Attachment points make no sense and are inconsistent
The attachment point system is bad, and the overall attachment system is confusing in general. Some attachments feel like fluff that exists just to fill the menu.
First example, barrels. I'll take the DRS-IAR for example here because it has a big selection of barrels:
It doesn't make sense to me that the Basic is 10 points, as well as the Heavy and Heavy Extended are also 10, while the Extended alone is 15. The Heavy Extended is a direct stat upgrade to the Extended barrel, yet it costs the same as the Basic? This doesn't make any sense. The Basic barrel should be 0 points, it's the default.
Next, lets talk magazines. The SCW-10 is a great example:
So you start off with the 15 round at 5 points. Again, I think it's an odd design choice to have default characteristics of a gun take up points, but I digress. The 15 Fast makes sense at 10 points, then the 20 Round at 20 points. Then lastly, the 25 Round is 45 points. That is a whole 25 extra points you cannot use on any other attachment, for a meager 5 more bullets. No one is ever going to run the 25 round magazine, because why would they? This is clearly a form of game balance that is being attempted here, but the execution is falling short. This system currently will lead to people running "meta" builds, because when your attachment choice has this many limiting factors, there's not many ways to make the gun perform well.
Another example, the RPK:
30 round, 40 round, and 36 round are 5 points. Can you guess which one people are only ever going to use? Also, making the 75 round drum 50 points on an LMG is again, a strange choice, especially when the 60 round is right there, for 20 points less. Not to mention that there are 6 other LMGs that come default with 100 round mags that players can use instead.
The way the current attachment point system works is going to drive players to not explore their options, and try new attachment combinations. The point system as it stands currently does not incentivize exploration, but rather finding the best combination of attachments because they are so restricted. I'm not saying that we need to be able to equip every best in slot attachment to every gun, but that the current restrictions on attachment usage leads to a lack of diversity in gameplay options.
A couple suggestions for resolving this:
- Default attachments should not cost points
- Rework the point system. Allow more variety of attachment combinations so people can try more things out instead of just hunting for meta builds
