 December 22, 2010 - 12:54pm | Refer to: Railguns(Alpha Dawn). in the rules a character using both an inertia screen and a skein suit only take 1/4 damage- an inertia screen take 1/2 and a skein suit take1/2 of that your discription while it describes exactly what happens in the rules seems to suggest that you intended that this weapon be nastier than normal I might suggest some other mechanic to simulate that rather than trying to have the skein suit intercept less than 1/4 damage (for simplicity sake) In David WEber's Honor harrington universe a character hit with the hand held version of this weapon might be lucky to only loose his arm if hit in the hand while a hit anywhere else would kill him. However, I'm wondering about the speeds of projectiles with this weapon- is it possible for a projectile to have so much velocity that it passes through flesh without the target hardly noticing it at first? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 24, 2010 - 4:17pm | First of all, apologies for being so late in responding...been busy writing, stocking up on food, and being sick as Max the Dog. In reverse order: 1) Yes, it's quite possible for the slug to blow through without the target noticing it, given sufficent velocity. Of course, with that much kinetic energy, he might be too busy being a smear on the deck to take notice. 2) The weapon is nastier than normal. In "reality," it would probably work like an Honorverse railgun, with limbs being blown off, and hits anywhere else turning him into a greasy, bloody mist. I wanted to give the poor schmuck wearing defenses half a chance to survive, though, hence the modifiers for defense. I already see where the math might get a little complicated. How about this: Skein suits stop a quarter of a rail gun projectile's damage, absorbing 25 railgun hits, before becoming useless, an inertia screen stops a quarter of a rail gun projectile's damage, and both together stop one-half of a railgun projectile's damage. Harder armor stops one-half of a railgun's damage(absorbing 25 railgun hits before becoming useless), with an inertia screen and harder armor together stopping 75% of a railgun's damage. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 27, 2010 - 12:01pm | Is that 25 hits or 25 pts of damage? I think I know but prefer I make sure were on the same page hardened armor; are you refering to the polyplate armor in the remastered AD rules? or something else? vehicle armor? also whats a micro power type 2 para battery? I'm not familiar with it parabatteries are generally heavy and require lugging are you thinking of the mirco power disk from zebs or the mini clip? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 27, 2010 - 12:34pm | [quote-jedion357]hardened armor; are you refering to the polyplate armor in the remastered AD rules? or something else? vehicle armor? Mainly, I had both the polyplate armor from the remastered rules and the harder armors from Shadow's campaigns(which I think are also in the Ultimate Equipment Guide)in mind. I'm considering making these weapons good against vehicle armor as well(at least the rail machine gun)but at the same time hesitating, for reasons of game balance. Is that 25 hits or 25 pts of damage? I think I know but prefer I make sure were on the same page. Sorry for the confusion, I've lapsed into the bad gamer habit of saying hits, when I meant points. It's 25 points of damage, for definite. Now, as for micropower, I meant the a power source integrated into the clip itself to power the weapon. Thanks for pointing that out, BTW. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 27, 2010 - 12:51pm | What I meant to say was railgun ammo has a built-in power source which powers the weapon long enough to fire the entire clip/belt, and is useless forever after(similar to the Gauss weapons from GURPS). These sources are similar to 10 SEU miniclips(pistol), full-sized 20 SEU powerclips(for the assault railgun and storm gun), and 100 SEU power backpacks(for the RMG). Again, the management apologizes for any confusion. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 27, 2010 - 4:16pm | thats why we discuss this stuff Will, I had an idea as to what you meant but asked questions to get a clarification. I've been thinking about the new mechanic for rail gun damage and what if instead of doing all sorts of 1/2 this 1/4 that and no more then 25 pts etc which means more record keeping what if we just upped the weapon's damage so that it would effectively shread a skien suit in 1 or 2 shots? same effect but it ends up following the standard mechanic and no extra record keeping or confusion of, "Wait, was that from a rail gun or a machine gun cause if its a machine gun my skein suit can still stop some of it?" if it has higher damage output then it will be more effective against vehicles as per the existing rules For game ballance make clips hellaciously expensive and hard to get ie its so dangerous its illegal outside of military circles or require a mini seu disk (from zebs) and a regular ammo clip both (the pistol will look like Han solo's with a clip in front of the trigger and another in the handle. changing both clips requires 2 full turns of combat however a power clip will last for 2 standard ammo clips The end result is a hellaciously dangerous weapon but its a heavy weapon and slow to reload sometimes that way it doesn't become a super weapon that every character in a campaign has to convert to or pack it in. If you use the SEu mini disk (same as used in the raffleur weapons) then you can't jack a belt or back pack into it- prevent players from doing that to nullifiy the power limitation though I guess you could just make is a standard SEU clip and able to jack a power belt but also make it an energy hog which might be just as well as any other limitation- with your weapon burning through your power your defensive screen will not last long either. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 27, 2010 - 7:34pm | thats why we discuss this stuff Will, I had an idea as to what you meant but asked questions to get a clarification. I've been thinking about the new mechanic for rail gun damage and what if instead of doing all sorts of 1/2 this 1/4 that and no more then 25 pts etc which means more record keeping what if we just upped the weapon's damage so that it would effectively shread a skien suit in 1 or 2 shots? same effect but it ends up following the standard mechanic and no extra record keeping or confusion of, "Wait, was that from a rail gun or a machine gun cause if its a machine gun my skein suit can still stop some of it?" if it has higher damage output then it will be more effective against vehicles as per the existing rules For game ballance make clips hellaciously expensive and hard to get ie its so dangerous its illegal outside of military circles or require a mini seu disk (from zebs) and a regular ammo clip both (the pistol will look like Han solo's with a clip in front of the trigger and another in the handle. changing both clips requires 2 full turns of combat however a power clip will last for 2 standard ammo clips The end result is a hellaciously dangerous weapon but its a heavy weapon and slow to reload sometimes that way it doesn't become a super weapon that every character in a campaign has to convert to or pack it in. If you use the SEu mini disk (same as used in the raffleur weapons) then you can't jack a belt or back pack into it- prevent players from doing that to nullifiy the power limitation though I guess you could just make is a standard SEU clip and able to jack a power belt but also make it an energy hog which might be just as well as any other limitation- with your weapon burning through your power your defensive screen will not last long either. Not bad ideas at all, and so much simpler. How much do you think the damage should be increased by? " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 27, 2010 - 8:06pm | @ Will: enough to make it appealing but with just enough of a down side that someone like shadow shack would crunch the numbers and come up with, "Ya know with two auto pistols firing at x rate for the same number of turns you could put out this much lead for a whole lot less credits" or some such analysis that he is really good at. At first blush I'm thinking along the lines of a sonic sword for the pistol and go up from there as to downsides it has to be a pain to reload and heavy= hvy pistol modifier for initiative (which is a zebs rule but aught to be in AD or we simply write a negative modifier into the weapons description for the straight AD players) Igot to think on this one and get back to you I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 28, 2010 - 12:01pm | @ Will: enough to make it appealing but with just enough of a down side that someone like shadow shack would crunch the numbers and come up with, "Ya know with two auto pistols firing at x rate for the same number of turns you could put out this much lead for a whole lot less credits" or some such analysis that he is really good at. At first blush I'm thinking along the lines of a sonic sword for the pistol and go up from there LOL @ the Shadow Shack reference. Seriously, 5d10/25d10 on up sounds good to me. as to downsides it has to be a pain to reload and heavy= hvy pistol modifier for initiative (which is a zebs rule but aught to be in AD or we simply write a negative modifier into the weapons description for the straight AD players) Igot to think on this one and get back to you Sounds good to me. Thanks for your input, jedi. I appreciate it more than you know. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 28, 2010 - 1:04pm | you know what you do need for this is the rail gun version of a LAW rocket: man portable, single shot, and disposable I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 28, 2010 - 1:28pm | That's next on the to-do list. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 28, 2010 - 3:01pm | That's next on the to-do list. Ya know Will, we should change your handle to "Lord of War" since your always running the heavy military ordinance into the Frontier. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 28, 2010 - 3:38pm | That's next on the to-do list. Ya know Will, we should change your handle to "Lord of War" since your always running the heavy military ordinance into the Frontier. Lord Of War actually has a nice ring to it. As does Willadon the Despoiler. Or, even Will the Stampede. "Over half the Frontier ain't nothing but rubble...."  Seriously, what can I say? Real-life guns involve too many legalities, so I've got to shoot off my mouth somewhere. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
