ADG today released a video detailing the effectiveness of various weapons vs various enemies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlgycyZVFno

The interesting bit is towards the end when he shows his findings. I've used the magnum on every play through right to the end. Turns out it's a average weapon. The best 5 dps wise are:

1. Laser Rapier
2. Assault Rifle (Penetrator Rounds)
3. Ion Rifle (Hi Setting)
4. Scorpion (Slag Rounds)
5. Magpulse (Carts)

Of those, I use the laser rapier every play through, but never vs the hard opponents (eg the cortext reavers), and the assault rifle I've not used that often. Very interesting stuff overall. Videos quite filled with interesting info.

I was going to post this myself, but forgot. Good stuff.

While I could have given you those rankings just intuitively from playing the game without having done the analysis, I very much appreciate his thorough methodology and detailed interpretation. I actually wish he would have included the Plasma Rifle, as I think it's a very worthy endgame weapon -- I don't like the Ion Rifle's damage output to energy efficiency, but the Plasma Rifle seems worth it since it melts all armor and can bounce between enemies in tight quarters. You're swimming in I-Cad Batteries by the time you get it, so I think it's worth a weapon slot.

One thing I've always thought was super cool about SS1 is how the damage model is able to simulate so many different ammo types and make them feel intuitively distinct, but without heavily relying on damage type multipliers. There's nothing at all wrong with SS2's damage type multipliers, mind you, and it certainly fits that game's focus on RPG systems, but I love that you can get a sense for which enemies to use the Flechette's Hornet rounds on and which to use the Splinter rounds on just based on the way real-world intuition about how the latter would pierce and well... splinter in fleshy enemies while the former punches through tough armor. I guess those aren't the best examples, since Needle is one of the few damage types with a special multiplier (against certain mutants) alongside the Magpulse, but you get my point. I felt pretty similarly about the Ultima Underworld's combat system even for how clunky that was. LGS was just really good at simulating this stuff even when it was just with numbers.