Awesome. A while back I thought about what a realistic "5mm" cartridge would be such that it could comfortably straddle the line between PDW cartridges like 5.7x28mm and intermediate rifle cartridges like 5.56mm. That way it could see use in PDWs, carbines, and small miniguns. I even did some math for it. I think I ended up with 5x40mm and something like 1,200-1,500 J of muzzle energy, which is close enough that this mod totally works for me. Thanks!
It always bothered me that "5mm" was somehow a name for 7.62x51.
After reviewing way too much stuff on reddit, wiki, youtube, and gun websites I think there is a reasonable conclusion about 5mm: It was originally meant to 5.56 in Fallout 1 as the Military version of .223, which makes sense based off the weapons that use it (Minigun and Assault Rifle) where as .223 was used by civilian firearms (Rangemaster/Hunting Rifle for example.) However then Fallout 2 started to make it murky with odd weapon and ammo choices like the LSW using .223. Then of course Fallout 3, NV and 4 totally made it confusing. However based on what we know it is a rifle caliber not pistol caliber, it does less damage per shot then 5.56, it is no longer 5.56 NATO since it is seperate, and it should have armor penetration and is lighter then 5.56 by about 40% in NV.
In real life there was a shortened 5.56x30 variant that was being experiemented with for a small Assault Rifle, which was a smaller M4 (a lot like thee Assault Carbine) and it was designed specifically to be a rifle caliber, with similar penetration to 5.7 but higher stopping power. Now in real life it failed due to barrel damage, but hey it's Fallout. So my headcannon that basically this succeeded after some more messing with. On one hand you could do like a 5.56x30 version, or 5.4, but I think 5.24mm works well as it gets the player to think something close to 5.56, keeps the naming similar and is still smaller then 5.56.
wouldnt it have just been more lore accurate to rename the 5mm to 7.62×51mm NATO which is the ammo that the M134 Minigunuses which is clearly the base design for the in game mini gun?
The you would have the almost same caliber twice in the game. The .308 Winchester is the civilian version of the 7.62x51mm. The 7.62x51 can be used in .308 guns, but the other way around it could cause case ruptures in some guns. I think the 5.7x28mm would also be a good alternative to 5mm. That's btw. what Caliber Complex does. Not only adding many new calibers, it also changes some of the vanilla ones. It changes the vanilla 5mm to 5.7x28mm.
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It always bothered me that "5mm" was somehow a name for 7.62x51.
It was originally meant to 5.56 in Fallout 1 as the Military version of .223, which makes sense based off the weapons that use it (Minigun and Assault Rifle) where as .223 was used by civilian firearms (Rangemaster/Hunting Rifle for example.) However then Fallout 2 started to make it murky with odd weapon and ammo choices like the LSW using .223. Then of course Fallout 3, NV and 4 totally made it confusing.
However based on what we know it is a rifle caliber not pistol caliber, it does less damage per shot then 5.56, it is no longer 5.56 NATO since it is seperate, and it should have armor penetration and is lighter then 5.56 by about 40% in NV.
In real life there was a shortened 5.56x30 variant that was being experiemented with for a small Assault Rifle, which was a smaller M4 (a lot like thee Assault Carbine) and it was designed specifically to be a rifle caliber, with similar penetration to 5.7 but higher stopping power. Now in real life it failed due to barrel damage, but hey it's Fallout. So my headcannon that basically this succeeded after some more messing with. On one hand you could do like a 5.56x30 version, or 5.4, but I think 5.24mm works well as it gets the player to think something close to 5.56, keeps the naming similar and is still smaller then 5.56.
So I really like this mod so thank you!
I think the 5.7x28mm would also be a good alternative to 5mm.
That's btw. what Caliber Complex does. Not only adding many new calibers, it also changes some of the vanilla ones. It changes the vanilla 5mm to 5.7x28mm.