Pistol Changes

[metalflower]

Suggestion:
Eliminate pistol ammo and make it an unlimited ammo weapon.
Eliminate free Pistol + Ammo on spawn.
Scale damage output accordingly if needed.
Move Firearm Magazines behind Military 1.

Reasoning:
+ Gives pistol value as a backup sidearm throughout the game, even after SMG is discovered.
+ Gives pistol crafting recipe a purpose.
+ Being slowly pecked to death by a single biter over two minutes at full life when you run out of ammo (and don't have resources to craft more) feels bad.
+ Pistol still remains unviable for nest takedowns and surviving more than early waves, without being completely worthless.
+ Creating a large amount of ammo for the pistol is trivial and redundant for the early game; players will not craft hundreds of extra basic clips to only keep on their pistol 'for emergencies'.
+ Graphic for the Firearm Ammo does not resemble a pistol clip.
+ Dying repeatedly to gain 10 ammo, while not broken, breaks the spirit/immersion of the game.
+ Prevent pistols from being powered up with piercing/uranium ammo, if the unlimited ammo aspect would be feared as overpowered.

[Xeorm]

You do know you can melee down the biters right? That's your infinite damage weapon. The pistol is useful for giving the player something good to start out with and have them feel like they're making an improvement with better weapons. The design is there to lead the players onward.

[metalflower]

They're removing Iron/Steel axes in 0.17.
Even if melee attacks are retained, and their damage rate is brought up on par with the pistol (which is very unrealistic and counterintuitive), they're always going to be far less viable for personal survival than the pistol; they require your targets to actually be in melee range, at which point you are far more likely to be overwhelmed by 2 or 3 biters than stand a chance via pistol kiting, which is already a core mechanic to Pistol and SMG usage. Yes, you could buff axe damage output to equal pistol, but this does not solve the survivability issue, nor the pistol's recipe's lack of utility. Slowly dying to low numbers of heavily injured biters due to being forced to close to melee range and attack them with melee doesn't increase game difficulty; it just makes your death slow and tedious.

SMGs are currently available after a single technology that has no pre-requisites. Unless you go looking for trouble on purpose, you will have a weapon that outclasses the pistol in every single way before you ever have to worry about enemies. There is no situation where you would own both an SMG and a Pistol and say, "well, I should bring extra ammo JUST for the pistol, as a backup". You would just use that extra ammo on the SMG, and should you run out of that, then you would have no Pistol usage to fall back on in an emergency.

My proposal would not only retain some longer-term functionality for the pistol after you obtain the SMG, it would eliminate some of the tedious aspects of early-game to newer players that overextend (while still delivering a cautionary message), as well as remove the temptation (and illogical mechanic) of getting free ammo. The free ammo and pistol can (and has) led to a lessened sense of consequences of death, as you just get that pistol back anyway, along with extra ammo from the heavens. This can (and has) lead to immersion-breaking strategies such as zerging an enemy nest over and over again with repeated deaths.

Also, losing your pistol on death would give you a reason to craft a new one.

[Koub]

They're removing Iron/Steel axes in 0.17.

It has already been removed in 0.17.

Even if melee attacks are retained, and their damage rate is brought up on par with the pistol (which is very unrealistic and counterintuitive), they're always going to be far less viable for personal survival than the pistol;

Pase the very beginning, you're pretty much dead if you just have a pistol.
Plus, melee with pickaxe ... or crowbar still allow some feats.

[metalflower]

That doesn't address lack of use for Pistol recipe, or the respawn freebie issue, or that the weapon doesn't retain use even before you face your first attack.

[Xeorm]

Not everything requires a use. Dying in general breaks the immersion of the game. If that bothers you I'd suggest deleting the save on death or implementing some form of hardcore mode.