Replace the ARMAT ammo vendor in req with an "ARMATTM Ammolathe." Instead of inserting mags to refill them out of a magic, yet otherwise inaccessible, pool of bullets, the Ammolathe would be able to print handfuls of bullets of any type at the cost of metal, as well as an empty universal ammo box to hold them.
(These)
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The current ways to obtain ammo are as follows:
1) Order overpriced ammo crates for limited amounts of ammo.
2) Raid Marine preps for standard ammo, something that is tedious and annoying to do, not to mention makes little sense ICly.
3) Refill empty mags, which requires a marine to go all the way back to req and hand in the mag, which is difficult considering mags auto-eject once empty and are easy to lose.
None of these methods are enjoyable for anyone or particularly efficient, meaning that cargo usually doesn't bother with anything that isn't standard m41 ammo and SADAR rockets. More importantly, they feel really gamey and gimmicky, especially 2 and 3, as they make little sense ICly (you'd think Req would have their own supply of ammo without stealing from marine vendors, and that there would be a way to tap into this magical pool of bullets without needing the appropriate, empty magazine.
This method introduces a logical way to resupply marines on the ground, especially with unique ammo types, without having to waste points on expensive ammo crates, which heavily limits the amount of fun cargo can have with their orders, instead, just having to order cheap metal crates. Different bullets would cost different amounts of metal, so standard m41a bullets would cost less than incendiary sniper rounds. The marines would still require the appropriate magazine to fire rounds, so this wouldn't mean "free m41 incend ez gaem" (not to mention mass producing m41 incend ammo would be very metal heavy). The universal ammo box, which would be a hand held, huge item (so it couldn't be fit into bags), would allow these bullets to be transported to the ground easily, as well as sorted in a reasonable manner. The large ammo crates would still come full, and be order-able for a quick ammo boost for the lazy CT, perhaps even being more point effective than ordering metals and printing regular ammo.
Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc:
This would simply replace the ammo vendor in the southwestern room of cargo with an Ammolathe. Every single type of ammo would be printable in handful form, even shotgun slugs and shells. Different ammo types would cost different amounts of metal, depending on their power potential. The empty universal ammo box would be pretty cheap, and be able to hold around 200 bullets (perhaps with variation on type). It would not fit into bags, and would only be carriable by hand. The ammolathe would not be able to print magazines however, to prevent spamming a colossal amount of incendiary rounds if cargo were to devote their entire point fund to metal for the Ammolathe. Cargo would still need to order special ammo to have the mags the bullets would fill.
Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):
Code in a new version of the autolathe, but with an armat vendor sprite.
