Blast Factor is not just about Ammo

[Rob Lang]

I'm toying with the idea of refactoring the blast factors of weapons and ammo to give more variety. I will have a maximum blast factor for each type of ammo and a BF of 100 will still be energy weapons (with shields at 99 still). I was thinking of moving 7.4 up to 75 and then scaling all the others. This makes a much better range of the 1-100 than I am at the moment.

Weapons will factor more in BF now too. Not all chain guns will be at 45. Generally speaking: Fast firing ones will have a lower BF and slow firing ones will have a higher BF. Of course, pigging expensive weapons will be both high penetration and fast firing. Damage, of course, will vary too.

Byrn - I'll be using that spreadsheet to work out all the new values.

Thoughts? Fears?

[misterecho]

I think creating detailed rules for weapons can be very difficult.

The effect of a round hitting you is dependant on a huge list of variables. riqochet, range, calibre, inertia etc. for example a sniper round at extreme range is worse than one at medium or short range because of its trajectory. To hit someone at extreme range requires the round to be fired into the air, much like a mortar. it follows a parabolic arc, then hits you on the top of the head at terminal velocity. The effect is likly to be very disterbing. compare that to a much shorter range when the round simply blows your head off rather than splitting you into component parts.

I think you shouldn't worry too much about extreme realism. As long as its representitive of real.

i think i rambled on a bit sorry

[randolph]

actually i'd say the reverse on sniper weapons as they are intended to be used at extreame ranges for example the Barret in .50 cal has recorded kills at a mile and a half! at closer ranges things get a bit more dicey as it gets harder to bring the wepons to bear on the target. now granted most of this deals with accuracy rather than leathality but if you cant hit you cant kill it. now a smaller caliber round would be a better example for poor damage at extrame ranges.i have seen games that went overboard trying to simulate "real" results so i do agree that moderation is the key. one of my favorite rules of thumb is not every modifer that CAN be applied NEEDS to be. now what i'd be interest in seeing is more examples of the shipboard wepons, it would certinly make describeing the wreaks that are left for the PC's to plund-ah
salvage a bit easeier!

[Rob Lang]

Randolph and misterecho, thanks for the feedback. I think I am heading in the right direction with this refactor. It's not a big change in the rules and doesn't add complexity.

Ship board weapons
The new space combat system will make all those dreams come true!

[misterecho]

[Kinslayer]

[Rob Lang]

Kinslayer, something Byrn and I did ages ago was to create a spreadsheet with all the Icar weapons on it. It had all the weapon stats on it. It was useful because it showed us which weapons were just a bit too powerful or didn't quite fit. We invented a load of measurements (based on cost, accuracy and the amount of damage something can do in a turn) and plotted graphs (Google Docs was brilliant for this, we could discuss in real time).

Now that I have this spreadsheet, I can retune all the weapons for version 4 and if I offer weapon design guidelines, I can offer these metrics to help decide the weapon stats.

[Byrn]

I like the idea of more variety mate, and extending the scale upwards. Think the highest AR I've ever seen was 55 or 60, and given there's a whole 38 above that available, and it was massively rare and expensive, I think there's room to recalibrate.

Its not just ammo even in 3 though. 5.5 pistols are generally 15 whereas rifles are 20 (aside from the havoc), and chainguns are 40 while assault cannons are 45 with the same ammo...

Pretty minor point though

The spreadsheet and the metrics we ended up with work pretty well from a playtested viewpoint. They get us close enough that with some vague sanity checks (the only sort of sanity we have on hand...) they tend to playtest right. The only thing that's too complex for the metrics is multiweapons really, but we just play with them until they look about right...

[Rob Lang]

That spreadsheet is a boon indeed. Of course, I won't really be tweaking the powers of the weapons, it really is just a rescaling exercise.

[randolph]

but then if you happen to have the funds (or stickey enough fingers....) there are those power clips and ammo pods
to extend the capacity of those pistols, assult rifels etc. hehweheheheh.