Question for the devs with regards to underrail and realism.

[SadBaxter]

I'm going to try and keep this brief because I don't want to write a long, rambling dissertation on something that isn't hugely important

Now firstly I'm not saying that realism=better, and that is all I'm going to say on that, but is there any intention of having realism insofar as internal consistency within the setting of the game, and the features of real life that are within the game?

I'm asking for the sake of knowing whether suggestions based on real-life things are worthwhile or unwanted (things like a kevlar balaclava being unlikely to be effective, but a ballistic face mask made from kevlar being an almost identical item materially and in application), and whether things like the confusing situation with weapon caliber are going to persist into the release version of the game.

Realism tends to be a contentious realm of discussion in games and I'm fully aware that this is a videogame and neither designed nor intended to be an accurate model of real life, It's just that some things (like weapon caliber) can be confusing if you try to apply existing knowledge, and I'd like to know whether this is intentional and going to remain as such or will be/can be changed.

That's all.

[UnLimiTeD]

I think the game is relatively consistent within itself, though simplified for the sake of gameplay.
Taking your example, creating a new graphic and description and potentially blueprint for what then amounts to be exactly the same thing we have now is.... just not economical.

Likewise, the game abstracts the bullet length, leaving only diameter.
As was already discussed in prior threads, there are weapons of nearly every type in every calibre, I think we are all aware that they still wouldn't use the same bullets.
We have to give a system a little leeway where people can project fire and electricity with their minds and a society has been living completely underground for who knows how long, with little indication of where air comes from, f.Ex.
It is very unlikely anything will change, taking your example again, about the weapon calibres, 'sides balance fine-tuning. It makes the game more complicated while being a detriment to gameplay.

[SadBaxter]

So the weapon caliber issue has been discussed before, I see. I still find it confusing as a gameplay mechanic though, due to the large variations in damage that there can be among different weapons of the same caliber.

[Jamolotl]

I kinda agree with UnLimiTeD that it's not really important enough to spend development resources on it, which makes it the perfect type of thing to mod somewhere down the line by someone with more specialist knowledge. In fact I remember a very similar mod for Fallout 2 becoming fairly popular. It would be harder to balance because of the inclusion of magic which plays by it's own set of rules, but still doable. Apparently modding will be supported some time after release. Let's hope so.

Off topic: this is the sort of thing that reminds me how detrimental it can be to know too much about something. I don't know a thing about guns so I would never notice these types of inconsistencies. I do however know a lot about history so whenever I play a historical game my immersion is sometimes broken constantly by things that don't make sense. In the perfect world developers would have the resources to hire specialists for every aspect of their games but obviously that's just not the case. Ignorance is bliss.

[Gman]

Fallout 2 -needed- an ammo mod after release because they released the game with broken ammo stats; the AP ammo worked backwards when used, doubling the resistance of your target when shot with it, for instance, and other shit.

As for the differing caliber and damage ranges, this is also an game abstraction of the quality of weapons/gear, with why one 5mm Hawker might do 10 damage but a good one made later you might get up to 20 damage out of it. It's fine the way it is, really.  I'm fond of massive inventory lists and a very realistic amount/variety of items, but i'm alright with what we have now, too, and think it fits for the game while simplifying what needs to be to cut down on clutter.