dakka purposes

Fist: silent killing, basically. Some maps get a *lot* easier when you don't
wake the teleporting monsters up.

Chainsaw: to get removed. I never knew what to do with that thing.

Scrappers: close-range horde shredding and area denial. Basically, a more
expensive version of the SSG, and the chaingun's rain grenades. Might reduce
range, iuno

Pistol: Honestly, this one is here so that wads that require you to hit
far-away switches aren't frustrating, and also so you can take out that one
chaingunner from far away without using up your other, more valuable ammo. Also
because having two pistols and not being able to use just one is silly.

Pistols: These get replaced by the chaingun and shotgun, but until then (and
even with them), they still make a handy-dandy mopper-upper (that's a term now)
of weak dudes. Also, John Woo.

Shotgun: Let's be honest; there's not a chance in hell this will ever complete
with the upper weapons. Its placement in maps simply won't allow that. However,
it makes good medium-to-long-range burst damage, both with buckshot and
grenades.

SSG: See that dude right next to you? He's dead. Everyone outside close range,
you got better guns for that.

Chaingun: Medium-to-long-range mincing, using a common ammo type. Alt-fire is
meant for area denial and chewing apart hordes. Seriously, they are amazing in
invasion.

Rocket launcher: Crowds in general. You got a crowd, you got the rocket
launcher, and it'll handle it in most situations. The scrapper or the chaingun
might do better given the situation, but this will handle more or less
everything crowd-related just fine.

Plasma rifle: Single targets that need to die *right now*. Yeah, it usurps the
chaingun some, but its ammo is rarer in maps to compensate. Alt-fire is meant
for fast-moving targets at medium to long range; primary is for slow dudes, or
close to medium range.

BFG9000: It's the BFG. It's meant to annihilate hordes and slaughtermaps. It's
expensive, and for good reason. Might make the alt-fire more expensive,
actually, along with tightening the area of effect on the beam.

All the guns do something better than the rest, at least past the shotgun.
Sure, you can use just one or two guns and still win, but the guy who knows his
guns will still do better, and it feels cooler to be swapping out guns like mad.