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Message no. 1
From: Grey metis76@*****.com
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 14:45:20 -0700 (PDT)
Ive looked everywhere and can't seem to find any type
of system for using shock weapons against drones.
What would a taser, stun batton, etc., do against
drones? I'm thinking it would mess up the electrical
systems, but not sure how much. What about using
these weapons to short out computers or other
electical systems?

Grey

====~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is no Black and White. Only shades of Grey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dance like no one is looking.
Love like it is never going to hurt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Message no. 2
From: Allen Versfeld moe@*******.com
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 08:49:13 +0200
Grey wrote:
>
> Ive looked everywhere and can't seem to find any type
> of system for using shock weapons against drones.
> What would a taser, stun batton, etc., do against
> drones? I'm thinking it would mess up the electrical
> systems, but not sure how much. What about using
> these weapons to short out computers or other
> electical systems?

Quick and Nasty. off the top of my head... Resolve it as an ECM attack,
using the power of the weapon as the ECM rating?
--
Allen Versfeld
moe@*******.com

"As a computer, I find your faith in technology to be quite amusing"
Message no. 3
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 07:17:33 -0600
Grey wrote:
>Ive looked everywhere and can't seem to find any type
>of system for using shock weapons against drones.
>What would a taser, stun batton, etc., do against
>drones? I'm thinking it would mess up the electrical
>systems, but not sure how much. What about using
>these weapons to short out computers or other
>electical systems?

My answer is based on what I know about computers.

Electrical systems are usually grounded at least twice. The electronics of
a computer, for example, are protected by the case. Any charge that hits
the case is grounded out, and doesn't reach the electronics inside (fwiw,
that case also prevents radio emissions from the computer electronics from
interfering with other electronic devices). The power supply of a computer
is also grounded. The power supply discharges excess surges through the
ground wire.

The first thing you have to do is get the electricity to the electronics
inside the computer/drone/electronic device. That means you have to get
through the case/body.

Once you do get to the electronics, it doesn't take much electricity to
mess up a computer/computer chip. A visible electrical discharge will
usually kill a computer if delivered to any part of the mother board.

A stun batton wouldn't have any effect, as it is hitting the body/case, and
the electrical charge is grounding out. A taser would work *if* the taser
darts punch through the case/body and make contact with the electronics.

To Life,
-Graht
http://www.users.uswest.net/~abaker3
--
"Warm nights, good food, kindred spirits....great life!"
Message no. 4
From: Wolfstar wolfstar@********.net
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 09:56:02 -0400
----- Original Message -----
From: <dbuehrer@******.carl.org>
To: <shadowrn@*********.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 9:17 AM
Subject: Re: Shock Weapons vs. Drones


> Grey wrote:
> >Ive looked everywhere and can't seem to find any type
> >of system for using shock weapons against drones.
> >What would a taser, stun batton, etc., do against
> >drones? I'm thinking it would mess up the electrical
> >systems, but not sure how much. What about using
> >these weapons to short out computers or other
> >electical systems?
>
> My answer is based on what I know about computers.

<Snip!>

While I would agree at this point in time, 99% of the essential computer
components in a deck(or a drone brain for that matter) are now based on
optical chips, and thus would be either A) Non-conductive, B) Unaffected by
an electrical charge, or C) Both. There are some components that would still
be affected, but by and large the impact would be minimal, and in the age of
Shadowrun, "Electronics" is something of a misnomer, but everyone would look
at you weird if you called it Optronics. =)

Wolfstar
Really still alive, and once again driving to GenCon. Again. With Jett.
Be Afraid. =)

PS: No, really. I've got a good car now. Honest. =)
Message no. 5
From: dbuehrer@******.carl.org dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 07:46:21 -0600
Wolfstar wrote:
>From: <dbuehrer@******.carl.org>
> > Grey wrote:
> > >Ive looked everywhere and can't seem to find any type
> > >of system for using shock weapons against drones.
> > >What would a taser, stun batton, etc., do against
> > >drones? I'm thinking it would mess up the electrical
> > >systems, but not sure how much. What about using
> > >these weapons to short out computers or other
> > >electical systems?
> >
> > My answer is based on what I know about computers.
>
><Snip!>
>
>While I would agree at this point in time, 99% of the essential computer
>components in a deck(or a drone brain for that matter) are now based on
>optical chips, and thus would be either A) Non-conductive, B) Unaffected by
>an electrical charge, or C) Both. There are some components that would still
>be affected, but by and large the impact would be minimal, and in the age of
>Shadowrun, "Electronics" is something of a misnomer, but everyone would look
>at you weird if you called it Optronics. =)

Woops. I completely forgot that SR "electronics" were optical, which would
explain why there aren't any rules for using tasers and electrical stun
weapons to damage computers and drones/vehicles.

To Life,
-Graht
http://www.users.uswest.net/~abaker3
--
"What you are doing at the moment must be exactly what
you are doing at the moment--and nothing else."
Message no. 6
From: Gurth gurth@******.nl
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 19:18:04 +0200
According to dbuehrer@******.carl.org, at 7:17 on 8 Jun 00, the word on
the street was...

> Once you do get to the electronics, it doesn't take much electricity to
> mess up a computer/computer chip. A visible electrical discharge will
> usually kill a computer if delivered to any part of the mother board.

Which is why people working in computer factories have those anti-static
electricity armbands on, and why you should be careful when you put new
stuff into your computer.

> A stun batton wouldn't have any effect, as it is hitting the body/case,
> and the electrical charge is grounding out. A taser would work *if*
> the taser darts punch through the case/body and make contact with the
> electronics.

Which in itself is rather unlikely, IMHO, since modern computer cases are
usually made of thin steel plate, or somewhat thicker, hard plastic. Any
taser that's going to punch through that will probably do more damage to a
human body than just its electrical shock -- which goes against the whole
idea behind a taser, I'd say.

The only other way would be to remove the case first, before you apply the
taser/stun baton, but you need time to do that, so it's not going to be
much use in situations where you want to destroy a computer that's in use,
for example.

Also, SR's computers are mostly optical, so a taser would probably not do
very much against them, beyond destroying some non-vital parts that need
electricity.

As for drones, I'd say pretty much the same thing would happen as David
described: the outer casing (shell, whatever) will conduct the electricity
away without any real damage to the drone. IMHO, any drone designed by
someone with half a brain will be a Faraday cage.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Here come the golden oldies. Here come the Hezbollah.
-> NAGEE Editor * ShadowRN GridSec * Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
->The Plastic Warriors Page: http://shadowrun.html.com/plasticwarriors/<-

GC3.1: GAT/! d-(dpu) s:- !a>? C+(++)@ UL P L+ E? W(++) N o? K- w+ O V? PS+
PE Y PGP- t(+) 5++ X++ R+++>$ tv+(++) b++@ DI? D+ G(++) e h! !r(---) y?
Incubated into the First Church of the Sqooshy Ball, 21-05-1998
Message no. 7
From: Grey metis76@*****.com
Subject: Shock Weapons vs. Drones
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 10:50:20 -0700 (PDT)
So are electronics in SR no longer circuit boards?
Its all optical now? I thought that was only computer
systems.

And as for casing protecting the device, my plan was
to have a spear thats head also had a built in stun
baton-like device. Still working on stats for it
though. Likely I'll just use it as a spear and if its
charged up, add on stun baton damage.

Grey

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