Is it time to give the pistol the steel axe treatment

[johnwalker1]

It struck me recently that keeping the pistol in the game seems like an oversight when you consider what was done to the iron & steel pick axes. I mean, it's not like there is any reason to ever craft a pistol, and as soon as you unlock the machine gun, there is no reason to be holding on to it.

There are various ways to work around this. One could be to have the pistol require no ammo, but also not have any ammo upgrades, so you simply had it as your final hold out, or just automatically upgrade the pistol to a machine gun and just keep that as your basic weapon without anything needing to be crafted or done.

Or simply have the pistol be an ingredient for the machine gun, so when you upgrade, you won't be stuck with the bloody pistol in your inventory.

What do the rest of you fine folks think?

[Oktokolo]

The pistol should be axed. It should just be the smg from the start. Its stats should always be the same as that of the machine gun turret. Biter starting strength (damage, armor, hitpoints, group size) might be adjusted accordingly.

[Bilka]

It's time for finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots. I'm guessing bot for this one.
Original reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... steel_axe/
User with the same name on the forums: memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=36407 Seems to be the same person, posts on reddit also suggest seablock play, same as forum posts. So I think this one is made by a bot.

[Oktokolo]

It's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots. I'm guessing bot for this one.

Why do you feel like it's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots?

[Bilka]

It's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots. I'm guessing bot for this one.

Why do you feel like it's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots?

Because if it is bots, those accounts should be banned so that they don't spam in the future. We had cases of that in the past, accounts use reposted reddit content to get approved, then spam ads. If it's a person, then we are seeing a new and imo interesting to observe trend in reposts of content from another website.

Here is another example of such a repost: 82875 - https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... _with_some
And just because it's fun, following the name pattern (some 2 word name and then a number) of topic creators here in general discussion and then searching reddit also finds this post: 83070 - https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... ttersweet/

[Oktokolo]

It's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots. I'm guessing bot for this one.

Why do you feel like it's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots?

Because if it is bots, those accounts should be banned so that they don't spam in the future.

Can always ban them after they actually post an ad. This is a high-traffic site. Ads will only get a few seconds before someone reports them.

[Bilka]

It's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots. I'm guessing bot for this one.

Why do you feel like it's time for is finding out if these reposts from reddit are actually made by people, or by bots?

Because if it is bots, those accounts should be banned so that they don't spam in the future.

Can always ban them after they actually post an ad.

Yes, that is how identifying that they are bots works.

[Klonan]

Clever bots...

[astroshak]

I kind of agree about nixing the pistol. That said, there is one mod out there that uses it as part of the Military Research pack.

If scrapping the Pistol is not an option, perhaps replacing the Piercing Ammo with the Pistol would at least give a reason to automate Pistol production? As it is, right now, it is an item quickly discarded and a recipe (almost) never used...

[conn11]

Unlike the pickaxe (removal of with was unnecessary IMO, but this is off topic) the pistol dosen’t were out, so the need of production and more important replenishment is rather low. Given that you spawn with one equipped, I don’t see why a pistol recipe should bother anyone and therefore there isn’t good reason of removal.

On the contrary: the pistol is a sure to be replaced item as the game continues.
What should a unequipped pistol be; A suddenly generated item? What should reequippment be like? Is there only this specific pistol in game? Good luck finding it in the pre bot stage. Or should the pistol be a fixed, but mostly useless weapon to the character.
In later game stages cycling through the weapons would be prolongated by having to frequently skip the completely underpowered pistol.

The most simple and elegant solution is, as implemented for armors, armor modules, to keep craftable and freely exchangeable weapons.

[Durentis]

Here is another example of such a repost: 82875 - https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... _with_some

Ahh.. that makes way more sense. This post got me wondering at why I'd occasionally see posts like this but then the OP would never engage in any of the responses. The community just ends up in a discussion among themselves providing help to any passers-by in general, which isn't a bad thing, but may well be effectively wasting their time in terms of actually helping the OP. I just tend not to respond when I see these nowadays.

[mergele]

I think the pistol should be left in. I actually wrote this post initially arguing the other side but while doing so I changed my mind.
On the negative side there is the annoyance of dealing with a worthless pistol item to discard when respawning and some time after start, but that is a rather small inconvenience as the player probably isn't dying that often to begin with and you (or at least I myself) have a bunch of scrap chest around for crap I don't want anymore anyways early and later you just let the bots take it anyway into the endless pits of oblivion that are the storage chest arrays.
On the positive side having it as item probably helps new players understand faster how the weapon equipment system works and how to get the new shiny gun to do it's funstuff.