Nightcrawler
Member
Being a gun geek, this has become a frustrating sticking point.
See, while I very much enjoy writing, I seldom ever get around to actually writing stories. I don't have the time to really focus on them like I'd prefer to, and I'm such a perfectionist that I'm endlessly rewriting them (and thus rarely finish the short stories I start).
I don't have any designs on being a career writer, or publishing a novel, or any of that though, so it doesn't matter.
However, one thing I do before I start writing a story is I sit down and create the setting. Science Fiction is one of my favorite genres, and creating sci-fi worlds can be quite the intellectual exercise (gives me something to turn over in my head when I'm shovelling horse crap in the morning down at our farm).
I don't prefer science fiction settings where the technology is TOO advanced. Take Star Trek, for example. Teleportation. Matter-to-energy conversions. Holographics indisinguishable from reality. AI more intelligent than the human mind. Everybody wearing beige, gray, or purple.
Technology is often the plotline of the show; how many episodes did a technical malfuction serve as the basis for the plot? How many times where they saved by a Deus Ex Machina technical innovation?
You tend to see that in science fiction.
So, I tend to shy away from making things so advanced that you have handheld weapons that can vaporize things. I like my guns anyway.
The problem I run into is what KIND of guns? See, firearms are pretty good at what they do. However, I can't very well have people in my story, which may take place more than a hundred years in the future, running around with Glocks. It doesn't seem to fit; I mean, will we have cars in a hundred years? Sure. Will they be identical to my Oldsmobile Delta 88? I hope not. I can't have a setting where everything has advanced EXCEPT the firearms. It'd be like having a story set in 1989 where all of the characters carried cap and ball revolvers.
So, if you all don't mind, toss out some ideas. I'm on Christmas break, and don't have much else to do with my free time. What kind of changes do you think you'll see in firearms? (Let's stay away from all the doom and gloom stuff about mandated internal locks, smart guns, and all of that; I know about all of that kind of stuff, I'm more interested in practical changes).
So what do you think? Caseless ammunition? Non-metallic cartridges? More complicated guns being just as reliable and rugged as Kalashnikovs? Computerized optics?
One thing I think would be interesting would be advances in propellant technology to the point where cartridge sizes could be reduced. Imagine a round the size of a .30 Carbine cartridge having the power of a full-house .308!
See, while I very much enjoy writing, I seldom ever get around to actually writing stories. I don't have the time to really focus on them like I'd prefer to, and I'm such a perfectionist that I'm endlessly rewriting them (and thus rarely finish the short stories I start).
I don't have any designs on being a career writer, or publishing a novel, or any of that though, so it doesn't matter.
However, one thing I do before I start writing a story is I sit down and create the setting. Science Fiction is one of my favorite genres, and creating sci-fi worlds can be quite the intellectual exercise (gives me something to turn over in my head when I'm shovelling horse crap in the morning down at our farm).
I don't prefer science fiction settings where the technology is TOO advanced. Take Star Trek, for example. Teleportation. Matter-to-energy conversions. Holographics indisinguishable from reality. AI more intelligent than the human mind. Everybody wearing beige, gray, or purple.
Technology is often the plotline of the show; how many episodes did a technical malfuction serve as the basis for the plot? How many times where they saved by a Deus Ex Machina technical innovation?
You tend to see that in science fiction.
So, I tend to shy away from making things so advanced that you have handheld weapons that can vaporize things. I like my guns anyway.
The problem I run into is what KIND of guns? See, firearms are pretty good at what they do. However, I can't very well have people in my story, which may take place more than a hundred years in the future, running around with Glocks. It doesn't seem to fit; I mean, will we have cars in a hundred years? Sure. Will they be identical to my Oldsmobile Delta 88? I hope not. I can't have a setting where everything has advanced EXCEPT the firearms. It'd be like having a story set in 1989 where all of the characters carried cap and ball revolvers.
So, if you all don't mind, toss out some ideas. I'm on Christmas break, and don't have much else to do with my free time. What kind of changes do you think you'll see in firearms? (Let's stay away from all the doom and gloom stuff about mandated internal locks, smart guns, and all of that; I know about all of that kind of stuff, I'm more interested in practical changes).
So what do you think? Caseless ammunition? Non-metallic cartridges? More complicated guns being just as reliable and rugged as Kalashnikovs? Computerized optics?
One thing I think would be interesting would be advances in propellant technology to the point where cartridge sizes could be reduced. Imagine a round the size of a .30 Carbine cartridge having the power of a full-house .308!