My character (the face/gunslinger), on the other hand, is a child of the z-zones. Her guns tend to be either tooled in the barrens (often by her) or otherwise modded beyond anything that the corp that made it could possibly have intended (with the exception of her sports rifle. It's too large to hide in her purse, so she has it licensed and has kept it as close to stock as possible).
Anyway, the two characters are now bunking together and I forsee a friendly argument or two occurring in the near future on the subject of Ares vrs (pretty much any non-Ares guns, but specifically street guns). This is great, and will undoubtedly lead to some awesome moments of roleplay, but it got me wondering:
Which guns are 'street' guns?
I've compiled a shortlist of weapons which seem to either be entirely street weapons, or else simple enough to make that street knockoffs would be almost as common as the real deal:
Hold outs:
1) The streetline special. Bit of a no brainer.
Light pistols:
2) The barrens special (Gun haven two). Again, this one couldn't really not end up on the list.
3) Colt America L36. A brand name weapon, but with no special electronics and light price tag implying ease of construction it makes sense that knock-offs are quite common.
Heavy pistols:
4) Colt M1991 (Gun haven). High end knockoffs are mentioned in the shadow talk about the gun, and the simple fact that it's a purely mechanical design make it a good contender as a street weapon.
5) Onotari arms Steadfast. Another purely mechanical heavy pistol, this one designed with the reinforcement needed for use as a club in a pinch. If I was making street knock-offs, this would be on my list of products.
Machine pistols:
6) B&P MP9. A design that theoretically finished formal production in 2014, but has the lowest availability of any machine pistol out there? If they're not being made on the streets, then these are the most common functional antiques in recorded history!
7) FN 5-7C. Ease of maintenance often implies simplified design, which in turn makes it easier for the streets to build their own.
SMGs:
AK-97 Carbine. As with all AK weapons, street production is almost a certainty.9) HK MP5-TX. If it's popular on the streets, odds on there's someone trying to cut into the market with knockoffs.
10) Ingram Warrior 10. Low maintenance and easy to modify imply relatively simple construction. Combined with its popularity, and it's easy to see this being a common street knock-off.
11) MAC-10 (Gun Haven). Pretty self explanatory.
12) Sandler TMP. If ever a weapon was destined to be churned out of street shops, it was this one. Cheap and simple.
13) Type 84B (Gun haven 2). A knock-off of the original HK-5K, this is another gun which was made for the streets.
14) Uzi IV. A bullet hose, pure and simple, I envision street shops turning these out by the dozen.
That's all for tonight, folks. if anyone wants to add to the street gun index (or finish it off for me) go right ahead. My rule of thumb is: if it's among the cheapest weapons in its category and has low availability to boot, then odds on it's being made out on the streets. the other rule of thumb: If it has a smartlink or other similarly complex electronics as standard, then it's probably not widely produced at street level and thus doesn't go on the list. I'm sure that if you look hard enough you can find a street knockoff of pretty much anything, but this is supposed to be more along the lines of street 'mass production', so to speak.
PS: Now that I have the rigger as a room-mate I suspect I'll find out if Ares have their own brand of toilet paper. I really, really hope not
