TWI undertuned the weapons until they could get some proper balancing data on them.
If true, I hope they give the Combat Shotty and M4203 a price reduction. Their prices render them somewhat obsolete, IMO. Cool guns as they are, there's just better alternatives as far as value is concerned.
This was my suspicion as well, as all the weapons (barring perhaps the Claymore) seem either underpowered for their price or overpriced for their power (depending on the developer's vision for each weapon). M1014 needs to be on par with the Benelli (or stronger) on more than just RoF since it's so much more expensive (and because it's not really reliable as a Scrake/FP killer). It needs either quicker reload times, 8 rounds in the weapon fully loaded, or lower price. Personally I'd go for the quicker reload, as that would make it a high-tier anti-mob weapon which is a niche the Support doesn't have anything for atm. Right now it just feels unwieldy to use against both big targets and small mobs.
M4 has a similar problem in that it runs dry too fast for how much damage each shot does and it's firing spread. It either needs greater accuracy, slightly larger mag, or a tad more damage. The price I'd assume is fine considering it's the same tier ranking as the AK (right?). Also, it's ADS view is a lot more restrictive than the Bullpup's (or even the AK's). Not sure what to make of that but it does contribute to it's lack of overall utility imo.
The Husk Cannon is about as effective as the Flamethrower, if not somewhat more so (it does lose in sustained crowd control though). It's versatile against both large targets and small ones, and the ammo lasts about as long with the same amount of conservation. The problem is that the Husk Cannon is WAY more expensive, which means the Firebug is saving up for a weapon that doesn't give him much more
total utility, it just spreads it into different areas. It's a good "sidegrade", but it ain't priced like one.
The M203.....I'd say that considering it's weight and price, it should be more than just the M79+bullets-grenades. It's more expensive than the M32, and has less total grenade round capacity than the M79. Either match it's price to the M32, or buff it's grenade count. I think I'd be in the majority opinion for thinking that it doesn't have same amount of total utility as the M32, much less
greater utility. Yes, it has a more balanced utility, and that counts for something (especially for Demo), but if you only have enough for one or the other a subpar unperked AR is not worth more than the ability to fire 5 additional grenades in one go.
MP5? Possibly the most useful new weapon, doesn't need much of anything buffed imo. If anything, it needs it's heal rate linked to the MP7. As an aside, it's got a really nice looking reload animation.
Single Magnum's pretty much okay too. I get the feeling that this gun is not so much meant for SS as meant to be an off-perk sidearm for other classes, so the only thing it really needs is a price reduction so it can be bought early-game or when don't have enough for another main weapon (Though, I heard it was bugged in that it doesn't receive SS reload & recoil bonuses? That's probably going to be fixed if so, so no use fretting about it).
Dual-wielding them seems much less useful (as is a trend in this game it seems
), as they no longer fit that 2-weight niche, have less shots than the Dual HC while remaining almost as expensive, and have a ungodly-long reload animation (which makes sense realistically since they're revolvers, but adds to their underpoweredness).
TL: DR: Overall, I think the new weapons are cool, but for the most part they feel less useful as a whole than the old weapons, while being pricier. In other words, a lower money-spent-to-power ratio. So uniformally so, in fact, that I have no trouble believing they are intentionally that way so as not to upset balance.
Edit: Also, I think I'd be in the majority opinion again for thinking that:
The Flamethrower needs to be moved back to Slot 4.
The MP5 & 7 also need to be moved to slot 4.
The Katana should come up before the Claymore.
![ChairmanMurder[Forge]](/data/avatars/s/31/31988.jpg?1568638684){kind=avatar}