So what differentiates guns from bows (or crossbows) with enchanted arrows? Guns would be louder, which presumably could attract strong opponents from farther away, scare off weak opponents or warn intelligent opponents of your presence. Depending on design, guns could be slower (muskets) and more powerful, or faster for a few shots (bolt-action) but then require reloading. Semi or full automatic guns could also be possible, but would have to be weaker or have a possibility of jamming, or something. If both guns and bows are included in the game, I don't see a great deal of room to differentiate them and still keep them balanced.
In one book I read (don't recall the name) a WWII tank ended up in another world/dimension where there was magic. They eventually demonstrated their machine guns to a benefactor, who was impressed, but decided it was not worth the effort to reproduce them (pre-industrial revolution technology). He explained that guns would work great as a surprise attack, but once the enemy was familiar with how they work, it was a trivial matter to disable them (wet the gunpowder, transmute the gunpowder or bullet into another substance, block the firing pin or trigger, etc).
What is the difference between guns and spells, just ammo vs mana requirements? If Larian continues with a classless system where any character can learn magic, there doesn't seem to be much need for guns, IMO. If there are going to be restrictions or stat requirements on learning magic, then guns with limited ammo could allow non-mage characters to use magic (sort of like using an enchanted scroll to cast a spell). However, with freely available ammo, it defeats the purpose of having restrictions on learning magic, unless the magic and gun systems are fairly different, with different requirements, effects and consequences.
I have not gotten around to playing Arcanum yet, but in that game magic and technology were opposites, so the better you became at one, the worse you would be at the other (a balanced character build is also viable). The design of the technology skills are different than magic, and your relative abilities are one of the factors that influence how various NPCs react to you.
I went to high school with someone who played (P&P) Dungeons and Dragons. His little brother also played, but as DM he came up with a time portal, so they could equip themselves with an unlimited supply of uzis, granades and rocket launchers. Their standard method of exploring a dungeon was to open a door a few inches, toss in a couple grenades quickly and shut the door, then wait and burst in with uzis blazing to clean up anything that survived.
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