The Ultimate Debate: Service Rifle or Cowboy Repeater?

[JimboUK]

1 minute ago, MuteSignals said:

Sometimes the jackals/viper you encounter around nipton/novac might have a 5.56mm but they arent usually on the main highway so would require a lil exploring.

I usually go that way to avoid the ambush and have never seen one, I'm gonna check the leveled lists later, I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure weapons added by Gun Runners Arsenal are not added to them, if they were then there wouldn't be mods to add them. 

[laclongquan]

IIRC at least one can be in sale by the bartender at Mojave Outpost. it is how I uprade my pistol from Lucky to 556 for armor piercing option.

[JimboUK]

6 hours ago, laclongquan said:

IIRC at least one can be in sale by the bartender at Mojave Outpost. it is how I uprade my pistol from Lucky to 556 for armor piercing option.

Briscoe sells them as well, I was talking about drops, no sane person would spend that much early game on a weapon that is only going to be used to repair something.

[laclongquan]

Buy a 556 gun. Use it on the 556AP ammo. Save the broken parts. Use them to repair THAT GUN.

Have to use that strategy to fix Paciencia (through hunting rifles) or other unique weapons in non-Jury-Rigging runs. Because WRK might not be enough.

Edited January 7 by laclongquan

[MuteSignals]

Seriously surprised not even one person preferred the service rifle, I guess if the damage was just that bit higher, it might win out. Considering maybe a mod for that but I'm not sure what kind of attachment could increase bullet damage and make sense.

Improved springs and a better bolt maybe? Any gun nuts here help me out

[DragonSlayer667]

On 12/3/2023 at 11:05 AM, MuteSignals said:

I do hate that too, there's probably a fix out there but usually I try to reload whilst crouched/first person to avoid this otherwise I do a little dance.

Ranger Andy's bungalow has the trail carbine in an average locked chest,
Cliff Briscoe next door has an unlocked chest with a hunting rifle,
Didn't know about the cow house though, I guess the McBrides were always watching it.

Definitely plenty around especially later in the game. I will give the Service Rifle this, It can use AP (Armor Piercing) rounds. You're given a Rifle + 72x AP Ammo after Can You Find it in Your Heart? by Ranger Jackson. It can punch DT -15 whilst the highest the Repeater can do is JFP (Hand Load) DT -3.

Eh, the DT bonus ain't all that good when you consider AP ammo reduces the already comically low damage the Svc rifle gives even more.
Grabbing a trail carbine early on is definitely pretty good, been playing all those years and didn't know you could find one guaranteed in andy's house, mostly because by the point i got to novac i wasn't really looking for guns anymore and my low karma thief runs are pretty rare.
Might run low on that 44 ammo for the carbine though, i know for sure it ain't that common, up until you can buy guns from the khans though, idk why but their vendor always had the highest amount of ammo for me.

[DragonSlayer667]

1 hour ago, MuteSignals said:

Seriously surprised not even one person preferred the service rifle, I guess if the damage was just that bit higher, it might win out. Considering maybe a mod for that but I'm not sure what kind of attachment could increase bullet damage and make sense.

Improved springs and a better bolt maybe? Any gun nuts here help me out

As for this, only realistic way i know to make a gun "shoot harder" is a longer barrel, maybe a modification to the receiver that seals up the escaping gasses a bit better, so a receiver modernization or receiver upgrade.
Some people might think of better rifling, but that will only make your accuracy better, and maybe even degrade damage if it's too deep of a cut or too steep of a turn.

Oh hey, and i just checked, even you voted for the cowboy repeater!
Yea the svc rifle doesn't deserve any hate but doesn't deserve any love either, it's just an utilitarian little boomstick that shoots cheap ammo and kills absolutely nothing that's too scary.
Kinda good for armored weak little humans with that AP ammo i guess, but sucks for everything else.
It looks really good with the recent KNVSE reanimations though, and i dropped one in that makes it fire quite a bit faster so now it's actually kinda useful.

Edited January 7 by DragonSlayer667

[laclongquan]

5 hours ago, DragonSlayer667 said:

Eh, the DT bonus ain't all that good when you consider AP ammo reduces the already comically low damage the Svc rifle gives even more.
Grabbing a trail carbine early on is definitely pretty good, been playing all those years and didn't know you could find one guaranteed in andy's house, mostly because by the point i got to novac i wasn't really looking for guns anymore and my low karma thief runs are pretty rare.
Might run low on that 44 ammo for the carbine though, i know for sure it ain't that common, up until you can buy guns from the khans though, idk why but their vendor always had the highest amount of ammo for me.

Heh heh heh. Vanilla or TTW we dont really need it. But Dust or Obscurum pandemic make it so the time we run across Novac we treasure it.

Anyway.

The only way for us to use or like Service Rifle is to starting game at the locations that has only it. Like Dust's certain start, and Obscurum Pandemic.

If you want people to use SR, you must increase its utility a bit. You can add mods that either increase rate of fire, or bullet per burst, since damage is about fixed anyway. Crit hit or damage isnt that good to mess in SR.

Survivalist Rifle prove the weakness of SR and marksman rifle: your rate of bullet is too low so even high crit cant compensate. Doing hunting/guerrilla battle is fine, but in straight up slugfest, the design of it is much unattractive.

In a contest against Cowboy Repeater, SR lose simply because of where it is: Mojave with low number of armored targets that need AP. Just JFP bullets is enough to deal with it, and so Repeater win by art style.

In TTW, DC regions, at least there's early use for SR by shooting AP ammo, which is how I use Assault Rifle or Chinese AR . There's times where nonAP just can not cut mustard~

Edited January 7 by laclongquan

[MuteSignals]

The fire rate is already pretty good (not to mention 'upgraded springs' is already a mod for the gun with 30%+), like really the only downsides for me to use the rifle is the accuracy and the damage, it is a pretty heavy gun too.

Looking through other examples of weapons mods in FNV, most improved barrel mods increase accuracy but also damage by +3, it gives the reason that the longer barrel means the powder acts on the cartridge for longer thus improved damage output. I don't know if thats a realistic reason for more power but might be a solution to make the rifle more attractive. But i'd also like synthetic parts to replace the wood furniture and a tighter spread to make it compete more with the CR.

[laclongquan]

Other than energy weapon, I dont really like gunpowder gun mod that increase damage~ Crit chance, yes. Crit damage, yes. Normal damage, no.

Anyway. If you want to increase its utility, put it to Goodsprings. The only way you can increase its life usage to maybe 50%. By Primm it would compete with Lucky and Cowboy Repeater. By Mojave Outpost it would compete with That Gun and possibly hunting rifle in random loots. Which is pretty heavy competition at that time.