could it be that some people forget about the weight of the gun and about the recoil?
afaik, basic newton mechanics goes like:
A = Fs
so, when you swing a hammer, you take a long swing with little force, it means that s is big and F is small.
when the hammer hits the head of the nail, s is going to be very small compared to the swing, and F is therefore going to be big.
when you shoot a gun, you need the force to punch the bullet into your opponent's body or into a brick wall or something similar.
and, to punch a bullet into a brick, which is the case with, say, ak-47 assault rifle, you need considerable power, and that impulse does not magically disappear but gets transferred through your weapon to your body.
and this is what is called recoil.
it is not going to be like shooting guns in quake while running and jumping.
and another newton mechanics thing is:
F = ma
if the gun is heavy, the recoil is easier to handle.
that is the reason why you might want your gun to be reasonably heavy compared to the bullet.
if you are not convinced you can imagine that instead of holding the gun and shooting the bullet you are holding the bullet and shooting the gun.
but, a heavy gun is more difficult to maneuver quickly, and if you imagine the opponent at one step distance from you taking a step to the side, you need to move your gun a lot more compared to the situation where the opponent is something like ten steps away.
and, in order to not only handle the recoil but also to maneuver the gun more quickly or to have better control while aiming, you might want to hold a gun with two hands even if it is a pistol.
and even if you are not holding a pistol with two hands you want the off-hand to help balance your movements.
the maneuvering benefit you get from holding a pistol with two hands should depend on the weight of the pistol and your strength.
if you are using a two-handed weapon like an assault rifle, you are holding it at two points that have some distance, giving you better leverage to control the gun.
again, it is not like in quake where you can turn and aim the gun at the same speed no matter what the weight of the gun is, say, no matter if it is a pistol or a rocket launcher.
if you feel like you are strong enough to dual wield some toy pistols for more fire power, then you would probably be better off if you increased caliber or used higher fire rate bursts or the like.
now, instead of dual wielding pistols, maybe we should suggest the following (and then quickly discard the suggestion as too complicated) for, e.g. reaction fire:
1) time units for responding to the event of an alien appearing in front of your soldier.
2) time units for aiming, which depends on the weight and length of the gun and how many hands the soldier is using to hold the gun and the soldier's strength, and also on how fast the alien is moving and in what direction (straightly towards the soldier or sideways).
3) time units to pull the trigger.
4) at this moment the alien gets shot.
5) and then you would get recoil and would not be able to do anything reasonable for some time units, because you got a punch to your body from, say, your assault rifle, the power of which could punch a lead bullet into a brick wall. it would be best if there would be a recoil animation where your soldier would look slightly disoriented.
as i see it, this whole discussion about dual wielding is an artifact of the shooting rules in the game that are the way they are for the sake of simplicity.
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now, i am sorry for getting bit off-topic, but as i pointed out earlier in this thread, when you are using, say, a pistol and a stun rod, then you might want to use a stun rod reaction for melee range and a pistol reaction otherwise.
and, afaik, you cannot arrange it that way in the game.
and where i am getting really off-topic is this:
like in jagged alliance you get an interrupt when you have an opportunity to respond to an opponent, i think it could also work in an ufo game.
actually what i would like to see most is that when an alien appears you get an interrupt and you can do whatever, provided you have saved the time units for the response in your previous round.
for example, you could crouch, or you could use a different weapon.
but, if you are fumbling around with your weapons for too long, the alien will get to shoot you first.
i feel this would create some positive gameplay tension as you wouldn't know how many time units you have for the response, but only have a rough estimate based on how slow weapon the alien is using.
no idea if this has any practical value as a suggestion to the game in no matter how distant future, but maybe it would be ok to discuss it in a separate thread to figure out if it could have some potential.
