What's the point of the Plasma TC16-R rifle? (And what old pre-war weapon is it based on?)

[your evil twin]

So the first plasma gun you get is the TC2000-R, which is based on Kyle Reese's rifle in the first movie (which according to Terminator's official novelisation, was a "Westinghouse M-25").

A bit later you can buy (or find for free) a scoped version of the TC-2000R, which has very similar stats. (It has a slightly smaller clip, slightly better stability, and weirdly enough it also has a slightly faster firing rate, which seems counter-intuitive for the sniper version of a weapon.)

Then there's the Skynet R95 Plasma, which does even more damage, has an even faster firing rate, and has unlimited clip size. (But you can only use if you have at least Weapon Skill 3.)

From the Quartermaster you can choose to buy a sniper rifle, the Rail Plasma RG01, which has a very slow rate of fire, but is devastatingly powerful, and can kill a standard T-800 with one headshot.

At the same time that you can buy that amazing sniper rifle, or a rocket launcher, you also get the option to buy the Plasma TC16-R. (You can also find it for free, but not until much later towards the end of the game.)

The Plasma TC16-R is described as a "Classic weapon integrated with first-generation Plasma technology.

Firstly... what classic weapon is it based on? It's called a TC16 but it doesn't look anything like an M16. Can anyone identify what normal real-world weapon it is based on?

Secondly... what's the point of it? The TC16 seems vastly inferior to all the other plasma guns.

Sure, it does 1.7x damage per shot, but it has less than a third of the firing speed. It's always better to fire 7 shots that do 65 damage each, rather than than just 2 shots that do 110 damage. (I'm assuming the "fire rate" fire is shots per minute, and divided that by sixty to get shots per second. Seems about right to me, the TC16 does only fire about 2 shots per second.)

You can hammer the fire button to make the TC16 fire more rapidly, as if it were a semi-auto weapon, but even then that means you can maybe get it to shoot about 4 times in one second. You'll struggle to click the mouse fast enough to make it do a similar amount of damage as the rapid-fire TC2000, and it has a measly clip size of just 12 shots.

I bought the TC16 from the Quartermaster thinking "ooh, a new weapon! It does almost twice as much damage!" But then found in-game that it was pretty rubbish, and I was much better off using either the standard TC2000 rifle or the Skynet plasma rifle.

Here's the stats:

Plasma TC16-R
Damage: 110
Fire rate: 125
Clip Size: 12
Stability: 75

Compare that to...

Plasma Rifle TC2000-R (your first plasma weapon)
Damage: 65
Fire rate: 410
Clip Size: 24
Stability: 75

Plasma Rifle TC2000-R Scoped (can be bought, or found for free)
Damage: 65
Fire rate: 425
Clip Size: 22
Stability: 88

Skynet R95 Plasma

Damage: 75
Fire rate: 475
Clip Size: Unlimited (but overheats after 15 shots if fired continually)
Stability: 98

Rail Plasma RG01

Damage: 550
Fire rate: 27
Clip size: 5
Stability: 25

[Bongo ®]

I would say its based on the M 14 series of semi-auto rifles. The sights and handling remind me of that weapon.

[🎇TYPHOON🎇]

Originally posted by your evil twin:

What's the point...

Variety.

[Decimus Magnus]

I know this is a late reply, but it looks like it's based on the M14 EBR chassis that the military used as a stop gap measure to prolong the life of it's M14 rifles, which fire a 7.62x51mm round vs the 5.56x45mm round that the AR-15/M16/M4 family of weapons use.

[Vip]

EDIT: Not comparing the Rail Plasma RG01.

Seems the T16-R is more accurate over long ranges when keeping the trigger depressed for continuous fire because of it's slower fire rate the aim dot has time to return to the center. Also the T16-R is using 2 ammo per shot the others only use 1 ammo per shot. Not sure if the double ammo use is a bug or not.