Talk:MA5D assault rifle

What exactly is the purpose of making a new variant of weapons every few years, especially when the war is over? There's a new variant every game. Bioniclepluslotr 23:21, 6 September 2012 (EDT)
 * Sparkast 014 confirms that the AR that appears in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (which takes place in the 2530s) is the MA5D. Also, the 32 ammo limit of the AR in Halo Legends: The Package indicate it is an MA5C. It just so happens that the Chief only finds one variant of the MA5 series every game. I wonder why. — S331 Bubbleshieldhud.svg(COM • Mission Log • Profile) 23:51, 6 September 2012 (EDT)
 * Would you rather they make gameplay changes every game with no in-universe explanation? Would you really prefer it if the Halo: CE AR and the Halo 3 AR were supposed to be the same weapon?--Emblem 1.jpg  Rusty  -  112  00:13, 7 September 2012 (EDT)
 * Of course not! One of the reasons I like Halo is that they introduce new weapons every game, and put in the effort of giving in-universe explanations. It's not like "Oh, we just want to add a new weapon, so we did. Where it came from? Why should we care?". That's why Bungie is good at making video games. — S331 Bubbleshieldhud.svg(COM • Mission Log • Profile) 08:17, 7 September 2012 (EDT)

Per Spartan331, all the variants of the MA5 seems to have been around since the start of the Human-Covenant War... maybe even before the event. So, the whole "the MA5(insert alphabet here) has been replaced by MA5(insert alphabet here)" is - in a way - wrong. Makes sense as to why Waypoint videos keeps using the general designation over the specific ones.— subtank   11:42, 7 September 2012 (EDT)

Time Error?
I noticed that Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn has MA5Ds and practically everything Covenant-related in Halo 4 style. Is this because of a lack of production time or just to show that it's a prequel to Halo 4? I was thinking they made MA5D props and had them serve as MA5Bs or whatever pre-war MA5 rifle but is there a different explanation? Cause I'm pretty sure if a school had the latest MA5s in the beginning of the war, the entire UNSCDF would have them. -User:Yoonhyuk-740 08:13PM, 24 October 2012 (EST)
 * See here. The use of Halo 4 assets is intended to reinforce the webseries' connection to the game, but their use is canon, not artistic license. Frankie has confirmed that the MA5D really was in use back in 2526. However, why the UNSC didn't field it more widely during the war is anyone's guess. --Courage never dies. 20:22, 24 October 2012 (EDT)

It's not that unusual, modern militaries frequently use different models of the same weapon at the same time. --LeeUnit92 20:57, 24 October 2012 (EDT)
 * Quite so. I've heard the US Military still sometimes fields the AR-15 despite the fact that it's been practically phased out by the M16A1, M16A2 and M4A1 Colt Commando Carbine variants. They're all still reliable rifles. --Xamikaze330 (talk|contribs) 23:45, 24 October 2012 (EDT)Xamikaze330

My guess is that the MA5B and C are actually much older than what we previously expected and the MA5D was relatively new around 2526. The UNSC didn't get around to issuing newer variants to their troops when it might have been too costly or too tedious to have a full branch replace their weaponry. This sort of thing is going on right now with the whole M16 deal in the US military. For over a decade we've been creating new potential replacements for the M16/M4 series like the XM8, HK416, SCAR, ACR, etc., yet it's just not worth it to fully replace it at the moment. With the UNSC's moment of peace at the end of the war, they might have found it an excellent time to rearm.-- Fluffy Emo Penguin ( ice quack! ) 12:42, 12 December 2012 (EST)
 * Ah, so the UNSC decided to equip Corbulo with MA5Ds as they were planning on having them replace the MA5Bs and Cs, so it would make sense as they'd want the cadets to be familiar with them by the time they were in regular service. But then the war happened, and humanity found the cost and time of modifying all those factories and reequipping all their troops to not be worth it. Makes sense to some degree actually.
 * No... no... no. Let's rewind back. It has been stated repeatedly that the MA5 is a standard-issue service rifle in the UNSC Marines and Navy and MA37 remains with the Army. Each variant of the MA5 (i.e. MA5B, MA5C, MA5D) has particular improvements that defines its performance from one another but does not replace the previous rifle. In the Haloverse, the MA5 variants are seen as such: MA5B is worthwhile for ammunition load (i.e. 60 ammo count) and the MA5C has better performance over MA5B but with reduced ammunition load. As for the MA5D, nothing has described it as an improvement over the MA5C so far but one can surmise that it presumably has longer range due to its longer barrel compared to MA5C though it is heavier by an additional 3kg. That being said, unless shown otherwise, think of it like this: they all existed in the same time frame but because of gameplay, only one variant was available for the sake of gameplay balance (i.e. avoiding weapon redundancy).— subtank   09:27, 19 April 2013 (EDT)