Why Are Sci-Fi Guns So Weird?

Spacedock delves into science fiction firearms.
THE SOJOURN - AN ORIGINAL SCI-FI AUDIO DRAMA:
www.thesojournaudiodrama.com/
BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER:
/ @spacedock
SUPPORT SPACEDOCK:
www.patreon.com/officialspace...
MERCHANDISE:
teespring.com/en-GB/stores/sp...
Do not contact regarding network proposals.
Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico
Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review.

[@Spacedock]

Check out our partners over at #TheSojourn, an original sci-fi audio drama: www.thesojournaudiodrama.com

[@koslova.2151]

Hello Spacedock, i have a request, can you make a video about tropes and issues with directed energy weapons? And making more videos about weapons like the bolter one, just saying

[@Ushio01]

If you want weird ammo counts and magic bullets/shells see Universal Century Gundam which features a 120mm machine gun with 100 round magazines carried by a mech the size of an F-15.

[@Nostripe361]

Loving these new essay videos on the cliches and tech of Sci-Fi; They are well thought out and fun even when its something I disagree with personally. I'm hoping that you eventually do a essay video on cosmetic vs. practical designs for spaceships. I am not against having meaningless parts of a ship if its something the species desires but I would love to see what you feel about it. Its something I am especially curious about as more scifi series lately have been looking critically at things like internal bridges, towers, negative space, wings, spikes, exposed cannons, and hangers.

[@Nostripe361]

@@koslova.2151 I thought they already planned to do one on energy weapons. They did on kinetic recently so I assumed the next would be missiles or lasers before they would have a final weapon on particle and plasma weapons.

[@DeepInsideZettaiRyouiki]

Realistic (kitbash) - Morita MKI From Starship Troopers Alien - District 9 whole line of alien weapons.

[@andresmullerbeck2427]

To be fair to the P90, the reason it was chosen wasn't futuristic-ness but rather because it ejects downwards and so causes less trouble for filming.

[@KillerOrca]

They had MP5s in the first few seasons.

[@andresmullerbeck2427]

@@KillerOrca yup, and they changed to p90 for better "stage" utility

[@nahuelleandroarroyo]

The P90 also has the 5.7 round which would make sense fo the "light infantry" fighting of the SG teams, MP5 are more of a police or spec ops guns

[@TheArklyte]

Stargate: calls staff a terror weapon, says P90 is better. Also Stargate: compares antimateriel rifle/grenade launcher that is used to overcome endurance of other Jaffa to PDW(and not the best one at that), ignores that Teal'c or SG1 members never miss with said weapons, ignores how they never need maintenance or run out of ammo, ignores how Jaffa helmets in the movie have HUD connected to staff just like Aliens smartgun, ignores how P90 would always be worse then just grabbing M4 no matter what you coat those bullets with as kinetic energy retention doesn't work backwards, ignores how ideal weapons for Jaffa rebels(who lack industry, but are bigger then humans) would be sturdier simpler heavier guns like M1911, UZI, AKM, FAL/G3, MG3/PKM and so on or just more of the Goa'uld guns they already use. P.S.: I love Stargate... but sometimes I hate Stargate. Especially how fans treat such a dumb scene as iconic. Carter's Special>>>P90:P

[@KillerOrca]

@@TheArklyte Do staffs even require ammo or can you just blaze away like its nothing with em

[@ryllharu]

Forgotten Weapons taught me that some of the weirdest, coolest, and most scifi looking pistols are mostly from the 1880s to shortly after the turn of the 20th century.

[@lieutenantkettch]

Praise be to Gun Jesus!

[@LongPeter]

All of the outmoded 1800's and WW2 surplus guns that turn up in Star Wars really add to the vibe.

[@Davenzoid]

Those and whatever crack-fueled visions that came to the r&d team at Kel-Tec

[@arthurmoore9488]

@@Davenzoid Using the past tense to refer to Kel-Tec? They're not stopping any time soon.

[@blank-yw4kj]

@@Davenzoid frankly I’m all for it, they look like Star Wars guns and I like that :)

[@biohazard724]

Fun fact: Arnie DID break his fingers doing the shotgun flip. One of the props used for wide shots was an 1887 with a normal lever and because he was so used to doing the flip he tried it with that one without thinking and fractured his pinkie and ring fingers.

[@scottmantooth8785]

*but leaving his middle finger fully intact and operational when needed*

[@ThenameisNiels]

was gonna say xD

[@labrat810]

I'd still take a .410 'featherlight' set up specifically for flip-cocking. IIRC, Rossi makes a .410 'mare's leg' that looks fun ;)

[@mroberts7117]

Flipping the lever-action gun to reload it has its roots in westerns. The Rifleman did it all the time, in his show. John Wayne did it is several of his movies, IIRC Rooster Cogburn was one. The largest clue about this is the expanded finger loop.

[@hcy0772]

The guns from District 9 are my absolute favourites, they look alien but still ergonomic in a way that would suit a vaguely humanoid species like the Prawns

[@Commodore22345]

Neill Blomkamp's movies always do a pretty good job of making the sci-fi stuff look believable and realistic. The exosuits and various guns we see in Elysium are probably some of the most realistic looking sci-fi military tech I've ever seen.

[@armorhide406]

The district 9 guns also have unique effects. Like the green flames or the vortex gun or the famous lightning gun

[@nutyyyy]

Some of the props in district 9 were recycled from the Halo movie project.

[@oso1165]

Also, south African gun designs in general have had a lot of really cool or weird or out of the box thinking more so than most places in the world. Some really cool looking guns they've come up with

[@RevantheBlack]

I love how Spaceballs is used as an example of when realism wasn’t the focus

[@joshuahadams]

Even then they had Calico carbines with some doodads on the barrel.

[@nickdickem]

So you're telling me you CAN'T go to plaid?

[@rianmacdonald9454]

loved spaceballs.

[@connorchops7370]

Funny thing is that the space balls gun was actually a real gun. It’s a calico rifle. Terrible gun in real life but definitely cool to know you can actually fire a spaceball rifle irl

[@90lancaster]

@@nickdickem Star Trek the Animated Series did it from time to time.

[@andrewk9267]

My good sir, how could you bring up Elysium but not the Prawn weaponry from District 9? One of the greatest examples of practical alien firearms... they were very believably real, and were ergonomically suited for their intended users, the Prawns. Super cool stuff!

[@bevanfindlay]

I saw a Weta Workshop display that included a couple of the weapons from District 9, so got to see them up close. Such gorgeous designs. But that's Weta Workshop for you. 🙂 (Yes, I'm proud to be a New Zealander). 😉

[@PetersonZF]

They were presumably inspired by Half-life 2 when they featured a gravity gun in District 9. Gordon Freeman never weaponised a pig, though...

[@ComradeCorvus]

Weta Workshop is a golden example when it comes to designing cool guns and other machines right.

[@marcozolo3536]

And no mention of the explosion inducing alien pistols on Dark Angel the movie with Dulph Lungren not Jessica Alba

[@nimz8521]

@@marcozolo3536 Pretty sure those were just Calicos as well.

[@toob1979]

One of the best stories behind a sci-fi gun has to be RoboCop's Auto 9. Paul Verhoeven intended to use a Desert Eagle, which is a monster of a sidearm to a normal human. When he put it in Peter Weller's hand with all the RoboCop armor on, it looked comically small. That's why Verhoeven took a Beretta 93R and put a whole bunch of extra stuff on it to make it proportional to RC's hand. You can tell how huge the Auto 9 is when Lewis shows the gun to RC in the factory near the end of the movie.

[@miket2120]

Another thing about the Desert Eagle: the grip is so bulky that it makes it hard to hold. If feels like you're trying to hold only a 2x3 block of wood, only that the 2x3 is far more comfortable. Having to get a good grip on it in the prop glove likely would have needed multiple takes to look good. I fired about 100 .44 rounds out of my friend's Desert Eagle and I never had a comfortable grip.

[@molochi]

@@miket2120 There were a buncha handguns that came out in the 80s and 90s that were really unsuitable for people with smaller hands. Like all the double stacked magazine 1911s and guns like the Bren 10 and Glock 20 and 21. Oh and I'd imagine the Coonan 357mag fell into that catagory too.

[@miket2120]

@@molochi I notice with amusement that the 80s and 90s was also the age of women's shoulder pads and big hair. Could there be a correlation? Hmmm...

[@molochi]

@@miket2120 Now that you mention it, we also saw the rise of the super breast augmented adult film and stage stars about then. Busty Dusty comes to mind. Could be onto something there.

[@sebastiang8634]

@@molochi Perhaps the older models of the Glock 20 and 21, but I find that the gen 4 fit my hands pretty well, and I admittedly have rather small hands for a guy. The ability to resize the grip profile makes all the difference.

[@AiluropodaPanda]

I always figured that the crazy designs was to make sure the toy lines don't look dangerous.

[@lujikaralabe]

Heh, that's quite plausible.

[@George_Davies]

Makes sense that Jayne's rifle would be the in-universe equivalent of an edgy alienware gaming PC 👽

[@SioxerNikita]

Yes. It is intended to be over the top, because Jayne, the Hero, the Man, is over the top

[@ladybugkiller8]

Hahaha i was thinking something similar, it reminds me of those modded cars that have the slammed look where the wheels are cambered at 40 degrees, just completely overt the top.

[@logicplague2077]

@@ladybugkiller8 God I hate that so much.

[@CameronHuff]

@@SioxerNikita You mean the Hero of Canton? The man they call Jayne?

[@SioxerNikita]

@@CameronHuff oh yes

[@wild_lee_coyote]

My biggest issue with space guns is the lack of any sights on so many of them. Some like the Phasers of TNG don’t even have a barrel to sight down. How is it any military will accept some of these guns is beyond me. The K.I.S.S rule should always apply to firearms you design for shows, movies, or games.

[@kevingriffith6011]

My personal headcanon with Phasers is that they're smart-guns, you point it in the general direction of the target and the emitter adjusts to hit what it thinks you're aiming at. (Which explains the bizarrely great accuracy of the weapons given the firing techniques employed.) How they differentiate hostiles from... anything else is a mystery, of course.

[@NYCFenrir]

It's because they aren't a military.

[@alganhar1]

@@NYCFenrir You do not have to be a military to appreciate actual sights on your guns. You can be a range shooter, or a hunter, or literally ANYONE who actually SHOOTS a firearm. Do police firearms lack sights? No of course not. They are not military either. Do competition shooters firearms lack sights? No, they have exceptional sights, they too are not military. Does a hunters rifle lack sights? Of course it bloody well does not. Anyone who actually wants to HIT what they are shooting at likes sights. Whether you are military or not is literally unimportant.

[@RevRaptor898]

@@kevingriffith6011 They are smart guns, quote from DS9. KIRA: This is a standard issue, Cardassian phase-disruptor rifle. It has a four point seven megajoule power capacity, three millisecond recharge two beam settings. ZIYAL: How do you know so much about Cardassian weapons? KIRA: We captured a lot of them during the occupation. It's a good weapon, solid, simple. You can drag it through the mud and it'll still fire. Now this. [holds up a Federation phaser rifle.] This is an entirely different animal. Federation standard issue. It's a little less powerful, but it's got a more options. Sixteen beam settings. Fully autonomous recharge, multiple target acquisition, gyro stabilised, the works. It's a little more complicated, so it's not as good a field weapon. Too many things can go wrong with it.

[@NYCFenrir]

@@alganhar1 I was saying that they purposely are trying to say they aren't a military, so it's likely they would do things to show that.

[@mage3690]

The pulse rifle from Aliens _used_ to have an entirely unique sound. Then Reinmetall made their 30 mm MANTIS C-RAM gun, which sounds exactly like the pulse rifle, but way noisier.

[@miket2120]

One thing about the pulse rifle sound was how it changed in pitch from low to high and had a very "breathy" sound. In audio post production they used a frequency shifter and a lot of equalization.

[@airplanenut89]

Hollywood: Makes unique sound for improbable sci-fi weapon. Reinmetall: Makes 30mm CIWS auto-cannon that sounds exactly the same ... I don't see how this is a problem.

[@lsswappedcessna]

Just looked it up out of curiosity. Dear god it does sound like the pulse rifle, but less pew and more bang.

[@stevenserna910]

The Marines rifles from Aliens were based on the designs of Thompson submachine guns, and an HK-G3's. The firing-props were actually Thompsons dressed as the space marines rifles, shooting blank flash rounds. The sounds were added by foley artists. During the scenes for when the marines are just carrying rifles, but not firing them are playing, those are static all plastic non-firing props. Vasquez heavy machine gun was based off the M60, and the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). Any Army, or USMC combat vet can tell you about the SAW. Poor Sergeant Apone, the only weapon he got to use against the aliens was "harsh language", then he was dead. Lt. Gorman was useless, but at least he went out with Vasquez like a Marine. Gotta hand it to James Cameron for showing minorities in space. We barley get to see black folks in meaningful roles in sci-fi, but Cameron at least shows, Blacks, Hispanics, Russians, & Asians in space. And they actually do stuff valuable to the story besides; sell dope, steal, gamble, and make wonton noodle soup.

[@attackmaster519]

@@stevenserna910 The M56 Smartgun is not based off either the M60 or the M249 SAW, but the MG42, which is the weapon used for the props. Though it could be easy to misidentify it with the M60, as the M60 took inspiration from many WW2 designs, two of which were both the German MG42 and FG42.

[@shadowraven137]

On the ME side of things, i remember an interview where the designers designing the weapons mentioned that the animators hated them as they needed to come up with ways for the guns to fold in on themselves in a semi-believable way.

[@vast634]

But there was a practical reason for them folding, as they where always visible and had to all fit on the back of the soldiers. Too big, and it would have looked weird.

[@diamondflaw]

See also Lightning’s gun blade in Final Fantasy 13.

[@agoddamnferret]

@@vast634 I think at least a semi practical look into it would've been some use of the mass effect to force things to collapse differently and at least in some part something equivalent to programmable matter or metamaterials that bend a certain way

[@mluby7828]

The coolest sci-fi weapons can barely contain exotic destructive forces within (black holes, antimatter, etc) and so look and act more like protection for the wielder (maybe with some focusing or directing aspects) than a traditional gun.

[@darthXreven]

there's a gun in a hellish universe that when fired it releases a giant ball of energy that goes out and detonates killing everything that is not the user in the room.....i'm told this is a Bio Force Gun or something like that??? or a really Big Gun?? eh......I just call it a DEMON KILLER! but the song devoted to it slays......

[@addisonchow9798]

There is the gravitational beam emitter that is a directional nuke disguised as a gun.

[@elizataylor1726]

@@darthXreven just in case you're not trolling, it's the BFG from doom. And canonically it stands for Big Fucking Gun, bio force gun was just what they made up for the (2006?) Doom movie.

[@darthXreven]

@@elizataylor1726 I know LMAO!

[@Monkeynuts502]

@@addisonchow9798 Even tears off Killy's arm on a few occaisions, lol.

[@mcintoshpc]

Halo also stuffs 12.7x40mm cartridges into magazines that look like they were made for 9x19mm; thats a 12.7 mil or half inch diameter and a 40mm long cartridge case. For reference, most AK type rifles have a 39mm long case, so the grip for every m6 series pistol in halo should be about the front to back length of an AK magazine

[@durkhurker6268]

Not impossible, 50AE is 12.7x33mm, but the Halo games do silly things with "upsized" variants and apparently issuing them to everyone just for spartan protagonist use.

[@CMTechnica]

Halo also has ridiculously oversized weapons. Just look at the actors in anything from the live action attempts they made, FuD, Nightfall, the ODST short. The props are to scale from the games, mind you, if we take the statements from the teams at face value

[@KillerOrca]

@@CMTechnica Halos scaling is all kinds of weird on a lot of stuff. The Warthog Run in CEs The Maw is a common example; over 2 klicks longer than the entire length of the Pillar of Autumn itself.

[@CMTechnica]

@@KillerOrca that’s not weapon design, that’s just level design not sticking to what the numbers on the wiki say

[@cdgonepotatoes4219]

they're telescopic, like a magician's magic wand

[@ianbelletti6241]

To be fair to Mass Effect's guns, they break their ammo off a chunk of metal then fire it using a futuristic method, but they also have mass effect relays which sends ships traveling at relativistic speeds. Everything is realistic to the setting that the game happens in.

[@autistichades5552]

And as for the folding inside of themselves, I imagine that each of the guns components is made of individual parts as opposed to being just one that move inside of other gun parts into a position to best compact the gun. It doesn’t need to function when it’s folded up, it just needs to function once someone activates it and is ready to fire.

[@andrewbutton2039]

I speculate that the ZF-1 was explicitly designed with a self destruct to test the Mangalores, and get rid of them when they get curious. The spiky bits on Corbens would be armed robber could be a visual deterrent for grabbing the barrel, but they are a bit large to actually work

[@Kalashboy420]

yeah i always assumed he put the self destruct button on it on purpose and that it was only on theirs not all models that were made.

[@andrewbutton2039]

@@Kalashboy420 might be, I dont remember if there was a red button on his when he was on the cruise ship.

[@airplanenut89]

@@Kalashboy420 I figure it might actually be useful if you don't want your advanced small-arms to fall into enemy hands.

[@hackerx7329]

You know how to explain the spiky bits on the gun used by the robber? Look up pictures of guns police have seized from meth heads. Now think about how jittery he seemed acted and talked. Suddenly it all makes perfect sense.

[@foogod4237]

Another possibility is that the red button is part of a more complicated system, which just has the _possibility_ of blowing up the gun if you do something like, for example, deliberately disengaging the safety mechanisms, which Zorg intentionally did ahead of time on the guns he gave them (because he fully expected that they might try to screw him over)...

[@LazyLifeIFreak]

My biggest complaint about sci-fi guns is mostly the lack of heavy weapons, most of what we see is either assault rifles, smg's, shotguns or pistols. Edit: Well, this comment certainly exploded. Edit2: AYYYEEEE 69! 🤗

[@KillerOrca]

A lot of that probably has to do with the story being told more than anything. Launchers of various shorts show up quite a bit.

[@Nostripe361]

@@KillerOrca I agree. I've seen things like 50cal sniper rifles and rocket launchers but those are usually not shown since most battles in these shows seem to focus on your standard infantry unit who won't be using anything stronger than a frag grenade.

[@SuperThest]

Heavy weapons is a somewhat subjective term, so it might be in more scifi then you think. It comes up a lot in video game scifi obviously. But yeah, it's hard to work in rocket launcher when you story is set on a cramp scape ship.

[@ivanpetrov5255]

Maybe because, when it comes to "heavy weapons" in sci-fi, we're in a completely different league. Example: The Expanse; Weapon of choice: Asteroids. That is the heaviest "heavy weapon" you can have. Also: Halo ring array; Citadel-Mass Relays network.

[@MarshalAquilus]

I agree the lack of squad base light machine gun like weapons (which is the foundation of infantry combat formation for nearly a hundred years now,) in military depictions bugs the hell out of me in works of fiction sci fi or otherwise.

[@CMTechnica]

Titanfall has the best “realistic” weapons for a sci-fi setting I’ve seen. They make sense from a gunsmith standpoint that and don’t trigger all the “this doesn’t make sense” flags avid firearms enthusiasts or actual gunsmiths are known for. *mostly*. Of course Titanfall has a few outliers The issue with firearm design is that the artists generally don’t know why something is built the way it is, and/or they’re taking creative liberties to make something that only looks interesting at the surface level but falls apart the moment you put thought into it (Destiny is the largest offender here. Don’t @ me). Also, mad props for getting the pronunciation of Chiapa right. The moment I saw the mateba and the rhino after I was like “here we go again, he can’t say it right- holy shit he got it right”

[@drearyplane8259]

Titanfall has weapon families which is awesome

[@granmastersword]

well...a good chunk of Destiny weapons, specially the exotic weapons, are made with actual space magic. So often they employ magical means to load up your projectiles

[@shanekhiu9884]

Yeah, sadly many concept artists make a weapon look 'cool' rather than practical or consider the engineering, ergonomics or functionality of the weapons. Almost every system for projectile weapons have been tried and tested by now in the hundreds of years that guns have existed, no need to 'redesign the wheel' a perfectly functional and futuristic gun can be made by combining those features and systems.

[@maevixie7041]

Well... I feel like Warframe also has some insane weapon designs that sometimes even top the ones in Destiny. The Lenz, Kuva Bramma, Cycron, Flux Rifle, Tetra, Hek, all of the Infested weapons, fucking Rubico, the spearguns, Buzlok These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head, there are probably more

[@alexanerose4820]

To be fair, the moment you switch to energy rounds (which are generally superior) you go from ammo capacity and recoil to cooling and circuits since unlike irl guns it's basically point, shoot, and see where shot lands so it would necessitate a different design

[@nicholastuttle2445]

The AR2 from Half Life 2 is a great example of good sci-fi weapon design, it has a stock, sights, ergonomics yet also fires a plasma bolt with a futuristic yet plausible reload sequence.

[@xxfalconarasxx5659]

Not really. That weapon would be a jamming nightmare with its exposed loading mechanism, spent ammo casings are ejected in such a way that they could get caught in the loading mechanism, the secondary fire of the weapon would be extremely dangerous to the user and their allies, the weapon is large and bulky, it has a metal panel that blocks the sights, and there is an enormous box magazine that holds only 2 ammunition cells for some reason (your maximum reserve ammo is 60 shots, and 30 shots are fired from one cell). That box magazine looks like it should be able to hold 10 cells or more. In fact, it did just that in the beta, back when the AR2 was the I-Rifle, an incendiary cannon instead of an assault rifle. They later changed the functionality of the gun, without changing the model or animations, giving us the AR2 we have today. However, the Half-Life Alyx redesign of the AR2 is MUCH BETTER though. It looks lighter, more compact, it's sights are not blocked, it has a chute on the right side to safely eject spent ammo casings, and it's magazine is smaller and holds more ammo. So, I'll give Valve that much credit.

[@3dpyromaniac560]

I'm guessing your reload reference is the third person animation of the "actual" reload back when the model was the combine flare gun

[@labrat810]

The AR2 looks like a waste of space, TBQH. At least what the Player gets to see, looks like it all could fit in a much smaller package. As a whole, it looks like some sort of Open Open-Bolt (yes, open 2x) machinegun, firing an energy pellet down a very short 'barrel' to set the projectile's path. Most of the bulk appears to be a rapid feed system for the energy pellets, and more than an MP40's worth of space for the 'bolt-striker'. IIRC, it's never been made clear *where* exactly the Alt. Fire dark matter core emanates from. But, that's never bothered Valve before... (HL1 'dbl. barrel' SPAS-12, HL2 SMG, etc.)

[@Vagabondobiondo]

HL2 shotgun as well, for that matter

[@ph-1012]

interesting that Star Wars' method of just adding grebles or removing parts of existing weapons (often WW2-era ones) was never mentioned, it makes the weapons still seem functional while adding to the ascetic

[@jonathanferguson1211]

"Vera" was actually designed for an earlier movie (Showtime), which is why it doesn't resemble the other Firefly guns. Still a great prop though. I've been lucky enough to hold "her" and speak to one of her makers.

[@hoojiwana]

That explains a lot! - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@Andrew-pr9xv]

Still salty that I visited the RA Museum in Leeds and you weren't there Ò_Ó

[@jonathanferguson1211]

@@Andrew-pr9xv Sorry Andrew! Let me know next time and I'll try to keep the diary free :)

[@jonathanferguson1211]

@@hoojiwana Great video by the way - I agree basically entirely with it. My favourite sci-fi weapons are the more realistic(ish) ones but the ZF-1 gets a pass for fitting the tone perfectly.

[@aethertech]

A Johnathan Ferguson in the wild! Wehn we gonna get a Firearms Expert Reacts to Borderlands (1) guns?

[@jack1701e]

Honestly some guns from 40k are kind of reasonable. The lasgun in it's many variations looks to be practical, the eldar's shuriken catapults while having no stock seem pretty ok and the Tau's pulse rifle look like something future humans might make. Weird that a universe so big on weird looking stuff and over the top visuals has some reasonable weapons in it. Then you got the orks! All their guns are reasonable, they are perfection, if the barrel of an ork's gun spins it makes the bullet faster!

[@jonumine6250]

Lasrifles look so easy and smooth to use, no recoil, no moving parts, aim to shoot and that's it. Standard issue patterns don't come with a scope, sadly (as well as most standard SM bolter rifles, what the...) I would take a hotshot with a scope over a bolter (any) for the sake of recoil and ammo management (unless its a fixed emplacement clearly). >Which I don't know where commissars/SM keep the ammo for that MASSIVE caliber, it's rifle mags look like being able to hold like 7 rounds at max.

[@reganator5000]

@@jonumine6250 boltguns target via HUD uplink, which means that rather than lacking a scope, they're lacking a high magnification one- you'd not want the sort of insane zoom from a sniper weapon mounted on an AK for the same reason that they don't need additional zoom over what their helm functions allow. For a baseline human, that choice is almost obvious- a bolter can't be used effectively without both implants and helmet. I suspect the shuriken no-stock thing is that they're relatively low recoil (unlike bullets, their projectiles are effective because they are very sharp, which from the description at least implies that the rounds aren't even supersonic). plus the recoil mechanics might simply be different enough, as the general up-right swing of human guns results from how human arms attatch, not the guns themselves, so the mechanics may simply be different in whacky eldar physiology. Plus they're wraithbone and eldar are all alpha-plus psykers if they didn't supress it- it's possible they can compensate via literal telekinesis. The weird thing is the fact lasguns do have some limited recoil, presumably to imitate ballistic weapons (which we know were still used on STCs designed for warfare, like the MK1 assault cannon carried by men of iron). I like to imagine there's just a dual shock feedback controller in the grip somewhere, and the tech priests don't know how to take it out without messing up the wiring.

[@gabrielandradeferraz386]

" if the barrel of an ork's gun spins it makes the bullet faster" no thats just how their rifling works. if barrel go spinny spinny, bulet shoot better (more damage, not more accuracy)

[@gabrielandradeferraz386]

@@jonumine6250 and if you look at the stats for the autogun its just straight up an FAL but slightly heavier

[@Arashmickey]

WH40k appearances can be deceiving. For the longest time I thought it's grimdark and rule-of-cool and no more, and I loved it for that, but it turns out there's a lot of attention to detail and a respectable amount of depth to be found in that setting.

[@DerpsWithWolves]

A hypothetical reason for the spinning SMG barrel on the Kang Tao SMG: A slot exists in one side of the barrel, facilitating the rocket ammunition to be inserted horizontally. The magazine is directly beneath the barrel, and we can even see the rear of the barrel remains closed during firing - there is no breach, or bolt - so this is the only logical way for new rounds to feed. The rotation of the barrel covers that slot during firing and keeps rocket exhaust from entering the magazine, sealing the barrel and increasing the internal pressure to hot-launch the round. The barrel being fully sealed causes it to recoil a short distance independently of the weapon, while still spinning until recoil springs push it back into alignment with the magazine. As the barrel is pushed back forward, it rotates in the opposite direction, following the cam lines visible on its surface in reverse. Once the barrel has returned to its original position, the slot re-aligns with the magazine, and a new round is inserted, beginning the cycle again. As the barrel never contacts the receiver during it's travel, the Kang Tao maintains a constant recoil system and remains stable for the sensors to identify and select targets. If I had to guess, the design exists in this way to A: Keep the weapon's muzzle a minimum distance from the shooter's face, because the rocket motors are active upon them leaving the barrel (necessitating the very large muzzle break to divert the gasses outwards, rather than backwards). And B: Keep the overall length of the weapon as short as possible within those constraints so that it doesn't become unwieldly in urban environments. What we end up with is an unusual looking system with almost all the mechanical components shoved into the forward third of the firearm with a barrel *just* long enough to get the projectiles up to a controllable flight speed.

[@t.o.shadow3647]

Just a possibility, but the spinning barrel would also likely induce spin in the projectile. This would allow the barrel to have straight rifling, allowing slightly less resistance to the projectile as it travels down the barrel. Thus, potentially increasing the range of a standard round while maintaining projectile stability.

[@DerpsWithWolves]

@@t.o.shadow3647 While that's an interesting novel concept, there's a physical factor likely preventing it from being the case. If the rounds were spin-stabilized, they wouldn't be able to turn as easily mid-flight, since that's exactly what spin-stabilization is intended to prevent, but exactly what the Kang is for. The Tsunami smart sniper, on the other hand, might well use spin stabilization, since it's rounds are much faster and less maneuverable, but it doesn't spin. Something like DARPA's EXACTO sniper round, but rocket assisted.

[@SpottedHares]

I have to wonder if you could consider using a spinning barrel as an energy storage system like a built in fly wheel.

[@TheOneWayDown]

My biggest issue is always a million glowing lights everywhere, which under night vision of any kind would reveal your position from miles away. I get having displays and smart optics that do some of the work for the wielder, but realistically those would have a very dim or entirely IR night vision mode to prevent just that. Other random LEDs on the prop just feels like it's taking the piss

[@the_corvid97]

This is a major pet peeve of mine, it's like in the last 10-15 years or so we've collectively decided that in the future everyone is afraid of the dark.

[@marrqi7wini54]

Then again sensory technology might be so advanced and attainable by the common soldier, freedom fighter, merc, or even civilian/law enforcement/criminal, that modern concealment techniques are now obsolete to anyone who has this technology.

[@TheOneWayDown]

@@marrqi7wini54 I just think authors tend to add a bunch of lights to make it feel futuristic without any thought of what that light actually does or the consequences of having it

[@simonkmack2716]

There was an old anime called Outlaw Star and the pistol that the main character used was called a Caster. It uses a sort of magic to shoot different kinds of shells. The weapon can also draw from the users own lifeforce. It was a really interesting design with moving and rotating pieces. I hoped to see it again one day in another IP.

[@thomascranor2668]

Such an under appreciated anime. Sure, the ships were borderline comical in appearance, but the line of reasoning and the scattering of remote camera drones to facilitate combat maneuvers was more forethought than you get out of most modern sci-fi.

[@kaitlyn__L]

The guns are more traditional, with a few exceptions (giant shoulder cannon built into a cross anyone) but you might like Trigun.

[@jacobthompson1682]

I thought it was only the magic in certain rounds that drew on the user's life-force. The other caster gun in that show was cool too sort of like a staff.

[@lunaticbz3594]

I really liked that weapon it makes a lot of sense in the setting. Magic exists but its a pretty rare, niche skill. The caster allows anyone to use magic by basically just being a fancy looking shotgun that can be loaded with different shells that have different effects. Also makes sense why the gun is seen as some kind of old novelty weapon, if your fighting against opponents that don't have any magical abilities conventional weapons are still better. Those with abilities in the show look like they've dedicated their entire life to the pursuit and would see a caster as something like an insult to their abilities. Still darn effective for the crazy situations the main character gets into.

[@eljefeamericano4308]

This gun was one of my favorite parts of that whole series.

[@n.a.4292]

"Chiappa" is pronounced "Kiappa", which btw means "asscheek" in Italian. It's a somewhat common family name, and some (cruel) parents even named their children accordingly: like "Rosa Chiappa" (Pink Asscheek) or "Felice Chiappa" (Happy Asscheek). And yes, this means the pistol is indeed called "Rhino Asscheek"

[@hoojiwana]

It wouldn't be a Spacedock video without me mispronouncing something would it? - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@aethertech]

And up until fairly recently, their name was apt, to their production quality.

[@aethertech]

@@tenchraven just wait till you shoot on of their 9mm M1A carbines. urrgghhuurghh..

[@danmoss1685]

Thank you for adding to my useless knowledge bank. I love it, and thank you deeply.

[@dylanmcgovern2739]

0:25 Rotating barrels are not terribly common, but they do have a purpose. One particular example is the Beretta PX4 series. The barrel rotates as the recoil cycles the gun, but it distributes some of the recoil impulse along the length of the barrel, which makes it much smoother to shoot. I guess it's a sort of a gimmick, but I own a compact version of it. It shoots as smooth if not smoother than some full size pistols. As for why it's on an SMG, I'm not sure.

[@jaspercheng923]

that's a smart weapon that essentially shoots mini tracking rockets and not bullets, so it can serve any purpose they want to make up

[@jackmcglion8337]

I actually think having that in-between of realistic and far out sci fi is really awesome.

[@VideoMask93]

5:40 and Arnie almost broke his own fingers when he picked up the wrong prop gun! The real secret is enlarging the lever loop, cf The Rifleman. Another example of a "real gun in a prop shell" was Oblivion-the pistols are custom-made, but the rifles are Magpul Masadas in SF shells, I think.

[@hoojiwana]

Oblivion had great weapons, I almost included them in the video as more examples of good ones. - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@stevenscott2136]

I have a friend who tried that trick -- he almost removed his own teeth when the barrel came around.

[@BlooCollaGal]

I can do the lever flip on the Henry .22 Mare's leg The "big" loop on the .410 Axe is a little too small

[@BlooCollaGal]

@@stevenscott2136 I got a big ol bruise when I was practicing the flip with my .22 from the front sight hitting me in the arm over and over.

[@kenbrown2808]

@@BlooCollaGal it takes a six foot tall person and proper technique to do it with a Winchester .30-30 carbine. or so I'm told.

[@WaxPaper]

For some reason I always loved the way the rifles in Aliens sounded. That was a genius way to enhance the futuristic ambiance with something as cheap and easy as a sound effect. The digital readout was cool, too. But that sound is what sells it.

[@Reddotzebra]

It's surprisingly believable since there should be a lot of forced air movement, but not because of traditional explosives. EM mass drivers generally have heat issues as well, so the cooling system might well be louder than the actual gun. What's the muzzle velocity though? Because supersonic projectiles would cause sonic booms as they exit the barrel.

[@jeffumbach]

@@Reddotzebra most modern ammo is supersonic. especially rifle ammo. You'll have a shorter list of subsonic ammo and many are subsonic for use with suppressors.

[@christopherbrown6523]

I'd like to point out that the 7.62x51mm NATO in the Halo assault rifle is only the same size as its modern day counterpart. In the 500 years between the present, and the events of Halo there have been many advances in ballistics, materials, and the recipe for gun powder that make the rounds used by the UNSC far more powerful than what we have today. If you want a real world example of this look up the difference between .45 ACP and .45 Super.

[@sushirollthug]

pretty sure that the ar in halo fires caseless rounds too

[@christopherbrown6523]

@@sushirollthug That's the SMG.

[@sushirollthug]

@@christopherbrown6523 ah ok

[@labrat810]

5.56x45mm is already an example of this, as well.

[@SpottedHares]

theirs a scene from a book where a Ak-47 is full mag dumped into a Elite and it has such little effect that they just laugh at such a pathetic attempt. But the Ma5 can break though their armor even with bursts. So rather strong evidence that the 20th century specs don't match up with the 26th century tech.

[@maxis_scott_engie_maximov_jr]

3:48 "one single weapon having every one of these functions is a bit mad" Me: _Slowly backs out of the room with Plasma Rifle with 18 firing modes_

[@tlshortyshorty5810]

Fun how this came out! My friends recently got me into Starsector, and while only a few real firearms appear in the base game (as it’s mostly about space trading and space battles), our character and stories we write based on the game involve them quite heavily- especially mine with a focus on infantry/marine deployments. I’ve been taking a look at Cyberpunk 2077, COD Infinite Warfare, and COD Black Ops 4 for inspirations on what their gear looks like, but due to the characters’ histories they tend to carry “futurized” versions of current day firearms such as the M1911, HK416/M4A1, AKM and Glock, and I’ve always liked that look. In addition, I’ve gotten into watching Cowboy Bebop recently, and a fun quirk I see from the show is that despite its futuristic setting a large majority of the guns- even autocannons mounted on spaceships (such as an M197 rotary cannon), are not only realistic but IRL current day weapons such as Spike’s Jericho 941 and Faye’s Glock 30.

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

Cowboy Bebop is good.

[@EliyanBrize]

a Starsector mention in the comments, god bless. David draws some pretty great scifi guns, too.

[@fourfours9928]

starsector is dope

[@pendragonchen]

@@EliyanBrize holy shit is that THE nia Tahl from IRON SHELL??????

[@Reddotzebra]

Seeing how he balances the game, he would ideally want it to be less about space trading and all about space battles... =p

[@MasterVega]

This kind of thing is why I'm always super excited to see the galleries of artists who actually reference existing industrial and combat equipment for their art. My favorite artist these days is Alex Iglesias (or Flyingdebris), the man whose artistic style is essentially the basis for all of the new Battletech/Mechwarrior art. I actually like his personal mech designs, which include neat details like winches, fully armor-enclosed cockpits, and sensor/camera suites to make up for the loss of natural visibility. There are several other artists like him who draw tech, armor, and weapons with feasibility in mind and it looks all the cooler for it.

[@pwnmeisterage]

Anyone can draw or build something that looks like a gun. Or add some greebles and gadgets to an existing gun. Some artists have impressive technical talents and amazing imaginations. But I think it's better when some thought is put into the thing - how it works, how it operates, how it gets built. I am more impressed by engineering than by art, being able to look at an object and understand the function from the form instead of the other way around.

[@geroni211]

Recommend watching Chroma Mom's, a KZbin artist who loves drawing mechs and machines

[@jakesto]

If you want practical staff-guns, I would check out the Mon-cala episodes of Star Wars the Clone Wars. Because the planet natives all live underwater, they use staff guns in battle to take advantage of their body position when swimming.

[@bosoerjadi2838]

When my brothers and friends played Star Trek as kids, we used our dads' electric shavers as 'phasers'. The ones with cords were 'unlimited charge' (hooked up to our belts), while the battery operated ones had to be 'reloaded' (by taking the batteries out and putting other (empty) batteries in)). after ten shots on kill and twenty on stun. Sometimes I suspect scifi-film weapon, ship and set designers have had the same scrounge-the-house-for-cool-looking-stuff-to-pretend-with childhood as I did.

[@p-47thunderbolt57]

Star Wars does this so well since most of their design aesthetic originally comes from actual guns. Plus, ammo isn't as much of an issue when it's basically just a power cell.

[@thelordofbacon4258]

Mostly WW II Guns.

[@brianwong7285]

@@thelordofbacon4258 With a few exceptions (including the Gatling Gun style Z-6 rotary blaster cannon.)

[@thelordofbacon4258]

@@brianwong7285 The DL44 Blaster Pistol is based on the Mauser C96. A weapon, produced from 1896 to 1936.

[@danamoore1788]

I was looking for this comment specifically. Because exactly this. But for some reason to avoid the 'blaster bolts are too slow' thing. Lots of scifi guns are just guns again.

[@Reddotzebra]

This immediately makes me think of a certain unhappy Mandalorian. He got his ammo eaten by the Gizka of Dxun.

[@Ryguy199612]

I think most guns from the Titanfall series have an excellent combination of futuristic and practical.

[@AnonEMus-cp2mn]

Well said! Lastimosa did an excellent job with the weapon designs, I like the refinement that went into their appearance in Titanfall 2.

[@disgustingweeb]

Most of them look like ordinary modern day weapons with an ammo counter and futuristic iron sights.

[@LtPulsar]

My only gripe is his obsession with 45 degree tilts on the R series magazines. It just seems like diagonal feeding would invite reliability issues. Oh, and the nightmare that is the Alternator.

[@Ryguy199612]

45 degrees builds character although yeah the alternator is weird, I like it, but weird.

[@LtPulsar]

@@Ryguy199612 I know that, in theory, putting two guns in your gun works, but how the fuck does it fire them sequentially? And how does a rearward tilted magazine feed two separate actions. It's just an engineering cluster fuck that no sane military would ever adopt.

[@thiagoalvescosta5]

I think that should have had a honorable mention to Avatar, the movie weapons are so futuristic and yet credible, the spent shells flying around is a cool thing, but the caseless ammunition was a nice touch

[@user-25352]

still cant get why avatar is in thumbnail

[@megagamernick9883]

Aliens and the original trilogy for Star Wars are my go too when it comes to making sci fi weapons. The fact that both movies used real firearms for the base but still attached different scopes magazines stocks on smgs shot guns and pistols made it so much better. The Pulse rifle from Aliens is a combination of a M1A1 Thompson Remington 870 and Spas 12. In a new hope the Rebels DH-17 and Imperial E-11 are both based on sterling SMGs

[@Jonnyg325]

The smart rifle is an MG42 with some motorcycle parts added on, if you take a look at the back end you can see the very very distinctive MG series cover

[@megagamernick9883]

@@Jonnyg325 oh I know and I love it for that reason. Screams I’m here to kick butt and chew bubble gum.

[@nickpalmer3065]

I love the zat from SG-1. It works almost forever and its just so useful. 1 shot stuns, 2 shots kill, and the 3rd shot disintegrates.

[@aethertech]

But only in the first season or 2, after that it just stuns and kills

[@EragoEntertainment]

@@aethertech And sometimes they fire 3 shots and it's still just a stun. Sometimes the first shot doesn't stun enough, sometimes the target can take dozens of shots.

[@aethertech]

@@EragoEntertainment And sometimes the enemy has magic armor that negates the zat completely!

[@Pendragon667]

I love the story that Michael Shanks once told in an interview where he said that the weapon was pretty weird in that way that the actors never really exactly knew when they actually fired a shot and when not. Also he was (jokingly) complaining about the delay between two or three stuns vs. when somebody is killed.

[@TheArklyte]

Stargate: calls staff a terror weapon, says P90 is better. Also Stargate: compares antimateriel rifle/grenade launcher that is used to overcome endurance of other Jaffa to PDW(and not the best one at that), ignores that Teal'c or SG1 members never miss with said weapons, ignores how they never need maintenance or run out of ammo, ignores how Jaffa helmets in the movie have HUD connected to staff just like Aliens smartgun, ignores how P90 would always be worse then just grabbing M4 no matter what you coat those bullets with as kinetic energy retention doesn't work backwards, ignores how ideal weapons for Jaffa rebels(who lack industry, but are bigger then humans) would be sturdier simpler heavier guns like M1911, UZI, AKM, FAL/G3, MG3/PKM and so on or just more of the Goa'uld guns they already use. P.S.: I love Stargate... but sometimes I hate Stargate. Especially how fans treat such a dumb scene as iconic. Carter's Special>>>P90:P

[@ryanrosansky8466]

I think the best/worst example of this is the needler from halo. The projectiles seek their target, you reload the gun by shaking it, and the ammo is called blamite and stored in spikes on the top of the weapon. What’s not to love/hate

[@knightofarnor2552]

My favorite part is that the needler is so weird that it was decided to just say that nobody in the Halo universe, not even the Covenant, could explain to you how it works. All anyone knows is that if you can arrange the components like so, and shove a chunk of blamite into it, you'll get a functioning weapon.

[@Reddotzebra]

@@knightofarnor2552 "Ok Gravemind, if your species is so advanced... How does the pink mist gun work?"

[@thorveim1174]

@@knightofarnor2552 and then even more hilarious when you see the needle rifle, goblins, and various vehicle-size needle weapons in halo wars 2, showing the needler isnt the only viable design. The covenants somehow managed to iterate on a type of ammunition they never managed to understand.

[@sam23696]

Weird weapons are great for me because I can spend time imagining an explanation for them myself. The needler for example, the way I imagine it to work is it has some kind of large and inert crystal, easier for the solider to carry as ammo and inert so it's not volatile. Then when you reload it, that lump is pushed into some mechanism which shreds it into spikes that are now volatile and will explode. Instead of a traditional magazine the spikes simply shunt out of the top of the weapon and remain there until it's fired. When it is actually fired the crystal is sent into the barrel where it is energized and now rapidly decaying into high temperature plasma, which exits the gun and tracks the target, before exploding. How does it track the target? No fucking clue, maybe magnetic fields or something. Maybe it is similar to matter-antimatter and seeks normal matter before exploding. Why did the covenant choose this for their arsenal? The tracking ability is great for the less then enthusiastic grunts, and the inert crystal ammo is an alternative to the batteries in every other gun. Basically they are keeping their weaponry diverse and not relying on just battery power. Also maybe they were inspired by the Brute weaponry.

[@chromicm6686]

@@sam23696 There are aspects about the needlers esoteric design that I love, but I want to strangle the person who wrote in that the pink crystals used as ammo, are just mined from like, one single moon in the entire covenant empire. That just seems compleatly beyond the suspension of disbelief that there just happens to be glowing crystals in nature that are attracted specificaly to organic targets and explode on contact. It seems like a logistical nightmare too, loose one planet and suddenly no ammunition for half of your arsenal. Wouldnt you think it would be more likley that the aliens might artificialy grow the crystals in a factory or something?

[@countofdownable]

Love the Lawgiver design from the Dredd movie. Most realistic and practical depiction of the weapon.

[@raideurng2508]

I said Hotshot.

[@BionicleFreek99]

I don't exactly like to use this defense very frequently, but people IRL do make guns which just look strange, or have spikes "becasue it's cool".

[@warellis]

Mass Effect's lower barrel seems to fire stuff like concussive shot. It seems to be a grenade launcher of sorts almost. Also, at least Mass Effect "magazines" are little more than a block of metal the gun shaves pieces off to fire. That's a better than expected explanation for it than a ton of guns which still use cartridges but somehow cram ludicrous amounts of them into a magazine.

[@thecactusman17]

And by "pieces" they mean like between the size of a coarse grain of sand and a peppercorn, small enough that you could store hundreds or even thousands in the space of a few cubic centimeters.

[@agentoranj5858]

@@thecactusman17 Macron guns, essentially.

[@Tounushi]

@@thecactusman17 for the longest time I've pictured the sniper rifles essentially shaving a shard at the whole length of the block for more damage. in the proportions of a pine or spruce needle.

[@warellis]

@@Tounushi It might. The computer in the gun calculates what is optimum for a round's size depending on the range to the target.

[@stamfordly6463]

I think the Mass effect team might have borrowed that idea from Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series, the Colonial Union's weapons have magazines which are basically just a block of nanotech that reforms itself into the desired projectil which is then electromagnetically or gravitationally propelled.

[@unnamedcosmonaut6195]

Actually rotating barrels exist in real life, beretta is known to use them since it reduces recoil This is done to lock a new round in place. Normally the bolt rotates since is much simpler and thus more reliable and cheap Therefore, it makes sense that the smg from cyberpunk does, even if the animation is a bit extra

[@acarrillo8277]

Yes but nothing in that wacky blow-forward system that the SMG used.

[@MrViki60]

Cope

[@bongwatercrocodile315]

Not only to reduce recoil but to hypothetically increase accuracy over a tilting barrel design since the barrel axis is fixed and only rotated. Rotating barrel does not do full revolutions like in the game though. That's pure rule of cool animation stuff.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Yeah, but a rotating lock isn't really the same as a spinning barrel. As in, it spins completely and gets spun up while shooting.

[@tazzitek]

I was wondering if it had anything to do with cooling

[@GameZedd01]

6:58 I didn't know the Rhino had any recognition in movies, shows or real life. It's been my favourite Revolver for awhile now and I always thought it was super obscure and not at all know. Gun looks dope!

[@spartanx9293]

It's mostly because it's very hard to get a Unica

[@allinairhanson6886]

The spinning gun gave me an idea for a sort of magic sci-fi system, where there are some theoretical impractical or impossible stuff that requires esoteric actions or designs or processes to do with magic but when done become practical in cases

[@Gomjibar]

One of my favorite Sci-Fi guns has to be the Las rifles from Warhammer 40k, it looks simple and primitive, but when you look at it in more detail it is the incredibly durable, easy to use and supply laser rifle that is reasonably powerful and can still work after you beat someone over the head with it.

[@Reddotzebra]

As I've said many times, I'd take one of those over most other traditional sci fi weapons. They are only seen as "weak" because of how overpowered everything else is in the 40k universe, if you take one of these into Star Wars it would be like carrying around a heavy weapon like it was an assault rifle...

[@calebbarnhouse496]

@@Reddotzebra no it wouldn't, you'd be carrying at best a blaster that needs to reload constantly, power packs in starwars last in some cases thousands of shots at mid power settings, lasguns suck because they are mid, sure they will kill a target in flak armor, sometimes, but so would a blaster

[@thorveim1174]

@@calebbarnhouse496 lasguns at least are actual laser weapons that hit theirtarget instantly. Star wars blasters fire these slow ass bolts that can be dodged and wouldnt even be a threat to someone with functioning eyes and legs past a certain range. And the imperial lasgun has a great ammo capacity. One battery is good for 150 shots if we take the standard lasgun and not its more powerful variants, while a star wars blaster power pack is good for 100 shots only AND the gun also needs to be supplied with a gas canister good for 500 shots (dunno where you pull the thousands of shots from), meaning for a blaster you need to carry 2 different forms of ammo at the same time. Overall the imperial lasgun is powerful against most things the guard are MEANT to deal with, can even perform against unintended targets through massed fire, and the gun is EXTREMELY reliable, being good for around 10.000 shots before any part wears out and needs replacement no matter how well its maintained. Also laspacks have the luxury of being easy to recharge with even a CAMPFIRE being able to partially recharge them (though doing so is frowned upon and messes up the max capacity of the laspack... still if cut from supplies id take it over not having ammo anymore), and the gun itself is EXTREMELY durable and easy to maintain due to the almost complete lack of moving parts. Basically a perfect gun for both mass-production and long assignments where your gun being reliable may be more important than how powerful it is.

[@calebbarnhouse496]

@@thorveim1174 first of all you moron lasguns are always depicted as not lightspeed projectiles, next blasters are plasma based weapons, so they aren't supposed to go light speed, and the only people that dodge blaster bolts with regularity is jedi who have the speed and reflexes on an eldar at minimum, other people dodge them from plot armor, meanwhile in warhammer plot armor just means they miss or you survive the shot regardless of how stupid it is, next blasters needing 2 forms of supply is a minimal problem, the problem is thst your now putting hard numbers on weapons that are completely inaccurate. Because diffrent weapons hold completely diffrent amounts, and the power setting completely changes how many shots you can do so stop pulling shit out of your ass just cause you seen a single gun rated to do those numbers on a wiki page, next, lasguns charging in fires is slow at best and fucks up your gun in more ways then battery capacity, next we even people off the grid in starwars with blasters that haven't seen maintenance in decades because they don't have tools or parts work perfectly, that's because in starwars you can easily own a ship in near mint condition that's a hundred years old, blasters can survive for decades without anything added to them, the only 2 blasters that aren't capable of easily being able to last soldiers throught entire battles without a resupply are the z6 rotary cannon, which is the equivalent of a modern day helicopter gunners gun put on an infantry man, who would shoot the fuck out of any guardsmen heavy weapon, and Westar-34, Jango's blasters, which as sleek and small holdout blaster pistols they would need to be reloaded often, however they would seer through any armor with ease, and finally for tank blasters, as tank weapons are really just upscaled infantry weapons, this means that no starwars tank needs to return to base to rearm until they have used up there fuel tank, a fuel tank using a standardized fuel type that can run you for weeks at a minimum, and don't even get me started at the adoption of personal shields once the imperium forces larger scale engagements meaning that the risk of dying later is seen as irrelevant

[@thorveim1174]

@@calebbarnhouse496 I wonder where the HELL you saw lasgun as not lightspeed. or even as PROJECTILES. All games and depiction os rasguns just have a line of light between the muzzle and whatever the gun was pointed at. And its a LASER weapon so of course it operates as a laser would, meaning lightspeed shots. As for the numbers, these are the averages for both weapons comparing their standard weapons variant: both of course have less ammo or more depening on which you take. And no the numbers arent out of my hat, they are from the wikis for BOTH weapons. And you want to look at other weapons really? Dont forget that the imperium also has these things called lascannons they LOVE to slap on tanks or in heavy weapon squads... and even if we stay rifle sized there is hotshot lasguns that are basically overcharged lasguns that trade longevity in the field for stopping power. Lastly, the LAST thing you want against the imperium would be a large scale engagement. because then REACHING the guardsman becomes the issue with how trigger-happy they are with artillery that the star wars universe kinda lacks (as in weapons needling no direct line of sight to hit), and then the imperium pulls superheavies that are fortresses on treads to push foward.. and nevermins of they have a conflict so important it warrants imperial knights or titans, the star wars universe has NO way to deal with those besides jedi plot armor (and even then jedi would already be preddy busy with battle psykers and no idea if the force would even work through void shields considering the very nature of that type of defense) or orbital bombardment that necessitates a space superiority i'm not sure they can secure. (though the star wars universe has better chances in space considering the ridiculous size of some of their ships, though the imperim also has a few of those oversized monstrosities) And thats all without calling their own plot armored boys...

[@knghtbrd]

I agree about folding guns EXCEPT for the one in Fifth Element. The nature of that movie suggests, nay, demands!, that the gun be preposterous. And yet, it manages to be more reasonable than most of the "folding" and "impossible ammo supply" weapons on this list.. Ultimately it comes down to that the people who design these things for sci-fi have little or no experience with actual weapons and how and why they work. Mad props to Keanu Reeves for making a point to actually learn before he did the John Wick films. Regardless of a creator's personal opinions on the complex social issues surrounding them, if you're going to "use" them, it really does help to understand them and how they work. Otherwise your use and depiction won't be believable.

[@CruelestChris]

I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the ones praised as practical are built around real guns. Including that one, the ZF-1 prop used to demonstrate the "replay button" has a functional AKS-74U carbine in it.

[@bugjams]

If movie makers had to learn everything about everything they want to feature in their movie, not a single movie would ever reach completion. Whether it's complex geo-politics, world-building, vehicle realism, spaceship realism, firearm realism... you're gonna need to drop 1 or 2 of those things to actually get the damn film completed. At the end of the day, most people are not gun nerds, and will not care/notice if a sci fi weapon is unrealistic as long as it looks cool. Also - sci fi is a convenient setting because you don't need to care as much about what's realistic. For example, the unfolding guns. You can just argue that technology got so advanced, that guns can have enough moving parts to fold themselves up. That would be an economical disaster by today's standards, but maybe in the future, that's just the norm. I mean, ancient peoples would've called _our_ guns "needlessly complex and expensive to make" compared to bows and arrows.

[@CruelestChris]

@@bugjams You realise movies are made by multiple people? And in many cases one of those people is a professional movie armourer who typically has a military or law enforcement background? Also, "advanced" and "stupid" are not synonyms.

[@knghtbrd]

@@bugjams Your argument involves straw-manning my position. Is it really that much to ask that we ask creators who design these things make it so the "ammo bit" somehow has some correspondence with the "shooty bit"? I'm not asking them to take a master's course in ballistics-I don't have one myself, certainly. I know that "fully semi-automatic" isn't a thing (and has more to do with politics than writing), but beyond that?

[@arthurmoore9488]

It also prevents an Alec Baldwin situation from occurring. Then again, I'm from the US and believe that everyone should have enough firearms training that if they ever come across one they know how to handle it safely. Even a blank firing pistol is like a circular saw with a metal disk instead of a blade. It can still hurt someone!

[@ThePatriot141]

The Dominator from the Anime Psycho Pass is an interesting gun. It has three firing modes and uses electromagnetic waves as its projectiles. one for stun (Non-leathal Paralyzer), another for kill (Lethal Eliminator) and finally one for anti-material (Destroy Decomposer). Each mode has a unique "form" of the weapon.

[@johndoe-uy4ol]

the rotating barrel allows for adjustable spin from the central computer , this with the bullets ability to turn , give it the "smart" function

[@Bogdan221192]

My favourite gun is a "Typhoon" from Crysis 3, the sheer power of 30,000 rpm rate is so damn cool, feeling of shredding enemy to pieces with storm of tiny tiny shiny metal pieces is definetly something special.

[@lockon1982]

It's based on metalstorm concept. Where the barrel is the magasin.

[@Bogdan221192]

@@lockon1982 i know, when i heard about it back then, i hoped it will get mass production. Too bad it didn't, still think it would make a great trap weapon, imagine being a robber, opening the door and getting 500 bullets in the torso.

[@lockon1982]

@@Bogdan221192 I think they stop the RD in 2012

[@shanekhiu9884]

2000 years of cumulative human warfare

[@shanekhiu9884]

@@Bogdan221192 lol what Torso? xD

[@atomicturist]

As for Cyberpunk's SMG rotating barrel. It's basicaly micro missile launcher in the casing of SMG, I believe that designer thought about missile stabilization and went with rotating barrel. That's my theory, barrel rotates, rotating the missilewhich may be too small to use more common means of stabilization. Would it work? Probably not. Looks cool though.

[@Katzbalger001]

Or, the barrel rotates to lock up with the bolt, then rotates to unlock after chamber pressure goes down. Honestly, unless the barrel is VERY lightweight, that's going to cause a lot of torque on the shooter's grip.

[@michaelwoods2672]

@@Katzbalger001 Why wouldn't the barrel be very lightweight? The game is set in the future and has plenty of other technologies that require material science more advanced than our own. The video is cool, but they are quite wrong about this specific thing.

[@builder396]

So instead of rifling the barrel, they made a barrel with straight grooves and rotated that. Interesting solution to a non-problem.

[@caav56]

@@builder396 Might be to exploit some loopholes in laws about rifled weapons or something.

[@builder396]

@@caav56 And the VPO-209 is a shotgun, right?

[@johnnyanderson2-roblox185]

Starts talking about halo magazine having 60 rounds "Yeah, I always thought it was a lot in CE." Of 7.62 *Spits out drink* "WHAT!?"

[@baneofbanes]

Yah most UNSC rifles are chambered in 7.62 NATO. Except the battle rifle which is chambered in an intermediate cartridge.

[@smorrow]

@@baneofbanes So like, the opposite way around to actual assault rifles and battle rifles?

[@isaacgraff8288]

An interesting fact, the WW2 Lewis gun (without magazine) was used in Star Wars as one of the Stormtroopers heavy weapons.

[@Kalashboy420]

MG34 was a heavy weapon for them aswell, just sci fi'd up a bit.

[@MattMurphyMusicTeacher]

Was anyone else half-expecting Jonathon Ferguson to make an appearance?

[@tunguska2370]

Who? Oh him

[@jonathanferguson1211]

You rang?

[@Andrew-pr9xv]

@@jonathanferguson1211 I was gonna make some comment about Ian from Forgotten Weapons... but I can't do that with *you* here.

[@jonathanferguson1211]

@@Andrew-pr9xv Course you can :) Ian is a legend. Just not much of a gamer.

[@MattMurphyMusicTeacher]

Ha. It’s like any KZbinr that mentions the pulse rifle is your bat-signal :)

[@antiheldd.3081]

Seeing the rifle from the Alien movie, Forgotten Weapons video about Jatimatic comes to my mind.

[@Tounushi]

One thing I'd like to know more of is weapons you have to partially disassemble/open up in order to reload them. Essentially break-action assault rifles is what I mean, rather than most belt-fed machine guns. Doom 3's assault rifle counts, as you flip open the upper receiver to swap magazines, which are housed in the otherwise hollow upper receiver. The P-50 heavy pistol is close to this concept, as you open the upper receiver (which contains the barrel, bolt and springs) to load a P90 magazine in the weapon.

[@Cythil]

The gun from the 5th element is so clearly made to be over the top. I love it! So darn silly!

[@bernarddelossantos8083]

the gun with spikes and backwards magazine tho. 😅

[@williamlydon2554]

Who can forget the H&K VP-70, the world's first polymer frames handgun, with a shape that's earned it the spot as the "Sci Fi Sidearm" of choice, for the U.S.C.M, The Capitol's Peacekeepers, and even the oddly armed and outfitted R.P.D.

[@daverage4729]

Ah Aliens....one girl, one boy and a great big alien killing assault weapon. Still my favourite romantic scene in a movie. Flirtatious and not forced. Loved Ripley and Hick's chemistry.

[@TheSundayShooter]

Assault weapon is a missile launcher, bucko (e.g. FGM-172 SRAW)

[@shitlordflytrap1078]

It boils down to a very simple principle: Real firearm - fewest moving parts possible Sci-fi firearm - as many moving parts as possible

[@PetersonZF]

When speaking about spinning barrels, I really thought you'd bring up the hilariously implausible M1-L1 Triple-Pulse rifles from Deep Rising.

[@QuantumNova]

it was a calico with a bunch of add-ons. M1-L1 is my favorite fictional gun.

[@Dirshaun]

A lot of weapons look odd in sci-fi Guns have been around a long time. It stands to reason we have the ergonomics of it worked out. Even if we develope some type of plasma round, it would be a change in barrels and other materials. I imagine that would still look and function the same. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

[@Dhips.]

Humans figured out the ergonomics even before smoothbore guns. If one wants to be pedantic, they could point out crossbows being fairly ergonomic long before the first gun was made. As you said, don't fix what's not broken.

[@cylontoaster7660]

I always did like that episode of SG1 where they point out how bad the Jaffa staff weapons are as an actual weapon and then school them using a real-life firearm

[@thorveim1174]

at the same time, a human gun is purely a weapon. A Jaffa staff also has a degree of ceremonial use and a sign of status, so they may have put the looks of it before its practicality on purpose.

[@MrChainsawAardvark]

One odd idea for the counter-intuitive designs is security. The weapon is simply assumed to be used by a soldier with some sort of built-in targeting system for their armor/helmet. In turn, a non-authorized user would have issues with the lack of sights. Not quite as secure as some sort of finger-print lock or IFF system, but less likely to fail than those technologies too.

[@charlespfaff6585]

Common complaints I have with sci-fi weapons: sights and trigger guards, as in not having. Also griplees that seem to have no reason for being.

[@berserkerpride]

I'm surprised sci-fi weapons don't have more holographic sights of some kind. I guess you could theorycraft some kind of helmet integrated sight pip like the crosshairs in a videogame hud.

[@baneofbanes]

@@berserkerpride not in an effective way, or at least not where you can hop fire it.

[@alexanerose4820]

My bet is since every energy round is basically a tracer round you can see where it lands and adjust accordingly no hud or sights necessary

[@charlespfaff6585]

@@alexanerose4820 Tracer rounds work both ways.

[@baneofbanes]

@@alexanerose4820 that sounds like a blue on blue incident waiting to happen.

[@pfcparts7728]

When designing weapons one should consider the following: - Intended usage: if the military in your fiction is geared towards room clearing and urban fighting, then consider a compact design like a bull pup or calico like design. - Ergonomics: see the point above. Generally soldiers don’t like big, bulky, unbalanced weapons. If in your universe the general trend for weapons is towards augmented aiming, then maybe a gun that’s not suitable for shoulder fire is plausible. - Aesthetics: there are a variety of firearms from the 20th century that might fit your particular aesthetic, such as the obscure John Winters SWAT Triplex shotgun used in Alien Isolation, the Russian VAG-73, the Heckler and Koch G11, or the Czech Sa23.

[@logicplague2077]

I've seen Beretta CX-4's used as well in a few things, they definitely have the look going for them.

[@baneofbanes]

Designing a gun to not shoulder fire inherently makes it unwieldy and way less way less balanced. There’s a reason that long guns, despite all of their changes after the last 600 odd years of use still keep the same basic three points of contact.

[@pfcparts7728]

@@baneofbanes Not if you’re wearing a space suit or fighting in environments not conducive to aiming from the shoulder. Again you have to design your weapon and equipment around the environment of your fiction.

[@baneofbanes]

@@pfcparts7728 yah and the better solution there is making better suits that allow for more natural human movements.

[@stevenscott2136]

@@pfcparts7728 Would a spacesuit prevent shoulder fire? Rifles work fine with heavy coats -- just shorten the stock a bit. The NASA bubble helmet would be a problem for aiming, but most SF seems to like more streamlined helmet designs. It's a very rare situation that you'd have a target more than a few feet away, but also have such restricted movement that you'd need to hip-fire. The only case I can think of is if you're being swarmed by zombie or tentacle-type enemies, and need to maintain a death-grip on your rifle. And in that case, you'd be blasting THEM, not some guy 50 yards away. Any time saved in hip-fire is minimal -- any half-competent rifleman can shoulder his weapon in hardly more than an eye-blink.

[@360greece4]

How can you leave out the absolutely fabulous and amamzing guns of the Starship Troopers franchise, the Morita assault rifle is instantly recognizable.

[@magnuskallas]

Wasn't it a "public production secret" they were a heavy nod to the Aliens' pulse rifles?

[@AMF1701]

amazing vid! the mentioning of continuum is amazing such an underrated sci-fi show!

[@MrJuanmarin99]

The thing is that rotating barrels exist. In order to lock the breach weapons have star shaped parts that rotate to lock the mechanism. Some weapons have that part integrated into the barrel and the barrel will move back and forth and rotate slightly.

[@aethertech]

Yea, but in the example in the video, it looks like the barrel just does continual spins, and must have multiple sets of locking lugs or something...it just does 360s .

[@michaelwoods2672]

@@aethertech Is that really so unlikely though, given the available technology and the world? Yes, it would be needlessly complicated and probably mostly built in order to sell something new rather than because it was a reasonable design for a firearm but... That still kind of fits doesn't it?

[@Bruced82]

@@aethertech It doesn't fire bullets, it fires caseless gyrojets, could just be stabilizing them. Do we really know what kind of weapon tech there will be in +50 years?

[@aethertech]

@@Bruced82 does it matter what it fires, there's obviously a barrel that rotates in only ONE direction.

[@MrJuanmarin99]

@@aethertech You could build such a weapon with the cannon rotating continuosly. 1/4 of rotation unlock it. 1/4 while reciprocating backward to allow the bullet to feed, another 1/4 as it return back and chamber the bullet and another 1/4 to lock the barrel back in place. The barrer instead of going back and forth between a single rail like this \ would follow a rail with this shape \/ and the reasoning is that you would be able to shape each rail differently to control the movement of the barrel and allow better feeding. But after reading that it shoot gyrojets It make even more sense. Those are small rocket and you want them to spin for stabilization. Instead of shaping the exhaust to make them spin you spin the launcher so the ammo is simpler and cheaper. The reason why not rifling the barrel is harder to explain. Maybe to adjust for different ammo, the case of the rocket is to thin or the rocket hot exhaust damage the rifling.

[@Amexel]

Marcus Lehto, one of the original developers of Halo CE redid the model for the AR not too long ago and also wondered how he’d fit 60 7,62mm rounds in the magazine. The solution he reached was that there would probably be better propellants in the future and that they therefore could shrink the cartridge case enough to fit 60 rounds.

[@Amexel]

He then managed to fit 60 in the magazine of his model by applying this to the size of the catridge cases used.

[@SpottedHares]

or maybe even a more advance feed system that doesn't eat up a lot of volume for a spring.

[@SentyPurr]

Well, spinning may help with cooling the barrel, as those tend to heat up quite significantly while the gun is being fired at full auto.

[@TheBlackBrickStudios]

I actually have, what I believe at least, to be an elegant solution to the inexplicable 'weird gun' problem. In my universe, there are three distinct spheres of influence across the interstellar nation in which my series is set, the government, the corporations, and the underworld. Many of my stories focus on the interplay between these 'macrofactions'. Each macrofaction has smaller factions inside of them that all function differently, but a corporate faction will function more like other corps rather than a government faction. The government/military uses guns that are heavily weighted toward ergonomics and practicality, typically using traditional firearms with a stubby, boxy aesthetic, and use rounds that are easy to produce. This stresses that the military cares more about cost than the lives of their soldiers, that everything the soldier carries into battle is cheap and expendable, so they are as well. The corporations only care about aesthetic. From their uniforms to guns, everything is overdesigned, overengineered garbage that exists to cast an intimidating shadow to scare their employees into conformity, and show off the amount of cash the corporations can flash for their defense. The corporate militia are largely untrained, mostly ceremonial, and possess equipment that barely function, but they look larger than life and intimidating so the populace is scared into order when they are around, kind of like how the Empire is portrayed in Star Wars. And then there is the underworld, and they care about function over everything else. Concealability and effect are paramount to their efforts, so rather than looking overly ornamental or overly utilitarian, the underworld strikes a balance that puts them squarely in the realm of Star Wars/Aliens aesthetic, taking tried and true methods and just adding things to them that make them fit better in a sci-fi universe where different atmospheric contents, and electronic sighting being the norm need to be taken into account. This way, even if a gun is impractical and 'weird', it serves to reinforce the visual language because judging by individual design elements, you can instantly pick out who is using what gun, and what that gun symbolizes.

[@thedysfunctionalbiographer3314]

A real life battle rifle in 7.62x51mm with just 20 or 30 rounds like the FAL, M14 and G3 is quite heavy with untameable recoil in full auto which was why they made way for assault rifles in lighter calibres. Halo is absurd for having an 'assault rifle' that held 60 rounds of 7.62x51 mm in the first game, it'll still be really tough to manage with 32 rounds from Halo 2 onwards.

[@iapetusmccool]

The original _Deus Ex_ also had a 7.63x51mm assault rifle (which I think did less damage per shot than the pistol).

[@MelangeToastCrunch]

Well, the reason is the same reason why “greeble” in general exists in sci-fi. Writers’ general lack of scientific comprehension, unfortunately. Though, I will say, the MA5B can reasonably fit 60 rounds in its mag, if you account for more efficient propellant making for smaller cartridges. There’s a twitter post by Marcus Lehto supporting this very fact.

[@jimmyryan5880]

Greebles are not created by writers.

[@KillerOrca]

Dont forget "Misrah Armories Patented Recoil Dampening System".

[@PaulGuy]

I guarantee that post is just trying to justify designing from a coolness perspective after the fact.

[@SlavGod47]

There are indeed quad-stack magazines that can hold as many rounds irl The thing is that they're very bulky, heavy, and overall unreliable for the most part. Not a problem for Spartans, but very much so for the Marines. 7 30-round mags of 5.56 (standard US Army combat load) is quite considerable - 210 rounds total. So double that count with a heavier cartridge, and you get true misery when carrying it (real why riflemen with bolt actions were given 40-80 rounds of rifle caliber with only stripper clips

[@DarthBiomech]

> Well, the reason is the same reason why “greeble” in general exists in sci-fi. Writers’ general lack of scientific comprehension, unfortunately. Wrong. Greebles exist to make the surface to look detailed and plausible, not because the prop makers have no idea what they're doing.

[@robwebnoid5763]

Love your intro music, I still play Battlezone II (by Pandemic Studios, now defunct), so that music is very iconic. As for sci-weapons, two of them come to mind for me. The first weird-looking weapon I ever saw was the U-shaped stun gun from the 1970's show "Space: 1999". I even had the toy gun for it back then, to which I have no recollection what happened to it, maybe it got thrown away by my parents. The 2nd weapon that will always be iconic for me & for many others, is the BFG from Doom/Quake series of computer games. My favorite rendition of the BFG is from Quake II, it even has that startup sound that resembles a klaxon alarm.

[@TheBlackAndDeckerBootyWrecker]

When the pulse rifle fires, it's sounds like a constipated baby elephant, aggressively trying to squeeze out the mother of all dumps...

[@dustinmorse8497]

1:52 did you say Master Chef? Gordon Ramsay is getting extra mad.

[@Azraiel213]

I mean, a lot of tech in Continuum clearly has some kind of limited nanotech base. I never assumed that Kiera's crazy cool sidearm simply collapsed, more like it *rebuilt* itself on command?

[@DaraGaming42]

its Nano tech which is basicly magic in Sci Fi

[@mellovelo701]

Deep Rising: bad guys sport micro miniguns, basically assault rifles with 6 rotating barrels.

[@MrGatya2]

You get an upvote for bringing back battlezone 2 nostalgia in me with your opening music :)

[@jonathangodin4775]

I am insanely dissapointed that when talking about the chiapa rhino you didnt show a picture of miller. I know how much you guys love the expanse and he uses a almost 100% original version of it. Basically just has a paint job

[@shakehandswithdanger7882]

Fits the character and the world so well

[@heathb4319]

If you want to know how they stuff more ammo into a magazine... Look into Metal Storm ammunition. It was featured on Future Weapons, Discovery, and a few other shows about 15 years ago and then got real quiet when it was realized what all could be done with it.

[@michaelwoods2672]

Yes because they realised what could be done with it was essentially nothing 😉 I'm joking, mostly, of course. I'm sure there may, possibly, be some application for the technology in the future, perhaps shooting down small and very hard to hit drones by just smacking a huge number of rounds at them. But, generally speaking, it was a bit of a gimmick weapon.

[@Elydo]

@@michaelwoods2672 A lot of people saw the Metal Storm tech and thought "What a badass infantry gun that'd be. (See: Crysis 3)" it seems, when most of the actual test weapons I ever heard of were for crew-served/vehicle-mounted grenade launchers that could saturate an area for suppression like a mini MLRS. Though there was a military scifi book that had 120mm versions mounted on tanks to deal with the sheer numbers of enemies humanity was having to deal with. The noise and shaking of firing made the crew physically nauseous.

[@scienceguy8]

For anyone curious but not curious enough to search, imagine 50 musket barrels attached side by side and up and down. Inside each barrel is a powder charge and a bullet, and then more powder charges and bullets stacked on top. Electronic firing mechanisms on the sides of the barrel would fire the top most layer of bullets, then the next and the next and the next, creating a fast firing wall of metal. The idea was to shoot down incoming missiles or mortars, or to pepper light armor with so much metal that it just broke by a thousand cuts. Last I heard, they had problems with the topmost charge forcing the next charge backwards down the barrel, causing damage and/or unintentional discharge.

[@michaelwoods2672]

@@Elydo That's what the military tried (as that's what metal storm was, although I suspect it was really just an excuse to generate hype with ultra-impressive RPM figures to secure funding) but you'll notice it's not something they ever took beyond the trying stage. There are simply more practical, better proven and more effective ways of achieving those same goals with existing designs or different new ones. As I say, I'm not ruling out an application here and there in the future but was definitely a bit of a gimmick.

[@michaelwoods2672]

@@Elydo I possibly don't know what I'm talking about, as I've never read that, but those tank versions would also sound like a bit of a gimmick to me. Putting aside practical concerns of how you would actually reload such a system form inside the tank any quicker than individual shells, the advantages of a metal storm system would be a sort of "lead-laser" that's not really appropriate for hitting multiple targets as it's only "on" for a fraction of a second. I guess it would work if they where actually rockets not shells, or smart shells that could veer off target, but then I'm not sure I see the advantage of firing them all at once Vs one at a time; considering you are presumably having to load them one at a time. Metal storm systems would utterly suck for area saturation, despite what people tend to assume, because they actually fire *too* fast so unless they are mounted on something moving very, very quickly (i.e not a tank) you're basically just wasting ammo by hitting the same spot over and over again.

[@scottofcanes]

Regarding Mass Effect: there was a codex entry in ME1 stating that the guns themselves shaved off atoms of a singular metal slug housed in the weapon and then used the sci-fi gimmick that is the title to change the mass into heavier projectiles. The in-lore justification for why Mass Effect 1 had no "reloading" and only had "cooldowns" for weapons was that if you shot too much they would overheat the heatsink and you would need to wait as there was a shutoff to prevent overheat damage. For Mass Effect 2 the change to a manual reload was justified in-lore by having the heat-sink manually get replaced. That's the reason pistols and anti-material rifles uses the same cylindrical insert called thermal clips. However, the gameplay does not actually follow its own justifications as if you reload early you don't actually lose the entire thermal clip worth of firepower. Of course, the likely reason that Mass Effect 1 had that system/lore was because it was extremely similar to Dragon Age Origins. Technically ME1 was a thirdperson shooter with some extra stuff, but it felt more like DA:O where you cast space/magic or your engineering bombs or the weapon perks like Carnage on the shotguns and then you shoot the same way you might allow auto-attacks to happen until the fun stuff cools down. And of course, ME2 was likely that way because Biow-EA-r wanted to push sales by having more cover-shooting and less tactical RPG mechanics.

[@nathanieljackson5554]

The Lawguvier in Dredd is my favorite sci-fi gun with it's multiple types of ammo packed into a gun thats smaller than some machine guns.

[@WitchesAndRayGuns]

I have no proof for this, but... There's a gun mention in 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' which is specifically designed to LOOK threatening, so it has spikes all over the end you point at the enemy, so they know they're looking at the bad end of it and get scared. As I said, no evidence that the people on 'Fifth Element' were Adams fans when they were designing that rifle, but that MIGHT be why it has spikes all over the front.

[@milamberarial]

It probably has spikes because the guy using it put spikes on it. They were probably just glued or welded on.

[@lentlemenproductions770]

@@milamberarial all it takes is someone who wants a bayonet and isn’t really sure what a bayonet is.

[@milamberarial]

@@lentlemenproductions770 I can easily see that particular character using the spikes to beat someone to death. Probably for a cookie or something.

[@WitchesAndRayGuns]

@@milamberarial Looks more like a moulding. The entire collar was moulded as one piece, with spikes. But yeah, it's a design feature.

[@milamberarial]

@@WitchesAndRayGuns Eh, you might be right. It makes just as much sense that a company in that world is making guns for guys like that. And thus spikes.

[@Qantravon]

I think the Bedrosian spear guns were supposed to suggest a historical connection back to jaffa staff weapons. Like, when the goa'uld left and the people started making their own weapons, they kind of just assumed that's how they should be shaped and nobody ever fully corrected it. Personally, I think the weirdest part about those is how they apparently have a dedicated function as keys for those electro-cages. Are they really capturing people in cages so much that their standard-issue weapon needs to double as a key?

[@grahambloodworth4770]

One has to admire the M56 smart gun makes good use of the balanced video rig harness, motorbike brake and throttle lever.

[@ChrisTay229]

Maybe the barrel spins so that the kicking force of the compensator is averaged out over the course of the magazine and evenly distributed

[@aleksanderolbrych9157]

Hey I love the guns in Ressurection, they perfectly fit the movie's dark comedic tone. Where does the bullet go - Is there even a bullet if they're "shock rifles" ? Woeful ergonomics and lack of sights are extremely common in sci-fi firearms.

[@Immanatum]

Morita from Starship Troopers, G11 from Demolisher Man, whole bunch of weapons from Chrome, Unreal Tournament is an epic example of extremely hilarious weapons, Half Life - damn - every Sci fi game has it.

[@hoojiwana]

The Morita is in the category of "real gun inside a shell". It always amuses me that the big starship pilot is the only person in the film to actually shoulder it when he fires, even though it has no sights. - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@Dhips.]

The G11 is real, my guy. It never made it to mass production, but it's real.

[@Immanatum]

@@Dhips. so P90 is real too, but looked very unusual at that time)

[@Dhips.]

@@Immanatum The comment implied to me Sci-Fi guns, as in not real guns. I was just stating the G11 being real and not a gun made for Demo Man. I agree the P90 still looks futuristic even after being around for 30 or so years. Same for the AUG and that thing is from the damn 70's lol.

[@al28854]

1:51 I guess Master Chef forgot to wear his white mushroom hat to battle.

[@icyknightmare4592]

If you want weird guns, human and alien, look no further than the original Perfect Dark for N64. Of particular interest is the Laptop Gun, which is a combination laptop PC and an SMG that can be deployed as an auto turret. The Dragon AR, that doubles as a proximity mine, and the RCP120, a P90 style SMG that can consume its own ammo to power a cloaking device. Also fragmentation grenades that can turn into proximity detonated pinball explosives.

[@Reddotzebra]

Also the Farsight, a liquid metal mass driver with wall hacking capabilities.

[@rfletch62]

I think B5's PPG pistols and rifles were well done, with a limit on the number of rounds that could be fired before the capacitor had to be swopped out, and the heat distortion around each round fired.

[@stamfordly6463]

On the other hand the larger pulse-carbine weapons had no stocks which made them look awkward and unintuitive to shoot.

[@jmneo4635]

That Guy on "The fifth element" with spikes on his gun is to prevent it from being grabbed. In fact all those weird modifications are the ways in which he experienced being dis-armed and his guns are collected on that hidden basket.

[@Draliseth]

The terminator shotgun actually was modified specifically for flip cocking by having a larger loop for the fingers. Supposedly Arnold almost messed up his hand by attempting it with a stock model without realizing it.

[@vandabo]

Deckard's pistol in Blade Runner is a classic example of using parts of a gun that make no sense together: The receiver of a bolt action rifle and the frame and barrel of a revolver. It definitely looks cool though.

[@Lumberjackk]

Hell yea! Tho my own theory is that the bolt action part is to load either plasma, taser or buckshot shells into the weapon