Why does an smg do more damage than an assault rifle?

[Hooligan the Hoodlum]

I’d love to know how an smg with a smaller caliber does more damage than a supposedly high caliber assault rifle (tenderizer)? It makes no sense and if it is high caliber why doesn’t it have a higher damage than the base liberator? Although I’m talking about the new warbond weapons it still applies to the other assault rifles. There’s no reason the smg’s should be doing more damage than any of the assault rifles unless these things are shooting some crazy futuristic caliber that somehow fits 45 bullets in those tiny mags but who knows…

[Enforcer]

The caliber is actually larger on the SMGs but yes it still makes no sense if you use common sense.
The magazines are actually pretty thick, it could be a triple stack.

[Mepho]

My guess would be SMGs are inherently less popular than ARs so they give slightly better stats to SMGs to compensate.

Not even joking, I think this is the way they think now.

[Hooligan the Hoodlum]

Originally posted by Enforcer:

The caliber is actually larger on the SMGs but yes it still makes no sense if you use common sense.
The magazines are actually pretty thick, it could be a triple stack.

Even if it was triple stacked the width of the mags wouldn’t be able to hold calibers that would have that much stopping power. I mean unless we got big chunky boys in there?

[Echo2Omega]

Which is more powerful?

.50 desert eagle?
.44 magnum?

The correct answer is the .44 magnum.

Physics!

[Zeddy]

Rifle caliber bullets are thinner and penetrate better, so they can go cleanly through a body without distributing as much force. Hollow point pistol bullets are wider and stop completely when hitting a body, possibly imparting all force. It's not an impossible concept, but you're welcome to get shot with these calibers for yourself and report back.

In-game pistol caliber bullets lose damage immediately when leaving the barrel, but rifle bullets keep the full damage for about 10 meters and lose it much more slowly so it's better at a distance combined with better accuracy.

[TheAceOfSpodes]

So, here's the thing. There's a lot of nerdy technical reasons why this might be the case.

Might be the case that the AR rounds are just underpowered (not enough propellant), or they're using saboted or some other penetrator that doesn't expand in the target. Whereas the SMGs might be using hollow points that dump more energy into unarmored targets.

But at the end of the day, its just a game design choice. They kinda went the "subvert expectations" route and defied video game convention by making the SMGs slower firing and harder hitting than ARs.

[Danyaell]

It stands for SUPER Machine Gun. Get it?

[Hooligan the Hoodlum]

Originally posted by Zeddy:

Rifle caliber bullets are thinner and penetrate better, so they can go cleanly through a body without distributing as much force. Hollow point pistol bullets are wider and stop completely when hitting a body, possibly imparting all force. It's not an impossible concept, but you're welcome to get shot with these calibers for yourself and report back.

In-game pistol caliber bullets lose damage immediately when leaving the barrel, but rifle bullets keep the full damage for about 10 meters and lose it much more slowly so it's better at a distance combined with better accuracy.

Fair enough but no need to be a smartass