Author Topic: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?  (Read 19934 times)

Offline Anchorshag

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Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« on: February 21, 2014, 02:28:36 pm »
I couldn't think of a better place to put this.

So i'm writing a story. It's mainly inspired by and loosely based off of Guns of Icarus and it's setting. I have to ask the question though, what sort of personal armaments do people have in this universe? I'd imagine swords and steampunk-ish pistols. With the various types of weapons the ships can mantle I assume we're not limited to just matchlock pistols.
Would it be farfetched to say we had some form of steampunk-esque revolvers? Rifles?
If so what kind of things could be publicly available? Are weapons outlawed for civilians? Etc etc.

Help is appreciated!

Offline GreyTea

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2014, 02:31:55 pm »
Well from what lore we know after the great war alot of weapons and tech was lost this being said look at the weapons on the ships it would not be a stretch say they are personal versions. in the new release trailer we seen pikes flamers and some of the costumes in game have revolver slots and swords so think dishonoured weapons for a good idea IMHO, Swords mixed with 18-19th century weaponry.

Offline BdrLineAzn

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2014, 03:19:33 pm »
I wold say some bolt action rifles of sorts and semi auto pistols since they were around during the Great War. Maybe some were found or replicated for use.

Offline redria

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2014, 04:00:18 pm »
I don't really have a good answer.
But a hades handgun would be just about the best thing.
o.o

Offline Thomas

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2014, 04:19:25 pm »
Seems big ol' pistols and flamethrowers are solid contenders. Not sure about any automatic or semi-automatic weapons.

Offline Piemanlives

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2014, 07:52:31 pm »
Requesting a move to the "World" section as I think this would be more at home there.

I personally believe we'd have simple bolt action rifles and probably revolvers.

Offline Keon

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2014, 06:47:59 pm »
Gatling guns look like they could probably be moved rather easily. I'd say that if you see it on an airship, a handheld version that is a bit weaker probably exists for handheld.

Offline macmacnick

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2014, 12:54:34 am »
...I'd like a handheld hwacha then... or a lumberjack/heavyflak... or would those be like mobile artillery weapons?

Offline ramjamslam

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2014, 01:18:15 am »
The only handgun I know is the one strapped to the hip of the Ladies Skyrider costume.  Looks like a big old revolver to me:



BTW, the Male Skyrider got a handbag instead of a gun :P

Also, you should have called this thread: Handguns of Icarus xD

Offline Wundsalz

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2014, 04:54:32 am »
The only handgun I know is the one strapped to the hip of the Ladies Skyrider costume.  Looks like a big old revolver to me:
The male elite pilot costume has got a revolver + holster as well. The female version has got  a saber instead.

Offline Tyre

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2014, 07:52:45 pm »
I thought way too much into this, but here it goes.


So, I pondered about this for some time now, and I personally came to the conclusion that there would be a reasonably large variety of weapons, both old and advanced (For the early - mid 1900s) with a decent amount of them being capable of being manufactured even in a post-apocalyptic world. I'm talking about everything between wooden stock, clip-fed bolt-actions and revolver/self-loading semi-auto pistols to stamped steel assault rifles and full-auto machine pistols, and back again.

Rather than going completely into the madness that was my mind when thinking about this, I'll just go into the "jist" of it. Also, correct any lore bit that I get wrong, please -


The first thing I naturally considered was where firearms and ballistics would be after 50 years of continuous warfare (and keeping it as simple as possible), while keeping in mind that the war was devastating enough to end civilization. To do this, I started from the beginning, or atleast where Guns of Icarus' timeline begins to split. It's 1917, WW1 is somehow still in completely full swing, with myself assuming that the Russian Empire is still part of the Triple Entente and the United States still enters the war on the Entente's side. Weapons at this point are at the same point they were in history, with the primary rifle still being bolt-actions, self-loading pistols just starting to slowly replace revolvers, and the light machine gun still not exactly being light.

However, since fighting continues into 1918 and 1919, weapons like the American BAR, German MP-18, French RSC M1917, and the Russian Federov Avtomat see more action than they historically did, although the Federov a bit less so. The BAR would probably make an even more significant impact than it already historically did, possibly to the point that it kills the MP-18 and the SMG concept. However, that would be highly debatable, so I personally compromised that while the full barreled SMG dies, the machine pistol (Like the Mauser C-96) gains renewed interest, giving the self-loading pistol competition. The RSC M1917 seeing more action would make such a ridiculous impact, that rifles like the M1922 Bang and the such would probably be actually adopted.

The big thing however would be the Federov. While I personally doubt it'd be an immediate hit due to the impact of the BAR and RSC M1917, it'd be the bee's knees in the early-mid '20s, and everyone would be jumping on the assault rifle wagon. Although it'd probably take until the late '20s and potentially early '30s for nations to choose an intermediate round, build an assault rifle, switch production lines, then field it. The resulting rifles would probably look pretty cool though, T20 Garand made in 1930 anyone?

The 1930s would be where things get interesting though. The world has been in a continuous war for over ten years, and some of the smaller nations have probably fallen apart or been annexed by now. Keeping in mind that other things will have naturally advanced as well (Like tanks, planes, etc.), countries would probably be looking towards making more simpler and easier to manufacture firearms to ease up on the lumber and cost, meaning that guns at this point would possibly start being made with fewer internal parts, and be mostly stamped/turned/whatever steel later in the '30s.

Things would be rough by the '40s. A decent amount of Europe and East Asia would probably be abandoned due to war and random clouds of chemical death floating around. Nations would start designing/redesigning weapons that could be made in basements if need be and probably be back to clip-feeding in the early '40s, and by the late '40s they'd be back down to using high-capacity bolt-actions and revolvers/semi-auto pistols.

By the '50s, well, everyone would be too busy killing each other for food, water, or fun to design guns.

Now, what does this all mean for Guns of Icarus' time period?  Like everyone else said, bolt-actions, lever actions, revolvers, and breech loaders would be the absolute norm. However, I could see late-war designed, clip-fed semi-auto rifles and pistols made entirely out of steel be somewhat common, full-auto machine pistols not being common, but not being rare either (They'd probably gain alot of popularity with aircrews), and full-auto steel rifles being borderline rare. I could also see guns with detachable magazines (Along with having extra magazines) or wooden stocks a sign of wealth (and a fashion statement).

All in all in a true jist, while I can see guns in Guns of Icarus being mostly old style stuff, I also think that more "modern" weapons wouldn't be less fitting.

Offline The Churrosaur

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2014, 11:53:18 pm »
great analysis, wonder why nobody's replied until now- I spent a good few hours on wikipedia afterwards looking up everything you mentioned.

Makes me wonder why we still use gatling guns.


Offline JaegerDelta

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2014, 03:22:08 am »
great analysis, wonder why nobody's replied until now- I spent a good few hours on wikipedia afterwards looking up everything you mentioned.

Makes me wonder why we still use gatling guns.




well as for the gatling gun, it would be difficult to justify wasting a ships water supply to cool a single barreled machine gun ( especially if that ship was deployed for an extended period of time ), or for the air cooled varieties of machine guns, changing the barrel mid battle, on an unstable airship that is falling apart around you and rapidly falling to earth, would be next to impossible.

The gatling gun is an efficient design for volume of fire and barrel integrity. The design may have been influenced by photographs that were found or actual salvaged gatling guns (they were in use until like 1911), but has been obviously tweaked (gears on the side, pipes sticking out, etc.) to increase firing speed and ease loading. That didnt happen overnight however, im sure early(ish) ships in the age of air, from the more scientifically minding peoples of the world, had single barrel machine guns.


To the OP (and kinda just basic world opinions): if you are looking for a frame of mind to put yourself in: dont go steampunk, while the game has steampunk elements, its not a victorian fantasy. this world was forged from the fires of war, and has more inline with dieselpunk than steampunk.  i guess you could called it proto-dieselpunk, or late steampunk. the point is we are way past those matchlock pistols you mentioned but the nature of war prohibited the sleek and sexy style that is dieselpunk from developing. tech did not start from scratch here, it is built upon the world that was destroyed.

Offline JaegerDelta

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #13 on: March 28, 2014, 06:34:41 am »

To the OP (and kinda just basic world opinions): if you are looking for a frame of mind to put yourself in: dont go steampunk, while the game has steampunk elements, its not a victorian fantasy. this world was forged from the fires of war, and has more inline with dieselpunk than steampunk.  i guess you could called it proto-dieselpunk, or late steampunk. the point is we are way past those matchlock pistols you mentioned but the nature of war prohibited the sleek and sexy style that is dieselpunk from developing. tech did not start from scratch here, it is built upon the world that was destroyed.

when i say more inline with dieselpunk than steampunk i mean that it is more modern tech (specifically weapons tech) than the victorian era, not that it isnt stylistically steampunk. so many cogs and valves :P

i thought of this clarification after the edit window closed so...ALL ABOARD THE DOUBLE POST TRAIN. CHOO CHOOO!

Offline Tyre

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Re: Question: Weapons of the World of GoI?
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2014, 10:13:21 pm »
great analysis, wonder why nobody's replied until now- I spent a good few hours on wikipedia afterwards looking up everything you mentioned.

Makes me wonder why we still use gatling guns.

Why thank you. Naturally, there is a lot I didn't cover (Like light/GP and heavy machine guns and intermediate rounds), but I'm glad what I put was enough.