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Message no. 1
From: Razor Girl <sprawlg@*******.COM>
Subject: SmartGuns: How smart are they?
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 23:32:50 PDT
>There is also another way to engage a target with a normal
>Invisibility spell going. The person with the gun commands the
>smartlink to fire when it sees something it can shoot at that is a
>person. The gm the resolves the gun being fired as if the gun were
>being fired wildly instead of accurately with the person's skill
>behind the shot.

How smart are smart guns? I always thought they were just a more
efficent targeting device that gave a visual cue in the owners field of
vision as to where the barrel was pointed. That and kept an ammo count.
Wait a sec they can eject the clip. And cyberneticly control the choke
of a shotgun. And adjust the rate of fire of a gun.

The system seems so simple, but it can do tons of other things to. Can
it distinguish between friends and foes or does it give the shooter a
chance to re-think the targets? Can it fire on a cybernetic command or a
preprogramed situation? Can it identify the shape and signature of human
shaped object? These last examples sound more like a tactical computer
or "Smart" automated gun from SR3 pg 236.

For .5 essence you could have the most kick ass piece of equipment. Or
is it a case of people giving a simple item more jobs than it can
accomplish?

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Message no. 2
From: Wilbur The new adept <mad_bomb@*******.COM>
Subject: Re: SmartGuns: How smart are they?
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 04:31:41 PDT
>>There is also another way to engage a target with a normal
>>Invisibility spell going. The person with the gun commands the
>>smartlink to fire when it sees something it can shoot at that is a
>>person. The gm the resolves the gun being fired as if the gun were
>>being fired wildly instead of accurately with the person's skill
>>behind the shot.
>
>How smart are smart guns? I always thought they were just a more
>efficent targeting device that gave a visual cue in the owners field of
>vision as to where the barrel was pointed. That and kept an ammo count.
>Wait a sec they can eject the clip. And cyberneticly control the choke
>of a shotgun. And adjust the rate of fire of a gun.
>
>The system seems so simple, but it can do tons of other things to. Can
>it distinguish between friends and foes or does it give the shooter a
>chance to re-think the targets? Can it fire on a cybernetic command or
a
>preprogramed situation? Can it identify the shape and signature of
human
>shaped object? These last examples sound more like a tactical computer
>or "Smart" automated gun from SR3 pg 236.
>
>For .5 essence you could have the most kick ass piece of equipment. Or
>is it a case of people giving a simple item more jobs than it can
>accomplish?
Smartlink one was the simple item you speak of, IMO it had
memory for friend or foe between shuitdowns, didnt distinguish target
types. The Smartlink 2 IMO lets you do all that stuff except the
preprogrammed situation and identifying. It can let you conciously
change targets, eject a clip, change a choke setting, modify fire rate
(SA/BF/FA)it can designate friends and foes and help calculate
trajectory in conjuction with a rangefinder.
It however cannot identify the signature of a person it has no
scanning capabilties all its functions are internal, based around
tragectories and "housekeeping the gun". It certainly CANNOt be set to
preprogrammed fire, you'd want a Tatical computer with integrated
scanning ware's for that kind of task.
If you dont get it, ask someone else who speaks real english.
MRhaPPYTHeSMILEymAN

*Just because i'm insane doesnt mean i'm insane* -wilbur


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Message no. 3
From: Mike Bobroff <Airwasp@***.COM>
Subject: Re: SmartGuns: How smart are they?
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 09:10:19 EDT
In a message dated 9/9/98 1:33:45 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
sprawlg@*******.COM writes:

> How smart are smart guns? I always thought they were just a more
> efficent targeting device that gave a visual cue in the owners field of
> vision as to where the barrel was pointed. That and kept an ammo count.
> Wait a sec they can eject the clip. And cyberneticly control the choke
> of a shotgun. And adjust the rate of fire of a gun.
>
> The system seems so simple, but it can do tons of other things to. Can
> it distinguish between friends and foes or does it give the shooter a
> chance to re-think the targets? Can it fire on a cybernetic command or a
> preprogramed situation? Can it identify the shape and signature of human
> shaped object? These last examples sound more like a tactical computer
> or "Smart" automated gun from SR3 pg 236.
>
> For .5 essence you could have the most kick ass piece of equipment. Or
> is it a case of people giving a simple item more jobs than it can
> accomplish?

It does seem a lot, but a lot of the players came up with the idea all sorts
of various different times and situations, and I allowed it. Why? There
arguments were pretty sound in the department, and the smartlink in those
situations was dedicated for that purpose and could not be used to perform a
different function at all.

-Herc
------ The Best Mechanic you can ever have.
Message no. 4
From: Paul Gettle <RunnerPaul@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: SmartGuns: How smart are they?
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 21:44:46 -0400
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At 11:32 PM 9/8/98 -0700, Razor Girl wrote:
>The system seems so simple, but it can do tons of other things to.
Can
>it distinguish between friends and foes or does it give the shooter a
>chance to re-think the targets? Can it fire on a cybernetic command
or a
>preprogramed situation? Can it identify the shape and signature of
human
>shaped object? These last examples sound more like a tactical
computer
>or "Smart" automated gun from SR3 pg 236.

Personally, the way I run it, walking autofire past friendlies is
entirely up to the brainpower of the smartlink user, all the 'ware
does is put the gun on pause when the user tells it to. I only allow
for the cybernetic issuing of commands, and tracking the user's hand,
arm, head, and eye positions for knowing just where on the field of
view to paint the crosshair.

In my games, I wouldn't allow some of the tricks proposed for
smartguns, like telling the smartgun when it "sees" the invisible
mage, to fire the gun. The closest thing I allow my smartguns to have
to "sight" is the abilty to take the images falling on the retinas to
be able to rough aproximate range to target (for balistics correction)
from the two images' paralax angles. However, I do not allow a
smartgun to see through an regular invisibility spell anymore than I
would let implanted cybereyes see through them.

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--
-- Paul Gettle, #970 of 1000 (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
PGP Fingerprint, Key ID:0x48F3AACD (RSA 1024, created 98/06/26)
C260 94B3 6722 6A25 63F8 0690 9EA2 3344

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