From: | shadowrn@*********.com (Robert Fanning) |
---|---|
Subject: | 10 Rigger 3 gripes. |
Date: | Sun Jul 8 11:20:01 2001 |
It states that there is enough for twice the load of the weapon......
Now, I wanted to put a micro-popup turret with a sniper rifle, but the
standard sniper rifle has 6 shots.
The other sniper rifle has 8 rounds.
If I go for a Barret, which has bigger rounds, it has 14 (or is it 12).
Or, if I pick an assault rifle, with a larger clip (say 35), it would have
similar sized bullets, but be able to carry 70 rounds instead of 12.
So, I go to the cannon companion, I can increase the clip to 50 rounds? I
get 2x500 rounds of storage?
If I was to allocate 0.2 CF of ammunition, for 2000 rounds, that would weigh
100 kilograms. The small micro-blimp drone I am putting in it can only
carry 28kg, but the time I take out the turret which weighs 10 kg, plus the
gun and ammo weight, I don't have much left. [I use the image enhancement
more for spying, rather than sensors - I don't like characters doing wet
work]
Couldn't they just have a limit of 0.2 CF, 0.1 CF or even 0.02 CF capacity
in mounts?
2) If says that adding a weapon to a vehicle, it can only accept accessories
that are part of the weapon, except smartguns, which much be internal.
Now, does that mean all accessories must be internal or integral with the
gun?
I can accept things like bipods and stuff like shock pads couldn't be added
to the rifle, but scopes that come with the weapon when you buy it shouldn't
be different from imaging systems and scopes that you add on.....
So, I intrepret that to mean that any accessories like bipods, shock pads,
gyromounts are "not part of the gun", but you cannot add the external
smartgun unit, only the internal one (after all - game balance, it is
cheaper to add on and mounted weapons have no concealability penalty for
doing so - it is the mount that matters).
However, imaging scopes, ultrasound sights, etc are ok.
Now, also, if I was trying to mount an underbarrel grenade launcher - if I
pick an AK-98 or other weapon with integral grenade launcher, that would be
ok; but is an added grenade launcher or flamethrower be alright or not?
What counts as "part of the weapon" - anything integral, or are also barrel,
top and bottom accessories part of the weapon; but not mounts (after all, it
uses a vehicle mount, which gets in the way).
3) I couldn't find a magazine selector - if I want to put a variety of
different ammos in the different magazines, say APDS, EX, Fletchette and
incendary; there doesn't seem to be any mechanism? So should I just
allocate 0.2 CF to each? 10,000 assault rifle rounds is an awful lot -
500kg of ammo. It would take me a long time to burn through that much,
although, some players I have known.......
4) In the old edition, you had to double the cost of a gun to mount a hand
held weapon on a vehicle, but I looked and looked, but could find only a
reference to a gun conversion kit, with no price (I assume same as a
mechanics or weaponsmith kit), but you seem to only buy that once, in
addition to your vehicle, electronic, computer and weaponsmith kits)
5) Engines - I wished to swap the EC engine in the glider they have, so that
it could run on solar cells and charge the battery - you can get them for
drone mini-blimps, which is ok I guess. Could I rig an AC rectifier to give
the EC engine power from the solar cells and just let it drift along, or to
suppliment the power requirements? Surely a normal battery powered engine
is enough for an ultralight glider?
If anything, the AC emissions from an EC emmisions would be showing up very
obviously on the sensors, whereas DC wouldn't.
Also, methane engines are efficient, but I don't see any difference between
a methane burning engine, an LP gas burning engine and one burning Hydrogren
(instead of the EC engine).
What I want is a little bit of reworking of the engine types, so they can
use a wider variety of fuels (bio-deisel is good for a wide source of fuels,
alcohol/gasoline for internal combustion, a dual fuel engine for trucks
perhaps?).
EC engines should be able to use solar panels? Whoever wrote the rules for
EC engines had a poor grasp of physics - hydrogen cells do not produce AC
power, they are like conventional batteries using a chemical reaction,
wheras a internal combustion engine burning hydrogen would produce AC with a
generator as it uses coils and transformers. Transformers do not work on DC
power.
I suggest engines be broken into these categories - Liquid Internal
Combustion (sub category diesel, petrochem or dual-fuel), Gas Internal
Combustion, Gas Turbines (mainly hydrofoils), Jets and Turbo Jets,
Electrical (with solar cell, hydrogen cell, battery and hybrid generators
providing the power or extra, supplimental power).
Surely the EC engine is the hybrid version of the petrochem internal
combustion engine? Why should there be a difference?
Also, given the lack of fuel in rural areas, surely there could be steam or
thermoelectric generators used to power electric vehicles? Obviously having
a furnace in your vehicle is going to light you up on the infared, but your
electronic footprint is going to be unaffected.
Perhaps there could be powder burning internal combustion engines - fed on
the shredded husks of wheat crops? Grain Silos often blow up from the
smallest of sparks. Take some sifted castor sugar and throw it at a candle
(safely outdoors, at a distance) if you don't believe me.
The other thing that gets me is that internal combustion engines still need
a battery for the starter motor and lights, which is why having a hybrid
engine is such an advantage - your starter motor becomes your drive motor,
which returns power during breaking.
Why couldn't solar panels be placed on a rigger vehicle, so it can sit
ticking away in standby mode, especially if it is an RV with a satelitte
dish and a decker (or rigger with a small rating 4 cyberdeck) sitting in the
back chewing power up?
6) Maintenance cost of vehicles - players should be given a mothball
option - putting the car up on blocks, coating the parts in vaseline and
other things that would not induce and wear and tear. Getting the car back
on the road would take some work - pumping up and rebalancing the tires,
recharging the battery, relubricating the moving parts for first ignition.
Or should as a player, I disassemble a backup or rarely used vehicle for
parts - so I have a collection of parts, not a vehicle, which doesn't need
maintenance costs?
7) We need a pizza delivery drone - special equipment: credstick reader and
food dispenser arm, special storage: 1 x 6 pack sized (or 2 softdrink
bottles) sized cold area, 1 heater area - the waste heat from the
refrigerator coils could keep the hot section going. It should be VTOL, but
small enough to pass through a standard doorway. Perhaps the dispenser arm
could be used to press elevator buttons and it has a small set of wheels
that run off the rotor drive shaft. Obviously, such drones would be needed
to travel at high speeds to get there in less than half an hour - a rating 2
autopilot, with some sort of personality module and a speech synthesizer
would be a minimum, a rating 3 pilot might make it too expensive. This
would stop shadowrunners ordering a pizza, killing the driver for a free
meal, then stealing their car for a run (I mean, you turn up at a guard
station with pizzas - who promise to deliver them for you as they are
already paid through matrix credstick transactions (dose it with sleeping
chemicals) - chances are the sec guards are going to help themselves when
the "pizza delivery" guy is gone.
Given the habit of those in more run down areas to mob a machine like that,
it should be armed for the areas of slums where the downtrodden wage slaves
commute from. Aircraft rockets are a bit extreme, but a heavy machine gun
should be sufficient, with a magazine selector for gel rounds.
Why the games designers would not include a pizza delivery drone is beyond
me. Even a wheeled drone can use an elevator shaft, but getting over the
traffic jams in the day and past cycle gangs at night makes a flying drone
the obvious choice.
Besides, I think that even cycle gangers get the munchies at 3 AM and would
want to order a pizza (more than once anyway), so this is perfect for the
slum areas of town, appreciating the service (though sending it in with a
launch missile system to DMZ zones would be advised).
How about a ground based Auto-Vending machine even? Just like the hotdog
carts, but with tracks or multi-axel balloon tires.
8) Offroad vehicle penalty for on road? Why should a person driving on a
flattened road have a harder time than off the road? I can accept the
handling penalty at higher speeds, but not if you are Sunday driving along
the highway. Hmm, looks like I drive on the gravel or grass road shoulder
on the highway from now on.
9) The price of fly by wire systems - 1.25 x the cost of the whole vehicle
for EACH LEVEL - does that include other accessories unrelated to the engine
systems.
10) They took out most of the cool illustrations that I have in the Rigger
Black Book. I can understand space limitations, but surely we should be
able to log on and find out what vehicles look like on an online forum (or a
CD is cheap to make and sell with the book).