An Elegant Weapon From A More Civilized Age: The MACHINE GUN set

[AspieAnarchy]

For anybody who's ever looked at the existing options and thought, "gee, can't I just have a gun...?":

 

MACHINE GUN (Ranged)

Available to: Blasters, Defenders, Corrupters, Sentinels

Set Color: Iron-on-Lead

 

The Machine Gun is for the ballistic purist who shuns cumbersome combo-weapons, weird technology, and pseudomystical antics; just good old-fashioned bullets, fired in whatever quantity and pattern the situation demands. Your weapon lacks a sniper feature and doesn’t do as much raw damage as more “super” powersets, but offers an exceptional breadth of effective cone attacks, and its streamlined design (plus your skill with it) improves its accuracy and speed relative to most other Ranged sets.

 

1) Single Shot – as Arachnos Soldier*

 

2) Burst – as Assault Rifle*

 

3) Heavy Burst – as Arachnos Soldier*

 

4) Suppressive Barrage (Blaster, Corrupter) – a ranged cone attack that knocks down and/or stuns.

Damage: Minor Lethal (DoT) Recharge: Slow

OR

Cover Fire (Defender, Sentinel) – a ranged cone attack that briefly provides nearby allies with increased defense.

Damage: Minor (Defender)/Moderate (Sentinel) Lethal (DoT) Recharge: Medium

 

5) Aim

 

6) Floorsweeper (Blaster, Defender) – Aiming low and firing in a very wide arc not only wounds enemies in the area, but leaves them slowed and frightened.

Damage: Moderate Lethal Recharge: Medium

OR

Dirty Shot (Corrupter, Sentinel) – This underhanded attack both knocks down and immobilizes a single target, and leaves it in such acute pain that its defense and damage resistance are both significantly compromised.

Damage: High Lethal Recharge: Moderate

 

7) Piercing Rounds – as Dual Pistols*

 

😎 Coffin Nails – You riddle a single unfortunate mark with a focused battery of bullets; any target that somehow survives will be left so shredded as to suffer a severe debuff to damage resistance, and probably stunned as well.

Damage: Extreme Lethal (DoT) Recharge: Medium

 

9) Full Auto – as Assault Rifle*

 

* = Same mechanically, but not necessarily in appearance, and bearing in mind the adjusted base values as outlined in the description.

 

Example Character Concept: The Unrepentant Johnny Piombo! (Roguish Machine Gun/Traps Natural Corrupter)

Edited February 15 by AspieAnarchy
colored AT names referenced within set-body; color-coded attack damage-types; fixed miscolored power names

[srmalloy]

3 hours ago, AspieAnarchy said:

Your weapon lacks a sniper feature

GySgt Carlos Hathcock takes exception to this. The third-longest sniper shot in history, and the longest in the USMC, was a single-round headshot at 2,500 yards using an M2HB .50 caliber machine gun in February 1967. The Marines used the M2HB as a sniper weapon beginning in Korea and continuing through Vietnam. The current record stands at 3,540 meters, not with a machine gun, but still with a .50.

[Rudra]

Just as a comment about actual machineguns, they can't fire single shots. At least no machinegun I know of can. I would recommend changing Single Shot to Short Burst, leaving everything else about that power the same. So still single target, still low damage as the T1, and so forth.

[0th Power]

19 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Just as a comment about actual machineguns, they can't fire single shots. 

 

yes they can, depending on the firearm.

Edited June 14, 2023 by 0th Power

[Rudra]

11 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

 

yes they can, depending on the firearm.

A machinegun, not an assault rifle? A squad support weapon, bipod/tripod mounted, chain fed, machinegun? Color me very surprised.

[0th Power]

Machine gun is a loosely defined term, just like assault rifle.  Machine gun, as it is being referred too here in the suggestion by the OP seems to refer to a fully automatic carbine or rifle, not a firearm that is on a mount.  That being said, a fully automatic firearm will fire until the trigger is released.  So if you release it before the 2nd round is fired (which may or may not be humanly possible), you would fire only one shot.  

 

 

[Rudra]

I would argue that the term machinegun is instead being misapplied to things like assault rifles by those that don't know what a machinegun is. (And no, you can't single fire an actual machinegun unless you're the Flash or other similar speedster with the reflexes to do so. [Edit again: And not even then with some machineguns because of how those specific ones operate.]) If we're going with the misapplied term though? Sure, my argument is moot because we are actually talking assault rifles, just misidentified. And assault rifles can be single shot fired. If that is the case though, the argument becomes "we already have the assault rifle set, so why do we need another assault rifle set". (Though for that argument, there is the counter-argument that the proposed set is strictly an assault rifle and not a multi-tool assault rifle.)

 

...

 

Okay, change my recommendation to either changing the T1 to Short Burst or renaming the set Battle Rifle to avoid confusion with Assault Rifle.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Rudra
Edited to correct "singe" to "single".

[0th Power]

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

(And no, you can't single fire an actual machinegun unless you're the Flash or other similar speedster with the reflexes to do so.)

source?

 

If the rate of fire was on the low end it is entirely possible.  500 rounds per minute would be 8.3 per second which would mean every 1 shot every .12 seconds.  Most people with some practice could fire off a single shot (depending on trigger pull weight and length).  Get much more than that, I would agree that it is not possible without super reflexes, but saying can't for any machine gun would be wrong.

[0th Power]

13 minutes ago, Rudra said:

renaming the set Battle Rifle to avoid confusion

Check out my sig 😉

[Rudra]

7 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

source?

I don't have my firearms guide any more. So I can't provide it. Sorry.

 

7 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

If the rate of fire was on the low end it is entirely possible. 

I have a hard time picturing it as possible, but I can at least cede that slower machineguns maybe can, though I'm not aware of a machinegun (rather than a rifle) that fires less than 650.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Rudra
Edited to add missing "maybe can".

[Rudra]

1 minute ago, 0th Power said:

Check out my sig 😉

Yeah, I noticed that after I posted. Had to stop myself from faceplanting into my desk when I saw it, because it is a short leap to think that is where I got the set name from instead of that being what assault rifles were originally called.

[biostem]

4 hours ago, Rudra said:

Just as a comment about actual machineguns, they can't fire single shots.

Soldiers are trained to carefully control their trigger pulls, as opposed to relying upon some in-built mechanism to limit how many rounds are fired.  While getting only a single shot out of an M60 or SAW may be difficult, it isn't impossible.  Since we are in a fantastical setting, it is certainly feasible that our characters would possess the skill to get off only a single round, if they so desired...

Edited June 14, 2023 by biostem

[Rudra]

5 minutes ago, biostem said:

Soldiers are trained to carefully control their trigger pulls, as opposed to relying upon some in-built mechanism to limit how many rounds are fired.  While getting only a single shot out of an M60 or SAW may be difficult, it isn't impossible.  Since we are in a fantastical setting, it is certainly feasible that our characters would possess the skill to get off only a single round, if they so desired...

Show me a clip or source where a human being can fire a single shot from a M60 or other LMG. (There is a reason why I was willing to concede speedy characters, but not normal human "supers" which are also played in the game. Show me it is possible, not just theoretical, and I will be happy to concede normal humans can too.)

[biostem]

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Show me a clip or source where a human being can fire a single shot from a M60 or other LMG. (There is a reason why I was willing to concede speedy characters, but not normal human "supers" which are also played in the game. Show me it is possible, not just theoretical, and I will be happy to concede normal humans can too.)

Irrelevant - it is physically possible, and we are talking about a superhero game.  Show me a clip where a person is throwing ice beams out of their hands IRL that freeze targets, who then recover with no ill effects after a few seconds.  Do you realize how silly that sounds?

Edited June 14, 2023 by biostem

[AspieAnarchy]

RE the (surprising, to me!) "Single Shot" controversy:

 

All I know for sure is Arachnos guns can do it. Surely that's justification enough?

[Rudra]

Just now, biostem said:

Irrelevant - it is physically possible, and we are talking about a superhero game.  Show me a clip where a person is throwing ice beams out of their hands that free targets, who then recover with no ill effects after a few seconds.  Do you realize how silly that sounds?

I'm discussing a machinegun, which actually exists, and which the proposed power set is trying to emulate. In a game where both super powered and unpowered characters run around saving the day or committing super acts of villainy. And while yes a great many powered characters could do something like that, I contend we also have to account for the unpowered characters also in the game that will also be using the set.

 

Or the argument can be tabled by changing the name from Machinegun to Battle Rifle, since that seems to be what the author is actually portraying.

[Rudra]

1 minute ago, AspieAnarchy said:

RE the (surprising, to me!) "Single Shot" controversy:

 

All I know for sure is Arachnos guns can do it. Surely that's justification enough?

They're firing semi-automatic weapons with burst fire capability.

[AspieAnarchy]

8 hours ago, srmalloy said:

GySgt Carlos Hathcock takes exception to this. The third-longest sniper shot in history, and the longest in the USMC, was a single-round headshot at 2,500 yards using an M2HB .50 caliber machine gun in February 1967. The Marines used the M2HB as a sniper weapon beginning in Korea and continuing through Vietnam. The current record stands at 3,540 meters, not with a machine gun, but still with a .50.

This is interesting; I'd be willing to replace Aim with a Sniper attack.

I guess I thought sniper rifles were supposed to be kinda special.

[srmalloy]

4 hours ago, Rudra said:

A machinegun, not an assault rifle? A squad support weapon, bipod/tripod mounted, chain fed, machinegun? Color me very surprised.

M2HB .50 caliber machine gun: "To select single shot, ensure the bolt latch release lock is in the unlocked position, turned to the right. The bolt latch release must be in the up position (not locked down)."

 

DTIC (Defense Technical Information Center) Document AD-A169 944, "Training Effectiveness Analysis: M60 Machinegun and Squad Automatic Weapon" Page 5: "Firing at long range targets commenced with single shot firing and the firing of groups of single shots." Page 26: "Initial firing is conducted on a 25-meter range, using single shots to develop tight shot groups before firing bursts of four rounds."

[biostem]

Just now, Rudra said:

I'm discussing a machinegun, which actually exists, and which the proposed power set is trying to emulate. In a game where both super powered and unpowered characters run around saving the day or committing super acts of villainy. And while yes a great many powered characters could do something like that, I contend we also have to account for the unpowered characters also in the game that will also be using the set.

 

Or the argument can be tabled by changing the name from Machinegun to Battle Rifle, since that seems to be what the author is actually portraying.

You do realize that none of the projectile weapon sets are accurate, right?  Do you ever see our characters reload?  Where's all the ammo?  It's called suspension of disbelief, and a powerset need only be feasible, not correct to real-world equivalents.

[srmalloy]

5 minutes ago, AspieAnarchy said:

This is interesting; I'd be willing to replace Aim with a Sniper attack.

I guess I thought sniper rifles were supposed to be kinda special.

Hathcock did mount his normal scope to the top of the M2, but it was otherwise a stock weapon.

 

Many nationalities simply took a standard rifle and mounted a scope on it for their sniper weapon; the Germans used the Kar98k in WWII, and its predecessor the Gewehr 98 in WWI, the US used the M1903 through into Vietnam, the Canadians used the MkIII Ross, the British tried to make one from the L8 Enfield, but it didn't work well, etc.

Edited June 14, 2023 by srmalloy

[Rudra]

3 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

M2HB .50 caliber machine gun: "To select single shot, ensure the bolt latch release lock is in the unlocked position, turned to the right. The bolt latch release must be in the up position (not locked down)."

 

DTIC (Defense Technical Information Center) Document AD-A169 944, "Training Effectiveness Analysis: M60 Machinegun and Squad Automatic Weapon" Page 5: "Firing at long range targets commenced with single shot firing and the firing of groups of single shots." Page 26: "Initial firing is conducted on a 25-meter range, using single shots to develop tight shot groups before firing bursts of four rounds."

That works for me. Thanks,

[AspieAnarchy]

Shall I just bring a proper military authority in here...?