i'm not going to get caught in a debate about weapon's wear and decay (as the issue is FAR more complex than what is being portrayed here).
i'll however note this, for the benefit of shooting neophytes:
- a gun with a damaged sear will not fire slower, as Beth implies, but will fire quicker. not to mention it might fire when you don't want it to, or it might even go full automatic in a gun that was meant to be semi-automatic.
- a 'worn' gun will only very rarely fire slower, unless the gastube is dirty, which requires cleaning, not mechanical repair. a truly worn gun however, might not cycle at all (gaspiston stuck, gas tap leaking,...) which might cause it to require manual cycling (if that is even possible).
there are many such "little" things that Beth could have used to balance weapons, without going to that "good" weapon = "higher DPS!". it's not that simple and quite frankly it really isn't an interesting system.
why not incorporate hang fires for bad quality ammo? slam fires on guns with a dirty or busted firing pin? full auto accidental mag dumps (good damage if you happen to be aiming just right at that very moment, but it also means you waste an entire mag of ammo into thin air)? jams? stovepipes? magazine failures? mag latch failures? etc etc.
the list is quite large and it certainly would add some realism and flavor to the whole thing. hell, you might even incorporate the character's weapons skill into how fast and how he tries to resolve the problem with his weapon.
i think the whole "use 2 busted guns to make 1 good gun" and "good gun = higher dps" is downright simplistic and even childish.
if a modder ever wants to mod this type of stuff into FO3 (or any game for that matter), feel free to bombard me with technical questions in PM
