Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: Difference between revisions

[[File:bear2.jpg|frame|''[[Cracked.com]]'' demonstrates]]

 

 

The inability of [[The Gunslinger|a long-range weapon user]], especially a [[Villains|villain]], to use said weapon ''at long range''. It seems that they are aware only of the trope that extended weapons [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|get knocked out of hands easily]], and thus will hold those weapons close to themselves. Why they monologue and walk ''closely'' to their target is unknown, since this is usually a good chance for the unarmed target to wrench it away or for an annoying [[Sidekick]] to [[In the Back|club them from behind]].

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* [[Those Wacky Nazis|The Major]] from ''[[Hellsing]]'' does this against [[Bifauxnen|Integra]] in the final volume, quoting "For the first time evah, I hit something."

* ''[[Naruto]]'' shows us a supposed Long Range Division in the Shinobi Army arc that first tries to keep their distance, without firing, and later charges (complete with the command, "Charge!") when the opponents begin to catch up. They did have capacity for artillery present.

 

* Repeatedly pointed out to her opponents by Cinderella in the ''[[Fables]]'' graphic novel "War and Pieces".

 

** ''[[BattleTech]]''—where powerful, futuristic weapons have effective ranges as short as 60 meters (the heavy machine gun, for example)! The latest incarnation of the ruleset explicitly acknowledges that this is for playability only. (It's a little harder to excuse the fact that ballistic weapons tend to ''lose'' range with increasing caliber, though, especially when the same is most definitely not true for energy-based ones...)

*** There was an interesting and elaborate [[Fix Fic]] about this very problem. It tried to justify the problem by saying that armor manufacturing has progressed to the point that in order to compensate, warheads had to become so bulky that Autocannons were effectively more like short-ranged mortars, with larger ones barely capable of firing beyond 100 meters. Likewise, missiles were limited by fuel capacity. Artillery, at least, has kilometers-long range.

**** One early version of the rules attributed the accuracy problem to jamming of the electronic sensors plus extensive use of smoke screens. By this rule, the battlefield's a continual pea-soup fog and a Mechwarrior '''can't''' see his target well enough to hit beyond a few tens of meters. This didn't explain why some weapons could target the enemy at twice the distance another weapon carried by the same 'Mech could.

*** It's worth noting that in ''Battle Space'', the ranges were drastically upgraded so that ranges were measured in thousands of kilometers. Too bad it didn't sell, because, along with being insidiously complex and requiring significantly more paperwork (with ''hundreds'' of hit boxes and critical hit locations ''per ship'', and weapons loadouts that were could fill an entire page) than the land-based game, space combat made the series' signature 'Mechs (and their [[Mechwarrior]] pilots, by extension) [[Point Defenseless]] turrets tethered to their ships at best, and helpless cargo at all other times.

* ''[[GURPS]]'' space combat takes place on a totally different scale than normal. Anything less than 20 miles (32 km) is classified as point blank (and combat bonuses reflect this by making it virtually impossible to miss).

* Lampshaded in a supplement for ''[[Tales From The Floating Vagabond]]''. It described scale ranges for its weapon ranges. The longest ('See That Dot?') range was given the appropriate scale, sponsored by the Society to turn Alaska into a Sand Table.

* [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in ''[[Cyberpunk 2020]]'' due to a serious case of [[Shown Their Work|Showing Their Work]] in regards to shootouts between amateurs and street hoodlums. Most firefights are fought well inside 12.5 meters (the "close" range band of pistols) and are usually decided by the first lucky hit. On average, they last all of fifteen seconds (five turns).

* Completely averted in most cases in ''[[Shadowrun]]'', where the extreme range limit for most weapons is about where the extreme ranges of real weapons would be (e.g. 1500 meters for a sniper rifle under the Shadowrun rules; that has been exceeded in real life in seven cases ever).

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

*** The best long-range weapon in the game is a lever-action rifle ''with iron sights'', because it does a lot of damage and has a spread of 0. Unfortunately, it uses the rarest ammo in the game. Oh yeah, and it was originally owned by Abraham Lincoln.

*** Also strangely inverted as well, as the standard hunting rifle, one of the more effective long range weapons (slightly less than the sniper rifle's range) lacks IRON SIGHTS. This would make the weapon near impossible to aim at anything further than very close range in real life. The hunting rifle model was given proper iron sights in [[Fallout: New Vegas]], which was required as that game introduced the ability to use iron-sights.

* Similarly, all manner of ranged attacks in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', be they bows, guns, or magic fireballs, have a maximum range of 30-45 yards. They also have a ''minimum'' range, however. If the enemy gets too close you're forced into melee combat, so it is averted to a degree.

* [[Mass Effect]] limits all guns (sniper rifles, assault rifles, missiles, ''tank cannons''...) to 400 meters maximum range. Noteworthy in that every gun is technically a mass driver; the pistols would probably be as effective as a present-day rifle. The sequel does a better job by setting almost every firefight in a confined space (skyscraper, spaceship, warehouse, underground base, whatever). There's one blatant instance of the sequel playing it straight when Miranda says she can nail a shot at a hundred meters. This is further out than most fictional gunfights, but it's still spitting distance for a real-life trained rifleman.