Weapons
Tonight while playing Left 4 Dead 2, I noticed something a bit odd. The games textures for its “Desert Rifle” has markings for a MK 17 Mod 3 written on it along with an indicator of it being the 5.56x45mm variant.
That obvious error aside, what makes this odd to me. Just going on instinct from using the weapon in game rather than close look at the models, I would usually call it out as a SCAR or SCAR-H in game. The MK17 is the “Heavy” version firing 7.62x51mm. Someone later pointed out to me, that the magazines are obviously closer to the SCAR-L; the “Light” version of course, being the MK16 using the same 5.56x45mm you’ll find on an M16 ;). The games stuff for the SCAR mags to me, look like a curved version of the SCAR-H mag.
Most of Left 4 Deads weapons have double their realistic ammunition capacity or close to it, adjusted for stopping power. Personally, I think that’s a flaw but hey, bullets go even faster against zombies! The games SCAR hits more like a MK17 might be expected to, yet the games model appears to have an extended 30-round magazine; L4D does however exagerate the ballistics quite a lot for all the weapons. In game, you get 60 rounds in a SCAR firing on 3-round burst; the old school AR being a 50-round based M16 and the lovely AKM, offering 40 rounds.
3 times the real weapons ammo, can’t beat that for shooting through waves of infected! The real odd thing I guess, is how I know just by looking at it, that the gun isn’t accurate to real life :-/.
Colt ACR
It has taken my about 17 years but I have finally found out what this freaking weapon is called:
It’s the prototype Colt entered in the Army’s old Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) program in the late 80s.
The first time I ever encountered this weapons silhouette, was during the waning days of the G.I. Joe Hall of Fame toy line, because the Combat Camo Duke action figure and Green Beret weapons set came respectively with an olive green and silver. I think that was like 1993, so I must have been 5 or 6 years old at the time. As a child, it was actually a geeks curiosity about my toy’s weapons, that drove me to study how weapons work, etcetera. This particular rifles model number always eluded me, it was an enigma that I never saw anywhere else. A stock reminiscent of an M4 tube, an ELCAN/C79 style scope, M16’esque magazine, but the rest became alien. Almost like an alternate evolution of the Colt M16A1 or an early version of the M16A2. Now I know why! It was made by Colt for the ACR program, and obviously based on the M16A2’s it would have been replacing, if the program didn’t flunk lol. Sadly it’s successors also flunked.
Ironically not even knowing about the ammunition being tested with the Colt ACR, as a child I would often use it in toy battles as a substitute for an urban sniper rifle, in a role in between what you might see the old KAC SR-25s and modern Army SDM-R/USMC SAM-R rifles used for—but firing a special “Hyper (velocity) penetrator” sabot round. Still I would rather of had an MSG-90/PSG-1, even as a kid, I had a taste for Heckler & Koch.
Sometimes I wonder if I am part psychic, hehe.
Ahh, finally some time to R&R, or should I say as close to it as I actually get.
I’ve been getting drivin out of my mind, so… I flushed all thoughts and forked a new idea for my day. I’ve spent most of my day ripping stuff apart and throwing crap out. Heck, I’ve chucked a few things that are /older/ then I am. I’ve changed around a lot of things in my room, including dismantling the desk since it was in the way of moving the bed. Due to the change in positioning, I no longer have my usual electicral outlet. So I’m sitting at the foot of the bed, with the dog lol. I think I’ll like this new arrangement, one thing I like – rolling to face the wall is on the other side. Often, when I finally do go to sleep, I usually turn away from the rest of the room so my mind doesn’t try to focus on it. As it was, doing that would be rolling onto my heart-side, this way it isn’t.
It also allows me to walk into the room, without tripping over shit lol.
Well, it will once I finish lol. Got a ton of crap piled up, mostly books that need to need to go out. Namely about ~40 pounds of old school books I’ve been forbidden to dispose of for years. I’ve had about enough of this crap, it’s _my room_, shouldn’t it store _my stuff_ ? The rest is books that used to be in the desk, and have no where else to go for the night. eally, I could finish tonight, would only take 2-3 hours more; but that would require going in/out the front door. And Ma would kill me if I made that much racket while she’s trying to sleep lol.
If I’m going to be driven nuts all the time, prevented from getting work _done_, well I am bloody well going to do something constructive !!!!!!
While I’ve cleaned out most of my stuff, I’ve kept a fairly minimal amount of things (those that have value, and those that I want). Amazingly, despite the fact that some of my personal belongings go back to before I can remember life, I can still remember virtually each and every piece of crap I found lol. I have a very good context-sensitive memory; I might not know whether to turn left or right at a fork in the road when setting out on the journy, but by the time I get there, I’ll know which way to take. Maybe in some ways, i am trying to distance myself from the past, I dunno.
But I know, I do feel much better — working on stuff beats sitting one ones duff doing nothing, but passing time; that should be spent with a purpose.
Of all of the things I’ve gone through, I’ve managed to ge a few sets of things in order, that have had pieces missing for 10-15+ years. Found a reminder of the last time I was in a doctors office (heck, what was that? About 1991?), some old books I should read. Another thing I found was an old “paper weight”, that has been sitting in a dresser draw for many years. At least, for as much as my mothers told me it’s a model pistol that my father had put together for me. Examining it, I found something rather odd for a model – it has a working single action! I cocked the hammer, that as a boy, I had always thought was fused into place… only to see the cylinder rotate, making ready the next (empty) chamber. To top it off, the rammer along the bottom of the pistol even works. A quick look around the Wikipedia would suggest it’s a replica of the M1851 “Navy” Revolver, but on the side of the octagonal barrel it says “.44 Caliber” and notes to only load it with black powder (M1851s were .36 Cal). I can’t help but wonder, just how much is model and how much is replica… lol. Even in the civil war though, I couldn’t imagine loading one of those things [properly] in a combat situation, then again it was an era where 3 aimed shots a minute was the ideal with an infantry mans musket :. Hmm, for some reason one of John Waynes comments in True Git comes to mind, hehe.
Tomorrow I need to finish moving stuff, dust, vacuum, and sort the remainders. Work for Monday is gonna be quite light, so hopefully I’ll have some peace, I’d kinda like to get some homework done some time this century !!!
SWAT time + looking at the games enemy weapons
I finally got to play some swat 🙂
Spent the day testing a new common-ops load:
- MP5 9x19mm Suppressed SMG, FMJ or JHP depending on primary OPFOR
- M1911A1 11.43x23mm Pistol, JHP or opposite of primary
- 3 M84 Stun grenade
- 1 Hornets Nest stingball grenade
- 1 Door wedge
- 3 C2 breaching charges
- Tactical Assault Vest (No Armour)
- The games ol’lucky helmet or AN/PVS-7 night vision goggles; depending on lighting conditions and method of engagement
I rather like using no armour in SWAT 4: TSS. When suspects deal 2 times the damage we can, walking around in heavy body armour really doesn’t help. Well, if the enemy has an M1911 (many maps give them Bereta M9s) or the sawed of shotgun with the “low” ammo type (50% chance of low ammo). Then heavy armour might save your virtual life, but other wise it’s just dead weight. A single AK47 FMJ fired from ~1050 unreal units away, will kill a player wearing heavy armour during a Multi-Player Co-Op game. And worth of note, all but a few weapons have a maximum range of 4000 unreal units, in TSS the exceptions are the Remington M700 Sniper Rifle (remote control only) at 3000uu, breaching shotgun, and the Taser/Cobra (Stringray) stun guns
Suspects always use JHP in these weapons according to the SwatEquipment.ini file fr SWAT 4: TSS:
- M1911A1
- MP5
- MP5 SD
- Desert Eagle
- M4A1
and 10% of the time, suspects with FN P90 can get JHP rounds in TSS.
The rest of the time the enemy uses FMJ for clip based weapons (e.g. hg,smg,ar,lmg) and buckshot for round based weapons (e.g. shotguns). Some weapons use a “_LowAmmo” a certain % of the time (Python, M9, SawedOffSG, all come to mind). But generally the only differences between SWAT weapons and Suspect weapons is cosmetic (e.g. no tactical light) and numerical (they get less magazines for reload, not that I’ve ever seen them reload — they are smart enough to switch to secondaries in a firefight instead).
All things considered, plus the games ridicules concept of ballistics…. I’d rather have the speed of no armour, then the protection of light armour. Simply put, I don’t plan on getting shot often lol. The light armour vest will protect in some situations and in those, heavy armour does better. But most of the time, you get hit, you get dead, so why bother? The ability to cuff, reload, and switch between weapons at a more realistic pace is also worth the trade off in protection hehe.
Weapon popularity in the regular SWAT 4 maps, as noted by ‘cmd> grep identifer ContentSystemEneemyArchetypes.ini | wc -l’. Note that many suspects (especially terro-type) have access to plenty of weapons and a chance=precentage of how likely they are to use a given weapon type; to control just how often they will use an item in the available weapons list. This is just a summery of how many times a given weapon was specified as available.
Pistols:
M9 found: 43
USP found: 21
PythonRevolverHG found: 14
ScorpionHG found: 12
IngramHG found: 10 (This is basically a MAC-10)
1911 found: 5
Glock found: 0 (Model 17)
Sub Machine Guns:
UMP45 found: 15
MP5SMG found: 13
UZISMG found: 11 (Suppressed)
HK53 found: 9
SilencedMP5SMG found: 0
Assault Rifles:
G36kMG found: 10
M4MG found: 8
AK74suMG found: 8 (Proper name: AKS-74U, U = Ukorochenniy)
AK74MG found: 6
Pump1SG found: 12
SawedOffSg found: 11
M1Super90SG found: 8
M4Super90SG found: 0
Pump2RifleGripSg found: 2
I’ve yet to check the TSS maps for the enemy weapons though.
The USP40, HK53, AK47, and Colt Python being some of the most deadly of enemy weapons. The Uzi (accurate headshots), Ingram (very heavy bullets), and Scorpion sub-machineguns are also quite hazardous. By comparison, the only weapon available to players in MP Co-Op that really works well, is the AK47 :. The FN P90 added in TSS helps out, if you are willing to pump in a lot more rounds, heck… I remember on one live op map. I took the P90 because I knew there would be little time to reload, if we had to go dynamic. I ended up using like 32-38 rounds per kill at near maximum range (if not occasionally beyond!) to drop tangos, which is tricky because the weapon is very inaccuate at long range in TSS lol.
