So..did the Americans...(equipment query)

[-Gews- 7443]

Yes, and NATO forces are not unfamiliar with aftermarket weapon attachments/modifications. I'd direct you to the inclusion of FORECON and other SOF as features in ARMA II's Chernarus and Takistan. In-fact, aftermarket weapon modifications are ubiquitous in a modern fighting force. The USMC (which is in the canon of Chernarus) included. They use 30 round PMAGs. Anything else is just hyper-nitpicking. I could explain the inclusion of 10-20 round magazines (i.e. for SPR/SAM-R type weapons), but it doesn't matter. Not to mention the civilian contingency, in that cloned PMAGs are widely available in Europe.

 

The subject was the unusual amount of Western weapons in SA insofar as the setting is concerned. The OP mentions nothing of aftermarket parts. The OP mentions Russia as a qualifier for why it's unreasonable to have NATO weaponry, which Chernarus is not. That is what I was originally taking issue with. You cannot apply "Russia" or "post-Soviet" as qualifiers to dismiss the presence of NATO weaponry in a work of fiction. Never mind how plausible it is in the fiction itself.

 

I never discouraged you from making your opinion clear. However, I will justify whatever I feel has been problematized unnecessarily.

 

And again, I never said anything was "realistic" or "authentic". I was saying, again, that by virtue of it being fiction it does not matter. They (the developers) get to dictate what is plausible, and that plausibility is demonstrated in the canon of Chernarus.

 

PERSONAL OPINION - I feel that Russian weapons (and the "Eastern Europe" settings) are by far over-represented in recent survival-apocalypse video games. I have no idea why people fetishize them so much. I like AK's, SKS's, and Mosin's too, but I don't want them to be the only things represented in this game or even in the majority. I want even distribution of weapons and variety, which can be explained adequately in the fictional canon.

 

 

Weapon customization with aftermarket parts isn't something common, I'm not talking about PMAGs, I'm talking about the combined effect of all the attachments. Nobody's going to use a 10 round magazine either. Only purpose for including those is adding options for gameplay, it's just another level of loot which otherwise wouldn't exist.

 

Civilians are not a source of 5.56 magazines in-game and they wouldn't be IRL either. If they went to the actual area the Chernarus map is based upon and somehow listed every single gun, you wouldn't be likely to find tricked out AR-15s although no doubt, there would be people who own them in the country.

 

 

I disagree that it doesn't matter. That's subjective. It may not matter to you, but it matters to other people. The developers can't dictate what is plausible. They can put stuff in the game and create a backstory for that stuff, but that doesn't make it plausible. Chernarus is clearly based on a mix of countries... the terrain is part of the Czech Republic, but the signs are Cyrillic, the armed forces and their homegrown adversaries use EXCLUSIVELY Soviet equipment, etc.

 

 

My personal opinion: I don't care whether it's Russian or not. The only thing that matters to me is whether I find it believable. I want a "realistic" range of weapons, if NATO has been involved then I want believable amounts and types of NATO weapons. Currently I'm not seeing that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, if we were being "plausible", even considering the backstory, why do I find more 10 round magazines than 30 round magazines? There's no logical explanation for this. It's clearly a gameplay and balancing choice. "People already came and took all the 30 rounders", no... it's because gameplay.

[Katana67 2907]

I disagree that it doesn't matter. That's subjective. It may not matter to you, but it matters to other people. The developers can't dictate what is plausible. They can put stuff in the game and create a backstory for that stuff, but that doesn't make it plausible. Chernarus is clearly based on a mix of countries... the terrain is part of the Czech Republic, but the signs are Cyrillic, the armed forces and their homegrown adversaries use EXCLUSIVELY Soviet equipment, etc.

 

Most things are subjective. And yes, they can dictate what is plausible, it's their product to mold. It doesn't mean that their decisions will always be well reasoned, but I haven't seen anything that is unreasonable in the Alpha. And yes, providing a backstory (i.e. an explanation) for something to make it believable/reasonable is plausible, definition of.

 

I'm not ruling anything out. But I think we'll have to agree to disagree, as this discussion isn't really going anywhere.