As we are all aware, firearms are significantly more nuanced than armored fighting vehicles in terms of availability. Not only are firearms manufactured for military use, they see extensive usage by various law enforcement, militias, as well as civilians for self defense and even some simple dumb fun.
Since the mode is in its very early stages of infancy, Gaijin hasn’t yet set fourth any specific guidelines for what constitutes a valid addition, we are in the wildest of wests this game has seen for a long time.
Before we truly begin, let’s get one thing straight: In a game sense, there is very little, IF ANY, difference between the effectiveness of a military firearm VS a civilian firearm. War Thunder just isn’t the game that implements the majority of things that separate them. Any bargain bin Walmart big game hunting rifle with a 10x can put down a marine just as well as an M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System for the very obvious reason that humans, unlike tanks, are still the same flesh and bone as we were 600+ years ago. Sure, we can pile on all sorts of armor onto ourselves to increase the chance of survival but none that matters when you’re in the same room as a madman with a sawed off double barrel shotgun who’ll proceed to blow your top smoov off. On top of this, from what I’ve seen, a large portion of infantry gameplay takes place at moderate ranges, where tap firing is the dominant strategy. This means that (FOR NOW), in a large number of in-game situations, not even the being locked to semi-auto would hugely detract from a civilian firearm’s in-game performance.
The point is: Since War Thunder doesn’t take into account things like practicality and reliability, there is very little separating a military firearm and a civilian firearm in terms of in-game performance. Meaning that Gaijin (and us) need to draw the line manually.
For the purposes of simplicity, I’ve identified a number broad categories and a few sub-categories for firearms to fall into. The question is: Where do you draw the line? Additionally, where do you think Gaijin will draw the line?
Military service weapons
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The simplest of all categories. These are weapons that serve or served with militaries, extensively or not. This category contains your M16s, AKs, FALs, etc. Their additions are easy to justify and wouldn’t be out of place. Subcategories for this category are captured weapons and OPFOR weapons.
Similar to many captured AFVs, captured firearms played very important roles for many militaries. They would see emergency service among frontline troops, arm less equipped backline units with something that shoots, and provide valuable lessons for developing militaries. For example, France made very good use of the German StG-44 all the way into Indochina. During WW2, Germany would adopt the Soviet PPSh-41 en mass. Captured examples would receive the designation MP-717(r) and examples domestically converted to fire 9mm would be designated as MP-41(r). With Gaijin’s current treatment of captured vehicles, it would not be surprising to see captured firearms spring up as premiums or event rewards.
Similarly to armored vehicles, many militaries maintain an arsenal of foreign weaponry for use in OPFOR exercises. For example, the US military has several AKs, RPKs, and Dragunovs in their possession to make OPFOR exercises feel more realistic. Semi-recently, Gaijin has begun to dip their toes into OPFOR equipment, though it has been limited to VISMODs for now. These firearms could provide familiar premium or event rewards to nations who might not have too much to spare.
Military prototype weapons
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Relatively self explanatory. These weapons are the first results of official military programs, contracts, or competitions. They were made specifically at the request of the military. This category includes weapons from both successful and failed projects. For example, the M16 went through a few preproduction prototypes before being accepted into service. These prototypes of a successful rifle could be useful as premium or event weapons. On the other end of the spectrum, we have things like the XM25 CTDE, a failed impractical bullpup grenade launcher. Any weapon within this category is easily justifiable as an addition.
Weapons evaluated by militaries
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These are weapons that have been evaluated by militaries but, for one reason or another, were rejected. Unlike armored fighting vehicles, it is significantly easier for militaries to evaluate firearms, leading to a huge number of weapons being evaluated but not adopted, the Pancor Jackhammer being a famous example. This also means that there’s a significantly higher amount of national overlap with firearms compared to AFVs. For example, the US trialed the FN FAL under the designation T48 but ultimately declined it in favor of what would become the M14.
There’s also, what I assume will be, a controversial subcategory here. Weapons used by militaries during multinational military exercises. It is common practice during multinational military exercises for military personnel to train on each other’s weapons. For example, Germany never adopted the M16 but German military personnel have fired M16s on numerous occasions during the aforementioned exercises, even earning US Weapons Qualification Badges.
Weapons resulting from private ventures and marketed to militaries
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These are weapons are the result of private ventures designed purely with the intent of seeing adoption into military use. They were not built specifically to fit the requirements of any specific military contract or competition. Instead, they are generally made based on assumptions of what the company THINKS a military could need. For example, the Empty Shell XM556 Microgun is a minigun chambered in 5.56mm. It was designed as a scaled down alternative to the M134 and can be fitted to many standard M134 mounts. It is also easily capable of being carried and fired by hand. The “XM” designation is purely for marketing. The weapon isn’t under consideration by the US military nor was it ever evaluated by them. Nevertheless, the intention for it is clear. Civilians can’t own it and no military has trialed it. The XM556 and many weapons like it are stuck in this strange limbo. It would be a shame to completely wall them off from addition since many of them are interesting (though impractical) and could provide vastly different playstyles to break up the standard shooter gameplay.
Law enforcement weapons
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Despite how it may first seem, this is actually a pretty vast category that encompasses more than just simple police firearms. State Trooper, Military Police, SWAT, FBI, Secret Service, and arguably even Game Warden firearms fall into this category as well. The pool of firearms here is vast. For example, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, as of 2012, uses the KelTec KSG. Texas Game Wardens carry Daniel Defense semi-automatic .223 M4s. The FBI uses the H-S Precision Pro 2000 HTR. There’s really no end as standard issue weapons varies by state, province, job, country, etc.
Weapons used by official civilian militias
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Several times throughout history, civilians have had to band together with the military to defend their homeland. Sometimes, in times of true crisis, these militias temporarily became an official extension of the military. For example, the WW2 era British Home Guard was a civilian militia group that was considered to be part of the British military. Since most military firearms were going to soldiers, these civilians had to make due with what they had. They would use surplus lend-lease weapons alongside shotguns and sporting rifles donated by groups like the American Committee for the Defence of British Homes. These donated weapons consisted of anything from .22LR plinkers to Winchester 1894 leaver actions and Springfield 1873 trapdoor rifles. Should this category of weapons be considered valid, many nations would gain access to many interesting and unique weapons that could otherwise be seen as invalid.
Additionally, there’s an argument to be made for a pseudo-subcategory here. Several US states have what is called a State Defence Force or SDF. These groups are a step above an official militia as every member of an SDF is legally considered to be a proper military service member that takes a military oath. What sets them apart from something like the National Guard is that an SDF is strictly under the command of the state government and CANNOT be federalized. I call SDFs a pseudo-category because they are generally unarmed and function largely as disaster relief and civil support. Only a few SDFs are authorized by the state to carry firearms in support of state missions and the firearms they do carry generally don’t differ from standard US military equipment or provide weapons that can’t be found in other categories.
Weapons made for and marketed to civilians
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This is where we get to the real forbidden fruit. The vast majority of firearms (over 80%) are made, at least in part, for civilian usage. From self defense to stupid fun, civilian firearm variety is the most extensive category by far. Obviously, this category should be generally off limits, at least for the first few years of the gamemode’s life.
Nevertheless, within this forbidden realm, there are reasonable firearms and unreasonable firearms.
Reasonable firearms are things like standard sporting and hunting rifles. Practical firearms made for a practical purpose. Browning X-Bolt, Beretta A400 Xtreme Plus, and insert literally any civilian AR-15 are all examples of reasonable firearms.
Unreasonable firearms are the gimmicky things. Firearms made purely for fun or to look stupid. They don’t serve practical purposes naturally. The Second Century Double Barrel 1911, KelTec P-50, and the Rossi 12 shotgun pistol are examples of unreasonable firearms. While these weapons would be super fun to use, they would ultimately be too far removed from the core identity of the game.
Now, of course, I am not advocating for the addition of civilian firearms to this military game unless absolutely 100% necessary. I think such weapons should only be considered if the main nation and any sub-nations (potential or otherwise) completely lack a weapon to fill a specific slot. For example, if Japan needed a bolt action rifle at X BR but neither Japan nor any of its sub-nations, for whatever reason, had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING all the way down until the civilian category THEN I think it would be reasonable for Gaijin to considered civilian options like the Howa Mini Action or whatever.
The purpose of this post is to start a discussion. Where do you think the line should be drawn? Should the line be move after a few years? Should specific categories be reserved specifically for special circumstances? I’d like to hear all opinions from reasonable to radical.