Why is "old" obsolete?

[DougRed4]

Yes, welcome, jtanzer!
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Mamatried]

A bolt action rifle will always be obsolete when compared to a automatic rife
of course sniper and specialized rifes are still current, but they serve spesific roles, they are not assault or battle rifles.

Weapon Development comes in stages, and within each stage the actual differences are more or less insignificant.

lets go to WW 1 Every nation had bolt action rifles, though repeater like lever actions and others had been around for decades, however the standard military rifle was the bolt action.

The difference between the rifles is insignificant. and the Bolt action stayed the norm for decades until another stage was met, in 1937 the M1 Garand
a semi action rifle that now gave the soldier superior firepower compared to everyone else.
With the US entry into the Europen thater with the M1 we began to see this
stage begin to take over and replace the former stage.
The germans now developed the GSW and other sutomatic rifles, so did the
russians and the other allies.
By the next decade there was only automatic rifles, again the actual difference between them was and is not significant.

We are now still in the automatic rifle stage, and while technology have moved forward, the actual differneces betwwne autmatic rifle A and B is still not significant.

We can debate material and alloys and weight, but this can be said regardless of technology stage. We can make a flint lock muzzle loarder from light weight alloys but it is still obsolete.

We can take a early model automatic and use it more or less as any other auomatic, making them not obsolete.

Age really is a red herring, and we have so many examples of this, machinguns, tanks, ariplanes many waepon systems lasting decades, even some few having lasted a century, all becuse they are still on the same stage, and will only be obsolete on next stage regardless of age.

We still have modern militaries with Browning HP or even Tokarevs and M1911s still in use, and the FN FAL or the HK G3 still in use even with nato countries, becuse while some guns are better than others and lighter and that they are all on the same stage of technology, Automatics, and the actual differenc is more on the skill of the shooter then the properties of the gun.

In star wars terms to me this means basically that the difference between balsters are at best neglible when we look +/- 100 or so years since the stage of techolofy is Blaster and have not moved past that.

However it logical and natural that you will have issues with keeping the same gun alive for 3000 years, but making a 3000 yr old blaster design with new materials is actually not having an obsolete gun, it fully upto date, it is a balster.......

Bringing me back to the sword being a sword, and a 2000 yr odl sword, is equals to a 10 yr old one, however you will not be able to keep a sword for 2000 years.......

[jtanzer]

So then, why don't modern armies use flintlock muskets? If the materials and machining are better, then why aren't more militaries using flintlocks?

[Mamatried]

[jtanzer]

I feel that this conversation has devolved, or soon will devolve, past the point of usefulness. It's clear that we have different views on this topic. The only right answer is how you want to run your game.

Personally, I feel that the minute advances in technology that pileup over time are sufficient to justify de-rating weapons and equipment from previous eras. It might not matter that much long-term, however it does mean that if a player wants to use an older piece of equipment, they have to spend credits upgrading it to make it viable. It also may not be forwards-compatible with most modern tech, and efforts to make it compatible, or work around it's incompatibility, are going to be even more expensive and time consuming. The players then face the choice of hacking things together Ukraine-style, or "acquiring" more modern equipment that's more capable.