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Aliens-Style Smart Guns
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
Those guns seemed to be ballistic Plus energy (some sort of concussive blast. BUT i never understood where the power packs were/ammo packs were..

The smart guns fire a slightly longer variant of the "10mm Explosive Tip, Caseless" round fired by the Pulse Rifles. The caseless propellant charge is ignited by an electrical pulse, which is where "pulse" rifle comes from. The smart gun is drum-fed from the right hand side.

Alien-verse pulse weapons are basically WH40K bolters, but without looking like you're overcompensating for something.

EDIT: Per the Colonial Marine Technical Manual, the Pulse Rifle fires a 10x24mm round, while the Smart Guns and Sentry Guns fire a 10x28mm round. I'd like to think there is also a 10x20mm round for pistols and submachineguns, but it isn't mentioned in the book.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't remember seeing any sort of drum on Vasques or Gorman's gun when they went in.. Maybe they were 'integral'.. But if that was the case, how many rounds should they have had.. 50? 100??
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Joined: 05 Apr 2010
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
I don't remember seeing any sort of drum on Vasques or Gorman's gun when they went in.. Maybe they were 'integral'.. But if that was the case, how many rounds should they have had.. 50? 100??

It was easy to miss. Here is an image that shows it clearly.

Image

I don't know if it was integral, but there was no evidence of either Vasquez or Drake (not Gorman; Gorman was the LT) trying to reload their weapons during the Hive Fight. Drake ditches his in mid-combat, and switches to his backup flamethrower, although it isn't clear if it was because he ran out of ammo or because his gun jammed (and considering the amount of firing going on, a gun jam is not inconceivable).

50-100 is laughably low, considering that the Pulse Rifles used 100-round magazines, with the rounds in a U-shaped storage configuration inside the mag. While the CMTM doesn't give an exact capacity for the Smart Gun, the Sentry Guns are also equipped with drum-magazines, with a capacity for 500 rounds. Even if the Smart Gun drums were slightly smaller, a 400-round capacity is not unrealistic.

However, I'm less interested in stating out the guns themselves than I am in applying the harness and targeting systems to SWU energy weaponry, such as a medium repeating blaster on a smart-gun rig, or a light laser cannon for mobile, man portable anti-vehicle work...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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Last edited by CRMcNeill on Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A few general thoughts on bonuses and penalties:
    -The bulk of the system imparts a -1D Dex Penalty, above and beyond any armor.

    -The Fire Control system adds a +3D bonus to Fire Control, in addition to any Auto-Fire bonuses.

    -Any weapon used in a smart-harness must have its controls reconfigured to fire from the waist, rather than the shoulder. Attempt to use a smart-harness configured weapon without the harness imparts a -1D penalty to the appropriate skill, and vice versa when attempting to use a standard-configuration weapon on a harness.


As far as firing from behind cover, is there a penalty applied to the Blaster skill of a shooter who is attempting to fire from behind cover?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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ForbinProject
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
I don't remember seeing any sort of drum on Vasques or Gorman's gun when they went in.. Maybe they were 'integral'.. But if that was the case, how many rounds should they have had.. 50? 100??


http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa384/schwerpunk67/Untitled_zpsl0mglufn.png

I don't recall what the RPG says but the Xenopedia says 500 rounds

http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/M56_Smartgun
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ForbinProject
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
I don't know if it was integral, but there was no evidence of either Vasquez or Drake (not Gorman; Gorman was the LT) trying to reload their weapons during the Hive Fight.


The hive fight took place under the heat exchangers. The LT had Apone collect everyones magazines. When Apone got to Vasquez and Drake he took their extra drums but didn't unload the machineguns. Instead he took the DV-9 Batteries that plugged into the harness and powered the smart guns.

Then Drake and Vasquez plugged in the spare batteries they held back when Apones back was turned. They didn't try to reload because they only had one drum each, and the bag with the ammo exploded when the first marine got snatched and he accidentally flamed the guy carrying the bag with all their spare ammo.
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Zarn
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 7:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Furthermore, I think the comment about additional training being required in order to use the smart gun effectively.

Perhaps an (A) skill, no specializations, and you need to have at least as much in the (A) skill as the amount of dice you can take from Fire Control? So an untrained person gets 0D (no benefit) from the Fire Control, basic training (1D) gets 1D from the Fire Control, all the way up to 3D?

Making it a separate skill means that MAPs would quickly eat up the bonus dice, which would help balance the gun mechanically.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
A few general thoughts on bonuses and penalties:[list]-The bulk of the system imparts a -1D Dex Penalty, above and beyond any armor.

-The Fire Control system adds a +3D bonus to Fire Control, in addition to any Auto-Fire bonuses.


So effectively a net 2d bonus when shooting..

Zarn wrote:
Furthermore, I think the comment about additional training being required in order to use the smart gun effectively.

Perhaps an (A) skill, no specializations, and you need to have at least as much in the (A) skill as the amount of dice you can take from Fire Control? So an untrained person gets 0D (no benefit) from the Fire Control, basic training (1D) gets 1D from the Fire Control, all the way up to 3D?

Making it a separate skill means that MAPs would quickly eat up the bonus dice, which would help balance the gun mechanically.


If anything i could more see a min Str requirement, than training (A) requirement.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zarn wrote:
Making it a separate skill means that MAPs would quickly eat up the bonus dice, which would help balance the gun mechanically.

So, come up with a neat piece of tech, then structure the rules so that no PC would actually bother with it? I don't think the system is so complicated as to require the kind of training time that a 3D in an advanced skill equates to. YMMV.

My preferred solution is part of a larger concept for ships and equipment in general, in that, like Melee Weapons, everything should have a base Difficulty just to see if you can use the thing properly in the first place. It could be used to represent a variety of different factors, like weapons with heavier relative recoil. In this case, using the harness would bump the base Difficulty up a level, say, from Moderate to Difficult.

Basically, you would roll your skill separate from FC to see if you can beat the Difficulty, and then, on a success, you roll FC and add it to the skill result.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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Zarn
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for that succinct evaluation of my attempt at contributing to the discussion. You've made your position abundantly clear.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zarn wrote:
Thank you for that succinct evaluation of my attempt at contributing to the discussion. You've made your position abundantly clear.

I'm sorry if you feel I'm being too harsh. But seriously, what you are proposing would turn the gun into a man-portable penalty generator unless a player chooses to put his character through the equivalent of a year or two in Medical School learning how to master it. I think that's going too far.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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CRMcNeill
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've been thinking about this again lately, and I have the bare bones of an idea. I'm thinking of three different "levels" of servo arms, ranging from little more than a pintle mount to offset weapon weight all the way up to something akin to the actual smart-gun harness from Aliens.

In broad terms, what I'm thinking is...
    Servo-Arm - Basically just a weight bearing harness that allows the character to move and operate a bulky weapon without penalty. No integrated sight, and normally used for area-effect weapons like flamethrowers, web-guns or close-range repeating blasters.

    Synchro-Arm - As the Servo-Arm, but includes an integrated sight and headset that allows the shooter to make aimed shots from the waist. +1D to Fire Control.

    Smart-Arm - As Synchro-Arm, but the weapon mount includes auto-stabilizing gyros that help stabilize the weapon when firing, as well as making minute adjustments when locked onto a target. +1D to Fire Control and increases all Range Values by 50%.

I'll put some more thought into stats later, but I wanted to at least get this written down first.

There was an additional setting from the description of the Smart Gun that I wanted to include (basically, the gunner aims at the target and holds the trigger down, and the gun makes the decision to fire if it predicts a hit), but couldn't think of a way to write up the rule that wasn't more trouble than it was worth...
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