Combat Arms/Weapons

There are tons of different weapons in Combat Arms that you can rent and modify and use, but what tells them apart besides their appearance is their performance. Each weapon in the assault rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles), pistols, shotguns, and melee and support sections will be assessed for ten statistics:
 * 1) Damage
 * 2) Firing Rate
 * 3) Accuracy
 * 4) Portability
 * 5) Recoil
 * 6) Crosshair Size
 * 7) Ammunition
 * 8) Reload Speed
 * 9) Firing Modes
 * 10) Price

It's best that you know what each of those means so that you can choose a gun you like and not waste GP.

Damage
Quite straightforward, damage is the capability of one bullet to bring down an enemy's HP. The damage statistic will be measured by exactly how much HP the victim loses, assuming that he/she is shot to the upper chest, shot from point-blank range (because a few weapons become weaker with distance), and wearing all the default gear. A gun with a damage rating of 100 or above is a one hit kill, 50 or above a two hit kill, 34 or above a three hit kill, 25 or above a four hit kill, and 20 and above a five hit kill. No gun as of now is weaker than a five hit kill.

The difference in the damage rating of guns that have both the same "number of shots to kill" can become important sometimes. For example, if a person is shot once with a weak gun but manages to run away, it would be easier to finish them off with a G36E than an M4A1, because even though they are both 4 shot kills, the G36E still does more HP per shot.

Damage is affected by range. Point blank shots (or close to that) from a weapon with 30 or more damage can cause a 3 hit kill rather than a 4 hit kill. The same is true the other way around, for example, a point blank, a SG550 will take 4 shots, at a distance, it will take 5.

Firing Rate
The firing rate of a gun is easy to understand; it's how fast the weapon chugs bullets. A faster firing rate means a faster kill. For example, if you have a gun that only does a measly 1 damage, it will still be able to kill people easily if it fires 100 bullets a second. Sadly, such a gun doesn't exist.

The firing rate of a weapon will be measured by taking the number of bullets it chugs out in one second, and multiplying that by ten. A gun with a firing rate statistic of over 100 is a quite fast-firing gun.

Accuracy
This statistic is sometimes confused with recoil and crosshair size. Because where you are looking determines where a bullet will land if you shoot, bullets will shoot off into the center of your screen. However, bullets do not land perfectly in the center of your screen, they are always slightly off in a random direction. This makes it so that when aiming at enemies from farther range, missing can be a result of the gun itself, not you having bad aim.

In the subsections, accuracy will be measured on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 meaning that the gun has perfect accuracy and the bullet will always land in the exact center of your screen. Accuracy ratings will usually be quite high in regard to the scale. Anything below 60 accuracy would be pretty much useless for combat.

Portability
A weapon's portability is how fast you will be moving while carrying it. Some weapons like machine guns will have you moving like an old man on a walker, while something like an UZI will have you moving around quicker than average. The portability statistic of a weapon is not quite as important as the other statistics, because a high portability doesn't necessarily help you get kills.

The portability statistic will be estimated on a scale of 1 to 100. The currently lightest item, the M69HE Frag Grenade, is given a portability stat of 98, with the buffer room in case anything lighter is released. Everything else is rated proportionally.

Recoil
Very often confused with crosshair size, recoil is how much your aim is thrown off while firing a gun. Recoil is a complicated stat because guns can recoil up, sideways, or everywhere, each of these combined with a certain degree. Up recoil can be handled simply by pulling down on the mouse. Side recoil only starts after firing on automatic for a certain amount of time, so you can get rid of it simply by letting go of the mouse button and firing again. The most annoying recoil pattern is the "everywhere" recoil.

Since recoil is hard to assess because it consists of both strength and direction, Recoil Up, Recoil Sideways, and Recoil Everywhere will be assessed separately, with each being estimated on a scale of 0 to 50. Unlike the other statistics, for Recoil, the lower the number the better. A gun with recoil of 20-3-7 has mostly up recoil, very little side recoil, and a little everywhere recoil. Some guns have nearly no recoil, but true no-recoil can only be attained by hacking.

Crosshair Size
When you fire a gun without using a scope, the crosshair will get bigger, thus reducing your ability to judge where the center of the screen is and aim well. The starting crosshair size (not firing the gun) is also big for certain guns.

The crosshair size statistic will be measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the smallest possible size and 10 being a size that takes up half your screen. The first number is the starting crosshair size, and the second number is the maximum crosshair size. A crosshair of 2~8 starts out fairly small, but will get very big if you hold the mouse button.



Ammunition
The ammo statistic has two numbers separated by a slash and tells two things: the clip size, and the backup bullet count. The clip size denotes the maximum number of shots you can fire before you have to reload. When the gun is reloaded, the clip becomes full again, and the amount of bullets put in is subtracted from the backup bullet count. When the first number is 0, you need to reload. When the second number is 0, you don't have anything more to reload. If both numbers are 0, your gun is completely out of ammo.

For example, a standard Assault Rifle starts out with an ammo stat of 30/90. After shooting the entire clip out, it becomes 0/90, and after the reload, it is 30/60. Using a Magazine Mod will change the first number so your clip is bigger or smaller, but it also changes the second number so that you maintain the same number of bullets no matter what. Adding Extended Magazine I to an Assault Rifle will change the ammo stat from 30/90 to 40/80.

Reload Speed
Very straightforward, this is the speed it takes the weapon to reload. Some weapons like submachine guns can reload very quickly, while machine guns take forever to reload.

Because reload speed isn't very important, it will be assessed on a simple scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the reload speed of the UZI (fastest reload of any gun so far).

Firing Modes
There are three possible firing modes for a gun: Automatic, Burst, and Semi-Automatic. An automatic gun will spew bullets as long as you hold down, and it will continue to do so until you have to reload. A burst gun will fire three bullets in rapid succession with each click. A semi-automatic gun requires a separate click of the mouse for each shot.

Some guns have multiple firing modes that you can choose between by pressing F. The firing mode you are on is shown by the lower-right hand corner. If there are five bullets, it is on automatic. If there are three, burst, and if one, semi-automatic.

Using burst mode will decrease the crosshair size, making it easier to aim from the hip (only makes a noticeable effect in assault rifles). however, you cannot simply click repeatedly to keep shooting; burst fire reduces your firing speed.

Price
The price is how expensive the weapon will cost you to rent from the shop for a one-day period. The most expensive weapon is not always the best weapon.

Most Assault Rifles cost 800 GP, besides the G36E and AUG-A1, which cost 950 GP. The extra 150 GP is actually to compensate for their built-in scope, not because they are better. Also, many people are comfortable with the SR25 Sniper Rifle, which only costs 1100 GP (or 1000 if you take the built-in silencer into account), while the L96A1 Sniper Rifle costs 1400 GP, proving that the L96A1 is not necessarily the "best".