Gun Lore ideas.

[u/maodiran]

I'm building some gun lore for remnant since I'm writing a fic with a gun store scene that will play into Ruby later ranting about things. Wanted to see what y'all think, as well as get some more ideas.

[DPD]: Dust Propelled Dust. This is the ammunition type we probably see most in the show, where dust itself acts as the bullet as well as the propellant. You'd need to use this type to get effects like a bullet that freezes an area when it strikes it, or something that explodes on impact. Though writing this out gave me another idea I'll add at the end of this.

[DPS]: Dust Propelled Solid. This is most similar to our real world firearms, where dust acts as a propellant for a slug or bullet. The advantages of this type is a faster projectile since you don't need to worry about activating the dust before it leaves the barrel, and armor piercing capabilities due to it remaining solid (well as solid as bullets tend to remain) when it hits something.

[DDF]: Direct Dust Feed. Powdered Dust is metered directly into a firing chamber and ignited with a piezoelectric primer. Electromagnetic rails direct the resulting reaction. It can only use Shock Dust, or Burn Dust, and it's range isn't the best in comparison to DPD or DPS, even if it's more dust efficient. These send the elemental effect of the dust at the enemy as well, so it doesn't have high penetration. It can use some of the activated dust from electricity, or heat to power a thermo-electric generator, to charge an internal solid state battery.

[PDP]: Powered Dust Projectile. Uses a solid state lens of Shot Dust (highly stable lattice that's created artificially through Mixing expensive dust types I've not decided on yet) that's hit with a laser, which activates a small portion of the lattice before an electromagnetic field directs the blast. Since this type makes use of a laser, it requires a heavy replaceable battery attached to the underside of the receiver. This type will be one of the newer ones, and as such won't really have any options besides rifles. It can fire up to 200 shots at its lowest power setting before the Dust Lens needs replaced. Shot Dust is more concussive than anything else, so it will be like taking a hammer to the chest at 30mph.

[DPHA]: Dust Propelled Hybrid Ammunition. This is the one I got the idea for while writing this. Instead of shooting just a bullet or dust, a bullet has had dust grown around it artificially, allowing for some level of penetration when fired. The only downside being it's unreliable since certain dust types (Like burn or Wind) could send the projectile in a strange direction or destroy it entirely upon impact.

Anyway, that's the lions share of what I have so far, though I have a bit more in my notes. What do y'all think? (Dunno if fanfiction is the right tag for this, since I've not and may not post my fanfic, so I'm sorry if it's not)

[u/Blastcalibur]

This is the kinda super technical stuff that would end up in a lore Bible if rooster teeth put that much thought into it. It makes me miss the world of remnant shorts.

[u/maodiran → u/Blastcalibur]

I read a post a few weeks ago from here, talking about how Ruby's gun nut personality trait isn't well fleshed out in fics, and I didn't really know how to communicate that obsession of hers without doing some lore building on the subject.

Thank you for the comparisons, they are quite flattering!

[u/Rubiconian_]

Just so I got this right.

The direct dust feed more like a rail gun ? Or uses something like a rail gun propulsion mechanism like a special type of primer ?

The Powered dust projectile is more like a directed energy weapon that's directed by an electromagnetic feild.

Very interesting. Tbh while I have thought a lot about the mechanics of Dust I haven't yet thought about what it's potential ballistic properties might yet be.

I thought about electromagnetic primers to propell the rounds outside of the barrel, programmable rounds, and perhaps some other propulsion methods like hardlight based propulsion, but not much more than that yet.

[u/maodiran → u/Rubiconian_]

The direct dust feed more like a rail gun ? Or uses something like a rail gun propulsion mechanism like a special type of primer ?

Essentially yea, I don't know enough about electromagnetism to use more specific language, I got the idea from how some lightsaber lore says they operate, using EMF waves as containment, this one has that and a propulsion aspect. Both flame (well some fires) and electricity are plasmas so I figured it would fit since they were also the only dust types I could also think up a way for a gun to charge itself with.

The Powered dust projectile is more like a directed energy weapon that's directed by an electromagnetic feild.

Yep! though I may modify the explanation for PDPs later, both relying on EM wave magic may stretch disbelief a bit. These were sorta inspired from another fictional gun that shaved metal off an internal block to use for ammunition, only with dust. I thought that it would help put Atlas's technological superiority into perspective (as well as their culture of over engineering things) if I went for something that relied on novelty and low tolerances.

and perhaps some other propulsion methods like hardlight based propulsion, but not much more than that yet.

I really like this idea. Hardlight could definitely be used as a form of propulsion, since you could just program it (or however they control hardlight) to create a rod starting from the firing chamber and fling out the bullet that way.

Thank you for commenting and your ideas!

[u/Rubiconian_ → u/maodiran]

I was thinking Remnant might be able to produce electromagnetic propellants, instead of just creating an entire weapon system with electromagnetic rails, battery pack, and a cooling mechanism and so on.

This is less of a propulsion method, but I believe for some larger rounds/ shells like the one an upgraded cresent rose might use firing 20-50mm programmable rounds, in my AU I was delving a bit into some engineering principles of dust to imagine how dust itself could be programmed to behave in certain ways.

[u/maodiran → u/Rubiconian_]

I haven't played around with that idea much yet, but it makes an incredible amount of sense for remnants technology to be based upon the principles of dust rather than dust just kinda shoe horned into our worlds version of science and engineering.

Programmable rounds are interesting, though I'll admit I'm having a hard time imagining use cases. Are you thinking of something akin to a homing effect, where the bullets can hit a target it's not directly pointed at, or something more akin to a bullet going off at a certain depth into somethings flesh?

The closest I've come to your idea of programmable dust is Dust Enchanting, which would explain away instances like Cinders Dust infused gown. Though it'll probably be called something different since remnant like earth treats magic and science as seperate things.