# Electrothermal-chemical Handguns etc mod for Cataclysm:Dark Days Ahead
Perhaps a bridge between electromagnetic and chemically-propelled guns, which might leave prototype stage sooner than railguns in the near future, or not.

Researched as an alternative to larger tank gun calibers for defeating tank armor, something achieved through muzzle velocity above what a conventional gun could manage. Not as high as a railgun, 
but with better energy efficiency. Likewise, these fictional guns are rare but valuable options to deal with heavily armored threats like the chicken walker, skeletal juggernaut or tank drone. It is 
sort of like the difference between the coilgun and the nail rifle, but more drastic sometimes and with heavier recoil. Some other misc guns and items are included. 

New Professions were added so you can try some of them from the very game start if you wish to and more, plus two new Scenarios and scarier shoggoths as well.

## Some info on this:

*    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrothermal-chemical_technology
*    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/ETC.png

## Electrothermal guns
### Overview
* High armor penetration as primary advantage over conventional guns with the same caliber, usually. Most rounds also have better accuracy and range. Some also do more damage regardless of enemy armor.

* Energy-efficient, lower UPS power usage than railguns or pure energy weapons. The largest caliber doesn't need an UPS but has a catch.

* Ammunition can mostly be hand-loaded and is easier to find compared to other energy weapons that require more than UPS power to shoot and don't use something as simple as nails as ammo.

* Comparatively louder than same caliber conventional firearms but most can be fitted with suppressors while some already have their own integrated suppressors.

* Were developed earlier than the 12mm railgun, plasma, fusion and energy guns, thus easier to find but still rare, but not that rare.

### "New" ammo types
* .22, 9mm, 5.56 and 7.62 ETC.

* Most ammo types can be handloaded or crafted. Disassembled regular ammo from the same caliber can be converted into ETC by replacing the conventional primer with a plasma cartridge.

* With Fabrication lvl 4 and Marksmanship, Cooking and Electronics lvl 3 skills, learned from "The Handloader's Helper", plasma cartridges can be crafted with aluminum powder and scrap metal as long as a spare one exists as reference.

###### .22
* Most common. Reached the civilian market shortly before the Cataclysm. The semi-auto 22XLR rifle and the Double-Barreled Revolver plus ammo are rarely found in gun stores among other scavenging spots for civilian firearms. Automatics reached the cops.

* Among military .22 guns are several "silenced" models. Mostly found in labs, bunkers, military bases and maybe on the remnants of dead military personell.

* Basic ammo types close to 5.7mm and 4.6mm conventional rounds in performance, with better armor penetration and worse stopping power.

* Plasma primer cannot be separated from the casing. Requires an unused .22 ETC casing to be hand-loaded. Such can be crafted from unused .22 LR casings with high enough skills(Fabrication and Cooking lvl 5, Electronics lvl 4 and Marksmanship lvl 3).

###### 9x19mm
* Rarely ammo, some semi-autos and revolvers may be found in gun stores and other non-military/police locations. Few automatics and even fewer Mini Snipers were deployed to police and SWAT teams.

* More comparable to .44 magnum and .460 Rowland, with less recoil than either. Default high velocity hollow point round is focused on stopping power rather than armor penetration.

* Generally louder than conventional 9mm Parabellum guns, except when firing specialized, underpowered subsonic armor-piercing rounds or the MS400SD Boatman with any ammo type.

* The most powerful round features a superalloy and tungsten core penetrator and cannot be hand-loaded, while its subsonic round has a depleted uranium core and likewise can't.

###### 5.56x45mm
* Guns chambered for it and ammo are found almost exclusively in labs, military bases, bunkers, or near a dead soldier if you're lucky. A line of them can be converted to several configurations, UPS-free, modified action for conventional .223 included.

* "Drone-Killer" rounds: slightly lower stopping power than 5.56 NATO due to overpenetration but longer range, accuracy and drastically better armor penetration.

* Subsonic Armor Piercing rounds using depleted uranium to reduce muzzle energy loss from much lower round velocity and improve penetration. Can't be hand-loaded.

* Hand-loaded ammo is powerful enough to defeat the heaviest armored enemies in the game when fired from guns with anti-drone capacitors.

* Includes one 4-shooter chambered for it. You can challenge Kevlar Hulks like a Wild West gunslinger with it, if you're not afraid of risking Yet Another Stupid Death.

###### 7.62x51mm
* Each round is electrically charged with a very small plutonium cell where the gun action activates it and discharges its energy to the gun capacitors before firing. This is less efficient than an UPS.

* Very rare and powerful caliber, perhaps will be found in labs, the odd military bunker or base. Perhaps the holy grail of handguns awaits after hundreds of irradiated wanderers too, which is: 

* The 4-shooter Anti-Materiel Revolver, made as a 'sidearm' for troops in power armor. Shooting it without wearing one or being a super strong cyborg or mutant is utterly mad.

* 7.62mm EC orbital rounds are weak for 7.62mm but their muzzle velocity almost rivals a railgun and they have reduced recoil. Spontaneously combust like rails fired from a ferromagnetic rail rifle.

* Hand-loading without spare, factory-made microcells is !FUN! It requires Fabrication skill at 10 and a 'lab journal-Herrera', found only in labs. It is radioactive too, for it involves pouring plutonium slurry inside crafted microcells.

## Other guns
* .308 and .300 Stockless Marksman Carbines, wrist-breaking 'sidearms' using the same rounds and/or mags of bigger guns, small enough to fit in XL holsters. Burst capable for maximum overkill.

* 9mm Designated Marksman SMG plus its semi-auto and silenced variants, with very long barrels for 9mm guns, making them better for long range engagements and worse for close combat. Use rifles skill like the Cx4 Storm.

* 9mm Baby Eel, like its ETC counterpart, it is small and lightweight enough to fit inside an ankle holster while loaded with a compact suppressor attached.

* QR555 .223 modular weapon system with integrated suppressors, created to operate with new, reduced power subsonic loads for 5.56 NATO. Interchangeable with the 5.56 ETC ER555, it shares most components with it through conversion kits.

* Gauss guns. The GC166 is an endgame-tier coilgun which can shoot nails, flechettes or optimal rare magpins. The GG285 is even more powerful but its 1.06mm magnetic metal glass ammo is very rare.

* 3 spawned 12 ga. Shotguns. The OCG12 Excidia, an automatic double barrel shotgun based upon the Gilboa Snake like the Saiga-12 is based upon the AK-47, its OCG12-S Scuta semi-auto variant and the 12C, kind of a double barrel Super-Shorty Mini-Shotgun. 

* 1 non-spawned, profession-exclusive 12 ga. shotgun: The OCG12D Slam Dunk. A quite loony prototype "borrowed" from a Skunkworks by the corporate spymaster that can only slam fire - works like a bow in game, with loading and firing combined as a single move.

* 3 .410 Shotguns even more unusual than the previous ones: a magazine-fed triple barreled one, an automatic "Smoothbore Machine Pistol" loaded like a MAC-10 or Uzi and one with an integral suppressor for "silent" door breaching.

* 3 10mm Auto guns also compatible with .40 S&W: a rotary submachinegun, a 6-round backup pistol and a carbine PDW.

* Some Leadworks guns that were scrapped in mainline and not completely redundant got reimagined, from the "Lookout" as a 9mm 4 barrel derringer that fires everything at once among others. See Changelog for more details.

## Other ammo
* Subsonic loads for 5.56 NATO: .223 OCG Umbra and 5.56 OCG Noctis. They don't use a larger diameter like .300 Whisper/AAC Blackout but use tungsten and uranium respectively to pack more mass into the same volume and mitigate muzzle energy loss.

* Some custom 12 gauge magnum handloads reusing tungsten or depleted uranium projectiles extracted from previously mentioned rounds for increased armor penetration.

* New flechette and door-breaching loads for .410 shot.

* More STANAG compatible magazines. Can be used with all 5.56 NATO guns featured in vanilla (as of now) and naturally with the QR555 guns as well.

## Other stuff
* New scenarios: Hostile Takeover, a start in the middle of an Office Tower with an upper floor Lab, surrounded by zombies. The Vault Newcomer challenge happens in a very special and dangerous location and is exclusive for the new professions.

* The Chainsword, which is a very expensive and glorified electric carver with diamond serrated edges, a genuine weapon using far more advanced technology than what was employed the last time serious research and development of swords was a thing.

* New professions: Aerial Labs, Leadworks, OmniCorp and Rivtech Executives, who start with some gear from their respective companies(reimagined in the case of the Leadworks one) and Corporate Spymaster, who starts with a mix of gear from all of them.

* Now also in: Gunslinger of the Future, another new profession that is all set to hand load ETC rounds as soon as a hand press among other tools are scavenged, armed with one 9mm ETC revolver and one .45 Colt and .410 shot backup one.

* Increased shoggoth's HP pool to 1500 hit points and doubled its natural armor while giving it the same cut and bash resistance(60). Delete mountains_of_madness.json if you'd rather have easier shoggoths.

* A locksmith set disguised as barrette plus another one disguised as tie clip. And atomic Irish coffee plus recipe, which is just Irish coffee with the power of the atom.