Guild Wars 2

I became curious because I noticed while firing my warriors rifle, I could hear a clear sound of the “bullet casing drop” after the shot fired.

However a number of rifles are modeled like muskets (or named as such). So… do we know which type of ammo guns use? Some cannons use the cannonballs, though the charr tanks, ‘machine guns’ and others seem to use cannonballs or a different type at times.

I think the Rule of Cool pretty much gives guns a free reign to be what they want in Tyria. I mean, Engineers can fire half a dozen different kinds of bullet from one gun, and make a rifle behave as a rifle, blunderbuss or rocket launcher at will. Thieves can fire flintlock pistols as fast as if they’re fully automatic handguns.

I’d say the best in-universe explanation is that most forms of technology in Tyria seem to have at least a little magic behind them, and that magic itself is treated like technology. So, there’s cannons, mortars, and special-use weaponry like the Charr use against Ghosts. But for rifles and pistols and spearguns… perhaps there’s just one basic ammunition for each type of firearm, and the effects are done with subtle enchantments and the user’s own magic upon firing?

Something that surprised me is how few interrupts rifles and pistols have. I imagine that they were made as magazine-fed auto-loading guns from the start, because while massing large numbers of guys with single-shot, noisy, high-power, inaccurate, smokey tubes might be effective at disrupting heavy cavalry charges, they’re useless against who they were developed to fight.

Instead, guns were developed by the Magic-Rejecting (At that time) Charr against Flame Legion shaman and other casters. The pistol was probably invented before the rifle in Tyria (But both were after the Cannon). Artillery was developed as an answer to the battlefield control a noncaster army is seriously lacking.. They needed something that was effective at killing and disrupting spellcasters, which required it to be small, portable, fast-firing(Because Charr are tough to kill, and you need to be able to shoot again when the target starts to re-cast), and able to be deployed by small, scattered squads (Because otherwise you’re just Meteor Shower and Eruption fodder). It also needed a smaller, faster projectile than a traditional arrow (Claws not cutting bowstrings is a bonus), to catch casters off guard.

Something interesting about this “Backward” development of guns is that it also resulted in weapons that are much lower-powered than we think of – these aren’t one-shot wonder weapons. They were developed to kill unarmored (And rather underdressed as well… I miss the GW1 charr ‘light’ armors!) targets capable of taking a lot of damage – putting more bullets into them is more important than making those bullets hurt individually.

From there, rifle and firearm development continued to adjust in different directions. The modularity of the rounds is also a charr need to replicate the utility of spellcasting until they got their own spellcasters in significant number again, and also explains the oversized barrels.

The answer is magic bullets. Crappy, magic BB that tickle your enemies to death (unless you are a warrior).

Can it be squirrels? Can Anet please make a rifle that shoots squirrels?

Its the same type of mechanics as longbows and shortbows that never run out of arrows.

It weapons varie. Norn are confirmed by dev to prefer back powder weapons. And we know that flintlocks and single shot handguns exist that we see humans use. In “Sea of Sorrows”, Grimjaw the Ash Legion charr uses a repeating pistol that fires a “ball of iron”. In charr starting area, the charr at the scrap yard adds tar to her ammo to create a burning shot that sticks.

So, there is no standardized weapon type but round metal shot seems like it may be common across the board.

There will always be a struggle between lore and game mechanics.

And let’s not even get started on the projectiles favored by mesmers…I file the whole thing under “suspension of disbelief”.

My toy riffle shoots a cork :P

Malganis.7468:

Its the same type of mechanics as longbows and shortbows that never run out of arrows.

Actually, if you watch the animations very closely, you’ll notice that every arrow fired has a “knotch” animation afterwards, as if the player has a quiver on their back that they draw from. Even rapid fire attacks have this animation. I have to give props to the animators because, while it is extremely fast, it’s still very fluid.

Tanith.5264:

And let’s not even get started on the projectiles favored by mesmers…I file the whole thing under “suspension of disbelief”.

I wouldn’t say it’s impossible once you realize that Mesmers clearly have telekinetic abilities. That would explain how they can levitate a greatsword between their hands while shooting energy beams from it and how simply slashing the air in front of enemies can push them back.

Crossplay.2067:

Tanith.5264:

And let’s not even get started on the projectiles favored by mesmers…I file the whole thing under “suspension of disbelief”.

I wouldn’t say it’s impossible once you realize that Mesmers clearly have telekinetic abilities. That would explain how they can levitate a greatsword between their hands while shooting energy beams from it and how simply slashing the air in front of enemies can push them back.

In the book “Sea of Sorrows” they explicitly state that Macha fires magic bullets from her pistol. I think that’s how most Mesmers do it.

videoboy.4162:

Crossplay.2067:

Tanith.5264:

And let’s not even get started on the projectiles favored by mesmers…I file the whole thing under “suspension of disbelief”.

I wouldn’t say it’s impossible once you realize that Mesmers clearly have telekinetic abilities. That would explain how they can levitate a greatsword between their hands while shooting energy beams from it and how simply slashing the air in front of enemies can push them back.

In the book “Sea of Sorrows” they explicitly state that Macha fires magic bullets from her pistol. I think that’s how most Mesmers do it.

That’s basically what I figured mesmers would do anyway. Instant reloads, infinitii ammo… and a much smaller pack size due to not carrying ammo or powder (depending on type of pistol).

There should never be any problems with suspension of disbelief when it comes to mesmers. Because when Mesmers stare down Reality, Reality flinches.

As for the rest: Engineers make their own bullets (allowing for the different varieties), Thieves steal ammo (try not to think about this one), and Warriors…. uh…. uhm…. OK, at least I had a thematic joke for the thieves; I got nothing for warriors. Sorry.

My warrior favors a longbow, so I’ll just assume that spent arrows are easy to find.