Weapons you may never have heard of or imagined (some research ideal for UFO:AI)

[Avimimus]

Hello,

For another project I had to do some research and I ran across a number of rather neat looking and unusual weapon developments. I've selected a few of these which could have useful gameplay roles.

I'm posting this research here as some of these weapons could usefully expand tactical choices in the early campaign. All of these weapons have been built and some have seen service.

Check out the links for videos and some statistics (I can find more if wanted).


1. Russian Pribor-3B Meroka/Nordenfelt three barrelled 7.62mm assault rifle:
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Pribor-3B
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?109590-Pribor-3B-Meroka-Carbine
    
Characteristics:
- The weapon is very heavy, has low rate of fire compared to assault rifles (semi-automatic with high-recoil).
- However, each firing is more accurate than an assault rifle in "burst" mode and is superior at medium ranges.
- Only one fire mode is available. Lower range than sniper rifle. Larger magazine than most weapons.

Additional info:
- 1400 to 1800RPM semi-automatic burst with one bullet fired from each of the 3 barrels.
- Developed in the 1960s but is impractical for use against humans.
- Looks like it was designed to fight aliens (and could be useful in this role).




2.Russian TTX 80.002 SxS AK-74 derived 5.45mm/12.7mm Combination gun:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5629.0/highlight,12+7mm+ak.html
http://militaryclub.narod.ru/war/pers.htm

Characteristics:
- AK-74 fire mode as normal assault rifle (with good armour penetrating ammunition options).
- Secondary 12.7mm semi-automatic carbine for superior point-blank stopping power / armour penetration.
- Would weigh more than assault rifles but have a short range alternate fire mode that could be quickly selected.




3. Russian GM-94 43mm Pump-action Grenade launcher:
http://world.guns.ru/grenade/gl27-e.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOMMozYzt0g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dncEBuDee-k

Characteristics:
- Lighter weight than the rotary grenade launcher and possibly a flatter trajectory.
- Self-consuming thermobaric grenade option can be safely fired at 10 metres from the target & indoors.
- Only 4 rounds prior to reloading (also lower rate of fire compared to the rotary grenade launcher).




4. Croatian RT-20 recoilless 20mm anti-material rifle:
http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn56-e.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx7AfAyEies

Characteristics:
- Far superior damage to the sniper rifle.
- Able to engage in reactive fire (unlike the rocket launcher).
- Only a single shot can be fired prior to reloading.




5. American M202 Flash Grenadier 66mm four-barrelled incendiary rocket launcher:
http://www.inetres.com/gp/military/infantry/flame/M202.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFU7o3IAaM

Characteristics:
- Alternate two and four round burst fire modes
- Less accurate than heavy rocket (bombarding an area)
- Greater parabolic trajectory
- Uses up ammunition very quickly

S!

-Avimimus

[Hertzila]

1. Anybody who has played Duke Nukem 3D has involuntarily heard of the this Nordenfelt gun and I agree that it looks exotic and thus would be an interesting design choice. However, since this is supposed to be hard scifi and as such weapons should be sensible (ie. have a reason to exist), I would rather use it on something that to begin with has a limited fire rate (no point in using such thing for an AR as it already has good RPS, for a sniper rifle I'd think that would be a bit too inaccurate): Nordenfelt Coil Gun or Nordenfelt Rail Gun; or if we need a completely new firing method: Nordenfelt Gauss Gun. Weights a ton but at medium range such a thing would be devastating.

I'd also recommend a slow reload per round (supposing that only three rounds can be loaded at one time in the gun) and a firing mode to fire each of them in quick succession (or at the same time). This would make it normally a good single shot weapon but in emergency you could fire all barrels to quickly deal with the enemy. Drawback would be that you would need to spend a lot of the next turn (or practically all of it) reloading to have the weapon at three rounds again (if possible, you could make it so that pressing the reload button loads only one round). (As a side note, a lot of text for one gun)

E: Alternatively, have a magazine of 9 or 12 rounds (3-4 / barrel) and make the 3-burst mode a normal use for it. This would make it more like a late-game projectile battle rifle (I'd say it should be based off coil tech). Reload costly, similar to rocket launcher. (I think this is the most interesting design of these, hence the amount of text)

2. This seems kinda useful (jack of two trades, master of none) as a stand-alone weapon, but if modding weapons (rails and such stuff) is allowed that 12.7mm gun would rock as an optional underhand weapon.

3. Make this an underhand weapon and it's good.

4. No opinion.

5. This would be nice to see.

PS. Devs have said that human weaponry is pretty full, so not much can be added to it, if anything.


Welcome to the forums!

[TrashMan]

Good to keep this in mind for the MORE WEAPONZ thread/mod.

Now, I really can't comment on most of those, as I don't know much about them. Should do some reading. The only one I do know is the RT-20. The croatian army used it a lot in the war, to great sucess. It's helluva powerful. Uses Hispano 20x110mm ammo.

[Larthalalyss]

Did I miss it somewhere or has a gauss cannon been suggested?  Apologies if it has.  We have the portable railguns for tactical combat, but how about for base defense or on an aircraft.  Probably be like the aerial laser and base defense laser, where it only becomes research-able after researching the bolter rifle.  Thanks for listening.

[Hertzila]

IIRC the gauss gun has not been mentioned or suggested (in other places than my post up there ^^^). A shame in a way, for high powered single-shots that tech would rock AFAIK. I don't think it would allow for very high rate of fire but still it could be usable in low ROF weapons (like that Nordenfelt up there, 100/barrel would equal a ROF of 300).
For base defense/aircrafts it would be excellent to launch a single, very powerful projectile (eg. launching a pre-accelerated missile) but with a sucky ROF.

[AFAIK] Rail gun tech wouldn't be that great for base defense or on aircraft I'm afraid. The corrosion of the rails would be too severe and need too much maintenance. Gauss gun and coilgun would both have the exact same benefit of a railgun (very high speed projectile launching) without the maintenance hassle. Gauss gun would be in the extreme of "high power, low ROF" while coilgun would be more in the middle. Railgun could potentially have gauss' power with good ROF but the rails would corrode extra fast. [/AFAIK]

[Larthalalyss]

Sounds good, I was just thinking since doing research on one level, seemed a bit odd to not have it on the larger scale was all.  I am by no means a modern weapons expert, better at talking about swords and polearms.  *laughs*  If I think of anything else, I'll endeavor to suggest it along with some research.  Thanks for the follow-up.

[Sarin]

1. Old good DN3D...but this is impractical concept.
2. Too heavy and bulky for use as AR, won't work well
3. Could work as some kind of secondary weapon
4. If you read UFOpaedia, you'd notice that Sniper Rifle is 20mm. I guess recoil dampening technology is developed by 2084, since this caliber gives helova kick. But the general idea-a really big gun-is sound, but to make it real useful the game would need prone position to be implemented, ability to pierce walls, and IR scopes to see inside of building.
5. Weirdo thing. AP capabilites of such weapon are actually low, but against infantry it can work well...but it is weapon with high collateral damage, I doubt that something like that would be authorized to use in areas with civilians.

[TrashMan]

What? The sniper rifle in UFO:AI is 20mm??

Looks too small for it. IMHO, if I were writing description for UFO weapons, the assault rifle would use regular, not caseless ammo (30 clip and design don't look like caseless) and the sniper rifle would have a smaller caliber.