Updated Vehicle Handbook in the works

[ottarrus]

The intent was for the vault to be for ammunition. It doesn't work out neatly in one Space chunks (well, you'd be able to carry about 100 rounds by VHB math) - I split it between one ammo Space for MG ammo and the vault for the shells. The vault will give you a Sev 1 freebee for 'cargo' hits, so it would have a game purpose - although exploding ammo isn't directly addressed in the critical hits table - except as weapons destroyed.

I do have a 'fire extinguisher' option in there. And the basic fire control system probably covers the concept of stabilisation as well as is necessary for a game not focused on the 20th/21st century.

I was curious about the third machine gun, though, as that makes four guns and four people in the tank, so who's driving? Or is it more a factor of "I'm firing this one or that one." - the latter probably best to abstract out of the design (plus, if I make them separate, I'm going to have to go up a Space)

On an Abrams there are a total of three MGs.
- the .50 cal on the track commander's hatch; this is the primary MG and is for use vs. thin skinned vehicles and light armored vehicles
- the co-ax 7.62mm M240 operated by the gunner; this is an adjunct to the main gun for use vs. infantry
- and a 5.56 M249 SAW on the loader's hatch; this is intended to cover the 'blind side' of the tank and for dismounted action

 

[Geir]

On an Abrams there are a total of three MGs.
- the .50 cal on the track commander's hatch; this is the primary MG and is for use vs. thin skinned vehicles and light armored vehicles
- the co-ax 7.62mm M240 operated by the gunner; this is an adjunct to the main gun for use vs. infantry
- and a 5.56 M249 SAW on the loader's hatch; this is intended to cover the 'blind side' of the tank and for dismounted action

Thanks!
Not intending to make a clone, but something similar enough to be partially recongizable. What about the armour distribution? The second pass with the green and the yellow (still haven't adjusted the gun sizes to make the complete vehicle work). Is it reasonable to expect near total immunity from an equivalent main gun on the forward face*? Are the other armour faces too light? (or too heavy?)

I might be spending a bit too much time on this one, but it's for the greater good of making sure things are calibrated more or less correctly when I stretch to different vehicle types.

*Edit: Assuming standard ammo. Start playing with variant rounds and it might be as good.

 

[ottarrus]

Thanks!
Not intending to make a clone, but something similar enough to be partially recongizable. What about the armour distribution? The second pass with the green and the yellow (still haven't adjusted the gun sizes to make the complete vehicle work). Is it reasonable to expect near total immunity from an equivalent main gun on the forward face*? Are the other armour faces too light? (or too heavy?)

I might be spending a bit too much time on this one, but it's for the greater good of making sure things are calibrated more or less correctly when I stretch to different vehicle types.

*Edit: Assuming standard ammo. Start playing with variant rounds and it might be as good.

The three most vulnerable facings on a tank are the turret top, the engine deck, and the underneath. This is why most ATGMs aim for the turret top.
The strongest facing is naturally the front, with the turret glacis being stronger than the hull glacis.
But I know of no tanker that wants their track getting hit from any facing!
Tank combat is best done using the system's mobility, but in my era we expected to get swamped by a hurricane of Soviet armored vehicles. Our defensive positions were dug in to the base of the turret [the term is 'enfiladed'] and we had 4 pre-prepared positions and two quick positions scoped out behind those.
Given Soviet doctrine of the era [only officers had maps, and only company commanders had two-way radios], we were trained to quickly identify and prioritize killing 'antenna tanks', aka leaders.
By the by, there is no 'standard ammo' on tanks. We typically carried three types of war ammo: sabot [APFSDSDU = Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot Depleted Uranium] was the tank killer, HEAT [High Explosive Anti-Tank] was for light armored vehicles and thin-skins, fletch [flechette] for infantry in the open.

 

[Condottiere]

Better mounted than on foot.

Better armoured than not.

Differing viewpoints on tank/armoured desant.

 

[Geir]

And the MBT I'm spending too much time on. Even more Abrams-like with a modular (aka removable) light machine gun. The point isn't to make a complete clone, but to put some stakes into the ground so designs that vary from something we know don't diverge too much from something plausible. My whole goal for the vehicle design rules is for people to be able to say: "I want to make a ___", and not "There's no way to make a ____", or "I made a ____ and it doesn't make any sense."

 

[Geir]

And I did spend a little time paging through the JTAS16 book, which, along with the flying lunch tray conversation leads logically to:


Edit: Bug. I originally had it as open-topped, but then decided the Health Department wouldn't care for that (bugs, pseudo-bird droppings, etc.), but I forgot to put the armour on the top again...

 

[Shardan13]

"Disclaimer: Due to Imperial High Law not made from actual Vargrs."

 

[Condottiere]

*Does not apply in North Korea.

 

[ottarrus]

Depends on whether it's for Forty Kay, or actual combat.

In theory, for the Seventies, you'd want one anti personnel, and one for anti aircraft, specifically helicopters, though shooting at soft skin vehicles and softer skinned personnel being also possible.

Back in the day, we got a lot of lectures on the Laws of Land Warfare and the Geneva Conventions. I still remember a lot of it to this day.
But one specific thing I remember was that we were 'forbidden' to fire a people with the 50 cal. MG. Note the quotes around forbidden. We were told we could engage equipment with it, but not people. All of us knew this was bullshit, of course, and the running joke was that 'His gas mask is equipment. I was engaging his gas mask...' [or helmets or web gear or whatever]

 

[Condottiere]

Heat of combat, collateral damage.

Lots of stuff is frowned upon, until you're in an existential fight.

I just wouldn't whip out the cell phone, and confiscate those from the people around you.

 

[Geir]

Been working on implementing the biotech rules in the spreadsheet, so I thought I'd make something weird:

 

[Geir]

No love for my bug-eyed flying gas monster? Oh, well. It was a concept car...

Today I tackled the Trepida again, this time with a properly (vs spaceships) scaled main gun and some background (optional) accounting for high power requirements on energy weapons. Had to go with a full out but minimal and lifespan-limited starship-class fusion drive (matches ships at TL8-12-15, with fine print for 'refueling' every 4 weeks - trying to bridge a gulf [chasm, wide as Valles Marineris] here...). Surprisingly, I still made it work in 10 shipping tons. I'm still running into the edges of the model here, up to v0.27 of the spreadsheet, trying to add features to stay with the text and sanity.

 

[Shardan13]

A bit late but hey life. I have always thought that the biotech rules could model the Imperium's attempted research into self-repairing materials. I've used the current rules to make a bio-tech motorcycle though I'm tempted to bump up the tech level. I've also toyed around in designing a bio-tech hover tank and say that it is an early experiment on the path of a self-repair grav tank.

 

[Geir]

A bit late but hey life. I have always thought that the biotech rules could model the Imperium's attempted research into self-repairing materials. I've used the current rules to make a bio-tech motorcycle though I'm tempted to bump up the tech level. I've also toyed around in designing a bio-tech hover tank and say that it is an early experiment on the path of a self-repair grav tank.

I added a self-repairing hull option for normal vehicles too - expensive - based on the one I did for robots.

For the biotech rules I added a twist in that the fast healers can also fix critical hits. The latest iteration has a variable for how high a tech you have to have for certain functions. The default from the old book is that the capabilities of an equivalent biotech part is two TL lower than a standard item... but on an individual vehicle basis you could modify that variable (in one place on the sheet, even) and make it whatever you wanted, even to the point that a low tech level society could have biotech that exceeded a starfaring civilisations's capabilities - if you're starting with a natural template for a tech, you don't even have to have much clue how something like echolocation or sensing magnetic fields works, or even what a magnetic field is...

 

[Shardan13]

So now I can model the Imperium's attempts in researching cheaper, critical damage self repairing materials? Great! Now only if there was a spaceship scale version.

 

[Geir]

I keep thinking I have things close to a beta testing level, but... another set of tweaks to rules and formulas to make a sensible submarine. Including two example vehicles built chapter by chapter, I now have 33 vehicles built, at least one of each type, but I still need to build some trains and infrastructure to see if I've made that useable.


(sorry about the puns, can't help myself)

 

[collins355]

No love for my bug-eyed flying gas monster? Oh, well. It was a concept car...

Today I tackled the Trepida again, this time with a properly (vs spaceships) scaled main gun and some background (optional) accounting for high power requirements on energy weapons. Had to go with a full out but minimal and lifespan-limited starship-class fusion drive (matches ships at TL8-12-15, with fine print for 'refueling' every 4 weeks - trying to bridge a gulf [chasm, wide as Valles Marineris] here...). Surprisingly, I still made it work in 10 shipping tons. I'm still running into the edges of the model here, up to v0.27 of the spreadsheet, trying to add features to stay with the text and sanity.

Please make the Trepida TL14, as it was in the original MegaTrav setting where DGP introduced it to Traveller. (if you want a TL15 version then in TNE one called the Norris was added for the post-collapse Regency, but MGT hasn't gone there so it doesn't exist).

 

[collins355]

Weapons should be Rapid Pulse Fusion X Gun and 4mm Gauss VRF Gun.

 

[Geir]

Weapons should be Rapid Pulse Fusion X Gun and 4mm Gauss VRF Gun.

I went with the Third Imperium book version, shrunken back to size, with the Invader being the TL14 with, well, a regular fusion-Y and a gauss cannon. Lots of versions to choose from: 101 Vehicles (a DGP publication) has it at TL14 and RFX-14 (and if there is a VRF gauss gun in the fine print of the inside cover, I can't see it). Of course in both cases the Invader 'light tank' is heavier, in 101 Vehicles has a FY-14 and FGMP-14 and despite being 'light', bigger crew, more armour, faster acceleration, same displacement. So none of it really makes much sense.

So I am fairly certain no matter which version of these I do, I'll piss someone off. Maybe even me.

 

[Shardan13]

Consistence and Traveller used to be at least nodding neighbors until Traveller moved to another planet.