I've been following the pics on this site for quite awhile now and I have to say, some of you guys have gone off the deep end.  I saw a nice pic of a carbine, assault case, detached scope, bipod, and a couple of mags and thought to myself, whoa nice gear.  A couple pictures later I see a carbine with you name it and it's got it. I didn't even look like an AR anymore.  For that matter, if  you pulled it on John Q public they wouldn't even know it's a gun. Flashlight, laser, aimpoint, fore hand grip, flare launcher, extra heat sheilds, etc etc etc

Just how much it too much? What's the ideal load out? (not a pun but a real question)

Do those overloaded obscene guns really shoot? I would think all that stuff would fall off and God help you if you dropped them.

In the spirit of summary posts I've seen lately (reference the spring noise post)

At least five people are bound to post about keeping it super simple, and how gadgets break, rah rah rah.

Then someone will likely rant on about how you can never have enough gadgets, and that's one of the reasons to get an AR.

Picture posting ensues.

Myself, I am going to load mine as far as my college budget will allow.

That's ok, let them load them up as much as they want.  It won't matter when i come out with my ECM-144, electro-magnetic jamming device in the spring of 2003. This device will send an electro magnetic pulse that will jam and render useless any red dot sight, OKO, Surefire light, Holosight, and scope that you can hang on an AR-15.
They gun then will be rendered useless because they cant shoot them unless they have the
"gizmo gun" and forgot how to use the real sights.  These dead objects then become dead weight, weakening the opponent and forcing him to surrender due to fatigue, and the fact that the gizmos on his gun are no longer cool because they dont work. Development is proceding as schedualed and should be available in the spring.

KyARGuy, Pres. Gizmo Zapper Ind.

Ah, but don't forget, the gizmo guys will have at least 4 different backup sighting systems attached. [:D]

Edited to address the actual post:

IMO, for a fast aquistion short range carbine this is what I think is useful.
1. Some kind of red dot sight(very fast)
2. Back up rear site
3. Flashlight would be useful.

I've never used a vertical foregrip (they look cool), but I was wonder what's the difference between that and just using the magwell???