More Sensible Old Earth Weapons

[Kazuharu]

Replace the Old Earth hunting rifle & shotgun with the Lee Enfield L8 (one of the longest serving battle rifles in history) and the Benelli M4 (most commonly used shotty for police & militaries worldwide).

The Ak-47/74 and M1911 I think make alot more sense, so they don't need replacing in my opinion. 

I think some more weapon mods for them might also be called for (muzzle devices, stocks, sights, action, etc).

Edited April 4 by Kazuharu

[aurreth]

Personally I've always found the idea that people are flying around in starships using 300 year old weapons nonsensical.  Other than a very few hobbyists who today runs around with flintlocks from the 1700s?

And yes, I own a pistol made in the early 1940's that I love, but if I'm going to carry something I pick the very modern M&P .45, which is far more accurate, dependable and holds more ammo.  300 year old antiques are fun to shoot and look good on the wall, but you don't carry them around.

[Kazuharu]

3 hours ago, aurreth said:

Personally I've always found the idea that people are flying around in starships using 300 year old weapons nonsensical.  Other than a very few hobbyists who today runs around with flintlocks from the 1700s?

And yes, I own a pistol made in the early 1940's that I love, but if I'm going to carry something I pick the very modern M&P .45, which is far more accurate, dependable and holds more ammo.  300 year old antiques are fun to shoot and look good on the wall, but you don't carry them around.

Ya, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense that old relics like "Old Earth" guns are still being used (except maybe with the crew of the ECS Constant since it's a generational colony ship), but I don't think being 'just as good' is the point of them. 

Sure futuristic laser, particle, caseless, & MAK guns would obviously outperform them, but I always assumed that the "Old Earth" guns are still around not because they were so good, but because they were so ubiquitous. Like for instance, if there were an "Old Earth Sword", it would probably be a military/cavalry saber simply because nearly every modern military since the 1700s has had one as part of dress/parade uniform, despite the fact that they would have no place in modern warfare. That's why I figured the Lee Enfield and Benelli make more sense than what the vanilla game uses (some obscure integrally supressed Soviet sniper rifle as a "Hunting Rifle", & for the Old Earth Shotgun we get some silly hodgepodge of a Remington 870, Mossberg 500, & God only knows what else, lol)

Edited April 4 by Kazuharu

[HeyYou]

On 4/4/2024 at 1:13 PM, aurreth said:

Personally I've always found the idea that people are flying around in starships using 300 year old weapons nonsensical.  Other than a very few hobbyists who today runs around with flintlocks from the 1700s?

And yes, I own a pistol made in the early 1940's that I love, but if I'm going to carry something I pick the very modern M&P .45, which is far more accurate, dependable and holds more ammo.  300 year old antiques are fun to shoot and look good on the wall, but you don't carry them around.

If it still does the job.......

The AK is an EXTREMELY reliable and durable weapon. Fair few militaries still use them today, because they DO do the job.

In some places, they would make more sense though. The ECS constant for instance.

Something else I always wondered about though, a "Hunting" rifle, that's fire pistol ammo???? Really?????

[FALCmods4all]

I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere, but it would be interesting to give each weapon type more strengths and weaknesses.

Require more maintenance for old earth weapons, have a risk of hull damage from ballistics in space, have temperature ranges at which various weapons do more damage or get jammed.

Have different interactions between gas types and weapon types, perhaps laser refraction in thick atmospheres, lighting affects on magnetic weapons in high magnetospheres, different amounts of gunpowder in bullets required in more explosive methane atmospheres, etc. i’m sure others are more familiar with physics quirks to experiment with.

Particularly in VR, having complex details to consider in terms of equipment based on planet type has great immersion potential.

As others have said, old earth weapons as rare loot from old installations is good. Maybe with their primary advantage/disadvantage being increased recoil in zero g compared to modern weapons designed for space combat. 

Edited April 13 by FALCmods4all

[Kazuharu]

On 4/8/2024 at 10:00 AM, FALCmods4all said:

I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere, but it would be interesting to give each weapon type more strengths and weaknesses.

Require more maintenance for old earth weapons, have a risk of hull damage from ballistics in space, have temperature ranges at which various weapons do more damage or get jammed.

Have different interactions between gas types and weapon types, perhaps laser refraction in thick atmospheres, lighting affects on magnetic weapons in high magnetospheres, different amounts of gunpowder in bullets required in more explosive methane atmospheres, etc. i’m sure others are more familiar with physics quirks to experiment with.

Particular in VR, having complex details to consider in terms of equipment based on planet type has great immersion potential.

As others have said, old earth weapons as rare loot from old installations is good. Maybe with their primary advantage/dusadvantage being increased recoil in zero g compared to modern weapons designed for space combat. 

Good ideas. Maybe Old Earth weapons, being designed to work exclusively in Earth's atmosphere, might jam up more often if you were to try using them in a vacuum due to cold welding (a real phenomenon where like metals in space will weld themselves together, regardless of temperature, just from touching), but might have faster fire rates than their space-aged counterparts because of having more simplistic designs.