Black Powder Guns

The late middle ages had black powder guns. I would like to see incorporating these into the game.
They would have the same ranged mechanics as archery except more powerful but slower. This would open up the crafting skill "gunsmith."
Making a firearm the fires would require a community to build. Ore and gunpowder components would need a miner. The gun parts would be forged by a blacksmith. The gunpowder could be put together by an alchemist. The gunsmith would put all of it together.

 

RG stated very early on in the kickstarter that there would be no gun powder firearms in SotA..

 

I'd like to see cannons when our boats can finally float.

 

Gun powder gets wet & is unreliable. Edged Steel, Cross Bolts & Zap Guns.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm fully against guns in my fantasy setting. It would ruin the classic 'Ultima' experience for me. Powder keg traps, fine.. large slow to maneuver canons on fortifications and ships, fine. But no guns.

We'll have bows and crossbows.. technologically, crossbows have the same range mechanics as archery bows, except more powerful but slower.. I see guns as more of a 'next generation' technology that would drive the others obsolete, they wouldn't make good friends.

 

"Classic" Ultima had phasers, ray guns and flying ships, man. Besides, there will be Tesla coils in the game (which, I mean, by their very name should not and did not exist until the late 1800s, lol)


I'll echo I don't want guns in SotA though, simply because I don't want to deal with the game play mechanics associated with it.

Realism is a funny thing, and I don't want all too much of it in my fantasy video games

I would however love to see some cannons on my houseboat. YEAH!

 

Adding to what Bowen said: My understanding is Garriott has already said no guns in the game. At least not traditional ones, though he left some room open for tesla style weapons.

 

He did! Didn't he... hmmmm and also the gas guns that were described is a pretty fair bet.

 

Think tesla guns could be intresting. We have the tesla towers, so why not some gun like weapons using a similar principle. Could possible aswell use mana. Even from non magic users, or some sort of energy cell/crystal.
For gunpowder guns: Well we have crossbows. They use ammunition aswell.

Gas guns?

 

I'd say telsa cannons that are heavy or stationary which would need to be near power sources, but nothing handheld or transportable. There is a reason those towers are so big.

 

It hasn't been talked about much but they DID say that some tech would be craftable. They did not say what it would be though.

 

The only problems I see are story continuity and keeping the whole "gun" thing from tearing a hole in the game's plot. There is a reason guns changed the world. They are phenomenally cheap for how effective they are. When they were invented, yes, they were more costly, but mostly because nobody understood what they were. The modern world is full of people who know what guns are, and know six hundred evil tricks you can pull with them. The players will abuse guns in any and every way they can, IF they work at all like real guns. If instead there are strict limits, say, guns have their own special abilities that displace your normal setup, guns use up your magic, guns are very very expensive to get and use...Well, it's basically letting any character of any build get a ranged strike, and I guess that's ok. But I don't think I'll be alone in wondering why I can't just load a catapult full of unlit kegs of black powder, and then cast a fireball spell at the spot where all those barrels burst open...mmmm, drool...and if they let us really innovate, then, yeah...

I prefer Ultima as a swords and sorcery, melee and bow type weapons are more containable, and magic conveniently follows whatever rules the game dev's need it to. Technology driven powers are problematic.

 

just my 2cents, id rather not see guns of any type. I'm very ok with some technology things, but for some reason guns of any type (even steam punk style), just seem out of place. Even if there is a lot of steam punk type technology. I wouldn't cry about it our anything though , wouldn't bug me or anything, just a personal preference.

 

'Gun' maybe not be the best word to describe them. These are real world devices that RG has described in chats a couple of times.. they can launch gas rings at targets.. and for SotA purposes and presumably be filled with different types of gases. I believe the ammunition would be based on potions. So you could use a poison gas.. or maybe even a healing gas.

Not sure what they're actually called.. how effective they're meant to be or really any other details.. just that they've been mentioned a few times now so I'm pretty sure we'll be getting them at some point.

 

This is what was described. As an alchemist you could put your mixtures in there.

 

Ugh,

I don't think guns would change anything that crossbows don't already do. The "modern" crossbow revolutionized warfare by bringing a "phenomenally cheap" weapon for how effective it is to the lower class. It took no skill to operate and wrecked havoc on anything it hit, same as any gun would. By the time the Crusades rolled around (early 12th century to late 13th century) crossbows were more widely used in warfare than regular bows and almost completely replaced them. Too many people these days get their medieval facts from games and movies and books, which I'm sorry to say, are beyond wrong. (Crossbows are a Chinese invention predating the Holy Roman Empire). Any kind of gun mechanic in this game would work the same way (with rate of fire and damage). Crossbows and guns function in very very similar ways. Having a crossbow in this game is about the same thing as having a powder gun of the 16th century. In fact, they were both used in about equal fashion by the Spanish Conquistadors. So, let's not get ahead of ourselves saying it will break immersion or be abused.

Again, this is not to say that I want guns, I just want to clear up some ridiculous notions in this thread.

Obviously Medieval Europe is the largest influence on SotA, judging by the age this game wants to emulate, powder guns very much existed and were used side by side with crossbows (more powerful so longer range, but worse accuracy... they were great to shoot through multiple people but took longer to reload that a crossbow). Obviously there are dragons and Tesla coils, so its not completely Medieval Europe but you get what I mean. Just saying this stuff to set people straight.

The only game mechanic I see being impact is that it would add more things to craft. It would literally function like a crossbow with some interesting perks and cons (more damage, longer reload. If anyone played UO it would be similar to the crossbow vs heavy crossbow in that game... and if anyone remembers, both kinda sucked and only a few people ever used them)

Having said all of that, I agree I associate Ultima more with Swords & Sorcery than with guns, so I am for not having them. Except cannons. Totally should have cannons.

 

You know what destroys a fantasy setting? Electricity and magnetic rail-shooters. Welcome to SotA.

 

Haha.. I don't think we're going to have electric lights and powerlines.. or phones or microwaves.. I have no idea what a magnetic rail-shooter is. If it's a cheap way to shoot and kill people I'm against that too.

 

Railgun is an "Electric Apparatus for Propelling Projectiles." It's the gun they use in Quake. I doubt it'll be in the form of a handheld device for players to use and more likely use it as the US Navy does as a kind of missile defense for towns. But I'd like to have one anyways .... for hunting deer.

 

hehe.. sounds pretty cool. so they would use it as an 'anti-ballista' device? I like the idea of big canon-like devices to use during siege events. I wonder if that's one of the 'craftable techs' in the game? Maybe higher skills can make them a little more compact or faster, or have branching rails that shoot several projectiles at a time.. Maybe this will be the main weapon to protect against those Dragon attacks?