“How much does it cost to fire Sasha for 12 seconds?”
I originally wrote this in response to this thread, but I thought it was interesting enough to justify its own thread.
So, I’m going to second-guess the Heavy’s calculations. He could be right, but a $200 boolet? And 10,000 RPM is well above what the Wikipedia article on miniguns says they can fire (between 2,000 and 6,000 RPM). In-game, four bullets are fired for every one ammo, and with 20 seconds of firing to empty 800 rounds, that leaves Sasha at a realistic 2,400 RPM. (So says the TF2 Wiki. (8th boolet))
First, a standard minigun fires 7.62x51mm NATO boolets. 7.62 NATO boolets are commonly found in boxes of 20 for $15 USD. We aren’t going to factor in tax, assuming a military supplier wouldn’t need to pay tax. We also aren’t factoring bulk discount, because I would have no idea what that would be. Thus, for one boolet, the cost is $0.75.
Now, to figure cost-per-second, you simply divide RPM by 60 (40 bullets every second) and multiply by $0.75, which comes to $30.
So, no Heavy, it does not cost $400,000 to fire that weapon for 12 seconds. It costs $360. Much better.
Cost per minute: $1,800
Cost per hour: $108,000
Cost per day: $2,592,000
Cost per week: $18,144,000
Cost per year: $946,080,000
Cost to fire until the sun freezes over (about 5 billion years, give or take a few billion): $4,730,400,000,000,000,000
If I’m right on both points (cost of ammo and firing speed), the cost is $360 to fire that weapon for 12 seconds.
If the Heavy is right about firing speed but I win ammo cost, the cost is $1,500 to fire that weapon for 12 seconds.
If the Heavy is right about ammo cost but I win firing speed, the cost is $96,000 to fire that weapon for 12 seconds.
And if the Heavy is correct on how fast Sasha fires and how much ammo costs, the cost is indeed $400,000 to fire that weapon… for 12 seconds.
TL;DR: $360.
Thank goodness we have dispensers.
TL;DR
playing TF2 will be a expensive hobby if valve adds bullets to the item shop
