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Arc Blasters (Energy Shotguns)
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 1:45 am    Post subject: Re: This is one of my favorite subjects. Reply with quote

Bradwardine wrote:
The blaster shotgun, like a real one, would use rather more power, or ammunition, per shot, and thus deplete both power pack and gas reservoir in rather fewer shots.

It sounds more like the blaster equivalent of a Nock Gun than a true shotgun. Not that that's a bad thing at all; an energy weapon variant would alleviate most of the drawbacks that lead to the original falling out of favor (long reload times and atrocious recoil). A heavy weapons specialist toting around a semi-auto blaster nock gun is a pretty scary thought...

EDIT: Apparently, the original was designed by a gentleman named Wilson, but the contract was given to a man named Nock, and thus the name was born. The full name was the Nock Volley Gun, so for Star Wars purposes, it could simply be called the Volley Blaster.

Quote:
For the name, I was attempting to avoid that which was derivative, unoriginal or out-of-universe.

My criteria is more along the lines of "could the term used in the real world plausibly have existed in the SWU?" This, for example, is why I avoid the use of the word "gatling" when referring to mini-gun type weaponry, as "gatling" is literally the last name of the man who invented it. For gatling to be a term in use in the SWU, it would require that the original inventor of the device be named gatling, and that his name had endured over the thousands of years that have passed since firearms had fallen out of favor in place of blasters.

A scatter-blaster, on the other hand, is plausible terminology, as this is exactly what the gun does to the blaster bolt.

Many of the terms we take for granted don't really apply when we dig into the origins. A "Blaster Rifle", for example, isn't really a "rifle" as its barrel lacks the spiral-grooved "rifling" that originated the term (to differentiate it from smoothbore muskets). The closest a blaster rifle gets to qualifying is the galvan circuits in its barrel that serve a similar effect, but those are found in pretty much all blasters weapons anyway.

Another one I'm on the fence on is "howitzer", as I'm having trouble seeing how the term would've developed in the SWU. However, since it really does encompass exactly what I want certain artillery weapons to be able to do, I'm thinking strongly about using it and attributing it to the historical Atrisian military, and that the term has endured into modern usage. But I digress...

Quote:
To portray shotgun damage and range I I ripped off the damage-radius concept the rules use for grenades.

It's my understanding that shotguns rarely are useful against multiple targets unless they are fitted with a duckbill choke (turns the cone-shaped shot pattern into a horizontal fan). I had originally gone the same route as you when I included shotgun shells in my write-up for WH40K Bolters, where a shotgun would partially offset MAPs if shooting at multiple targets who happened to be standing within a few meters of each other, and there may still be something to that. But as I said on the first page, my thoughts on shotguns changed quite a bit once I actually owned and fired one...
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Last edited by CRMcNeill on Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:23 pm; edited 1 time in total
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Director of Engineering


Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16163
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, seeing as how "flak" derives from the German word for "aircraft defense cannon", it's hard to see how the term would transfer over. An acronym perhaps? "Fractional Lag Accretion Kinesis"?
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 8:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I ran into this problem when I was considering having a villain say "post haste." I looked into the origin of that phrase, and it comes from the concept of a post rider carrying mail.

Then, I had another character who is super genious smart and highly educated talking anatomy with an athlete. Words like "deltoid" and humeris and other words that are pure Latin (which doesn't exist in SW) were all over the place. Even words like "biology" shouldn't translate into SW Basic.

But if we look at SW itself, we see words like "millennium" (Latin) and "falcon" (a creature known on Earth as the fastest avian animal), and we just happen to see the fastest ship in the SW galaxy named after such a bird...

Then, despite the SW character set aurebesh, we have ships called "x-wing" and "y-wing," etc. due to the shape of the ship resembling the letter it is named after.

Then there is Poe, who, in Ep. 8 is trolling the First Order commander, and mentions that his name "starts with an 'H'." Because everyone in SW should know the alphabet (which is itself a Greek word, and derived from the Greek character set).

Anyway, I think you see where I'm going with this...

Given what is already canon, it may or may not be worthwhile to stress over specific word origins. YMMV.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naaman wrote:
I ran into this problem when I was considering having a villain say "post haste." I looked into the origin of that phrase, and it comes from the concept of a post rider carrying mail.

Then, I had another character who is super genious smart and highly educated talking anatomy with an athlete. Words like "deltoid" and humeris and other words that are pure Latin (which doesn't exist in SW) were all over the place. Even words like "biology" shouldn't translate into SW Basic.

But if we look at SW itself, we see words like "millennium" (Latin) and "falcon" (a creature known on Earth as the fastest avian animal), and we just happen to see the fastest ship in the SW galaxy named after such a bird...

Then, despite the SW character set aurebesh, we have ships called "x-wing" and "y-wing," etc. due to the shape of the ship resembling the letter it is named after.

Then there is Poe, who, in Ep. 8 is trolling the First Order commander, and mentions that his name "starts with an 'H'." Because everyone in SW should know the alphabet (which is itself a Greek word, and derived from the Greek character set).

Anyway, I think you see where I'm going with this...

Given what is already canon, it may or may not be worthwhile to stress over specific word origins. YMMV.

Absolutely. And you forgot Obi-Wan saying, "Do you have a Plan B?"

In fact, most all words spoken in Star Wars films originated in an Earth language. England and Earth don't exist in the Star Wars galaxy, but English does (even if they name the language something else). Also, humans are from Earth but Star Wars has humans. And ducks live on Naboo. I wouldn't worry about word origins either. Acronyms can become words so the word can have a definition in Star Wars while the original acronym doesn't.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yup.

I used to just go with the notion that Star Wars characters were speaking "Basic" while the film was portrayed in English, much like movies that are portrayed in English for the audience's benefit (even though the characters should be speaking another language. "Enemy at the Gates" is a good example, wherein the characters would be speaking Russian or German, but the actors speak English).

But due to examples like what are cited above, I just reason that "it's not that deep" with respect to language in SW.
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Potroclo
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Funny coincidence, I was just yesterday randomly parsing through wookieepedia articles and stumbled on the High Galactic alphabet, where it's explained that the roman alphabet was retconed as basically a posh form of aurebesh.
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Bren
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whill wrote:
In fact, most all words spoken in Star Wars films originated in an Earth language.
All words spoken in Star Wars films originated on earth. That would be because George Lucas and everyone else involved is from earth, the audience is from earth, and English is George's native language.

The film makers chose not to create conlangs and use subtitles for all the languages in a story from long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. A film with all subtitles isn't likely to appeal to a large, general audience. So they have to use an actual earth language. In English-speaking countries like the US and England that language is English. But when Star Wars movies are shown in other countries is it always in English with subtitles added or is Star Wars ever dubbed?

Naaman wrote:
I just reason that "it's not that deep" with respect to language in SW.
Yeah. JRR Tolkien George Lucas is not.
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Potroclo
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 8:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bren wrote:
But when Star Wars movies are shown in other countries is it always in English with subtitles added or is Star Wars ever dubbed?


It depends on the country; most western countries including most of Europe or Japan for example dub american films. There's some exceptions like nordic countries like Sweden, where most people know English well enough that most English films are shown as is. And weird cultural peculiarities, like some eastern european countries dubbing over the original soundtrack, so you can listen the original English with its volume lowered down behing the voice over...
Nowadays the whole world speaks English, so there's a growing preference for subtitled original versions over dubbed versions, but back in the day when SW first came out, the lack of good translators or scifi culture (I guess) lead to some interesting terms lost in translation and funny adaptations, like Darth Vader being Dark Vador in french (cause the "th" seems to be impossible to grasp for french people), R2D2 being called "little arthur" in South America (artoo-dee-too sounds like Arturito) and the training remote in ANH being called a "distant" by Obi-wan in some other latin languages (remote also means far away, distant although not in this context! lol).

But I feel I'm deviating the thread, so about this:

CRMcNeill wrote:
So, seeing as how "flak" derives from the German word for "aircraft defense cannon", it's hard to see how the term would transfer over. An acronym perhaps? "Fractional Lag Accretion Kinesis"?


given that English itself has many words derived from latin languages from back when england was part norman, breton and flemish, and that none of these, nor English or Earth for that matter are really a part of the SW universe, I woudn't bother that much with the actual real life origin of that particular or any other word. If it's common enough that it doesn't break suspension of disbelief, go with it. Besides, flak sounds cool and SW-ey enough, it's not as if you're saying Fliegerabwehrkanone AND flak is actually listed in the Cambridge dictionary as "2. the firing of guns from the ground at enemy aircraft, or the bullets, etc. that the guns fire" so yeah, go with it! I personally like it and your acronym is great!
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 12:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to aligning with the source material and calling this type of weapon an Arc Blaster and changing up my Arc Blaster concept into a particle beam weapon... Thoughts?
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Update: I've gone ahead and changed the official term for these weapons from Scatter Blasters to Arc Blasters. I've also updated the title for this topic, and altered the original stats to match, as well as adding a few tweaks, such as renaming the Hunting variant as Sporting, and clarifying exactly how the (A) Marksman skill can still be used with Arc Blasters firing in Arc mode.

Also, if I can settle on some prices and availability numbers, I'm thinking strongly about adding them to my Blaster Weapons canon.

Additionally, while this topic has focused primarily on personal weapons, the original concept began with a starfighter mounted variant, with a TIE variant mounted with a quad arc-laser main armament, optimized as a dogfighting / superiority platform. In the source material, the craft itself wasn't that great, but the cannon were quite formidable. Any thoughts as tow what something like this would look like on a starfighter, or how the stats would look (apart from just an up-scaled version of the Arc Blaster stats)?
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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CRMcNeill
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 6:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm also thinking of adding Arc Blasters as one of the options for the over/under-style Assault Pattern Bowcaster, so that a Wookiee warrior could conceivably mount a bowcaster under the barrel of a Standard, Riot or Sporting Arc Blaster. Thoughts?
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Arc Laser
Cost: 3,000 credits
Weight: 3 tons
Blast Mode:
    Fire Control: 2D
    Range:
    --Space: 1-2/8/16
    --Orbital: 2km-4km/16km/32km
    --Atmosphere: 100m-200m/800m/1.6km
    Damage: 7D
Arc Mode:
    Fire Control: 2D+1 / 3D / 3D+2 / 4D+1 (5D*)
    Range (Arc Mode):
    --Space: 0-1/4/8
    --Orbital: 1km-2km/8km/16km
    --Atmosphere: 50m-100m/400m/800m
    Damage: 7D / 6D / 5D / 3D+1 / (2D*)
    *for Extreme Range, requires (A) Marksman skill
The Arc Laser is something of a niche weapon system for spacecraft and combat vehicles. Designed on the same principle as the smaller, more common Arc Blaster personal weapon, the Arc Laser was intended as a multi-role space combat weapon that would allow a fighter or transport to mount a single weapon for use against both heavy, more durable targets and smaller, fragile ones. The weapon's main drawback is its short range, with the more accurate Arc mode being one of the shortest-ranged starfighter energy weapons currently in service. Aside from starfighters, the Arc Laser's other main application is as the primary armament for urban combat and law enforcement vehicles, where the weapon's short range is not as much of a disadvantage.
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2022 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some thoughts on the stat post.
    1) I think I'm going to drop the Riot Arc Blaster in favor of allowing a Riot Upgrade (ala what I did here) that allows an Arc Blaster and Arc Blaster Carbine to be upgraded to full repeaters, at a cost.

    2) I'm also thinking strongly about breaking up the Arc Blaster stat list and incorporating them into my larger Blaster stat re-writes. Part of my motivation is that I've already rewritten the Riot Blaster Cannon as a tripod-mounted, crew-served Arc Blaster
I haven't made any changes yet, but I figured I'd put my thoughts out there for feedback.
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Inquisitor1138
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 4:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i like the 'K.I.S.S.' method, so no in don't try to reinvent everything.
My 2ยข on flak gun weapons, is i am using them on a few capital ships as point defense weapons, and still using laser canons on the same vessel. I have to fix some existing posts & add others to the Victory Frigate Project thread & then i'll link it here.
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Dr. Bidlo
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There was earlier talk about earth technology not fitting into the SWU die to name suck as the Howitzer and FLAK because they are named after people or another language. What if FLAK meant "Fragment Launching Aircraft Killer" instead of Flugabwehrkanone? Actually it should not matter if it is based on another language - it's Star Wars after all... there are millions of languages.
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