Since making ammo as an OT is a part of the rework project here’s some brainstorming on what could the process involve and how the OT can have a variety of options on how to go about making them.
Caseless ammo types: There’s already several different types of Caseless ammo. Ammo types are determined by their tips which are responsible for any special properties they may have while propellant powder partially determines the bullet velocity. By giving OTs the option to play with different tips and powder mixes you’d establish variety in the final product. Of course OT products are meant to be special so the better the final product the more expensive and time consuming to make. On that note how are bullets made?
Making the rounds: Caseless bullets consist of three costumizable parts (I’d assume). The tip, the back section that contains the propellant powder and the powder itself. To make a complete Bullet you’d need to first of all make the parts and then assemble them. Since OT is meant to be a handyman the process of assembling them is manual through specialized machines. If you are relevant with guns you’ve probably seen these machines that hold the cartridge in place while the guy pulls a lever down to put the bullet tip in. I envision something similar for Caseless rounds since they need a section to contain the powder. Maybe one more to put the powder in the back section.
Bullet tips: There’s a bunch of types so I’ll go one by one:
Standard round/soft tip. Cheap but not very effective against hard targets. The standard tip the Almayer printed to make up for the lack of HEAP. Not good with high power propellant powder due to bad aerodynamics, resulting in poor accuracy.
AP. Hard metal tip ideal for piercing armor. The materials they are made from are fairly scarce.
Incendiary rounds. Special soft tips that contain phosphorus or some other flammable chemical. When the round hits a target the phosphorus is releases reacting with the air and lighting the target on fire. War crime bullets. They are more complex than standard tips and require some additional materials to make.
Explosive rounds. Like the incendiary ones but instead of phosphorus they contain explosives in the tip, exploding and fragmenting after penetration. Extremely lethal for soft targets but really ineffective against armor. Since these would need a fuze to work, making them is rather expensive.
High velocity tips. Made from the same metals as the standard ones, the difference being that these are made in shapes that decrease drag, increase accuracy and bullet velocity. Being put together with low power propellant powder makes these rounds more inaccurate due to low velocity.
Next up, back section. These back sections contain the propellant powder for the round, which in turn determines bullet velocity. Bullet velocity is important for rounds that rely on kinetic energy to penetrate and damage the target. In that sense a bullet that doesn’t need high velocity to damage a target like incendiary or explosive doesn’t need a potent or propellant powder. Note that there will a fixed amount of explosive power each back section can handle. With that in mind:
Basic back section. A basic and cheap alternative for ammunition that doesn’t need much more kinetic energy than to get the bullet to the target and successfully hit/penetrate like the soft tip, incendiary and explosive. This back section has limited integrity, meaning a powder with high explosive power could cause the round to explode in the chamber.
Reinforced back section. This back section is more durable than the simple one, able to carry high power propellant powder that will shoot the bullet in higher velocities. Good for AP and HV tips, giving more AP to the first but somewhat reducing soft target damage and somewhat better AP to the second along with higher soft target damage. Will often cause the others to miss due to poor aerodynamics.
High velocity back section. This back section is made of expensive and durable materials, able to withstand very high explosive power. As a result it is ideal for HV and AP, giving high overall damage and decent AP to the first while increasing AP and base damage for the second.
Propellant powder: This is a chem thing essentially and I am not gonna get into that. The point is to have different chems that have cheap but weak powders, ok and ok ones and powerful but expensive ones. Mixing them could produce a variety of options for the OT to adapt the designs.
Special case: Shotgun shells
Shotgun shells are a bit different than rifle bullets in the sense that you can combine different types and sizes of load with a standard type of propellant powder with standard amount. Specifically:
Buckshot: Can shove in different numbers and sizes of buckshot, with the higher but smaller having a high chance to hit and stun but low individual damage and low and large that have smaller chance to hit but deal higher damage. Coat them with phosphorus to make incendiary buckshot.
Slugs. Don’t really have much here besides coating them in phosphorus to make incendiary slugs.
Flechettes. This could just be normal ones or a single flechette/slug with high AP. Coating these with phosphorus sounds a bit iffy so besides the flechette slug I don’t see much potential for this.
Since variety in shotgun shells is going to be far less in comparison to Caseless rounds it would be best to limit the amount of shells one can make so that we don’t get infinite OP shotgun ammo production.
