hey teo.
Tip: Don't use shotguns, they make a lot of noise and draw more zombies than they kill.
Again, boomers/landmines make a lot of noise.
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On the gun maintenance issue I think it would take a lot of work to implement, but it is a good idea-- but it's already kinda ingame as weapon jams. If you have an SMG I've noticed sometimes they jam, which is a nice addition-- some of the first weapons I've found were the TEC-9 and MAC-10, both of which are notorious for being inaccurate and failure-prone. On the upside they're only meant to put out massive amounts of automatic fire at close range. I had the trigger happy negative trait (trait? more like a positive perk
)
and a hulk was coming for me. attempt burst fire-- Holy shit. I just fired a full clip, wasting the hulk and several zeds standing behind it.
Things like hunting rifles and shotguns are ridiculously easy to maintain-- as are most battle rifles such as the SA80 and M16. You can strip the SA80 down in under a minute, oil the parts, run a pull-through with a rag down the barrel and hey presto clean weapon.
As for dunking them in swamps or other harsh conditions again that would be very hard to implement I think-- and while a MAC-10 might not fire when dunked in sand an AK-47 sure as hell would. (not that I'd recommend firing anything with a blockage in the barrel unless you fancy losing a few hands.
Edit: Also it would be nice as hell to be able to make a home-made pipe-gun. A bit of pipe, duct tape, a few springs and scrap metal. could even add in a two-by-four. Not quite sure on the calibre but it would be a small one-- while the weapon itself would be pretty heavy-- and accuracy would be pretty terrible of course, not to mention the magazine capacity (i.e, it would have one-- at least, not something you could build in a few hours.) but still a good first strike or last resort weapon.
A nailgun SMG would be pretty easy though. Nailgun+Pipe+Duct tape with a hacksaw and screwdriver then maybe stick in an extra battery and modify the nailgun to remove any limiters or something. I don't know nailgun schematics, so this is just wild mass guessing.