shell sundial
The class system is an important part of figuring out what gear to bring and what to shoot what with, but sometimes it doesn't line up with what hunters use successfully in real life, or even what kills an animal in game.
For example, a player can call in a moose close and lung shot it with a .243, but even though they successfully brought down the animal in one vital shot, they'll still be penalized for using underpowered ammo. Or, imagine you've startled a black bear, and you don't necessarily have time to think about what gun you're holding. Even if you take down the bear in two shots with one to the lung, there's a penalty. Raccoons with birdshot? There's already a couple threads asking for their class to be changed when they can be killed with class 1 weapons. If ethics are supposed to be the reason for the penalty, players can already choose to obliterate small deer with the Gandhare.
When there are already score penalties for not hitting vitals, shooting an animal more than twice, and damaging trophy organs, penalties on weaker ammos are redundant and unnecessarily punish skillful close range hunting!
Suggestion: When performing a harvest check, disregard maximum class for the ammo type. The .243 for example would remain a recommended 2-6, but can be used on class 7-9, with the risk of losing score to the other factors of the harvest check discouraging careless use of underpowered guns.
Ammo piercing power and animal durability would remain the same, meaning shooting a cape buffalo with a .243 still isn't a good idea. But unless you're shooting point blank in an attack and extremely lucky, you won't be able to drop it in two shots, without a headshot, and in the vitals anyway. The perfect score was never obtainable. Why punish the wrong ammo regardless?
rotund mist