QUOTE (CanRay @ Apr 21 2008, 11:33 AM)

Which is the reason for the Vindicator, really. It's a Crew-Served Weapon after all.
I mean, how many Shadowrunners go around lugging a M2-HB .50 BMG Heavy Machine Gun?
...
I just gave Troll players an idea, didn't I?
QUOTE (krakjen @ Apr 21 2008, 12:07 PM)

That would be the Stoner-Ares M107 I guess.
QUOTE (CanRay @ Apr 21 2008, 12:22 PM)

Yep! Or the Ultimax HMG-2.
QUOTE (IC-Pick @ Apr 21 2008, 01:53 PM)

I always disagreed with the uncompensated recoil on heavy weapons being doubled as well. Judging from RL weapons and SR damage codes, it would seem that:
LMG's are normal AR caliber weapons ie the SAW which is a support maghinegun that fires the same .223 that an m16 uses
MMG's are heavier rifle caliber weapons used in most good sniper rifles and hunting weapons, ie the m60 utilizing .308's
HMG's would be the 50 calibers and the like.
If i have uncompensated recoil from my m16, I would expect alot more 'felt' recoil than with a SAW, due simply to the lack of weight of the m16 comparatively.
I've never been quite convinced that the HMG class weapons are actually .50 caliber...
If you take a closer look at the damage codes, they don't quite fit into that range. The only weapon we can safely assume is a .50 BMG is the Barrett 121, which has an SR3 damage code of 14D. This makes sense, given the armor-piercing nature of the cartridge.
The next closest we get in SR3 is the rest of the Sniper Rifle class of weapons, which are 14S. I've always felt this is comparable to a .338 Lapua or some form of Ultra Mag.
The next damage code we have is the HMG, at 10S. We'll skip this for the moment.
The MMG class weapons come in at 9S, the same as the larger sporting rifles. This leads me to believe that they are in the .308 caliber range, or something comparable. This also fits rather loosely with the Ultimax MMG in SR3, which would likely be a 7.62x39.
The LMG comes in at 7S, and using real world weapons as an example, we can assume that this is .223 caliber weapon. As for why it has a higher damage code than the Assault Rifles using the same cartridge, that's a topic for a different debate.
This brings us back to the 10S damage code of the HMG, which is considerably less than the 14D of the Barrett's .50 BMG cartridge. Yet it is just slightly higher than the 9S of the .308 caliber MMG, which leads me to believe that it is actually more along the lines of a .30-06 cartridge, or 7.62x54R. Combining this with the example of the SR3 RPK HMG, which is likely a descendant of the 7.62x54R machinegun of the same name, I feel this caliber more closely fits the damage code than the .50 BMG.
Please keep in mind that all of these examples are using SR3 damage codes, not SR4. I do not have SR4, but would be interested to know how they changed the damage codes of the weapons listed above. Please also keep in mind that this is all subjective, and is based solely on my personal opinion.
With that being said, who's up for an M2-HB with the same damage code as the Barrett?!?
Comments welcome!