To be clear I don’t want a buff, I made a thread about this:
I would just like to see the animations redone, they can be the same length. It’s quite infuriating to see your character constantly pulling the charging handle all the way back every time they equip a weapon, or reload from a partial mag. You do this only when the chamber is empty. It actually has a very real meaning to anyone with any familiarity with how guns work. It just doesn’t make any sense, it would cause unexpended rounds to ping out of the ejection port every time. I just find it very jarring and weird and it happens like 100 times per game.
The bit in my post about lasguns is not important, I since realised it’s just the kantrael animations are a bit odd. What bugs me is the above issue with conventional weapons.
I also think we should get a slightly faster reload if reloading from partial mag, skipping the pull of the charging handle. You would just seat the new magazine, and you’d have an extra round in the chamber (so 16 for a bolter). It just makes sense and it’s good gunplay mechanics; it incentivises good ammo management and would give you a small disadvantage to just mag-dumping on targets.
I would of course be happy for this small buff for partial reloads to be balanced out in other areas (slightly lower damage? even stronger full auto recoil? a little less armour penetration?) because I don’t think bolters need a buff at all, they’re already very strong.