Some data that justify minor buff for the AC42
Was bored and decided to calculate the AC42's Time-to-Kill (which is trickier to calculate considering it's a burst fire weapon)
RoF: 480 rounds/min (rpm) = 160 bursts/min
Burst RoF: 1200 rpm (number of bullets per burst [3] divided by time it takes to shoot 1 burst)
(is this number accurate? Assuming the RoF display in game pre-patch 1.1 refers to the burst RoF; also got same number from sym.gg)
Time to shoot 1 burst (Duration of 1 burst): (60 s/ 1200 bullets) x 3 bullets = 0.15 s (150 ms)
At least 2 bursts required to down enemy (body shots) - so have to take delay in between bursts into account.
Time Delay between bursts:
Time to shoot 160 bursts (i.e. Duration of 160 bursts EXCLUDING DELAY between bursts): 160 x 0.15 s = 24 s
Total Time Delay between 160 bursts (/min): 60 s - 24 s = 36 s
Time delay between 2 bursts: 36 s/(160-1) = 0.225 s (approximately - round number)
Sooo Time-to-Kill (TTK):
2 bursts: (0.15 s x 2) + 0.225 s = 525 ms (<150 metres)
3 burst (0.15 s x 3) + (0.225 s x 2) = 900 ms (>149 m)
More precisely,
Assuming there's a delay of 75 ms between two shots within 1 burst of three shots (remember, 1 burst has a duration of 150 ms):
<30 m - bullets to kill (BTK): 4; TTK: 375 ms [150 ms (1st burst) + 225 ms (delay after burst) + 0 ms (only 1 round shot from 2nd burst, so no time delay)]
30-149 m - BTK: 5; TTK: 450 ms [150 ms + 225 ms + 75 ms (delay between two shots from 2nd burst)]
Also, bullet travel time ignored here.
Comparing the AC42's TTK with that of other ARs (https://sym.gg/index.html?game=bf2042&page=comparison - AC42 TTK inaccurate on sym.gg), it is apparent that the AC42 has a significantly higher TTK. For instance, under 150 m, the TTK for ARs (excluding AC42) ranges between 225 ms and 400 ms (approx.). Does this justify a slight buff for the AC42 - what do you think?
Also, I noticed that while it takes 7 bullets to down an enemy at a distance > 149 m with the AC42 (HP/ regular ammo), the other ARs can do this with only 6 bullets (High Power mag). Furthermore, the HP ammo on the AC42 has a very small magazine size of 20. Pre-patch 0.4, the HP mag size was probably justified considering AC42 HP ammo was OP back then but now that it only provides a minor increase in range*, wouldn't it make more sense to make an extended HP mag available for the ac42?
*Damage of 22 hp/ round extended by only 25 m + slight increase in bullet velocity
