Handcannons vs Scout Rifles (Destiny)

by red robber , Crawfish Country, Monday, June 29, 2015, 16:52 (3224 days ago) @ someotherguy

As a mild gun nut, the handcannon in Destiny has always seemed to be outclassing itself. (I do accept that this is a game even though I'm about to reference IRL stuff).

Check this out. It shows us the basic equation for bullet energy (i.e. Impact), is E=(M*V^2)/K.

M being the mass of the bullet
V being the velocity
K being a constant derived from other maths

So for us, the two important variables are Mass and Velocity. Most pistols have large bores and spit out heavy slugs at slower velocities. So a bigger bullet means more impact eh? Yes and no. Notice that velocity is squared. The speed of the object is much more of a factor in determining the energy. That's why my .17HMR with a 17-20 grain bullet does way more damage to a target than my .22lr that has a 36-40 grain bullet. The 17 travels about twice as fast as the 22. So while a 2x bullet will give you 2x impact. A 2x velocity will give you a 4x impact.

The handcannon should then have a drastically shorter range than the other primaries, and while it should also have lower impact even at close ranges, I think it would be fair to keep the high impact stat for gaming purposes. I would put the max effective range of handcannons at about the same range as the fusion rifle. Maybe prenerf fusion rifle. Past that the impact should be much lower, and the accuracy should fall off to make it unlikely to hit that target anyway. As it stands now, most handcannons are just better scout rifles with more impact and slower ROF's.

But space handcannons you say! Yes I agree.