(02-03-2015, 02:50 PM)Warren Castille Wrote:(02-03-2015, 02:48 PM)TheLastCandle Wrote: In a world of magic and aether, are guns really that powerful? I'm leaning towards "no" - at least to the adventuring populace at large. To the average NPC, a guy with a gun is going to be just as dangerous as an evil, power-mad thaumaturge.
I think Gegenji hit the nail on the head on this point: if guns suddenly became commonplace, their inherent ease of use would change everything for the average Eorzean. I'm going to be interested to see how (and if..) the Machinist lore/quest touches upon this point.
Except, as far as we've seen, guns have no cast time. Sufficiently powerful magic at least requires concentration and focus and time to channel. An unskilled lalafell child with a pistol can accidentally heartshot a master mage trying to summon Meteor.
Guns just feel like there's no balance to them after the first shot.
Bolded the part I was going to focus on.
Let me preface by saying this: I fully agree with you, yet something occurred to me.
Now this is for the realm of conversation, but someone with a highly magical or very simply poisoned bladed weapon could be just as dangerous. Be it dagger, knife, pins, letter opener, whateverthing. Considering the effects of the poison or enchanted weapon. You wouldn't need -any- skill to graze flesh with those sorts of things, or to point it at someone. Some poisons are nearly instant! Also what mage could fireball something that close to them, unless they shielded it- oi, it goes on and on.
The differences would be distance, but anyone who's ever fired a pistol can tell you that you can miss something right in front of you. But like I mentioned before, muzzleflash/debris can kill you alone.
Like I said, I don't disagree, it's just something to consider when it comes to this subject.
