Looking at the THS timeline for two reasons.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

r. Why would you need free hands while shooting?

Even if you are using your hands ot anchor yourself in micro G wouldn't that point the guns in the wrong direction?

I could see putting the micro-missile launchers and maybe an electrolaser on a helmet that your were always wearing but bolting the pod to the side of your forearm makes little sense.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Even if you are using your hands ot anchor yourself in micro G wouldn't that point the guns in the wrong direction?

I could see putting the micro-missile launchers and maybe an electrolaser on a helmet that your were always wearing but bolting the pod to the side of your forearm makes little sense.

It looks cool to some people, which (given the existence of other 'tacticool but not useful' stuff out there) may be enough for a profitable market for pod guns to form.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

It looks cool to some people, which (given the existence of other 'tacticool but not useful' stuff out there) may be enough for a profitable market for pod guns to form.

That a weird thing might exist is one thing. That the US, EU and PRC all use it is something else.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

That a weird thing might exist is one thing. That the US, EU and PRC all use it is something else.

Maybe none of them actually use it. They just buy it. Tacticool normally sells to people who don't actually _use_ the shiny black thing they've just bought. :)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Maybe none of them actually use it. They just buy it. Tacticool normally sells to people who don't actually _use_ the shiny black thing they've just bought. :)

My experience is when military procurement gets something dumb, someone is required to use it. At any rate they aren't apparently using anything else instead.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

It looks cool to some people, which (given the existence of other 'tacticool but not useful' stuff out there) may be enough for a profitable market for pod guns to form.

A big chunk of tacticool is "looks like stuff the military uses", so that would be more a spinoff than a reason for primary adoption.

A lot of firearms enthusiasts are wary of big innovations, particularly ones that change the way you use the weapon – even if you raise the pod and sight along it, it looks weird, so that would be a strike against it.

(I think my argument is: if we could come up with a real reason to adopt the things, the real world could too – and the real world didn't.)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It's infested with other retro-ghosts of the 90s like P90-like PDWs too. The 5.7 caliber is sort of undergoing a minor renaissance in the US but it's for recreational shooting as a sort of high velocity .22 LR. No signs of military or home defense use.

The big problem with 5.7 is that it's a solution in search of a problem; the role the PDW was supposed to fill appears to have been filled by the M4 carbine.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The big problem with 5.7 is that it's a solution in search of a problem; the role the PDW was supposed to fill appears to have been filled by the M4 carbine.

It's just as well. The P90 (or more specifically its' SS190 cartridge) was focused on armor penetration which it achieved at a relatively high cost in general utility. Without the AP bullets of the SS190 it really does look like a high velocity .22 LR (or at least a .22WMR).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

A big chunk of tacticool is "looks like stuff the military uses", so that would be more a spinoff than a reason for primary adoption.

A lot of firearms enthusiasts are wary of big innovations, particularly ones that change the way you use the weapon – even if you raise the pod and sight along it, it looks weird, so that would be a strike against it.

(I think my argument is: if we could come up with a real reason to adopt the things, the real world could too – and the real world didn't.)

Presumably you sight it by HUD.

[ehrbar]

Originally Posted by lachimba

THS at 20 years old is amazingly still not looking so bad. Even if nothing on the timeline has happened and we are more likely looking at a resurgence of a cold war in the pacific than peaceful reunifications.

Several of us were skeptical of "Taiwan peacefully joins PRC" back during the playtest, but Pulver mentioned that he'd swapped Taiwan from a central member of the PRA to part of China under advice from people who knew the area better than he during a pre-playtest draft.