 December 22, 2010 - 1:03pm | Refer to: Railguns(Knight Hawks). I'm assuming that the heavy rail gun and the RG are both FF weapons in a fixed mount since only battery weapons are 360 in the game that said I think you need to up the MHS on the battery version of this to equivelent of LB, MHS of the RG should be 4, heavy is ok at 5 and the pod version should be MHS 1 with possible adjustments to the damage to bring it closer in line with the pod laser (concern is game balance as the LTD ammo is no real limitation as the average battle will be shorter then the ammo supply I think. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 22, 2010 - 4:03pm | I feel the sizes are too small Here are some conservative sizes that may do better Heavy RG 120mm - 140mm RG 80mm-100mm rgb 30mm - 40mm rgp 20mm - 25mm If i am not mistaken the bigger the mass the better the impact, 5.56 seems way too small for a ship mounted weapons system |
December 22, 2010 - 6:14pm | I care less about size as we dont specify what the appeture on the lasers are so why mess around with specifying the size on any weapon- come to think of it none of the original weapons in the game had any sizes ascribed to them. I think doing so for the rail guns is a bad idea for the long run as sooner or latter something could turn up scientifically that forces us to change what we put down. Hvy rail gun, Rail gun, rail gun battery, and pod rail gun tells us enough and then you match appropriate game stats and it meshes with existing rules without too much muss or fuss. Otherwise you'll end up in discussion about how much damage could this size do over that one and really is that going to get us anywhere? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 23, 2010 - 4:55pm | I tend to agree. However, the linked thread lists specific sizes of the projectiles. It just seems like those sizes are too small given the real life examples seen in the navy prototype tests which use a large metal slug projectile. However, in researching coil guns you could use any size of projectile but the mass and power of the field do seem to play an important role. I agree that it would be better not to assign a specific size to the projectile calibre, but if we were going to assign size then I think we should go a little larger then the ones listed in the thread IMO. |
December 23, 2010 - 5:44pm | I linked the thread for reference but I'm unsure who wrote it which is why I started the discussion I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 24, 2010 - 4:47pm | I wrote the KH and AD railgun entries and forgot to sign 'em. Sorry for the confusion. Both of you bring up some good points, and I'll try to address them in order. 1) MHS issues: I've been debating about raising the MHS for all four weapons. I originally wanted the rail gun and railgun battery(one of each) to both fit on an assault scout-type craft(to give it a little more punch than four away and gone ARs and an LB), with the HRG providing an alternative(read non-beam) main armament for frigates on up(ala the MAC from the Halo franchise, Tau ships from WH40K, and the like), while making them slightly smaller than their laser counterparts. 2) Railgun Pod Damage: I see no problems with reducing the damage to 1d10(or 1d5 for a single gun from the pod). 3)Calibers/Sizes: Both of you make very good points on this. I simply assumed future tech could produce weapons which could accelerate smaller projectiles fast enough where they hit with the same kinetic energy as a projectile from the 152mm RG being tested right now for the Zumwalt-class. Ultimately, this is purely a flavor issue. I wouldn't be too bunged if either the weapon calibers were upped, as Arizona suggested, or left off entirely, as Jedi suggested. That being said, I'm surprised neither of you mentioned the long reach of these weapons. If you ask me, the ranges given for the missile weapons in the KH books are way too short, given that once a projectile hits a certain velocity, it will continue on, until it either hits something, is shot down, or until the end of time. Also, when it hits, a kinetic projectile will still retain its destructive power(be it either warhead or sheer kinetic energy). For that matter, even the ranges for the beam weapons are too short, IMO, even given beam diffusion. Thoughts? " '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 24, 2010 - 6:42pm | Range never seemed to be a huge issue as with the frictionless vaccum of space anything accelerated at near realtivistic speeds will be travelling for a while. check out this info-mentery about space combat weapons from a math and physics guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AV5aY7HYAk&feature=related |
December 24, 2010 - 11:04pm | Most enlightening. Thanks for the link. BTW, I edited the doc so that all mention of caliber has been replaced with "small-caliber," "medium-caliber," and "heavy-caliber," like I should've done to begin with. " '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." |
