Heavy Machine Gun is not an HMG

[Glove]

That is all. Being able to fire on the move, not having to change barrels, any type of attributes that make it more a crew-served weapons don't exist. Not an HMG.

The emplacement is an HMG.

[gachi is manly]

Guys you literally drop onto planets in a bullet shaped capsule at a speed that would liquify your bones on impact. If they want to say they've made a HMG you can hip fire while on the move in this fictional sci-fi setting, I'm not batting an eye.

[Kay]

Originally posted by Magnusson:

Would be good if the MG would be connected to an ammo bagpack, but I do not see the use of this. The MG43 is much better with higher ammocount. And for me personally I do not play it, due to the low ammocount and that there isn't a crosshair in third person. Not a big fan of switching in first person everytime.

yeah, it's kinda disappointing it doesn't get a third person crosshair, personally I'd like it to do a bit more damage, just enough so that it's more effective against medium armour, but wasteful against lighter armour, so the MGs still have their niches (Stalwart for light targets, MG-43 for general purpose use, and this for medium targets)

[DrLamp]

An M134 would be an excellent weapon to use on bugs in the game. However, a normal person would not be able to use it effectively due to its size, weight, recoil and ammunition requirements. It could be an emplaced weapon or vehicle mounted. That makes perfect sense.

An XM214 would be plausible, but you would still have serious concerns with ammunition consumption and recoil in spite of its smaller caliber. Additionally the lower caliber would mean poor penetration against armored targets.

Could you carry an XM214 and fire it? Well, the weapon itself weighs in at around 27 lbs (~12kg). You betcha. The problem is the ammo. A single 5.56x45 round weighs practically nothing, 500 of them starts to get heavy. Why did I pick 500, well...

The weapon has a variable rate of fire from 400-10,000 rpm. So even at the slowest speed you have a little over 60 seconds of trigger time before you're empty, assuming a (questionably) reasonable 500 round feed pack. 500 rounds of ammo would weigh about 13 pounds (a little over 6 kilos) and then there would be the backpack and feed mechanism needed to deliver it, so double that total weight to 12 kilos. This is just for the ammo. Given that it can't be shoulder fired, you would have to "walk" the rounds into the target wasting alot of your ammo. The rotation of the barrel assembly would also function as a gyroscope and fight you as you tried to turn the weapon making it very unwieldy when fired unsupported (by hand, no bracing of any kind).

Assuming the target just stood there and let you shoot at it (unlikely) you could engage about 25 targets, again assuming that they are unarmored and died instantly. After that you would have to swap out the ammo pack and hook the feed system into the new pack (or vice versa). This would not be something that could be done quickly.

There's a reason the US never used them, they were a neat idea, but they sucked because of all the drawbacks. A 55 pound weapon system that can be used to (in near perfect conditions) kill 25 targets before turning into dead weight?

I'll take an M4 and 10 STANAG mags please.

[C4NNED]

The definition of HMG applies to the Mg203 or 101 in hell divers. If it's a 50 caliber or bigger machinegun it is a HMG. Once you reach 20 mm experts will identify it as a auto cannon. Despite it mechanically not changing at all.