Star Trek XI Romulan Weapons

[Captain Seafort]

Whose to say Romulan weapons are any different?

The fact that they always have been - their weapons have always been positively Spartan in styling.

[Reliant121]

Whose to say Romulan weapons are any different?

The fact that they always have been - their weapons have always been positively Spartan in styling.

I defer to your prior knowledge; I have not seen a Romulan weapon to know. The closest I have seen are Reman ones.

[Mikey]

Bear in mind that evil-looking at the expense of ergonomic soundness was a quality I referred to as a selling point to Nero, not to us. To Seafort's point:

1 - There is a similarity to later Rommie weapons we've seen (as well as a similarity to the D'Deridex, which Reliant mentioned) in the use of open space within the structure.

2 - Nero and crew were not Romulan military. There is no reason to think that their weapons would like identical to those of the Romulan army or navy. If you went out right now to purchase a rifle for mid-to-long range CCV2 game hunting, I'm pretty sure that the rifle you bought would NOT be identical to, say, an Accuracy International .338 Lapua Mag sniper rifle - even though the latter is used by the British army for long-range "hunting" of CCV2-sized targets.

[Captain Seafort]

1 - There is a similarity to later Rommie weapons we've seen

Not really. Those we've seen have always been pretty simple - no weird protrusions sticking out all over the place:

2 - Nero and crew were not Romulan military. There is no reason to think that their weapons would like identical to those of the Romulan army or navy. If you went out right now to purchase a rifle for mid-to-long range CCV2 game hunting, I'm pretty sure that the rifle you bought would NOT be identical to, say, an Accuracy International .338 Lapua Mag sniper rifle - even though the latter is used by the British army for long-range "hunting" of CCV2-sized targets.

No, but it would bear a fairly strong resemblance - convergent evolution and all that.

[Mikey]

1 - There is a similarity to later Rommie weapons we've seen

Not really. Those we've seen have always been pretty simple - no weird protrusions sticking out all over the place:

Way to omit and ignore the explanatory part of my statement.

No, but it would bear a fairly strong resemblance - convergent evolution and all that.

Such as this, the gun used by CoH Craig Harrison to make the longest sniper kill:


compared to this, a model of one of the world's most popular sporting rifles:


Funny how there's at least as much resemblance between the Rommie weapon above and Nero's as there is between the two rifles above.

[Lighthawk]

The civilian and military rifles however are still used pretty much the same way. Butt stock to shoulder, hand on trigger, other gripping up front, cheek to stock in order to look through an aiming device on top. The differences between them are in the extras the military rifle has in order to make it more suited for hunting something that can shoot back.

Nero's rifles however have an added feature that seems to be purely cosmetic and would prevent a person from holding it as a rifle. So one either has to hold the entire thing out in front of the body in order to sight down it, or fire from hip, a method slightly more accurate that holding it over one's head while firing blindly from cover.

Anyone with any familiarity with guns would notice the problem as soon as they picked the thing up. I would dearly hope a gunsmith would have some familiarity with guns. And unless said smith was building a design piece, I would really dearly hope he wouldn't add purely cosmetic features to a gun that got in the way of one of the most critical aspects of a gun, it's ability to be fired accurately.

[Mikey]

I agree with all of that. It's a ridiculous design, as I was the first one to mention. However, here's where that analysis fails to be relevant:

Nero's rifles however have an added feature that seems to be purely cosmetic and would prevent a person from holding it as a rifle. So one either has to hold the entire thing out in front of the body in order to sight down it, or fire from hip,

i.e., exactly how the TNG Romulan rifle that Seafort pictured would also need to be fired.

[stitch626]

Hmmm, that Romie TNG rifle looks just like the Fallout: New Vegas 12.7 SMG...

[Lighthawk]

I agree with all of that. It's a ridiculous design, as I was the first one to mention. However, here's where that analysis fails to be relevant:

Nero's rifles however have an added feature that seems to be purely cosmetic and would prevent a person from holding it as a rifle. So one either has to hold the entire thing out in front of the body in order to sight down it, or fire from hip,

i.e., exactly how the TNG Romulan rifle that Seafort pictured would also need to be fired.

Yes, except the "rifle" Seafort posted up is more than short enough to be held in such a way. It is very compact, more of a SMG than a rifle, and has the right grip set up to make lifting the whole thing up in front easy.

Nero's rifles are actually rifle sized, and would need to be held as one, or you'd have your arms held way out in front of you, which would not be a practical or comfortable way to hold a gun for any length of time.

[Mikey]

Neither is the "proper" way to fire a longarm. The point is that the ridiculous extravagances of Nero's weapons don't make the user change the basic idea from the usage of the prior Romulan weapon.