Mass Drivers...

[Ray]

I had, at one time, the idea for rules for a "Flak" shot with the 88mm.

Let's see... Oh yes! 4D to whatever is directly hit by the shell... 3D if the explosion goes off in the same square (0 Spacial Units)... 2D damage within 1 Spacial Unit, and 1D within 2 Spacial Units. Worthless against "Modern" fighters, but useful against Tie Fighters and Uglys.

High Grade Durasteel, and even tougher ceramics and alloys can be used to make AP Rounds (Perhaps it does 1D or 2D less damage, but ups it to Capital Scale!).

"Shrapnel" charges work like the "Flak" round, only does Walker or Speeder Scale, and are designed for Ground Support Roles.

HEAT Rounds... Wouldn't work with Mass Drivers. It's a sphere, not a shell. Big difference. *BUT*, combine the idea of the HEAT with the design of the AP round, and you have a "Penetration Bomb", which is a Ultra-Dense round packed full of explosives and a sensor... A quarter-second after impact, it detonates... INSIDE the Capital Ship. MASSIVE damage to the fragile components protected by the armour... Not to mention the crew.

"Bongers" are another idea I just had... Light magnetic metals or alloys (Lead?) that can be used to hit the target without doing signifigant damage... A warning shot that you can hit your shoot up the nose of your prey!!!

Any more ideas? I'll flesh these out a bit more later.

[Esoomian]

I think they should branch out into giant bowcasters... sure they won't quite be mass drivers any more but much of the components would be the same/similar so it wouldn't take mmany changes to produce this type of product.

Building on your warning shot idea...

Take the same concept (magnetic shell not designed to damage a ship... much) but change it to a 'limpet' design and include a telemetry transmitter so whist this device is attached to the side of a ship you gain oh I don't know 3d fire control when trying to shoot it.

Of course the shell has to make it throught the sheilds of the other ship and jamming communications would negate the bonus.

Also as there is a chance firing uppon the ship could destroy the limpet why not make it if the wild dice rolls a one when making the shot the limpet is destroyed.

Particularly sneaky people may want to try to smuggle these devices onboard ships of pottential enemies

[Son of Fire]

Some sort of drilling or AP projectile with the ability to deliver a certain payload…like chemicals, toxins, and such?
Kill the crew with minimal damage o the ship?
Or perhaps some sort of buckshot?

I don’t know if any of these are kosher or not, I’m just tossing out ideas.

Oh and by the way Esoo, bowcasters have a magnetic assistance thingie to give the projectile more velocity. Which kinda make them fairly close to mass drivers, gauss weapons or rail guns. Which in turn brings up that whole thing of putting all those other weapons of similar function into the missile weapons skill…but that was tackled in another thread.
_________________
"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Esoomian]

Then why is the damage from a bowcaster so low?

What Ray has pointed out is that inorder to be fired from a mass driver the 'shell' needs to be a sphere so buckshot would require a little inginuity (see expensive) but could be done.

Also why not have half-casing mass driver shells. So that the explosives and detonator of a photon torpedo or concussion missile can be loaded into the casing annd then fired from a mass driver.

As you could buy the photon torps or concussion missiles in parts they would be cheaper (I'm assuming) and you wouldn't need the guidence systems or propellent so these could be onsold or simply not bought.

Then you have a mass driver that can shoot a photon round... Nasty

[Ray]

A Giant Bowcaster... Sorry, Mr. DuVal did suggest the idea, but Mar Corel squashed it down flat in less than a second... He's had really cheesed off Wookiees after him before, and just barely survived the experience... And doesn't want to go through it again. (Mind, this doesn't mean that he won't do business with Wookiees, but they have to give their word not to hurt him for a face-to-face talk... And he'll show the scars to prove why if they're offended.).

As for the Limpit design... I like it!!!

And SoF, the idea for the chemical warefare weapon... NG for that... Decompression would blast the toxin outside into space in notime... Not that that'll stop folks from trying... The WWII German Anti-Tank Rifle Cartridge had a unit of Tear Gas in it... Allied forces never knew about it until after the War, when they got samples to disect. Tankers never even knew about it. Would work as a "Bunker Buster" however.

Buckshot wouldn't work for the reasons Es put as it... *BUT* a Canister Load could be made... Basically a sphere that splits in two after flying for a bit and unleashes minispheres... Just that the rules for it would be overly complex... But darn cool cinematically... So... I'll think of something.

As for the Bowcaster Damage... Well... It's another reason to dump points into "Brawling" for Wookiees???

Honestly... Bowcasters are most likely a "Hunting Weapon" for the Wookiees... And if you blast out half the bloody ribs from the body just by hunting it, kinda defeats the purpose, eh?

[Esoomian]

Well I did have an overly complex idea about a Pill-bug like espionage/sabatour droid that could be fired from a mass driver but it's overly complex... and it would be SOOOOOO expensive... may as well just smelt credits down and fire them at your enemies

Thats the 1 billion credit special comming your way

[Son of Fire]

Well Esoo… it’s because a crappy weapon…or the WEG folk messed up, one or the other.

For chemicals though…I was referring to acid or stuff like that…it hits the hull and continually eats through it or something to that avail, not really practical…but kinda neat.
_________________
"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Wookie rage]

Man, you guys must have some nice GM's. If I were to think of having something that powerful, or even that exotic I'd have customs inspectors crawling all over my ship like it was an Imperial resort. (Man I hate running from star destroyers. I'll give you a hint why: our ship is nicknamed "The P.O.S. Bantha Butt.")
_________________
wookies+lightsabers=bad day

"Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements." ~Obi Wan Kenobi

[Crell Damar]

[Son of Fire]

Well speaking for myself…my GM is not really “overly-lenient” we just try to keep the game cinematic, and considering that most of what’s mentioned here is technologically feasible in the Star Wars universe we figure that its not that big a deal.
After all, its not like our stock light freighter had capital scale weapons on it or the character a toting weapons that do 20D damage or anything like that (though possibly Jango’s sonic charges might be considered capital scale, but then again none of us has those things).
Either why, its hardly a stretch.
_________________
"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." - George Bernard Shaw

[Ray]

OK, figured out how to make the "Limpit" design work...

Rather than a communcations transponder with *ALOT* of shockproofing, just have a Sensor Reflective Chemical coat the target. It hardens in less than a second after exposure to vaccum, more than enough time to coat a good portion of the hull if it's able to pass through the Physical Shields...

Heck, you could even rig up Missiles/Torpedoes/Tracking Weapons to target the reflective material in particular, launch at the same time... Big mess!!!

Rules: Does 1D less damage than usual for the same calibre... But if it gets at least to "Controls Ionized", then the Particle Shields have been penetrated, and all attacks directed at the target get a +2D Bonus to hit... Stealth Systems are now inoperative (Save a full out and out cloaking device, good luck finding one), as the Sensors will pick up the reflection of the chemical compound.

[Esoomian]

Nice.

Looks like a worthy addition to the Mass driver family

But why must it do damage to coat the hull surely all that is nessesary is that it penitrates the shields?

[Volo Enrunk]

fire control, you guys realize, is a targeting computer that knows range velocity heading etc, of target. there specifically designed to work with the weapon they attatch too.... painting a target isn't going to do any thing else for you... not in my opinion anyways. i would let the painting of a target with sensor reflective material to overide sensor jamming. i would rather modify my targeting computer with a one time cost than use a consumable marker... maybe a marker that paints a ship to leave a hyperspace trail... that would be neat. a pill that pops when it hits the target and coats it with a magnetized dust. that you can track with a moderate senosor scan to learn the vector. ( doesn't last beyond one jump) so if they make a false jump you still lose them... or maybe VD sensor scan from there then Heroic +10 for a third... etc.
_________________
Sabbac anyone?

[Ray]

Better idea, Volo. You're right... Been reading a bit too much David Weber recently... Still space opera (With a touch of Hard Sci-Fi in it for flavour), and ECM systems play a *MAJOR* part in that universe...

Forgot how little it does in the Star Wars Universe... Something I should look into.

Aside from Mar Corel, I'm planning on whipping up a Verpine Character one of these days... And the sick, twisted things I can do with him... MUH-HA-HA-HA!!!

And Es, if the Mass Driver Round does not do at least the "Ionized Controls" bit, it's most likely bounced off the Particle Shields, and never even touched the hull, or, if it did, not likely enough to break the shell of the round. They are propelled at a great force, and are not as thin as, say, a paintball is... They'll take a bit of force to smash.

That's the problem with Mass Drivers... It gets complicated *REAL* fast... I was just proposing a cheap alternative to Lasers for those that can't get their hands on Blaster Gas...

[Esoomian]

Hmmm looks like what you need then is a proximity sensor and a self destruct in the 'limpit' shells (possibly the limpit mk II)

Each round is more expensive but it only has to beat the shields to take effect.

Also you might consider filling the shells with a compound which simply is hardens on contact with vaccum and after a number of hits equal to say the ships scale (6 for starfighters 8 for capital ships I think) then the ship loosess a point of manueverability due to the amount of mass that has been poorly distributed about the ship altering things like the ship's centre of gravity and the like...

The best thing about it is that it wouldn't be too hard to repair but it would be time consuming.

"Ensign redshirt... your on hull detail. Get out there and scrape that gunk off"