World of Warcraft

A nifty guide to Warcraft firearms.

OBS: What you read below is for COMMON modernized weaponry, excluding IC development, weaponry below is what you would most likely be issued with within an army.



History
Firearms were invented by the Dwarves of Ironforge being created during the Second Orcen War and put into the hands of Riflemen during the Third War. This means that firearms are truly a new invention being approximately twenty-seven years old. Between the time they were invented and implemented during the Third War, the Dwarves of Ironforge had a significant amount of time, see: eighteen years, to advance their technologies in relative peace.

During this time, they were able to develop such improvements on the base model of the musket such as rifling, Minié balls, the flintlock (as opposed to the matchlock), and even the percussion cap (with limited use). While this does not sound like great improvements, for a span of twenty-seven years, these improvements are massive innovations. While it does seem quite ridiculous that this is the best they have even with Gnomes being their allies, you must remember that the Gnomes lost the majority of their production equipment with Gnomeregan and they are quite preoccupied with creating bigger and better (and quite useless) technologies to out-do the Goblins, leaving more practical technologies to their Dwarven cousins.


Making a Firearm
The creation of firearms is more of an art than any other kind of weapon making and even has its own specialization. Gunsmithing is a mix of engineering and blacksmithing, requiring the smith to be proficient in both, and to have devoted his life to the perfection of his art.

The most common materials to make these weapons out of are iron, brass, and bronze. They are all fairly common, with iron being the most common with hand-held firearms and brass and bronze being used for cannons. This is due to the need for hand-held firearm barrels to be thinner, but still strong enough to withstand the forces of the explosions. The making of the barrel is a fairly complex process. It usually involves a liquefied metal being cast around a rod to make the hollow barrel.

The stocks are made of woods with the type of wood being purely cosmetical for the most part, the only requirement being that it be one piece of a hard wood such as oak or maple. Soft woods like pine would simply shatter under the forces exerted by the explosions that propel the bullets.

The third, and most complicated part, of making a firearm is the firing mechanism. The mechanism varies slightly between flintlock and percussion cap. With flintlock firearms, the trigger is pulled, releasing a hammer that has clamped in it a piece of flint. The flint strikes a metal plate, sending a shower of sparks onto a flashpan containing a small amount of gunpowder that leads inside the barrel to the charge.

Misfires and Malfunctions



Misfires
Warcraft firearms are prone to misfiring. Period. It is a fact of RP that they can and will misfire. Even if made by a tinker. (Note: there are a few special firearms that are unavailable that have extremely low rates of misfire) Many things can make a firearm misfire. Wet or old powder, a charge that’s not packed enough, too small of a charge. The list goes on and on. You are suggested to roll whenever using a firearm to see if it misfires. [/b]


Hang Fire
A hang fire is when there is an extended delay between the time the hammer hits and the charge ignites. This is a common malfunction and most crude weapons are prone to this. This makes it extremely important to follow through with your shots, just like with bows.


Firearm Upgrades



Rifling
A rifled barrel can greatly increase the range of a firearm. This improvement is simply a twist put on the inside of the barrel to force the projectile to spin, giving it stability and increased accuracy. This upgrade is typically only applied to muskets, transforming them into deadly rifles that are accurate up to 300 yards. Pistols may receive this upgrade as well, but it severely reduces the caliber of the pistol, increasing the accuracy, but decreasing the damage caused by it.


Minié Balls
These projectiles are an incredibly deadly upgrade to the standard musket ball. Formed in a conical shape and rigged along it’s body, the end of the bullet is flared so that when fired, it forms to the grooves of the rifling, sealing off all the gas produced by the gunpowder explosion and giving it fins for stability and increased accuracy. These bullets make sharpshooting possible, extending the range of a rifle by another 100-200 yards.


Scopes
Scopes, in the modern sense, are rare and crude in Warcraft. In the sense of Warcraft, the majority are simply elongated tubes with a slight magnification to them. Usually about 2x. This does not make it possible to “snipe” targets, only sharp shoot. In fact, the most common scope is simply a tube that narrows the field of vision and zones in on the target.


Silencers
This section will be brief. There is one silencer in the lore. And it is unavailable for use. And technologically, there is no physical way to silence a muzzle loading firearm. Therefore, silencers, for all intents and purposes, do not exist.

Wounds



Guns vs Plate
There are two trains of though on this. One says that plate cannot be penetrated by the kinds of firearms in Warcraft, the other says the opposite. However, both have some merit. Plate can be penetrated by muskets and blunderbusses at close range only. Simply put, pistols do not have the outward velocity to punch through. This does not mean, however, that if you are far enough away that bullets will simply bounce off of you. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Your armor will be heavily dented and you will likely be knocked down and suffer from heavy bruising and possibly broken bones and internal bleeding.


Guns vs Mail
Mail, unlike plate, is not rigid and is much more impervious to penetration. Projectiles from pistols and rifles will still retain the ability to possible knock the wearer down and possibly break bones, and pose a great risk of some internal damage, but will most likely not penetrate. Blunderbusses, however, have small shot which can penetrate the chains because all of the forward momentum is put into a smaller point. All in all, mail will turn most bullets, but the stun effect will most likely knock you out, assuming it doesn’t kill you.


Guns vs Flesh (Or Light Armor)
The majority of the projectiles used by Warcraft firearms are made of lead. Even if the item says it’s made of something else, it is most likely made out of lead. It would be expensive and hard to manufacture any other metal projectile. But this is not a problem as lead is far more dangerous than any other metal could be. Lead balls and the Minié balls mushroom when they hit the body. This means that the front surface of the projectile expands, doing more damage to the body, literally ripping flesh, shattering bones, and severing limbs.

A gunshot wound is not a thing anyone could simply shrug off. And such wounds cannot simply be healed by a paladin or priest. Surgery is almost always a neccesity to remove the lead inside of the person otherwise risk of infection and death will almost certainly be a followup.

Understanding this, but gnomish engineers are still quite capable of making very advanced ranged weaponry, look at the basic firearm for all gnomish army personel :)

Though, i'd like to state that Gnomes do not make up the majority of the firearm weaponized Alliance.

True, I was stating quality that they can make, not qauntity or actually supplying them to the alliance xD. We are far too preoccupied making mech-suits and gunships anyhow.

Exactly, what I meant by useless and vain stuff, earlier in the post.

Not really useless. Seeing as the gunships that gnomish engineers make are being used to combat against the horde and was used to transport troops in the northrend campaign. Mechsuits aren't as commonly used but are still greatly valued when incorporated in combat against say, goblin shredders. And who can forget the submarines?

Well, I was mainly hinting towards the mech-suits as they don't really do anybody any good good on a large scale, nor are there enough pilots/Suits enough to mass up a considerable force. Also, the gunships were to some use, yet not put to their fullest extent, so far. But I did mention, atleast once that this is a generalization of standard issued gunpowder weaponry, excluding cannons.

Edit; This is also not concerning technology, but firearms only.

You speak with a very authoritative voice. What are your sources? Especially on this:

26/02/2011 3:09 AMPosted by Eugwyn

A gunshot wound is not a thing anyone could simply shrug off. And such wounds cannot simply be healed by a paladin or priest. Surgery must be performed to remove the lead inside of the person otherwise infection and death will follow. No ifs, ands, or buts.

My sources are mainly based out of utter realism and logic, the holy light is not a tool you can bend to pull out fragments of a bullet, nor is it something to be simply thrown around instead of bandages.

Perhaps you could close a wound through healing therapies, but never remove residue that would infect and kill the patient.

But, my sources would be several books, about guns for exampel, the Minié ball could give off bone rupture and fracturing, aswell as holes the size of a fist, it is as I stated; Not something you simply shrug off.

I think then that you should mention that in the very top of your "guide".

I mean, it's good work and I admire the effort you put into it, but in the end it's just your opinion on how guns should work in WoW, and not everyone agrees with that.

Actually, what you should take note of is the first pharagraph.

And yes, it is partly my opinion

Edit: Also, pardon my partly authoritive and harsh attitude, i'm tired. Hurr, I was awake the entire night, etc etc.

Yes, I did take note and it does not really convey "this is my opinion on guns".

And it's perfectly ok to have an authoritative note as long as you can back it up.

(By the way, this is ENTIRELY your opinion on guns in WoW)

Edit: It IS a good guide, a very good guide, but you should really mention that you try to take a realistic and gritty approach to guns, and that most of your sources are real-life based than lore based.

Well, they are equally as much lore based, but with the manner that I view the age of guns VERY early, ICly no common man could really supply himself with a reliable pistol, gunpowder and bullets, hence this is more of a general guide of what weaponry is accessable by somebody that ain't grandmarshaljusticarololtroll of Stormwind, etcetera.

I've heard people note that there are, example cartridge fed rifles, wich I can live with but i'd imagine that they would be so expensive to manage and manufacture, that they are more for show rather then a reliant use in warfare or to be mass-produced cheap for an army.

I lost my point somewhere there, but what I am also saying is that there is not that much intell on how far Warcraft tech has developed within firearms, but this is essentially from a poor man's perspective of what is in reach.

26/02/2011 3:08 AMPosted by Eugwyn

Warcraft firearms are prone to misfiring. Period. It is a fact of RP

I believe what Erethas is quite reasonably suggesting is that phrases such as this one are based not so much on in-game evidence, but on assuming a parallel with real world history and technology. Note that there is nothing wrong with attempting such a parallel - I did it myself in the "healing in roleplay" thread, but as there, it would be very good to demonstrate that you understand the distinction, and to make your differing sources obvious.

Small changes in your phrasing, such as

Historical equivalents to Warcraft firearms are prone to misfiring. Period. It is a fact of life. These traits could also be assumed about firearms in Warcraft RP

would make your guide more accurate, and more valuable. If looking to include the pen-and-paper roleplay version of the setting as well, or the novels, noting those differences could be useful as well. Noting that in real life, reloading a blackpowder muzzle-loader takes 15 to 30 seconds for most trained soldiers, or that in the novels it takes such-and-such a hero at least five seconds, or that in the pen-and-paper game they have a seven second reload time, could be useful, but not without distinguishing your sources.

Statements such as

26/02/2011 3:09 AMPosted by Eugwyn

A gunshot wound is not a thing anyone could simply shrug off. And such wounds cannot simply be healed by a paladin or priest. Surgery must be performed to remove the lead inside of the person otherwise infection and death will follow. No ifs, ands, or buts.

if you desire accuracy and honesty should be adjusted VERY slightly, such as

In my opinion, a gunshot wound is not a thing anyone could simply shrug off. And such wounds cannot simply be healed by a paladin or priest in my own roleplay, although the in-game evidence would suggest otherwise. Historically, surgery must be performed to remove the lead inside of the person otherwise infection and death will follow, although magical healing was much less effective in the real world than in the game setting. No ifs, ands, or buts, except where appropriate.

EDIT: My own "authority" on the subject comes from both being a historical re-enactor of eighteenth century naval surgery, as well as a player of WoW and roleplayer, with an interest in how the game portrays such things in their setting. Some things translate well, others much less so. Real world bullet wounds and their surgical treatment are explored in the "healing in roleplay" thread. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/831473995

Man, that thread is SO GOOD. I've been meaning to give it a proper read-through for ages but in the meantime have gotten lovely stuff from it. Scarifying particularly makes a horrible warm-down to serious surgery, and makes people go "wait, WHAT?" So thank you.

Meanwhile, as someone who has written reams of text on the tinest snippets of lore information, I agree that nobody can justify such an authoritative tone when extrapolating from sources rather than referencing them directly.

Still, a very useful guide which strikes a great balance between lenience (ways to escape injury, ways to fail) and strictness (hey dude if you get shot there's A BULLET IN YOU). I didn't even know about hang fires, so that's useful.

I love all the attention that this guide has given, I will do my best to answer any questions you might have.

An excellent post, you've clearly done your research and it shows to make a very well written, thought out and planned guide. Bravo sir!

Brilliant, I also believe that realism even though every other person wields some form of magic is something that should be strictly taken into account. (despite Erethas picking holes)