Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth
I think that only really holds for TLs 7 and 8, speaking historically. Late TL5 guns like the Martini-Henry are a bit more powerful than early TL5 guns, which are more powerful than earlier TL4 guns, and of course TL6 smokeless rifles are a hefty step up from late TL5.
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A Martini-Henry, etc. are about as powerful as an M16 or AK-47. A .30-06 or 8.x57mm Mauser is more powerful than all of these. All are or were normal issue service rifles of their time.
Power and 'damage' of these sorts of weapons don't follow TLs, and they are the type of weapons shown in UT. The same goes for pistols (though the UT pistols are pretty powerful), where caplock revolvers could have plenty of power. What changes are things like weight and ammo capacity, though the magazine sizes in UT for some of the pistols are questionable given their small bulk in my opinion (small bulk implies grip magazines, and with the bore sizes given that magazines capacities given aren't going to fit within a pistol grip). I'd also expect Acc improvements, range improvements, and where needed penetration improvements (without loss of damage due to dropping piercing size). Even ETC, etc. technology probably won't alter this much - our guns are already powerful enough (unless body armour becomes much better, as I mentioned earlier). Instead, such tech will go to lighter ammo, and lighter guns (to allow carrying more ammo).
The exception is in large game rifles and other guns made simply with the goal of 'maximum power'. However they'll be limited by the capacity of people to fire them. The ammo will probably get lighter, but the guns won't (to help manage recoil), and the power won't rise much either. It's possible there will be more
use of things like discarding sabots in sporting loads, but they aren't TL9, but merely TL7.