Quote from: shadowedge on Mar 25, 2012, 04:18:46 AM
I am not an expert at guns at all. I don't really know anything about them really. That said how does the firepower in Aliens compare to what we give our modern military today?
The sentry guns are essentially what are starting to see large-scale use now. Almost precisely teh same principle is now in use on security barriers Israel uses. They're situated in enclosed dome sort of things, which makes them a lot more protected and there's meant to be a human operator for each one.
The Colonial Marine version is a bit more effective than them, however, because of the apparently more advanced motion sensory apparatus being used. Something we have now, but theirs appeared to filter out a lot of things (apparently not hamsters, but there were a lot of loosely-hinged doors and stuff) and be used at considerable distance without walls and the like interfering.
Motion trackers seem to be quite the game-changer for the Colonial Marines. The only flaw - as the film showed - is that they have no indication of a target's elevation.
And, of course, would be of no use for fighting in the airless vacuum of space.
The smart gun was a fantastic concept, but has recently been surpassed, in actual functionality, by the advent of guided bullets! Of course, who's to say they don't also use that in conjunction with the guided barrel? Not terribly necessary, but it's a possibility.
Alternatively, we don't know
what they fire. The initial edition of the technical manual, when it was printed in the comics before becoming a book, had the smart guns firing not munitions, but
lasers. This was done to reflect the fact that Vasquez and Drake handed over batteries instead of ammunition and does a better explanation of the potential function... Firstly, both would have been able to fire the weapons manually - why wouldn't Frost have also demanded their magazines? Secondly, making the smart gun a direct energy weapon makes more sense in light of guided bullets - you can't guide a beam of light. You'd need to cue the entire barrel.
Form what I remember, the letters page received a lot of criticism from readers who just simply preferred the thoguht of them firing bullets, because it sounded like that.
Then the book came along and the things had an alternative description...
With all of that in mind, however - especially with Hudson's comments about them having access to direct energy weapons - it's worth considering that the smart guns might be this.
In that respect, they'd be well in advance of today's infantry weapons. Depending on how much energy is focused per beam, they might even be more powerful than the pulse rifles are capable of being.
Also worth remembering is that the Colonial Marines have access to thermal vision. We don't know if that same monocle can
also see in other wavelengths, only that this was the one they were ordered to use. Regardless, even if that's all they're capable of, it's likely to be a lot more advanced than today's thermal sensors are.
All the rest is more or less applicable to what we have today, but we know what Hudson boasted of, so... It's fair to say that what we saw on
screen was a little more capable than what a small squad of today's US Marines would have access to, while what was likely in reserve on the Sulaco, what they
could have brought, but didn't, was even
more radically advanced than anything in today's military arsenal.
We also have no idea what the dropship or Sulaco fired. What the capabilities of the dropship's missiles were.
Don't rely heavily on the technical manual. It's already obsolete.
It even has the dropship firing unguided rockets from the pods, but as from a few years ago, two or three manufacturers figured out a way to retrofit those types of rocket pods on gunships with guidance, essentially making them incredibly cheap, low-yield Hellfire missiles. Its' likely the dropship fires something like that from those pods and that they're for anti-personnel use, while the larger missiles are for use against vehicles - but there's no indication of how they'd operate. They seem to be rocket-based, but whether they have a tighter turning radius than today's missiles, what the warheads are and if they've got the same restrictions of locking on... We can't really say. In all probability, they're a lot better.
The Sulaco is most definitely much more advanced than today's space vehicles! It's got some sort of turrets upon it. Or at least, I assume they're weapons... They might be communications arrays for all I know. But let's assume they are - no way to tell if they're particle beams, railguns/coilguns or are, in actual fact, steerable missile launchers.
We know it's capable of launching nuclear munitions, but the film never clarified whether these would have been in the form of missiles, like the dropship carried or would have been along the lines of the 'rods from God' concept.
As for the APC, hmm... Was Hudson referring to the turret being able to make a city go 'VWAP'? If so,
damn... Wouldn't like to go up against one of them! He does slap his hand against the vehicle they're riding in when he says it, which could be an indication of that. Alternatively, he might have been referring to the minigun-like turret on the dropship or something the Sulaco had.
Vasquez also referred to cannisters of nerve gas... Would these have been manually handled by the Marines or was the APC fitted with some sort of hidden grenade launchers? Or did the APC or dropship have some form of remotely-controlled drones which would have been piloted into the nest, fitted with a launcher? We have those, today, in the form of things like SWORDS, which can be fitted with grenade launchers.
All in all, yes. The Colonial Marines are precisely what they seem: A logical evolution of today's combat soldier. If more Colonial Marines were portrayed in a new film, however, you'd most likely have to play on Hudson's quote and show that carrying a few sentry guns, couple of smrat guns and being mostly outfitted with pulse rifles and flamethrowers would be absolute bare
minimum for something like an investigatory search-and-rescue. That if they were going into a hostile combat situation, rather than trying to locate civilians, they'd be taking a lot more with them.
Quote from: CarnalCalligraphy on Mar 25, 2012, 11:24:30 PM
Okay, so if true to the original films, how would a predator fare against the Marine unit in Aliens. I'd also like to know how you think a Predator might fare against a modern spec ops unit.
Poorly - assuming they knew an opponent was out there.
Colonial Marines have the advantage of things like motion trackers, remote sentries and smart guns. Dutch's team never did.
Also, the environments were different. If they worked together, those enclosed corridors would have been a death funnel for the Predator. Whenever I've had the extremely rare good fortune to play with others who bother to co-ordinate tactics on the recent game, we've never had any trouble taking down groups of Aliens or Predators. Most players can't be bothered, though and just go running around aimlessly.
Which is why they keep on getting killed.
