armor pen will get its damage reduced to 37% against armored targets. This also introduces the possibility (since this is an rpg) of varied values on the armor pen value. A weapon could have really high armor pen but low damage, and vice versa. Or it could have a nice mix of both. Or it could just be some epic weapon that has high armor pen and high damage, but its ammo is relatively rare/expensive. Definitely have tradeoffs!

Armor could behave the same across all enemies, so the knob you'd tweak is how much armor a unit has. A human with kevlar might have 50 armor, where as a tank might have 600. The player would have to break through the armor before affecting raw HP in which every weapon would do their full damage. This would introduce an element of switching weapons during battle. A nearby enemy may call for shotgun to burst down its armor fast then switch to a pistol to finish it off economically (I'm assuming ammo is a resource that's not unlimited).

Revolvers are a simpler mechanism and generally can be easier to maintain in working order and less susceptible to environmental factors like dirt.

For a "Craphouse World" game scenario they are also easier to make at lower crafting standards (the very first ones didnt even have cartridges - you loaded them with ball and cap and powder etc...)

Wow, didn't expect the thread to still be going.

Ehh... On the first, no, they're not simpler, in fact, revolvers are more complex and are akin to clocks in their method of manufacture and function, which ties into the second, that being they're incredibly precise in being built because if the timing is off, your gun will literally explode in your hand and will no doubt disfigure it.

Third, they're just as suseptible to malfunction as any other quality built auto loader, to the point where reliability between a revolving action and semi automatic is negligible.

Look at the really early ones done with limited machining technologies, and much simpler metalurgy. Lever action on the cylinder spindle, etc...

(consider also what really old clocks were built like....)

Those are actually pretty bad and were high maintenance because they would go out of time constantly. Their hollywood status of being super reliable came from the fact that they weren't shot often so timing wasn't much of an issue, it really just came down to the fact that a gun back then might not be shot more than 5 to 600 times in its lifetime. Lever actions are different but they are more complex when compared to bolt actions and still have issues with jamming.

The single exception I can really think of this was the 1895 nagant revolver from Russia, only it was actually rather complex, blocky and incredibly heavy. And when it came to reliability when you compare it to the Browning M1911 and Browning Hi Power, both were semi automatic and became the basis for pretty much 85% of semi automatic firearm designs, they were just as reliable and easier to manufacture, not to mention cheaper.