When they're ready, one assumes.
I'd rather they take their time to write a tight system than rush a disappoiting one.
Not in the APG, we'd have heard of it by now. Next year ? Maybe.
I remember hearing that they're working on it, and that there's questions of action economy at the forefront of the issues to solve - along with the more basic matter of the kind of play style wanted.
I wouldn't bet on a Gunslinger full class either, an archetype might be enough. Maybe both though, who knows.
Guns may need a lot of new rules. If gunslingers are the only ones that can use them it might make sense to build a full class to contain it all.
Interestingly, this still enables one to just take the multiclass Archetype for the class if they want guns on another class.
I hope we get gun rules that mimick a bit of the early style gun fantasy. Long to reload, powerful at short range, frail. Without a class that makes it so they become machine guns.
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There should be a different mechanic for guns than standard rate of fire and damage that makes them both more powerful/deadly, but doesn't overwhelm the game and make other classes obsolete.
Something like avoiding a certain amount of AC for light and medium armors. I've seen an actual musketball bounce off of full plate armor.
Or actually make muzzle loaders one shot weapons (1 round or longer to load) during actual close-quarters combat like they were in the 17 & 1800's. But when they hit, they do huge damage and can naturally avoid certain amounts of DR/Hardness. Sort of like a built in Vital Strike tree, that at each range (or every other) you lose a level of Vital Strike for the weapon.
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Unworkable, too fiddly, cue endless arguments on forums whether the chitin shell of monster X is medium or heavy.
Something like avoiding a certain amount of AC for light and medium armors. I've seen an actual musketball bounce off of full plate armor.
Sure, I just threw that stuff off the top of my head in the time it took me to type the post. I'm under no illusions that such an idea couldn't be shredded apart by rules people.
But the point is, something creative needs to be done with firearms that aren't just a) making them more powerful than an archer or b) making them useless in only be able to shoot once every 2 or 3 rounds. How do you give them something to do every round that isn't, "I continue reloading" and yet makes the guns mean something different than just a powerful bow.
I'm not super up on 2E rules, so I'm sure there are ways it could be done under that chassis that would be more elegant than coming up with a fiddly way to do it considering 1E rules. But those ways need to be explored.
There is a musket type weapon in one of the adventure paths. Only thing that really stand out is its chance to explode.
This is the sort of rules I do not want to see. The approach of touch AC as many hits as normal but a chance to explode/stop working is just unfun.
I had also hoped for better crossbow rules. They fill very similar niches, but for guns:
- Easy to fire and train, relative to bows and slings.
- Hard to manufacture/expensive/rarer availability (barreling, gunpowder, advanced metal working).
- Long reload times, muzzle vs Breach loading.
- Shoot and forget. Often used as a side piece along a melee weapon.
- Innacurate at range, unless using long barrels.
There is also a whole range of them, depending on what they are meant for and what era they want to represent.
Just hope we dont get some cheap gimmick of "ooh 1d6 dmg to yourself but it is killier". There is a lot of room in Pathfinder 2 for design and differently paced mechanics, or they claim there is.
The longer reload time factor only goes so far towards balancing.
Golarion has repeater technology.
Fairly primitive but still, even discounting double barreled guns there's dragoon guns, pepperboxes and cylinder rifles - and even air repeaters.
Taking forever to reload a gun with an 8 bullet capacity isn't as huge a deal.
I fully expect things to change according to the edition shift, obviously, but I doubt all those technological advances will just be retconned.
We are on the very tail end of the flintlock age and it shows. It's also an important part of Alkenstar's identity : Guns are not secondary weapons to its marshalls.
I also seem to remember someone of the team stating that the one gun that's appeared so far didn't mean much with regards to what the rules will be. They're clearly not done yet, that one was more of a placeholder iirc.
I put my money on; Deadly or Fatal + Long Reload + something extra. I would like the weapon damage increases of Starfinder, based on the model, not on magic