Ship building questions related to weapons

[J. L. Brown]

I can't see that these options apply to the separate design sequence for energy weapons:

FC, pp31:
PROJECTILE WEAPON MECHANISMS ...
Single Shot: ...
Repeater: ...
Semi-Automatic: ...
Burst-Capable: ...
Fully-Automatic: A fully-automatic weapon can normally be set for semi-automatic fire, and many can also conduct burst fire. When in full-auto mode, the weapon will cycle as long as the trigger is held, burning through all available ammunition.

These modifiers only apply to projectile weapons, as far as I can see. Note that they are not receiver options, but a separate category.

Except the capability for 'Single Shot' is in there, too. If Energy weapons cannot have any of these, then they equally cannot have the 'single shot' feature either. And there are energy weapons with the 'AutoX' feature in the game.

From CSC page 150 -- the PDL is listed as Auto 2; page 153 the 'cartridge laser rifle' and 'stagger laser' are both AutoX at each of two different TLs; on page 151 the 'Light Gatling Laser' is Auto 4; and on page 167 the Gatling Laser is Auto 4.

On page 193 of the FC, the S-Series Grav Transport has an Auto 3 laser, although they don't show how they built it. For that matter the Saita Grav-Tank (page 190) is listed as having a 'Plasma-C' with AP 30 -- and there does not appear to be any way at all to build such a weapon.

There are AutoX energy weapons (the Pulse Particle Cannons) in High Guard, too.

 

[WHULorigan]

Yeah... I think you're onto something there... so... like... the M-Drive steals gravitational energy from a large mass and gives the big mass waste heat in return... through the...ah... Transmigramorphifier Exchange Circuit (TEC)... just like how a gravity assist gives a passing object energy by stealing some energy from the planet... except it's spread out across the whole body, so in this case the temperature increase is negligible across such a large mass.

Okay, but then I still have no method for frantically handwaving away the waste heat from the fusion reactor... but... since even small stars seem to be rather unstable (mega-flares), maybe the only way we can achieve stable fusion reactions is by a gravitational envelope surrounding the reactor that also feeds into the TEC... and I'm out of hands...

See, you should have been a Sydite. Then you wouldn't have this problem.

Hey, they took the radiators off the Discovery in 2001 A Space Odyssey because it 'didn't look cool (irony?) that way'. So it's the appearance of the craft that actually cools it.

.

If it looks cool, it actually is cool (within specified tolerances). How simple is that.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Except the capability for 'Single Shot' is in there, too. If Energy weapons cannot have any of these, then they equally cannot have the 'single shot' feature either.

Sure. So?

FC, p31:
Single Shot: A single shot weapon can fire only once before needing to be reloaded. Examples include black powder muskets or breech-loading shotguns and rifles.

We can make energy weapons with a single chemical cartridge, if we so desire.

And there are energy weapons with the 'AutoX' feature in the game.

Yes, but they are not built with the FC energy weapon design sequence.
E.g. the anti-missile defence laser of the S-Series is from VH, p49 and is something like 1 tonne and Cr 250 000; a completely different league than the FC design sequence.

We can't build the light auto cannon with FC either, yet still they exist, and have game stats.

You argue that the design sequence should be able to design auto lasers, not that the rules actually say that. If you want it, just house-rule it?

 

[MasterGwydion]

Sure. So?

We can make energy weapons with a single chemical cartridge, if we so desire.



Yes, but they are not built with the FC energy weapon design sequence.
E.g. the anti-missile defence laser of the S-Series is from VH, p49 and is something like 1 tonne and Cr 250 000; a completely different league than the FC design sequence.

We can't build the light auto cannon with FC either, yet still they exist, and have game stats.

You argue that the design sequence should be able to design auto lasers, not that the rules actually say that. If you want it, just house-rule it?

My 2 credits in all of this is this... Why do items exist as "standard" items that you can buy in the books, have no method of being built using any of the rules that We have available to Us, except the Golden Rule?

My point of view, and maybe only mine, is that if you have a game system that has items acquirable by the characters and a design system to design items, then all designs should fit both the design system and be "internally consistant".

There should be no circumstance where items in official Mongoose products (outside of special Story Items) can not be built using the creation rules in the system. If there are, it is just chesse.

Just My opinion.

edited for bad grammar...lol...

 

[AnotherDilbert]

My point of view, and maybe only mine, is that if you have a game system that has items acquirable by the characters and a design system to design items, then all designs should fit both the design system and be "internally consistant".

Yes, should, great! But it isn't...

The problem is that Mongoose has spent years churning out weapons before they made a simple design system. Mongoose isn't TNE and FC isn't FF&S. Is anyone really unhappy about that?

 

[Condottiere]

Part of the reason are legacies from previous editions, and being iconic, needed to be shoehorned into the current set of game mechanics.

Also, probably didn't think that far ahead.

 

[Ol'Weedy]

I don't recall there being an automatic fire off switch in High Guard.

Agreed. And with the poster who mentioned no extra power usage for auto.
I just play the PPG as any other weapon, but allow 4 separate attack rolls. I'm pretty sure that is what the author intended.
The power usage is clearly baked in already.
It may seem the weapon is overpowered, but in practice, the turret and barbette versions are only really effective against small craft or unarmoured targets.

 

[Condottiere]

The abstract nature of the six minute round poses the question, is it actually automatic, or is it an expression of rate of fire?

Answer gets a bit vague, when you install groundscale weapon systems with automatic feature.