Okay then, and hello! I was playing Mount and musket this weekend, so I know that firearms can be balanced, quite easily too. But that's not the issue with them, most people dislike the idea of them entering the game for the sake of "Atmosphere" but that's why I'm posting in the realism thread!
The earliest firearms were used in combat as early as the 1300's, these though, were pretty shitty guns, and were used for only very specialized situations. In the 17th century, flintlock weapons were introduced, and these became the muskets that you typically imagine soldiers using! These were the firearms of mount and musket.
However, the time-frame of c-rpg is somewhere between these two eras, and therefore lacked flintlock weapons, however, other guns were used in this time. I'm talking about matchlock and wheel lock trigger systems. These were used (Though not a lot) by military's of the the day. My theory is that c-rpg takes place in the early 16th century, based on the bows being used, and the armors. (Some of which are renaissance era meaning 14th-17th century trending toward the later dates.)
So, now that we established what firearms were available at the time (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquebus and a few others, like some early blunderbusses) We must talk about how to balance them in game, my theory is that they would need to be made generally inferior to the other ranged weapons for both realism (That's why they were still not popular yet) and to stop people from whining about ranged any more than they already do.
Crossbows are the closest thing to guns that we already have in game, that is to say, they have a long load time, and high damage.
Firearms, by comparison, Had a longer load time and Less accuracy at range... However, on the upside, at short to medium ranges, they were accuate and
VERY lethal. To represent these stats in game I cam up with this (Arbalest for comparison)
ARBALEST
missile speed: 58
weight: 3.7
accuracy: 89
difficulty: 15
speed rating: 78
thrust damage: 81 pierce
ARQUEBUS
missile speed: 76
weight: 8
accuracy: 78
difficulty: 10
speed rating: 50
Thrust damage: 110 Blunt
The Gun would have a longer delay between trigger pull and firing than the crossbow (It's a matchlock gun after all.) and would be bad at range, due to its low accuracy. Also, for the sake of realism, I think that it should take a medium amount of skill to use well, but then quickly plateau in usefulness of WPF. (As in, using one takes "Training" but the differences between marksmen with these guns was minimal.) Again, the only real upside of these guns is the massive damage and one-shotting they can do. But they typically are outstripped by other ranged weapons. Balance before realism. (Or is it the other way around? NO! because otherwise we would all be longbowmen!)
Just my 2 cents (Or eurothingies, whatever.) Also, if you actually read this rant, I'm looking for a clan/guild/battalion/army/thing. (I was Fallen for a month or so, then those fancy Acre guys, then D'haran for another few months. so yah, umm... swag!)
