Why don't we have 155 damage guns ?

The idea falls flat because you either land a bullet or you don't, there is no "I shot at him and missed but it still does some damage" on any weapon side from explosive weapons (Which use entirely different damage models, so that's a moot point).

Now, you say 155 would increase the bullets to kill.
This isn't correct.
The target is either alive or dead.
So a bullet either kills him, or he lives.

So with a 143 damage gun at point blank:
I shoot him 6 times, 6x143 = 858, the standard guy has 1,000 HP, so he lives thru that 858 damage with 142 HP left.
With a 155 damage gun at point blank against the same 1,000 HP guy after he's healed back up to full HP and shields:
I shoot him 6 times, 6x155= 930, so he takes that 930 damage and lives with 70 HP.
For both the 143 and 155 damage guns, the 7th bullet will kill.
So it doesn't increase the number of bullets to kill.


Let's examine the full chain of events for both a 155 and 143 damage gun at within 10m against the standard 1,000 HP infantry health model.
(For bullets to kill and time to kill comparisons like this, we always assume chest shots on a 1,000 health target with no armor or class ability so we get a clear picture with the stated damage and the comparison is fair.)
Bullet 1:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 1,000 to 845.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 1,000 to 857.
Bullet 2:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 845 to 690.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 857 to 714.
Bullet 3:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 690 to 535.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 714 to 571.
Bullet 4:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 535 to 380.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 571 to 428.
Bullet 5:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 380 to 225.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 428 to 285.
Bullet 6:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 225 to 70.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 285 to 142.
Bullet 7:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 155 damage. He drops from 70 to 0, and dies.
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 142 to 0, and dies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, a 155 damage bullet will not kill any different than a 143 damage bullet in this case.
Now for the difference the extra damage causes.

You back up til your guns lose 1 damage point from their max damage (which happens outside 10m, so while this isn't the actual number it would be, we'll call it 11m for simplicity's sake) and repeat the process.
When you get to the 7th bullet, here's what happens:

Bullet 7:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 154 damage. He drops from 76 to 0, and dies.
You hit your target for 142 damage. He drops from 148 to 6, and lives.

As you can see, the 155 damage bullet kills, but the 143 bullet's target lives by a hair.

So you back up to 11m where the 143 damage gun goes from 7 bullets to kill, to taking 1 more bullet, making it an 8 bullet to kill weapon.


Now you each back up with that 155 damage gun until your is far enough away that it's bullets are doing 143 damage (the bare minimum to kill with 7 bullets. Any further back and your gun starts taking 8 bullets to kill).
After that, testing the 143, you back up the same distance.

So now they're both at (again, for simplicity's sake, we'll say) 15m away from the target.

the 155 gun is doing 143 damage at this range, which is 12 less damage from the max of 155.
the 143 damage gun has also lost 12 damage, and is doing 131 damage.


Again, we repeat the process all the way down to the 7th shot.
Bullet 7:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You hit your target for 143 damage. He drops from 142 to 0, and dies.
You hit your target for 131 damage. He drops from 214 to 83, and lives.

As you can see, we get the same result, and you know what happens if you back up another meter and your bullet damage drops from 143 to 142.
The 155 max damage weapon is a 7 shot kill at 15m, and it drops to 8 shots to kill at 16m, just like the 143 drops from 7 shots to kill at 10m to 8 shots to kill at 11m.

So rather than make some wonky 155 damage at 10m weapon tier, which is exactly the same as a 143 damage tier at 15m, they would just push out the range, not increase the damage.

And that's what they do.

That way, you know that your 143 @ 10m gun will kill in 7 bullets til exactly the 10m range they tell you clear as day on the weapon info, rather than you having to take out some massive charts and figure out exactly how far it takes for it to drop from 155 damage to 143 damage to know how far out it will stay a 7 shot to kill gun.

And calculating how long it would take to go from a 155 down to a 143 changes based on the minimum damage.
So if it's a 155 @ 10m and it drops to 125 @ 60m, you know that 39m is how far it has before it drops to a 8 shot to kill.

But if it's say a 155 @ 10m, and 125 @ 85m, you'd have to do the math yet again.

So instead of doing some difficult math like that, they just keep it at the minimum damage levels so you know exactly what distances it takes an extra bullet to kill the target, because they say the distances right in the description.

IE, the NS-11A (NS Medic assault rifle) will kill in 7 bullets from 0m to 10m, and from 11m to 65m, it kills in 8 bullets.
The 125 @ 65m lets you know that 125 (the minimum damage it takes to kill with 8 bullets) is the lowest it goes, and at what range it's damage drops as far as it ever will drop.



I know it's a wall of text, but it's pretty simple once you get how it works.
Instead of just adding more damage that won't do anything but make the math hard to figure out where it drops, they just tell you the distance at which it takes a bullet less to kill.