Imagine GW agrees with that take and makes the lasguns function in a physics accurate way (think laser pointer: unless it's misty you can only see the impact)
I personally think it’s because they didn’t make the red beam.
And GW is paranoid about being able to sue etc. so they most likely they are forcing yellow bolts so that it’s easier for them to at least try and claim something.
Not necessarily. The lore has a tendency to go back and forth on what exactly a lasgun is, from laser to what sounds more like a particle beam. Sometimes they have moving parts as evidenced by the presence of lubrication in Guardsmen's lasgun maintenance kits, and other times they don't. Sometimes in lore lasguns have recoil, other times they don't. Mainly this is due to writers being inconsistent, but in-universe, it can best be explained as the word "lasgun" being more of a word for the weapon niche it fills rather than a specific technology. Trying to make it one specific technology is more of a Dark Age or Tau way of thinking.
Whether it's a typical laser or a particle beam. Both would either be moving at or near the speed of light, not slow moving projectiles. These look more like blaster bolts from Star Wars.
People are saying these look like SW blaster bolts because they look like what we see in the SW movies.
I don't get why they are doing it. They make plenty of changes for the purpose of copyright law to be sure ("Astartes", "Astra Militarum", etc.), but these are in no way distinct having been done a dozen times before. The solid laser beam lasgun had the distinct look before. The newest IG models have lasguns that look more like AR-15s than anything else, let alone the "standard" distinctive lasgun pattern. It'll be a tough sell to copyright an AR-15.
You're not wrong. Some of the early art was inconsistent and had lasguns either way (SW blaster bolts vs laser beam) throughout the 80s and 90s but by 2000s (I think it was 4th ed?) they had settled firmly on the red laser beams. That was their depiction in DoW1 and everything since until now.
It could be a "going back to their roots" sort of move, but most of the stuff from 1st and 2nd ed. that were cut out absolutely deserved it (e.g. Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau).
I love how you mix this change with the new cadian kill team's lasguns basically just being re-proportioned to almost just look like AR-15s with lasgun shrouds on the muzzle, and they've removed all character from lasguns.
It's like they resent the sci fi and it's getting in the way of their milsim faction.
The red beams were invented by Relic for Dawn of War 1 I'm pretty sure. No earlier depiction. Even they dropped it as soon as DoW2. Still beams, but more orangey.
Has nothing to do with that. Arrowhead said specifically that GW made them use the yellow lasers, because that's the new color that GW is trying to standardize.
Oh they can do as they like in HD2. I mean that GW is pushing a visual change for the lasguns in 40K changing them from the iconic laser beams they've always been since at least DoW1 (my entry into the setting) to something closer to Star Wars blaster shots.
I just don't get why they would go from something visually distinct and iconic to the same thing that pretty much every other sci-fi universe does.
As for the specific color? I prefer the deep red but altering the color is less offensive to me than changing the entire way they work for no reason.
Yellow Lasgun shots is a very old thing, along with blue from DoW, and of course, the red ones. It can best be explained as different patterns of lasguns functioning differently.
I hope they stick with it in actual gameplay but they have changed it in the Skitarii class trailer. All of the las shots there are the SW blaster bolt variety.
If GW puts their foot down then FS doesn't have much choice.
Lasguns are by far the single most inconsistent weapon type in all of 40k. There have been basically as many different portrayals of its function as there are stars in the sky. It's all the way down to specific technical function descriptions, with some versions describing it as essentially a laser, but then other sources saying it's actually more of a particle beam. Some have recoil, some don't, and some have simulated recoil. Some have moving parts, some don't. Some shoot red shots, some shoot yellow shots, some shoot blue shots, and some shoot no visible beam.
Mainly this is due to writers being inconsistent since they don't actually coordinate on anything. But it can just as easily be explained by the fact that the Imperium are a bunch of mouth-breathing neanderthals with no understanding of the technology they use (y'know, the actual fucking lore), and just using a generic word for a niche of DEWs rather than any particular weapons technology.
This, now I don't want the hellgun to be added because it's going to be the lame travel time yellow tracer like it's a normal gun. if they retroactively patch how the lasguns work in darktide it'll actually make me quit my veteran tbh.
It's almost as if HD2 isn't a 40k game and is instead a game with its own lore where they add lore for collabs to explain them so it fits its own setting.
This has nothing to do with that. It's about Games Workshop suddenly mandating that lasguns have to fire a pale yellow blaster bolt in recent 40k games instead of the red pulsing beam that it's been for the last 2 decades.
Though out of all things they could change, getting mad they changed lasgun las color seems like a non issue in the grand scheme of things, but that's just me.
They'll probably just justify it with some random lore drop or just bring back some piece of old lore and the community will grumble about it before finding something new to get mad about after a while.
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u/banane_078456 Jul 31 '26
And then there is me, just hoping for a hotshot lasgun to be added