Non-lethal weapon balance

Non-lethal weapons give extreme reward, for little-to-no additional risk or complexity

The Pepperball gun is quite trivial to use - for what it is, it has no real drawbacks. Large mag, steady rate of fire, low recoil - it’s quite trivial and reliable to score headshots. Even at distance - with its current accuracy, it doesn’t even require a significant volume of fire to reliably score multiple successive headshots. The relatively low velocity is a significant drawback, but only at long range against moving, fleeting targets - and it doesn’t struggle any mor than some of the SMGs at such distances.

I’d suggest taking cues from police-themed tactical shooters:

Non-lethal ranged weapons only stun or disrupt the target, and don’t immediately lead to their surrender. To fully neutralise them, they must be closed with and subdued with melee whilst stunned - and then zip-cuffed to prevent them from re-joining the fight. Or, you finish them off with lethal means - reducing the risk incurred, but foregoing the reward of non-lethal takedowns.

Further - gas-masks worn by certain enemy classes could diminish or immunise them from the likes of Pepper-balls/spray, CS gas etc

For the Peper-ball gun specifically - I think the projectile drop, low-velocity and low accuracy should be more heavily emphasised, to make it feel unique rather than just a weird looking gun.