Muzzle Brake or Compensator?

[La Criatura Espada]

Trying to choose xD

[Park_Ranger]

You choose.

[SpeedFreak1972]

depends on the weapon imho

[La Criatura Espada]

Well, what does what? I know it says on the weapon mod, but I wanna know exactly what a compensator and muzzle brake does in the game so I can slap one on a semi-auto gun, or a full-auto assault rifle.

[Park_Ranger]

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_4_weapon_mods

[ghpstage]

The Compensator -> Muzzle brake -> Suppressor mod line reduces recoil and range of the weapon, with the latter types reducing both recoil and range by larger amounts.

What you want to use depends on the weapons type and purpose.
The range stat determines at what range weapon damage starts falling off and carries a lot of influence in VATS accuracy.
Recoil control means nothing on slow fire weapons like hunting rifles, and nothing in VATS but even on those kinds of weapons a suppressor may well make sense for the sneak and sandman advantages even if a muzzle brake or compensator are useless.

The lack of numbers in the game forces you to experiment, and my own experimenting led me to picking suppressor or nothing when possible, but a compensator or muzze brake on automatics I can't control is useful if I lack the means to add a higher level version.
Your own mileage may vary.

[La Criatura Espada]

Okay, cool. Thanks!

[otakon17]

If I remember correctly there's a mod that gives you hard numbers on how much weapon mods improve/change the performance of what they're on. However I can't remember the mod name at the moment...

[Doombringer]

If you want to see exactly what they do, download the creation kit and look at the game data...

[Doombringer]

Muzzle mods seem to be the same on most weapons, here is what they do:

Compensator: Min Range *-0.50, Max Range *-1.00, Min Recoil *-0.15, Max Recoil *-0.15, Recoil shots for Runaway *2.00, Recoil Arc Degrees *-0.75, Recoil Arc Rotation *-1.00

Muzzle Brake: Min Range *-0.75, Max Range *-1.50, Min Recoil *-0.20, Max Recoil *-0.20, Recoil shots for Runaway *4.00

Silencer: Min Range *-1.25, Max Range *-2.50, Min Recoil *-0.25, Max Recoil *-0.25, Recoil shots for Runaway *1.00, Silences Weapon

Note that silencers/suppressors aren't quite the same on all weapons, for 10mm Sound = 2, but for Assault Rifle Sound = 4, etc.

Basically, compensators make recoil less random, brakes allow longer bursts before serious recoil (and give a larger reduction to recoil), and silencers are the only choice for sneak builds.

[SeriousCCIE]

Well, when I am tired and not really hurting for scrap components, I build the most expensive addition to the weapon and call it a success.

Although, I will make mods to my modification creation criteria. For example, I have an institude 2 shot legendary gun, that I installed the scattershot thingie on, so I get twice as many laser blast shotgun hits, but the recoil is crazy insane, it's like I aim at the ground and before the gun is done I am shooting up into the trees.

But I've never missed someones face with that approach, and mirerlurks are tasty and drop dead pretty quick with that. Plus, since its not mirelurk specific, I can also use it to destablize the lives of many raider factions within the commonwealth. Add vats, will crit.

There are better single use application weapons, like the extra plasma to a 50 calibur sniper rifle, or even another double shot variety -- it's better to skip the silencer due to the aim being somewhat off and the additional recoil it causes, but then again, if your perks are good and you're at a far enough distance, there is value in the bloody mess perk and a headshot. Usually, when skulls go exploding, there is little option to keep sneaking after that first corpse ragdolls backwards into the group it was chatting with before I shot first and looted second.

So yeah -- you will find that depending on your approach (and the weapon type) you may find recoil control is important for the automatic shotgun sort of weapon, but silencing for the first shot or two on a more use specific weapon is a better choice.

The rest comes down to what you want to spend and you can always switch the mod out later. Eventually you'll have enough saved to try all the mods out.

[JT]

Originally posted by otakon17:

If I remember correctly there's a mod that gives you hard numbers on how much weapon mods improve/change the performance of what they're on. However I can't remember the mod name at the moment...

Better Mod Descriptions ( http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4760/? )

it's so good to have

[Hobo Misanthropus]

This may be only true with Assault Rifles, but this is my experience so far.

Compensators eliminate or greatly reduce Horizontal spread, while doing almost nothing for vertical muzzle climb.

Muzzle Breaks reduce both Muzzle Climb and Horizontal spread, but not as well as compensators.

Suppressors do the same thing as Muzzle Brakes, but with much greater range penalties. (Always use a Muzzle Brake over a suppressor unless you need the silent attacks)

This means Compensators have the tightest grouping in controlled bursts, Muzzle Brakes have a more consistent Full-Auto Performance.

[Novoke]

And here i put Comps on Autos, and Muzzles on Semis, because thats how RS6 taught me -_-

[MagicManSlim]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

This may be only true with Assault Rifles, but this is my experience so far.

Compensators eliminate or greatly reduce Horizontal spread, while doing almost nothing for vertical muzzle climb.

Muzzle Breaks reduce both Muzzle Climb and Horizontal spread, but not as well as compensators.

Suppressors do the same thing as Muzzle Brakes, but with much greater range penalties. (Always use a Muzzle Brake over a suppressor unless you need the silent attacks)

This means Compensators have the tightest grouping in controlled bursts, Muzzle Brakes have a more consistent Full-Auto Performance.

A+ comment. Concise, to-the-point, and great communication. Thanks!