HMG

[janev]

We need to decide if we want a minigun with spinning barrels or a single barrel machinegun. I could go either way but the machinegun route would probably lead to a more unique design.
http://world.guns.ru/machine-e.html

[Viech]

Played a bit with some single barrel guns from that site, here is the result (again just a source for inspiration):

[alexbo]

So have you debated on the single/several canon?
And about the rest as well.
Give me a summary and I'll work on it.

[Viech]

We discussed this briefly on IRC once more. Here is the summary:

Heavy Machine Gun (formerly "Chaingun") positive requirements:

• Has a single barrel.

• Is heavy but portable, can be fired while standing by a strong human (leads to a high spread due to heavy recoil though).

• Uses 21st century catridge ammunition (just like the SMG/Rifle, does same damage so no overly large caliber).

• Has a double drum magazine or similiarly big ammo carrier (it will have ca. 300 shots) attached to its body.

• Has a buttstock and is held like a regular assault rifle.

• The right hand is at a rifle like trigger. The left hand attaches to a handle below the barrel.

Negative requirements:

• Does not have a scope or other targeting unit beyond irionsights.

• Does not need to attach to armor and does not require an external ammo supply.

Optional features:

• May have another unused handle at the top which could be used to carry it.

• May have a bipod (same image) at the tip of the barrel.

Design outline:

• Just like our Shotgun and our SMG/Rifle to-be, the gun comes from the near future but it uses the (reliable, established) design of 21st century weapons.

• Our default human weapon ("Rifle") will be something in the realm of a SMG or compact assault rifle (medium precision and high rate of fire). The Lasgun will play the role of a full assault rifle (high precision and medium rate of fire). This new weapon should play the role of a portable heavy machine gun (very low precision and very high rate of fire).

• Shooting the gun should create the impression of applying reckless, exaggerated force. You should feel like this dude.

If you feel unsure about any positive requirement have a look at the mashup in my last post, it fulfils all of them (your concept shouldn't be any lighter than this though, while slightly heavier is an option).

[alexbo]

So I wasn't too far off in most respects.

I'm on it.

[alexbo]

How about this direction?

[kharnov]

Would there be a way to make it look and feel bulkier?

[Viech]

Alex, I like this direction a lot. I don't agree that the gun needs to look much bulkier.

What I like about your concept:

• The buttstock, it has an appropriate size and nice looks.

• The area above the trigger.

• The drum magazine. I guess the size is fine. (I would not make it wider since that implies big rounds which means low ammo and hight damage per shot, which is both not the case. If you feel like making it bigger just make it higher, but I don't find that necessary.)

• The area directly in front of the magazine.

Things that I'd change:

• The trigger as such is fine but the grip could be a bit more ergonomic.

• The handle is nice but it folds out in the wrong direction: The recoil would lead to the grip folding back up again. Make it so that the handle unfolds counter-clockwise and ends at the magazine when it is folded up (you could remove the small beveled extension to make space for it).

• The tip of the barrel does not really look modern/futuristic.

• The gun lacks usable ironsights. I'd propose to add some simple notch on top of the white area above the trigger, make the front sight extend a bit higher and move the carrying handle (which looks nice) a bit out of the center. (Have a look at how real world machine guns have the carrying handle outsight of the aiming area.)

Cron, I disagree with most of your proposed changes. The wider magazine doesn't really improve the looks and creates a wrong impression (read above). The handle is too close to the magazine and can't really be used. The buttstock isn't long enough anymore. Visually, I prefer Alex' carrying handle.

I do see your point that the gun is slightly too long. However, the only area I would shorten is the area between trigger and magazine. If necessary, the magazine can move much closer to the trigger. Everything else should stay as long as it is now, I guess Alex got most of the proportions quite right.

[alexbo]

Thanks Viech that's some very clear directions! That's how I like it.

[Viech]

It looks like we'd be losing the 'crouch to aim better' mechanic - was this planned intentionally?

No, there is no need to drop this mechanic. Instead, I'd like to see that for all guns with recoil. (I would like to rework weapon handling altogether in the future.)

It also appears that 'shoulder butt' really serves no purpose - it gets hidden by the player's shoulder.

Thanks for the hint, this shouldn't really happen. The question though is, whether the mass driver gun model is bad or just the animation.

For the new machine gun, I tried to compare it to an assault rifle:

It seems like the buttstock could indeed be a tad shorter. I'm not entirely sure whether it would be best to shorten at A, B or C but I have a tendency towards removing the area with the three stripes on A as well as the left tube on B. Area D could be shortened a bit for visual reasons. I made a rough sketch of both (and also visualized how I image the handle to fold):