When I started modding PAYDAY 2 I was amazed that there were only like six Warhammer 40,000 mods on the workshop, and even more amazed that none of them thought to add in any form of Boltgun. I imagine it would probably be wayyyyyy too powerful, but we also have vanilla weapons like the Commando and the Buzzsaw MG.
I have some ideas for which ones could potentially see the light of day:
(Magazine / Reserve)
- Godwyn Pattern Boltgun (20/120)
- Locke Mark IIb Spearhead Boltgun (15/100)
- Godwyn-Branx Pattern Bolt Pistol (8/80)
- Cawl Mark II Bolt Rifle (25/120)
I'd imagine it should have shit concealment / mobility / ammunition to compensate for the insane damage and inability to be used in stealth.
Some information on ammunition:
Standardized Boltguns, at least most of the ones still in use by 025.M42, utilize a seventy-five caliber self-propelled explosive cartridge, with the standard Bolt being 'Mass-Reactive', or able to penetrate some armor before detonating (.75XPL Mass-Reactive). A primary charge exactly powerful enough to get the payload to leave the barrel held within the casing itself, and then a secondary charge alongside propellant to get the payload to its detonation inside the Bolt itself. There are several dozen (other) kinds of Bolts, I highly recommend looking at the Bolter Ammunition fandom page (the 40k Fandom Page is actually surprisingly well-maintained compared to ones like the Halo fandom page where the admin just removes things he doesn't like)
Tl;dr:
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE I NEED A BOLTER TO BLOW THINGS UP WITH
Ironically, not only has someone tried making a Bolter, but said Bolter felt very bad thanks to the Bolter's in-universe power translating poorly to payday.
I do not advise making a rifle shoot RPG/M202 Flash Rockets since Payday 2 does not like players messing with projectile code. that is very liable to crash games, if not get branded as a cheater there.
If you want to scale back the explosive damage and give the bolter the splash damage effect from the 12G Frag rounds, you actually nerf the Bolter since the HE rounds can no longer get headshots in a game centered around headshots. You could compensate by inflating the damage very high, but that starts running into issues with MWS' policy on potential cheat mods. Feel wise, enemies falling over instead of turning into giblets just feels awful.
You could settle for no explosive damage, but then the Bolter feels very compromised as "just" a fat assault rifle that's overkill against most enemies.
Honestly, I didn't really care about how much it actually did, but thank you for fully dissecting it like this. I didn't even think about how the game itself would be able to handle it.
Thanks anyways!
This is the Bolter in question, if you're curious.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/49909