Prometheans and their weapons

[Benchimus]

Prometheans are robotic warrior servants of the Forerunners... So why do they use magazine fed, ballistic like (as much as hardlight can be) weaponry while the covenant use essentially left over Forerunner plasma weaponry? If the Forerunners were using energy weaponry, why outfit their Prometheans with what I assume would be, story-wise, inferior weaponry? Just a thought I had.

[Darkarbiter27]

Hardlight technology is far from inferior, and i do believe that it was the San Shyuum (prophets) who developed plasma weaponry. for example: try killing a promethean knight with a storm rifle. then try killing one with a supressor. the supressor is much more powerful than the storm rifle, and like other hardlight weapons, it packs a bigger punch than plasma technology, making it far from inferior.

[Benchimus]

Hardlight technology is far from inferior, and i do believe that it was the San Shyuum (prophets) who developed plasma weaponry. for example: try killing a promethean knight with a storm rifle. then try killing one with a supressor. the supressor is much more powerful than the storm rifle, and like other hardlight weapons, it packs a bigger punch than plasma technology, making it far from inferior.

This is why I said story wise. As far as lore goes, plasma weaponry is boss as hell. Gameplay =/= story.

[Sierra1117]

I don't think they've ever said plasma weaponry is boss as hell. There is really no story conflict, because in gameplay the promethean weapons are better than the plasma weapons, so it makes sense.

[medcsu]

I don't think they've ever said plasma weaponry is boss as hell. There is really no story conflict, because in gameplay the promethean weapons are better than the plasma weapons, so it makes sense.

 

Exactly.

 

The Promethean weapons boss any other faction weapon (of it's type) by far.

 

If you want to get technical (OP), one could easily argue that balastic based weapons trump the plasma line anyhow due to the overheating issue that comes standard on the Covenant plasma based weapons. You can fire 32 shots your machine gun (Human) which is pretty accurate if you tap it or fire about 20 shots from the plasma rifle that simply sprays all over the place even if you tap it.

 

In regards to vehicles, a Warthog Turret > Ghost and a Human Tank > Wraith. Wraiths are solid and I love using them but the tank fires a direct (very difficult to evade) round where as the lumping Wraith mortar can be evaded, advantage Tank. The Aerial vehicles follow a similar trend too.

 

The only Covenant weapons that I believe are super powered over their human types would be the Needler and the Fuel Rod Cannon. Those two weapons can utterly wreck. The plasma gun is good for bringing down shields if charged but it is nowhere close to the power of the human handgun. Other than that, the human weapons trump most of the Covie weapons and the Forerunner weapons are a step up from even that.

[Dr. Halsey]

This kinda annoying. Forerunners weapons are far from being superior.

But you have to remember these were probably produced in the late forerunner-flood war when there was lack of resources and the weapons were made to fight flood( which propably did not have shields).

 

As them being magazine fed... Maybe it can be explained with flood not able to download weapons(?) and with forerunner tech energy weapons could last long time without needing more energy and energy weapons could be charged remotely by Gravemind. Just guessing.

 

Also as said Gameplay is not always canon.

[Vaulting♥Frog]

First off, the plasma weapons were described as OP during the Human/Covenant war as they were compairing Human weapons to Covenant ones. In the books the Covenant weapons were more powerful, but still beatable with the right tactics. I think thats where you are getting it from.

 

However you must take into account that the events of H4 are new and as such introduce new things, IE the hardlight weapons. Neither the Covenant or the UNSC are able to make weapons like that.

 

As for them being "belt fed" (horrid term btw when talking about energy weapons) I think you are being mislead. It is in my belief that the Promethean weapons are giving charge packs that allow a limited amount of hard light projectiles to be produced within the weapon itself. If you have ever played mass effect then you might have an idea of what I am talking about.

 

The ammunition is always there, omni present if you will. It doesnt run out. What does run out is the power to create the ammunition that is then fired. Hence the charge packs. This means that though it is an energy weapon you are able to replace a charge pack and continue firing unlike the Covenant weapons which hold a single charge then require the entire unit to be recharged (I could be wrong on the Covenant mechanics but I have never seen an explenation for them). Hence your ammo counter being similar to UNSC weapons.

[Benchimus]

First off, the plasma weapons were described as OP during the Human/Covenant war as they were compairing Human weapons to Covenant ones. In the books the Covenant weapons were more powerful, but still beatable with the right tactics. I think thats where you are getting it from.

 

However you must take into account that the events of H4 are new and as such introduce new things, IE the hardlight weapons. Neither the Covenant or the UNSC are able to make weapons like that.

 

As for them being "belt fed" (horrid term btw when talking about energy weapons) I think you are being mislead. It is in my belief that the Promethean weapons are giving charge packs that allow a limited amount of hard light projectiles to be produced within the weapon itself. If you have ever played mass effect then you might have an idea of what I am talking about.

 

The ammunition is always there, omni present if you will. It doesnt run out. What does run out is the power to create the ammunition that is then fired. Hence the charge packs. This means that though it is an energy weapon you are able to replace a charge pack and continue firing unlike the Covenant weapons which hold a single charge then require the entire unit to be recharged (I could be wrong on the Covenant mechanics but I have never seen an explenation for them). Hence your ammo counter being similar to UNSC weapons.

Good theory on why hardlight weapons ammo is similar to UNSC.

[SykoWolf]

Hard Light is essentially physical energy, whereas plasma is more of a liquid state...... The Hardlight shots hit faster and with more punch whereas plasma is slower and doesnt pack such a punch and has more spread.

[Josh X574]

First off, the plasma weapons were described as OP during the Human/Covenant war as they were compairing Human weapons to Covenant ones. In the books the Covenant weapons were more powerful, but still beatable with the right tactics. I think thats where you are getting it from.

 

However you must take into account that the events of H4 are new and as such introduce new things, IE the hardlight weapons. Neither the Covenant or the UNSC are able to make weapons like that.

 

As for them being "belt fed" (horrid term btw when talking about energy weapons) I think you are being mislead. It is in my belief that the Promethean weapons are giving charge packs that allow a limited amount of hard light projectiles to be produced within the weapon itself. If you have ever played mass effect then you might have an idea of what I am talking about.

 

The ammunition is always there, omni present if you will. It doesnt run out. What does run out is the power to create the ammunition that is then fired. Hence the charge packs. This means that though it is an energy weapon you are able to replace a charge pack and continue firing unlike the Covenant weapons which hold a single charge then require the entire unit to be recharged (I could be wrong on the Covenant mechanics but I have never seen an explenation for them). Hence your ammo counter being similar to UNSC weapons.

 

I like this, I think of it as kinda like MEs thermal clips. I always picture plasma weapons being the covie attempt at replicating hardlight weapons. Also, im curious as to the effect of hardlight on flood, compared to plasma. Maybe this is why they didnt beat the flood, they were using a ballistic rounds instead of plasma (which would be inferior tech to them and far from their minds)

[01-171 Abased Eidolon]

I'm just going to go on a tangent, while still being on topic? Also there will be minor book spoilers. If you plan on reading the Forerunner Trilogy; skip this post.

 

The similarities between Human and Forerunner weapons ( as far as both using hard projectiles instead of plasma) can be traced more than 150,000 years ago. Ancient Humans and Forerunner were both given life by the enigmatic Precursors that had reign over the Milky Way. Both were designed as bipedal and organic. While their cultures evolved and ultimately became much different, they still held similarities. e.g. Combat skins, starships, colonization, and so on. Their weapons also turned out to be similar. It seems that most organic tend to gravitate towards ballistic type weaponry. The Covenant's main armaments could be called an exception and I'll go on about that in a minute. 150,000 years ago Ancient Humans used ballistics like Hardlight---

 

New tangent approaching. something I just thought of while typing this... Ancient Humans had at some point learned how to reverse engineer Precursor tech after their(the Precursor's) "defeat" by the Forerunners. This could have resulted in the Hardlight technology for weapons. "But Eidolon, the Forerunners use Hardlight!" You may be thinking. And I'm getting to that. What I propose is that Ancient Humans came up with it first, and the Forerunners primarily used light/beam weapons at that time. Much like the beams that sentinels and Monitors use. However, if I remember correctly, after the Forerunners defeated the Ancient Humans they got rid of most, if not all, of their weaponry. And entered a short era of "peace" which left them dangerously unprepared for when the Flood returned. Having scraped their own weapons they could have turned to the Ancient Human Hardlight tech in a desperate move to defend themselves. That could be why the Hardlight guns resemble the Current Human's weapons so much. The connections being suppressor and Assault Rifle, scattershot and shotgun, Boltshot and Pistol, and so on. Those connections exist because both sets were created by Humans.

 

And now about the Covenant's weapons. The many plasma guns were the result of the attempts of reverse engineering Forerunner technology. However with their limited understanding of the Forerunners they could only reach the Plasma stage. You can see how the Hardlight weapons influenced the many Plasma weapons. The Plasma Pistol has a similar design to that of the Boltshot and even shares it's Charging ability. The Plasma Rifle and storm Rifle are much like the suppressor. The Beam Rifle and Binary Rifle are also very similar and share the fact that they can only be shot twice before having to reload or cool down, however the Beam Rifle's shots can be timed to avoid cool down. And while against the Humans these weapons work really well; they are only reverse engineered Forerunner tech and overall that makes them inferior.

[Josh X574]

Good post, I have had the same theories

[RedStarRocket91]

Minor spoilers, as the thread isn't titled to warn of it.

 

 

My theory is pretty simple. The Prometheans are made out of Humans, who as a species are probably a lot more comfortable with ballistics instead of energy weapons when fighting as infantry. So while hard light weaponry is probably only as effective as plasma canonically, it's probably easier for the Prometheans to use, meaning that they'd get better results with it.

 

[Twisted Oracle]

Prome's are only servants

 

i wouldnt give my robot servant my best toy would you?

[Dr. Halsey]

Prome's are only servants

 

i wouldnt give my robot servant my best toy would you?

(Spoilers)

 

Good point. It would't be first time for Gravemind to persuade AI's change sides. Knights were AIs but also humans. Not something Didact could fully trust. The weapons may actually be low tech "toys" which were powerful enough to decimate flood but would suck against forerunner armor.