Updated Vehicle Handbook in the works
- Thread starter Geir
- Start date
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
How would this work? Meson weapons are direct fire, not ballistic fire weapons.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
There's a meson accelerator in the CSC. It will be included in the Vehicle Handbook as well. It's really big, though, so I might need to add a lighter version.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
It will be in the direct fire section
Yes please. Ever since MegaTraveller I’ve alway pictured a Marine assault consisting of Astrin’s, Trepida’s And the corresponding Meson Artillery Vehicle which are all supposed to be similar in size. Side note please give the MAV a name preferably one that goes with the other two.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
But now I'm second-guessing myself. It actually behaves more like artillery: outside line of sight, area effect.
Of course it can also fire from inside a bunker far underground, which behaves more like... magic?
has its advantages. For instance, when deciding the victor of a collision.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
"Rule 34: Meson Accelerators
Battlefield meson accelerators are introduced at tech level 15. Although technically
a direct fire weapon (the beam travels in a straight line), a meson gun's ability
to fire through intervening obstacles and the need to know the distance to target
makes it functionally an indirect fire weapon.
Meson accelerators follow the same rules as other indirect fire weapons with the
following .exceptions.
A. Fire Missions: Each meson accelerator is given a separate fire mission order.
Because the meson beam travels at nearly the speed of light, meson accelrators
suffer no delay for flight time (although they do suffer delays resulting from crew
quality). The firing sheaf is a circle centered on the MPI (after deviation), with a
radius equal to the weapon's burst size. For example, if a weapon had a burst size
of 10 cm, every unit within 10 cm of the MPI would be affected. A meson accelerator
may fire with less than its stated burst size; if so, the fire mission order must
state the new burst size.
6. Effects: All personnel within the burst area of a meson accelerator are killed;
all vehicles and weapons are destroyed; all buildings collapse and any smooth
ground surface becomes broken ground.
C. Spotting: Meson accelerators may not be spotted by counter battery radar;
they may not be spotted during a fire phase, only in a movement phase."
"MESON ACCELERATORS
Meson accelerators are available at tech level 15. They cost Cr 10,000,000,
weigh 15 tons, and have a volume of 15m3. Burst size is 10cm. They require
a crew of 6 and 250 megawatts of input."
Battlefield meson accelerators are introduced at tech level 15. Although technically
a direct fire weapon (the beam travels in a straight line), a meson gun's ability
to fire through intervening obstacles and the need to know the distance to target
makes it functionally an indirect fire weapon.
Meson accelerators follow the same rules as other indirect fire weapons with the
following .exceptions.
A. Fire Missions: Each meson accelerator is given a separate fire mission order.
Because the meson beam travels at nearly the speed of light, meson accelrators
suffer no delay for flight time (although they do suffer delays resulting from crew
quality). The firing sheaf is a circle centered on the MPI (after deviation), with a
radius equal to the weapon's burst size. For example, if a weapon had a burst size
of 10 cm, every unit within 10 cm of the MPI would be affected. A meson accelerator
may fire with less than its stated burst size; if so, the fire mission order must
state the new burst size.
6. Effects: All personnel within the burst area of a meson accelerator are killed;
all vehicles and weapons are destroyed; all buildings collapse and any smooth
ground surface becomes broken ground.
C. Spotting: Meson accelerators may not be spotted by counter battery radar;
they may not be spotted during a fire phase, only in a movement phase."
"MESON ACCELERATORS
Meson accelerators are available at tech level 15. They cost Cr 10,000,000,
weigh 15 tons, and have a volume of 15m3. Burst size is 10cm. They require
a crew of 6 and 250 megawatts of input."
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
It's a mortar.
What you need to counter it, is a battlefield meson screen.
What you need to counter it, is a battlefield meson screen.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
Rule 34??? Nah, has to be a coincidence, right?
But thanks for digging that up, I was wondering what to make the crew size.
The one in the CSC is 60 tons and MCr20, so I'm going to go light-medium-heavy like most weapons.
agentwigggles
Cosmic Mongoose
Its not magic really. Meson dont interact with most atter.
So if you weaponized it then you manage the trick of forcing an interaction at an arbitary coordinates and time.
This means that it should be able fire through an arbitary amount of materiel, that isnt meson screens or nuclear stopping techs.
The game 4x game Auroa uses Meson grounded turrets as its orbital defense weapons bbecause it doesnt interact with the atmosphere.
agentwigggles
Cosmic Mongoose
I feel like meson vehicle mounted would have DM- for aiming when not stationary and when the target is not stationary.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
Since half-life doesn't work the way mesons were written, I've assumed mesons where the equivalent of 'tanks' and 'tube alloys' but the name of the secret project just stuck.
If dark matter actually exists and behave like some theorists believe (and I say 'believe' and not 'theorize' for a reason) then it could be two beams of dark matter that intersect and self-annihilate in a big poof of gamma rays at the point of intersection.
(Tried to make an amusing meson acronym starting with 'magic explosions' but ran out of hyper-caffeinated ideas)
If dark matter actually exists and behave like some theorists believe (and I say 'believe' and not 'theorize' for a reason) then it could be two beams of dark matter that intersect and self-annihilate in a big poof of gamma rays at the point of intersection.
(Tried to make an amusing meson acronym starting with 'magic explosions' but ran out of hyper-caffeinated ideas)
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
Mesons are strong force carriers between nucleons, they are what binds protons and neutrons together in nuclei. Nuclear dampers and meson tech are both TL12. Nuclear dampers allow manipulation of the "strong" force, there is just one problem, there are two strong force interactions.
There is the interaction between quarks where gluons are the carriers inside protons and neutrons and between the quarks that make up mesons, and there are the mesons exchanged between nucleons that hold them together.
Now we know damper technology eventually results in disintegrator tech, so "meson" guns have to do something that likely involves nuclear forces, but causes a burst of radiation and the like inside a target.
Glueballs. Recent discoveries show the likely existence of balls of gluons.
en.wikipedia.org
So the "meson" gun actually produces glueballs that are hurled at the target and then detonated by a neutrino beam...
a "meson" screen attempts to detonate the glueballs before they impact the ship.
There is the interaction between quarks where gluons are the carriers inside protons and neutrons and between the quarks that make up mesons, and there are the mesons exchanged between nucleons that hold them together.
Now we know damper technology eventually results in disintegrator tech, so "meson" guns have to do something that likely involves nuclear forces, but causes a burst of radiation and the like inside a target.
Glueballs. Recent discoveries show the likely existence of balls of gluons.
Glueball - Wikipedia
So the "meson" gun actually produces glueballs that are hurled at the target and then detonated by a neutrino beam...
a "meson" screen attempts to detonate the glueballs before they impact the ship.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
According to a sidebar (are they still sidebars when they're boxes instead?) in Solomani Front, that is exactly the case.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
Yeah, I'm not going to take credit for it, but I think Martin and I independently came to that conclusion. I said so before in this forum, but probably not before Solomani Front was published.
I’d suggest that the 60 ton one be the heavy but I’d also suggest its tonnage get decreased by 1/3 or 1/2. 60 tons is increasing heavy for a vehicle weapon especially since the small meson gun ships bay is TL 11 so at 15 according to customization rules you can have a highly advanced Small Bay that only 35 tons and that does ship scale damage. Being a ship weapon it does 5D X 10 for scale and additional X 10 as a small bay weapon. I think both the Meson Acc and the Heavy Laser in the CSC are vastly over sized especially when their ship counterparts are much smaller and do vastly more damage. In fact I’d suggest that all the laser cannons in the CSC be looked over. For 1 ton I can put a ships beam laser in a turret it only does 1D damage but as its ships scale that’s effectively 1DX10. Shoot even on the same chart the orbital defense laser only does 8D with no AP but takes 12 tones and is 3 TL higher than the heavy laser which does 2DD has 20AP yea it’s shorter ranged but the numbers just don’t work.
I thank the Meson gun and the Lasers in the CSC need to be vastly overhauled and the ship weapons in these cases needs to be considered when doing the rewrite.
agentwigggles
Cosmic Mongoose
Hrm. Some better consider of hitting a person inside a sealed vehicle. Maybe that just best served only through crits.
A side bar for shooting through a gun port, or rolling down a window.
Updating Vehicle Stealth to better align with Highguard '22 Stealth
Some weapon tag combos are unclear.
As an emaple Aliens Volume One, the Vargr Plasma Tank. The Plasma Rocket Pack.
It has magazine fo 12. Auto 3 and One Shot.
I have no idea how One Shot works with a Magzine of 12 and with Auto 3.
My guess is that the entire thing has to be replaced to be reloaded?
No idea how point defense works for Vehicles.
For Vehicles that have multiple armor facing of different values, how does the Armor Crit work?
A side bar for shooting through a gun port, or rolling down a window.
Updating Vehicle Stealth to better align with Highguard '22 Stealth
Some weapon tag combos are unclear.
As an emaple Aliens Volume One, the Vargr Plasma Tank. The Plasma Rocket Pack.
It has magazine fo 12. Auto 3 and One Shot.
I have no idea how One Shot works with a Magzine of 12 and with Auto 3.
My guess is that the entire thing has to be replaced to be reloaded?
No idea how point defense works for Vehicles.
For Vehicles that have multiple armor facing of different values, how does the Armor Crit work?