Logical Ways To Revamp The Soldier

[______________Denira]

Hullo everyone,
This is my first time posting on the message boards and I hope that my ideas are taken to heart on ways to improve the soldier. This post is mainly directed at FC, so bear with me.

Why are SMG wielding Fixers able to out damage a Soldier armed with an Assault Rifle or any long barreled weapon?
The only reason I can think of is that the weapons weren't designed with actual physics in mind. SMGs are short barreled/small caliber weapons and thus should not be able to outdamage a long barreled/large caliber weapons.
Simple physics of weapon design: Muzzle length plus caliber determines how fast the bullet will spin which in turn determines how far the bullet will travel as well as how much damage the bullet causes on impact.
Hence shorter barreled weapons never have the range nor the stopping power of longer barreled weapons. Several real world SMGs come to mind that verify this fact namely the HK MP40. The MP40 is a fine weapon for close quarters combat but on the open battlefield it is quite useless. It is a small caliber SMG, currently they come in two varieties: a .40 caliber and a 9mm.
Yes I realize that the .40 caliber has more stopping power than a 9mm, but also keep in mind that the MP40 has an effective range of several hundred meters before the bullet tumbles. Tumbling is where the bullet slows down sufficiently and thus lacks the power to penetrate.
Take the AK47 as an example of an assault rifle: it is a long barreled weapon that fires 7.62 caliber rounds that has an effective range of a thousand meters, which in order to utilize the full potential of the weapon it must be mounted with a scope. At close quarters this weapon outdamages an SMG in every single test because of two simple facts: barrel length and muzzle velocity.
The damage model in AO needs to at least reflect simple physics and if it does the advantage goes back to the soldiers who are masters of ranged weaponry. An Assault Rifle should outdamage a small caliber SMG on every bullet fired.
Why do Fixers have special bullets when Soldiers do not?
There is no reason why Fixers should have cluster rounds and every reason why soldiers should. Currently most small caliber rounds for assault rifles come in several distinct types: Armor Piercing, Mercury Tipped Hollow Points, Jacketed Hollowpoints, Hollowpoints, etc... 30 thousand years in the future I can logically see having tank special ammunition being available in smaller calibers such as: APDUDS (Armor Piercing Depleted Uranium Discarding Sabot), APDU (Armored Piercing Depleted Uranium), HE (High Explosive), and cluster munitions. A sabot round has a tip the penetrates most armor before allowing the round to detonate upon impact.
As it stands the soldier has not a single advantage over a fixer, to me a fixer is nothing more than a combination of a computer geek and a black market dealer.
Armor of the soldier should be equally protective against all forms of attack because it is designed to prevent casulties from types of damage that are not usually seen on the battlefield. Spefically against specialized ammunition.
Soldiers should start to gain bonus' when group with other soldiers because we are a team class and several skills need to be changed from dark blue to green. Namely, Map Navigation, because even now in the US Armed Forces a raw recruit is taught the fundementals of how to read a map in order to call in air strikes, artillery support, medivacs, etc... This skill should be green for a soldier. Brawling should also be a green skill because again in basic training the recruit is shown how to defend themselves in the case they are unarmed. Grenades should be a green skill because the only people that use grenade launchers/thrown grenades are soldiers. All ranged skills should be green as supposedly soldiers are the masters of long ranged weaponry. How can they be a master when half the ranged skills are dark blue?
Energy based assault rifles should do more damage than a SMG one based on one simple fact: Weapon size. The larger the weapon length the more power the assembly that generates the energy beam. This balances SMGs and ARs out because it is not physically possible to fit the same emitter arrays into both weapons.
I'm not asking for a total redo on the damage/physics model, but what I am asking for is that the damage reflect the size of the weapon. There is no way that a submachine gun can outdamage an assault rifle. Redoing the damage would be simple. For example, what would be low end for an assault rifle should be top end of a SMG. As it stands now a SMG fixer does more damage than an assault rifle carrying one. This is not logical considering that the damage 'should' reflect muzzle length, caliber, and muzzle velocity.
Take for example a .22 Long Rifle pistol and compare it to the .22 Long Rifle Hunting Rifle. Both are chambered for exactly the same round yet the rifle does a lot more damage based on the length of the muzzle. Longer muzzle=more damage because it gives the bullet time to spin to high velocity. That's why in almost all balanced RPGs a .22 LR pistol does less damage than a .22 LR Rifle does. No to mention that the pistol has a shorter range.
One of the things that really ticks me off is the fact that a computer nerd has access to specialized ammunition and the supposed master of ranged combat has none. Sorry, but the first ones issued new ammunition/weapon types is the military because they spend billions of dollars into weapons research each year. Somehow I just don't see Bill Gates investing that kind of money into weapon R&D.
Now I did say that a fixer was a computer nerd/black market dealer, but if the soldiers don't have these specialized rounds where did the geek acquire them in the first place?
It's logic and logic for the above example shows that the military should have them first and then the geeks.
I haven't touched upon nano's because I haven't gotten that high up yet to know what each of them do in comparison to other classes. I did touch upon weapons because I do see fixers and other non-combat orientated classes outdamaging me with rifles, submachine guns, and pistols. Let me ask you what is wrong with that picture?
Now if I really wanted to nit pick Why are SMGs listed with MGs? It's like using Vehicle Air for ground vehicles and Vehicle Ground for air vehicles. An SMG is a small caliber short ranged high rate of fire weapon and a MG is a large caliber long ranged high rate of fire weapon. They require different skills to use and a person is trained to use them in a different manner. An M60 or a M249 SAW operates much differently than a Thompson or a HK MP40.
I touched upon armor because after reading the majority of the posts in this forum it is the general concensus among all the soldiers that we need new armor. Like weapons the armor of a soldier should be the 'best'. It should also protect the wearer equally against all types of attacks.
Currently in the US Armed Forces inventory they have Kevlar Vests and Helmets. The vests do have metal plates in them to stop bullets as well as stop grenade fragments, plus edged weapon damage. Who knows 30k years in the future they would have made kevlar even better to work against other damage types.

Denira
70th level soldier
President
The Hope of Rubi-ka