Talk:Grenade

Are Metro 2033's grenades actually black powder explosives?
If you don't know what black powder is, it's what used to be used in firearms and explosives before the switch to more modern "smokeless" powders near the end of the 19th century. It was abandoned for use in firearms because it is less energetic (the rounds don't fly as far or fast), because it produced a lot of smoke every time it fired, and because it doesn't burn as cleanly as modern smokeless powder does, leaving behind a layer of soot that had to be cleaned very frequently out of a firearm's barrel. Hand grenades don't have this problem, however, since they are single-use-only, and you can pack as much powder as you need into them so as long as you can still throw them as far as you need to. Black powder is also much easier to produce than smokeless powder, as evidenced by its extensive pre-modern use.

The reasons I think this is likely is because A) Metro 2033's grenades are larger than most modern fragmentation grenades, implying a larger volume of powder needed to get the same effect, and B) the game depicts them as producing a lot of smoke after they explode. Modern anti-personnel fragmentation grenades don't produce much smoke at all, and are smaller partly for portability reasons and partly because the powders they use are more energetic. Does this make sense to anyone else?

Also, does anyone else think it's strange that the grenades in this game don't have caps to keep the fuses dry when not in use? It would have been simple to animate Artyom taking off the cap of a grenade to expose the fuse or put it back when putting grenades away, and it would make the various NPCs in this game look less silly when they carry grenades in pouches with big floppy fuses hanging around. Mazryonh 15:02, August 14, 2011 (UTC)

It doesn't bother me in the slightest.Smokey McPott 15:59, August 14, 2011 (UTC)