An upgrade named something to do with explosives, is the last line of upgrades for TEC Ragnar faction. And the picture shows an explosion happening from the rear of the whole cartridge. Unique autocannon upgrade for TEC Exceptionalists.(Primacy)

In case your artists do not know basics about firearms, their physics, what this Algorithm-generated image shows is a faulty explosion of a round, that would damage or destroy the weapon that fires said cartridge. Not an upgrade.

The red warhead thing, is shown as whole. The rear, where propellant happens to be is where ignition of the propellant happens and the cartridge casing is to be built strong-enough to withstand the pressure of expanding gases. Expanding gases - meaning the burning gunpowder, there is oxidizer and the thing that burns oxygen. Meaning, gases expand during this very fast process. And this presses the cannon round out of the casing, out of the barrel, because the barrel is the only relatively free way out. This is how an empty casing is produced and is then pushed out as empty hot weight. Casings are hot and a dead weight after firing.

Previous autocannon upgrade also says things about improved aerodynamics. But the game is set in space. Aerodynamics, just like fins on missiles, they have no effect, what has real effect is thrust vectoring, meaning you can throw extra unaerodynamic objects in space, very blocky, it does not matter. All those pretty aerodynamic lines have no practical use.

Gauss rounds also would most likely not contain any shell casing, because propelling of the round is not contained in a casing, afaik but goes through those coils. Propellant ? Electricity from some generator, that charges the thing up.

So, what thrust vectoring on missiles ? Some of the first AA missiles with thrust vectoring is from 1980s, namely R-73. AIM-9X then 20+ years later, or when a missile goes from vertical launch tube, it needs to be steered before the main engine/rocket/ramjet/scramjet whatever ignites. But those missiles are for working in air. Engine is in the rear. But in space, you can have thrust vectoring not only in the rear of a missile, but in the front as well, because there is no air and that pointy nose or missile body is not going to stabilize any flight whatsoever.

So, it would be better if your artist folks read up a bit about military things a bit, so that they have an understanding of physics, and will know which part of a cartridge goes boom. Not the casing itself explodes, because that destroys the weapon itself, imagine, old cannons, overheated, too much powder, cannon not cleaned enough, so instead of cannonball, the rear of the cannon falls apart and destroys the crew with pieces of gun metal flying all around. That was when there no shell casings and very precise doses of black powder, or metal wear.

Yes, those algorithms do not replace the people. Relying on programmers and 'self-programming' still produces faulty results, no matter how many billions are thrown into those programs. I could say this is extremely basic thing and I would be right about that.

So, that means, take this as constructive criticism Yes, this is a glaring issue on the ignorance of the author of those images, that implies having no idea on how or why projectiles are sent out of say today's firearms, airguns even, as well as showing the danger of relying on algorithms, that in themselves are not a source of (true) knowledge. Algorithm ! Make an image of this !, of that !

When you were in school and maths did not go well, if you threw in the towel and started to use calculator to do the work for you, your ability to calculate would stagnate and drop. Not everybody is made equal in their ability to do maths, some of it is training and some, teachers. I remember my less capable classmates, the lazy ones started cheating and used calculators. To do basic calculations mind you. They failed to understand what was going on, because any sort of understanding was taken away by easy buttons. I would think the person in time degenerated in maths. Thinking calculating processes instead of upgrading over school years went down. Is workload of artists so high they have no time to educate themselves ? Maybe its not even artists doing it ? No idea, I dont manage that thing.

while a bit off-topic, I hope Harbingers arent 'Contingency' (from 100 DLC game milkers) space pyramids. ME space fish turned into magical robots with magic powers were cooler. Unrealistic ? Yea, but those ME Rippas were cool.