Some suggestions for mechanical pistols.

[jubisloviu]

Current pistols dont benefit as much from crits as other weapons, so one of the ways to make them have a marginally better damage is to get as many special attack feats as you can and stack special attack damage bonus.
Mechanical Pistols are in this weird spot where they arent good at any niche compared to other weapons, it's true you can still complete the game with them in all difficulties, but it's not a easy task compared to all other guns.

I made this topic to highlight some ideas that could marginally make pistols a lot better.

AP cost to fire:
It's common knowledge that for some reason mechanical pistols can take up to 32AP to fire a single shot. compared to SMG's, Assault Rifles and even Snipers it's a really heavy cost, pistols would benefit heavily from a general AP cost decrease across the board, the changes to the rapid reloader was a step into the right direction in my opinion.

Feats:
-Gunslinger is a great feat, pretty much a must on all Mech Pistol characters, maybe the addition of critical damage bonus to mechanical pistols as a specialization would make them better.

Enchancements:
-Scopes: Yeah, this is correct, this idea might sound weird but letting Mechanical Pistols use scopes would be a great way of making them better, the Laser Sight would still have it's niche since it increases your precision by 10% compared to the regular scope that only grants 6% precision and 2% crit chance.

Frames:
Neo-Luger: Currently the most consistent pistol frame, it deals alright damage with special attacks as long as you have a smart module and use special attack bonus damage goggles, while also having an alright increase on precision. i have nothing to add about this particular frame
Hammerer: This is a special frame, for many mechanical pistol users the .44 hammerer is the go for weapon, and with a good reason
it's the only pistol with a extra to it's critical damage bonus, but it has such a huge damage spread that many compare using it to playing slots, maybe some way to reduce it's damage spread would make this particular frame excelent.
Falchion: You'd think this frame is decent because of the extra critical chance, but it has a lower base damage compared to the neo-luger, and since only sharpshooter can give it a marginal crit damage bonus the damage falls off, even more because neo-luger can also benefit from sharpshooter while having a better base damage, a increase on the Falchion frame base damage would be a welcome buff.
Hawker: Sold as a middle of the road between neo-luger and hammerer, but it lacks consistent damage of the neo-luger or the big crits of the hammerer, all in all the only change i could suggest is for the hawker to have a lesser AP cost to fire compared to the other pistols.

[Firozo]

Firearms pistols could use a little love of course.

I think it would be possible to give bonuses to special attacks depending on the quality frame and the caliber of the firearm pistol.
So, here's what I suggest:

5mm pistol - extra 1 bullet (2-3 for hight quality frame) to Points Shot

7.62mm pistol - bonus to Aimed Shot (critical damage with  scaling quality frame/ reduce cooldown  / bonus to precision)

9mm pistol - reduce x% AP cost to Rapid Fire

.44 - increase range to Execute

Please write what do you think about this, do you agree or not etc.

[sull]

I think mechanical pistols should have their roles as reliable low-investment sidearms emphasized. Maybe give them a precision bonus that only applies in optimal range. That way a character that isn't focused on guns can still get decent hit chance out of a pistol.

[haze1103]

I think the "reliable low-investment sidearms" part is represented by a Versatility build. Since guns usually require base skills (not effective skills), pistols are usually your only option if you've focused on melee or crossbows on a versatile build.

Granted, people usually use energy or chem pistols, but firearms can still be used.

[sheepherder]

I've played several builds focused exclusively on mechanical pistols and in my experience, on Dominating difficulty, the .44 Hammerer is quite good past early game, once Rapid Reloaders become more widely available. It's weaker than other firearm types, but not worthless and deals great damage late game. It relied on combination of both critical hits and special attack damage. 5mm Hawker on the other hand, struggled up until ~lvl20 and only became good at lvl26. I only used critical hits with it, no special attack damage bonus. I haven't used the other frames.

What pistols need, imo is a +damage% buff to beef them up early game. For example burst guns have Suppressive Fire+Opportunist combo which is available right off the bat. Shotguns have Sixth Shell. Chemical Pistols get Mad Chemist and the belts. Energy Pistols have Practical Physicist and High-Technicalities. Mechanical Pistols do not have a feat or a piece of gear which would increase their damage. Special attack damage bonus works, but for 5mm frames, which can reach attack cost as low as 4ap per shot late game, it would only work for ~20% of their AP.