Halo Humans vs Mass Effect Small Arms Weaponry: Whose is better?

I've been wondering about this for a while. On one hand, Mass Accelerator weapons are highly advanced. Halo's human weapons are mostly chemically propelled projectiles. On first glance, one would think they were ineffective. On closer examination, however, Halo's human weapons are much stronger versions of modern weapons.

So the question remains, which is better?

Better at what?

^^ Halo weaponry. It doesn't have to rely on handwaves and proficiencies. Just pick up and go shoot.

Secondly, Halo weaponry has a lot more versatility. The Halo Sniper Rifle is anti-materiel ammunition that can fly 2000 meters and penetrate vehicle armor and personnel shields. Secondly because it doesn't rely on mass driver technology it will work on the nuclear battlefield where there's a lot of excess radiation and EMP happening. (Magnetic accelerator technology doesn't have that mojo. If it is live then gets caught in an EMP, it's toast.)

Thirdly, you have variety in the Halo arsenal. What one weapon can't do (say the shotgun at long range), another can. Mass Effect weapons are all alike, there's little difference between a mass driver submachinegun and a mass driver sniper rifle in effectiveness. Sure the power level and mass of the round might go up but the Halo weapons have specialty ammunition that can be tailored to armor piercing, stealth, anti-personnel (fleshy kind) and outright high explosive.

Finally, Halo weapons are cheaper. You can equip entire armies with Assault Rifles, DMR's, Battle Rifles and Sniper Rifles for the same price as a smaller number of mass driver weapons. Quantity in interstellar war has a major quality of its own.

Actually, railguns and coilguns should work fine in the aftermath of an EMP, provided that it doesn't require integrated circuits and transistors to function. I don't know anything about ME magnetic accelerator weapons, but at the most basic level (pulling the trigger completes the circuit, firing the projectile), it should continue to function.

You...apparently didn't play Mass Effect, from this commentary.

Maybe ME 2 and 3 change things, but ME weapons have different ammo types for different situations, more so than Halo ever demonstrates in any of the games, books, or movies. They also have infinite ammo, which is only limited by overheating (though ME 2 and ME 3 change how they deal with overheating I hear). ME weapons are also easier to carry, having a compact form.

In short, ME guns are advanced sci-fi guns, while Halo guns are advanced normal guns.

Mass Effect weapons. It's not even close. They're stronger, more versatile, more compact, more efficient, and have unlimited ammo, in addition to a huge range of upgrades that can be easily applied by anyone. Halo weapons are pretty much exactly like what we have today with bigger bullets, and in some cases they're worse (though that could be for balance reasons).

It's even more so with the Mass Effect weapons, since they never run out of ammo or break. I don't see how having a handwave makes a weapon less viable.

So is the Mass Effect sniper rifle. They also have rifles that shoot streams of molten metal, and rifles that shoot exploding rounds. They have unlimited ammo. There's been no indication that any of what you said effects Mass Effect weapons.

First of all: no. All Mass Effect weapons are completely distinct. Second of all, Mass Effect has a lot more specialty ammo than Halo: armor piercing, anti-personnel, shredder, high explosive, chemical, incendiary, cryo, electric, radioactive, biotic, hammerhead, the list goes on. Oh yeah, and these ammo mods are much easier to apply (literally just stick it on and boom), and never run out, so there's no need to haul around different types of ammo all day. Mass Effect weapons are also very light and compact.

In the Mass Effect universe, these things are common technology, so they can be easily mass produced. Hence why everyone and their mother has one, and why most of them are so cheap to buy in-game. An assault rifle literally costs less than a ship model. Plus: you don't have to waste materials making ammo. Just stick a normal metal block on and the weapon has 10,000 rounds.

edited 1st Sep '12 7:49:56 PM by CPFMfan

That's what I thought. So, what about Covenant small arms weapons vs Mass Effect small arms? The Covenant mainly uses energy weapons, but are mass accelerators just as good?

Half of the Covenant energy weapons, like the Plasma Repeater and Pistol, are slow, inaccurate, and not all that versatile. I give it to Mass Effect weapons for compactness and ammo mods alone, as well as the fact that their bullets actually move like bullets and can't be dodged in the open at twenty yards. The others also aren't very versatile and are basically slower versions of Mass Effect weapons with finite ammo and slower firing rates, like the Beam Rifle or Carbine.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm studying the weapons for my crossover.

As far as I can see, the Haloverse has superior computer, space and large scale technology including better powered armor, but inferior small arms weaponry.

I don't buy that. You can't objectively measure AI technology, and Mass Effect space technology seems superior to Halo technology aside from the disability of needing Mass Relays. Especially once they reverse engineer Reaper tech. They're insane durable, numerous, and have guns that hit with the strength of four nukes, as well as automated laser defense systems that are shown to absolutely destroy fighters unless they Zerg Rush on a level that the Halo verse can't afford.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:26:37 PM by CPFMfan

Of course not, you think it. On a more serious note, Halo has larger stuff in general. I think it stands they're better at building larger stuff. Maybe because the Halo people just thought on a bigger scale, but still. Their FTL isn't restricted by checkpoints, and their AI's weren't put on hold because of a crisis.

I've always held that Halo held superior firepower, personally. Then again, I've only gathered that from reading crossovers, so it might not be wholly accurate. I mean, math will be involved if you wanted perfect accuracy on which were stronger.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:16:12 PM by MetaSkipper

Isn't powered armour massively expensive and rare in Halo while Mass Effect has it available for every soldier? And said "every soldier" for applies to every humanoid modernized species in Council Space as opposed to just human beings, I think.

Well, do we hold advancement at what your standard soldier gets, or what the top of the line soldiers get? Also, what does Mass Effect powered armor do? (Forgive me, I've never played the games.)

As an extension of my previous post, my hyper-generalization of Halo vs Mass Effect weaponry, both ground and space:

Halo stuff fires large slugs fast. Mass Effect shoots grains of sand REALLY fast.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:19:18 PM by MetaSkipper

Protects from damage, in addition to providing some kind of bonus depending on what suit, like even more shields, more ammo, higher strength, higher running speed, or a healing factor.

Mass Effect would win on both counts, considering the insane power of biotic soldiers.

History has proven that shooting smaller bullets at faster speeds excels. Especially when the Mass Effect bullets are so insanely fast.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:20:54 PM by CPFMfan

To what extent is physical capabilities enhanced?

I've never been too impressed at biotics. Maybe it's Gameplay and Story Segrgation, but I've never seen it in a very impressive light. What is capable with biotics?

edited 1st Sep '12 8:22:58 PM by MetaSkipper

They're a lot more powerful in cutscenes (except in the first game), but basically anything. Telekinesis, summoning black holes with your mind, energy balls, forcefields, flight, mind control, teleportation, super speed, super strength, exploding stuff with your mind, even stronger deflector shields, and so on.

It's definitely not SPARTAN-II levels. It's kinda hard to say for me how much aside from that since I only played the game, which doesn't exactly display that well since the game is about shooting people and Shepard, the Player Character, becomes an absolutely-unique cyborg in the second game, so their capabilities can't display the strength of powered armour.

I'm curious. Are there any numbers for slug size and muzzle velocity for Halo and ME weaponry?

Also, are we talking Haloverse as a whole? UNCF? Covvies? Forerunners? Reclaimers?

Is this straight matchup VS strength? Or tier list strength? For example, I've read that ME shields can't block plasma weaponry (a byproduct of it not existing). However, that doesn't necessarily mean that ME is the weaker 'verse.

How long could you sustain that kind of power? I may be scared of your super rocket launcher, but if you miss your only rocket, I'm not so scared anymore. Of course, if you have multiple rockets, then that scenario goes away.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:30:21 PM by MetaSkipper

^ Note topic: Human weapons only from Halo...

Small arms? ME...spaceship weapons I'll give to UNSC and its Super MAC...outside of Super MAC I'll give it to ME again...

edited 1st Sep '12 8:37:00 PM by onyhow

Obviously we're talking UNSC and Covenant here. The Forerunners would curbstomp the Mass Effectverse, given all the things they were capable of doing.

Some math on Mass Effect weapons foudn on Bioware Forums:

A large grain of sand is 1/10,000 milliliter. Dense steel is about 8 grams/milliliter, for a final mass of, say, 1/1,250 grams. For it to reach 2,000 joules, the energy of an AK-47 round which kills via tearing and not kinetic energy, it would need to travel at 50,000 meters per second (about seventy times an AK-47's muzzle velocity).

Also, what are we looking at? War? If that's the case, what kinda war? As a Halo/ME fic once put it (paraphrased):

"Yeah, we stood a chance on the ground, but it didn't matter, because they just bombarded us from space."

edited 1st Sep '12 8:39:14 PM by MetaSkipper

In-universe, biotic Strength is a combination of your metabolism, mental fortitude, and biotic implants.

So, say, a person with a decent metabolism, great mental strength, and a high-end implant (Ly 5 X is the highest-end ever mentioned in game) could probably sustain a bus in midair for several minutes.

They'd go comatose afterwards, though.

Under stress? Like, being shot at, stress?

Also, for ground weaponry, what are we counting as important? Portability? ME, no doubt. Versatility? ME. Stopping power? I'd give that to Halo. Killing power? I dunno. I'd lean Halo. Shields and Armor? Probably Halo, if you ask me. Vehicles? I dunno, I don't remember seeing a whole lot of land vehicles in ME. War effectivity? I dunno, don't remember much of a war in ME bar 3.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:49:11 PM by MetaSkipper

From pure exertion. It's been noted that using biotics is mentally and physically exhausting. In theory, having biotic soldiers means you can have a bunch of superhuman supersoldiers running around. In practice, they can only use their powers to a limited degree before wearing themselves out.

Spartans, on the other hand, never really tire. They keep fighting, no matter what. They have reflexes greater than any other. They can easily kill something with their bare hands. When you add MJOLNIR power armor to that mix, they're nearly unstoppable.

edited 1st Sep '12 8:49:34 PM by TheProffesor