So the RR has long been a source of controversy. First its OP, currently considered UP, and the balancing measures have simply brought it from slightly OP to outright awful. So let's look at Caldari philosphy and how we can bring about a new RR that better follows Caldari philosophy and is balanced.

First, let's establish what Caldari philosophy is. Caldari are run by several megacorporations which control all aspects of society. Caldari are very strict and disciplined, but citizens who can follow the rules can have very pleasant lives. Militarily, Caldari favor having lots of shields over armor, and prefer missiles and railguns when engaging in battle. They like to kill their opponents before they can get in range to be a threat. They are all about efficiency; as the smallest empire, they simply don't have the numbers or resources to throw away ships and men. Thus, they want to make every shot count, sice less shots fired means less money spent on ammo, and favoring shields means less money spent on repairing armor.

Now, let's look at the RR and modify it into a weapon that fits this philosophy. First off, the RR is automatic. This not only goes against Caldari philosphy (make every shot count) but also makes it more useful in CQC than is intended. automatic weapons simply perform well up close unless you take extreme measures like the current hipfire kick. Next, the charge timer is crazy long, which is ideal for slow firing weapons like the bolt pistol, but hinders damage application even at long range because the enemy has that much more time to escape and evade the soon to be incoming damage. So let's make the RR function like the bolt pistol.

These changes assume proto level. Let's increase the damage of each individual shot. I'm gonna set it at 145.83. Rails are supposed to hit very hard, so this high damage makes sense lore-wise. We will be lowering the ROF to 150 RPM, which mathematically gives a DPS of 364.6. This is 47 DPS lower than it is now. We will decrease magazine size to 16, for a total damage/mag of 2333.28. We will also reduce the charge time to 0.25 seconds again. We will also increase the range to 90m. We will reduce hipfire kick considerably in light of the lower ROF. We will reduce the total ammo to 96 (1 in the gun, 5 in reserve)

Now, here is where we do our big change. Let's make the RR (the base RR) function like the bolt pistol. It should shoot faster and hit softer than the bolt pistol, but the function should be the same. Charge up for each shot, hit hard, shoot slow. Now, from what I understand, the charge time is not factored in to the DPS calculation with ROF. So DPS would be even lower than the theoretical 350 DPS. What this does is give the RR a solid niche: long range killing. The very low DPS (about 80 DPS less than the AR, even lower if you include the charge time) combined with the slow ROF, means this weapon will be pretty ineffective in CQC, without needing comical measures like the current hipfire kick. In exchange for the lower DPS, we have increased it's range, to further emphasize its long range functionality. It will now take far fewer shots to kill an AR user, but that AR user will get in far more shots on the RR user, thus killing him. I will now demonstrate a white room scenario.

Criteria: race to deplete 800 health. We will use proto level gear, the RR proposed and the Duvolle AR. Efficiencies will be ignored for the purposes of this scenario.

RR: fires 145.83 damage at one shot every 0.65 seconds (ROF + charge time) takes 6 shots to kill the target (145.83 x 6 is 874.98 damage) at 0.65 seconds between shots, we get a TTK of 3.9 seconds.

AR: fires 33.99 every 0.075 seconds (800 RPM) It takes 24 shots to kill the target (24 shots deal 815.76 damage) with this, we get a TTK of 1.9 seconds (24/0.075) a full 2 seconds more than the proposed RR.

This is how it should be. The RR loses to the Ar mathematically, not through some gimmick like insane hipfire kick. This does not mean that the RR is completely useless in CQC, it can indeed be used in close quarters effectively. However, the other weapons are MORE effective than the RR in close quarters. No rifle should be completely useless up close. There should only be better options for CQC. These changes mean that the RR has a better hold on its niche, it means we can reduce the insane hipfire kick, and it means that the Caldari RR will better follow Caldari philosophy.

One point of contention I wish to address. I am sure people will say that "this sounds like a tactical rail rifle!" and I wish to nip this thought in the bud. No, it is not functioning like a tactical weapon anymore than the bolt pistol is. Tactical weapons in this game are semi-auto, as in 1 shot per trigger pull. This weapon is automatic, firing off shots until the magazine is empty or the trigger is released. Thus it is still a breach type weapon, slow ROF and high per-shot damage. We are simply emphasizing these traits.

Spreadsheet of changes