But the main difference was a gun was considered faster than a bow and arrow (before they met the native americans) so it would need to be faster both loading/firing and killing, which is quite a tough feat.
European guns were not faster than European bows and arrows (Robin Hood anyone) a Welsh longbowman could put 3-4 shots in the air before the first hit (at 400 yards, and they were accurate at that range) basically the only thing a gun had over a bow and arrow was the intimidation of the bang and flash and smoke.
Study the Vietnam War. Punji spikes, Venus flytrap, Crossbows made from parts of crashed helicopters. Funny thing is those beat the M16. Like I said, Humans are still put together the same way. We used bow and arrows for over 3000 years and China has had gunpowder and rockets for much more than 300 years. Who is to say we are not just getting started with guns. You probably are right though and it just was a typo.
It may be old technology but there is always a time that it is the perfect tool. they have nail guns, but sometime you want to use a regular hammer. Simplicity is the key with the grenade launcher, I could easily see it not changing much except for a few improvements. Its not all old technology either, it has an EMP burst with the boom, how many modern day grenade launchers have that? the mag (apart from the zoom in feature that was absent in h3) is also 300 year old technology. is it weird that they still use that? in reach they have tactical knives they use for assassinations. The metal knife is thousands of years old. my point is, it doesn't matter. at all.
Just because something is old doesn't mean its not reliable. The M13 machine gun design has been used for 50 years and is still being used today.
I believe the M13 is a link used in .30 caliber machine guns. The M2 Browning has been in service since 1933. That is about 80 years.
its definitely not a typo. weapons technology cant really advance that much without stuff getting ridiculous. if you think about it, almost every piece of equipment in the UNSC arsenal is perfectly conceivable with modern technology(obvious exceptions of course being the spartan shields and the slipspace engine). and just because it was first used 300 years prior does not mean its the exact same weapon. the m16 was designed over 50 years ago, and its still being used today. but that doesnt mean its the same gun that was used 50 years ago. there are obvious technological advances that are applied to it now that it didnt have 50 years ago, but its still classified as an m16.
Maybe it never jams, never needs heavy cleaning, and such. Wood Wonk has a great point, did you expect a spartan laser handgun?
Yeah, but since Bungie has the advantage of being able to make stuff up as they go along, it doesn't make much sense at all to put a gun's date at 300 years before the events in the game. It's a very strange and frankly baffling choice, probably made by somebody who gave the date to be listed all of 1 second of thought before moving on to something that was actually important.
maybe they're trying to say this weapon cannot be improved. it's been in use and hasn't changed. its the ultimate version, designed 300 years ago. You know how they like to include little pointless historical details in the tapestry that is the halo universe. I'm going to go back to Red Army's point. Who cares? its a weapon. It kills. it 'splodes.
How awesome would it be if someone made a working (or not) replica of the Halo Reach Grenade Launcher. Wouldn't that ^ be sick to hold.
Actually, I thought to myself when I first picked that up in the Beta, this thing is ****ing epic, I want one. xD
To add to this, I remember air blasts are more effective than ground blasts. Also, people can't always think too far outside the box, as this isn't TOTAL fantasy. I think they might have wanted to place a "blast from the past".
If it works, why fix it? There doesn't HAVE to be some sort of technological advancement just because its been 300 years. Some still carry swords into battle, and that weapon is over a thousand years old. So as long as the weapon itself isnt 300 years old, it shouldnt matter.
It's a good weapon it works? Who says it hasn't had few improvements here and there It's a game they not gonna be perfect detail about the gun in every way. Original gun could have been made over 300 years ago just like a "Grenade launcher" but could have been made longer range added the EMP added remote detonation faster reloads better reliability better ironsights. There not gonna put all that into the game heck the gun probably is filled with technically impossible parts but if you want something to make it plausible there's your reason.
With the exclusion of the EMP blast, we currently have shotguns that outclass this grenade launcher tenfold. Controlled detonation? I believe the US Army currently has a gun that fires bullets with a similar concept. In todays world of high tech, upscale weapon r&r, these scifi weapons aren't so far fetched... Of course anything available today in impractical due to the cost....
Man, so many serious responses to a thread I started when I noticed a random insignificant thing I thought was weird. Seems to me like that has to have been an oversight or a typo by Bungie, because 300 years is weird no matter how you spin it. Most likely some intern got assigned to write weapon blurbs and just made up a number.