Molotov Cocktails
Posted: 2008-08-17 21:45
Hi, nice mod, etc.
Molotovs need a serious revamping.
I have experience using molotov cocktails and I must say they are a far cry from the "holy **** set the entire building on fire for 30 seconds" as they appear in PR.
Here is a good example of a molotov: YouTube - molotof
As you can see the explosion and splash radius is far smaller than the enormous radius of the PR molotov.
Ontop of this, molotovs are not really very harmful towards a human being. They are easily avoided when thrown, and you'd pretty much have to get down and roll in a burning puddle of gasoline for it to harm you. Flaming gasoline does not survive very long in mid-air and the usual area of effect, as the above vid demonstrates, is around the immediate area of impact. Essentially, in order to light a man on fire with one and have any hope of killing him, you would have to hit him directly and douse him with the fuel, which is not very common as I said they are easy to avoid and aren't very prone to breaking when hitting a person and are more likely to bounce off and explode on the ground below, in which case the poor fool might have some burning boots but wouldn't be obliterated along with everyone else in a 10m radius.
Against vehicles their effectiveness would be dubious. While it's true flaming liquid is capable of dripping down through the engine deck of a vehicle, that is essentially the only place it would be effective, and even then, engine compartments are constructed to be able to survive this with heavy flame-retarding insulation.
The molotov, today, is more of a shock and awe weapon. It is used in riots because the effect of a little exploding ball of gasoline is a visceral expression of destruction, and it can be effective if thrown into a building or a car. As a weapon of war it lost its effectiveness after WW2; even then, it was only really useful against old Soviet tanks which were far, far from sealed and which had quite vulnerable vision slots, doors, unsecured hatches and non-fireproof engine compartments, or against open-topped or other similar vehicles. In today's world, modern armour is designed to survive nuclear, biological and chemical attack; some flaming gasoline is hardly going to pose much of a problem unless you've got a dozen of them setting the entire outer hull of the tank ablaze.
Anyway, I'm more concerned about the infantry aspect, and would like to see them toned down a bunch.
Here's another cool vid, showing a riot with dozens of molotovs being thrown (around 1:30 and after). YouTube - Attack on City Hall, Police VS Protesters
As you can see the police have no problem walking over and around the dozens of burning puddles.
Molotovs need a serious revamping.
I have experience using molotov cocktails and I must say they are a far cry from the "holy **** set the entire building on fire for 30 seconds" as they appear in PR.
Here is a good example of a molotov: YouTube - molotof
As you can see the explosion and splash radius is far smaller than the enormous radius of the PR molotov.
Ontop of this, molotovs are not really very harmful towards a human being. They are easily avoided when thrown, and you'd pretty much have to get down and roll in a burning puddle of gasoline for it to harm you. Flaming gasoline does not survive very long in mid-air and the usual area of effect, as the above vid demonstrates, is around the immediate area of impact. Essentially, in order to light a man on fire with one and have any hope of killing him, you would have to hit him directly and douse him with the fuel, which is not very common as I said they are easy to avoid and aren't very prone to breaking when hitting a person and are more likely to bounce off and explode on the ground below, in which case the poor fool might have some burning boots but wouldn't be obliterated along with everyone else in a 10m radius.
Against vehicles their effectiveness would be dubious. While it's true flaming liquid is capable of dripping down through the engine deck of a vehicle, that is essentially the only place it would be effective, and even then, engine compartments are constructed to be able to survive this with heavy flame-retarding insulation.
The molotov, today, is more of a shock and awe weapon. It is used in riots because the effect of a little exploding ball of gasoline is a visceral expression of destruction, and it can be effective if thrown into a building or a car. As a weapon of war it lost its effectiveness after WW2; even then, it was only really useful against old Soviet tanks which were far, far from sealed and which had quite vulnerable vision slots, doors, unsecured hatches and non-fireproof engine compartments, or against open-topped or other similar vehicles. In today's world, modern armour is designed to survive nuclear, biological and chemical attack; some flaming gasoline is hardly going to pose much of a problem unless you've got a dozen of them setting the entire outer hull of the tank ablaze.
Anyway, I'm more concerned about the infantry aspect, and would like to see them toned down a bunch.
Here's another cool vid, showing a riot with dozens of molotovs being thrown (around 1:30 and after). YouTube - Attack on City Hall, Police VS Protesters
As you can see the police have no problem walking over and around the dozens of burning puddles.
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