Fallout: New Vegas guide blog update, shots

[Faceless Stranger]

Meh, a lot of guns in the original Fallouts were based on real or known weapons, slightly altered. And sometimes they fucked it up, too (*cough* bozar *cough*).

Some were also completely ridiculous. Like a shotgun based on a russian SMG

 

[Lexx]

The ram skull is not part of the tesla armor. Just someone using it instead of the proper helmet.

On somethingawful, Sawyer wrote "o i see you found a picture of me " so I'll guess the someone is Sawyers character. :>

 

[Gaspard]

The ram skull is not part of the tesla armor. Just someone using it instead of the proper helmet.

Couldn't it be part of the Viper Raiders' bone armor ? Or are they not included in NV, they were in Van Buren if I'm not wrong...

 

[Mr Fish]

The ram skull is not part of the tesla armor. Just someone using it instead of the proper helmet.

On somethingawful, Sawyer wrote "o i see you found a picture of me " so I'll guess the someone is Sawyers character. :>

>_>
Sawyer ain't got the best sense for fashion..

 

[your evil twin]

The Gaussrifle has a crank, because it's based on the Lahti L39 anti-tank rifle (which has some kind of a crank on the right side) and the modelers didn't think about it that much

It's pretty obvious where they got their inspiration

Hah, interesting!

I've got to say, they did choose an interesting relatively unknown weapon to base the gauss rifle on, so I do have to give Bethesda a bit of Kudos there.

It also explains where they got the idea for the massive box magazine - the L39 had a huge magazine because it had ten 20mm rounds. For the gauss rifle, they turned that idea on its head and had it instead contain a thousand classic 2mm rounds! (Plausible if you assume that 2mm rounds are very short as well as very thin, possibly like tiny ball bearings rather than needles.)

As for the purpose of the crank, I figured there were two possible functions:

1) A sort of release for removing/inserting the huge magazine on the right hand side. (It looks to me like that might have been its original purpose on the L39 too.)

2) A means of removing the power source assembly for maintenence. To actually access the chamber that the energy cells get inserted into.

The only thing that seemed stupid to me about the Anchorage gauss rifle was the microfusion cell. Especially since posters showed Chinese using it and the Chinese didn't have microfusion. (Even Europe didn't have microfusion as far as I know.) The Electron Charge Pack for the Gatling Laser would have been a better choice. And would have matched the EC bit of "2mmEC" which was the old Fallout 2 ammo type.

Also, one shot per reload seemed a bit silly, since each shot only used up one unit of microfusion ammo. The energy cells for laser and plasma weapons can hold 10, 12 or even 24 units of energy, but the identical looking one for gauss rifle can only hold one energy unit? I hope they've fixed that in New Vegas.

 

[DexterMorgan]

I've got to say, they did choose an interesting relatively unknown weapon to base the gauss rifle on, so I do have to give Bethesda a bit of Kudos there.

Because inserting slightly tweaked WW2 weapons into Fallout is a kudos-worthy achievement.

It also explains where they got the idea for the massive box magazine - the L39 had a huge magazine because it had ten 20mm rounds. For the gauss rifle, they turned that idea on its head and had it instead contain a thousand classic 2mm rounds! (Plausible if you assume that 2mm rounds are very short as well as very thin, possibly like tiny ball bearings rather than needles.)

Not only would the massive magazine placed laterally completely debalance a hand-held precision weapon, it's also completely pointless if you can just as easily store the required ammo in the buttstock or just about anywhere on the gun (if it's only holding bullets with the energy source placed separately).

As for the purpose of the crank, I figured there were two possible functions:

1) A sort of release for removing/inserting the huge magazine on the right hand side. (It looks to me like that might have been its original purpose on the L39 too.)

2) A means of removing the power source assembly for maintenence. To actually access the chamber that the energy cells get inserted into.

The crank on the original gun was used to cock the weapon and was used because the action is exceptionally long and a small crank on an already massive weapon that can only be fired when deployed doesn't hinder the operator in any way.

Magazine release? Give me a break. 2) makes a bit more sense except the maintenance tool would not be permanently attached to the gun. Also, the crank can't actually be turned while the magazine is in place (because it's in the way).

Also, when adapting the weapon to a more manageable size all they did was shrink the original model without paying attention to the fact that the butt-stock length needs to stay pretty much the same - this variant practically has no butt-stock (having been lost in the shrink process) - first sniper rifle I've seen that doesn't have one.

Now let me explain the kudos-worthy design process to you as it happened over at Beth HQ.

1) Leaf through gun encyclopedia for an obscure gun.

2) Pick a WW2 anti-tank rifle because it's the obvious choice for the base model for the pinnacle of weapon technology in the future. (it even has a crank! awesome retro!)

3) Shrink it to hand-held size paying absolutely no attention to weapon ergonomy.

3) Slap some electromagnets around the barrel.

4) Slap on a scope because it's supposed to be a sniper rifle, move the magazine to the side because the scope has to be on top of course.

5) Rely on fans to retcon an explanation for your lack of creativity.

...

Profit!

 

[Hassknecht]

Also, as a magazine release, the crank totally sucks. It's on the same side as the magazine, so you can't really remove the magazine without putting it on the ground.
They should have added the Lahti without modifications as a huge power-armor-requiring uberheavy gun.