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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:16 pm
by Josh Sinsapaugh
I like the book, though I've always scratched my head over how the heck the ripper blades are supposed to work.
I like the Sun Chariot.
As for plasma cartridges? They are the main reason that (on the rare instances where I am a player) my characters never buy or use Naruni Weaponry.
In a recent campaign, set in and around MercTown (where Naruni weapons are readily available), many of my players bought a slew of Naruni weapons...now events are pulling them south...far away from any Naruni that can sell them cartridges.
I am seriously going to fall out of the chair laughing when the first one runs out of ammo.
"Yes, good job Bob...buying the NE-4 was a good choice
. Did you know Mike's character has Sub-Particle Acceleration...if you bought a weapon with a freakin' E-Clip you would have a damn near renewable source of energy. Don't worry though, I'm sure you can pistol whip that T.C. Raptor with the NE-4"
Again I like the book...but its not my favorite by any means. Probably because I never get to be a player and when looking at some of the new PA in that book, I want to use them as a player...or maybe because some of my players hype it up more than is needed.
The Wrath of God, BTW, just seems like something that is there for back story....I really can't see how it could practically fit into any campaign I run...even if the campaign was some head trip in the Astral Plane or Dream Stream.
~ Josh
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:59 pm
by DhAkael
*Shrug*
It's cute, and a few of the 'standard' armour add-ons are nifty keen!
The 'God of WAR'!? Pul-eeze! Sorry; I still say that Kitsune did a better job translating the Bolo MK-XX and keeping the weapon scales ballanced, than the dude who created the GoW. Great; it has more attacks and MDC than most cap-ships, but it's guns are worse than most LIGHT Pwr. suits.
Plus it's regeneration ability is still not enough of an equalizer. Any half-way decent millitary, like the CS -snerf glorf chuckle guffaw- (yeah right..okay well maybe), would do the whole "Nuke it till it glows, and hang the Greenpeace hippy-dippy peacenicks along with it!". I'm sorry; NOTHING regenerates after a 10 megatonne contact-nuclear explosion unless it
IS a god!
As for the virbo weapons; HOUSE RULES TIME! hehehehe..but I digress.
As for Sun-Charriot; HOUSE RULES! or one hell of a 'mod' package.
The other things are coolio though..and I do NOT restrict the space-mod packages; if the silly hairless apes wanna get ther tails shot-off (or sand blasted) by trying to go orbital..let 'em! The money is still good (and Naruni ALWAYS demand credit or cash up-front...or your kids go to Rura-pentae!)
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:22 am
by Braden Campbell
Hmmm....I'm kind of glad I didn't pick this one up now.
Plasma Cartridges make sense if your house rules treat them as autocannons... meaning they become light armour piercing weapons.
Otherwise its the unmodified NE-1000 for me (D4x10, 30 shot clip, 3000' range)!
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:01 pm
by Nekira Sudacne
Galahad_Knight wrote:I didn't like the reaper because it seemed like the writers said "***, the artist didn't give the dmaned thing any weapons?!" and then went *crazy* with 'hidden' weapons (If the goal is to be menacing, you want big, obvious weapons). The flavor text even says it can launch all its micromissiles at once. Then another set of writers said "***?! 668 micromisisles at once? No effin way, that's crazy!" and then changed it down to only 24 at a time. Which is fine, but the whole thing creates a sort of disharmony that ruins my enjoyment.
Plus, of course, the old NE problem of proprietary ammo.
Anyhow, for plasma cartredges, I just never really got the concept to begin with. Does the cart some how store 'bottled plasma' and then release it completely independant of the weapon? In that case, what purpose does the weapon serve aside from a means to hold and activate the cart? Couldn;t it be a lot smaller/lighter then? Or is the gun a magnetic accelerator that hurls the plasma? Couldn't it be a bit longer ranged then? And how do the carts store this plasma? You'd need a powerful and constant magnetic field to keep plasma from burning through most substances. Does the cart have a battery? If it does, do your shells go off?
Meanwhile, the shells are termendously huge if these freaking guns have two inch wide barrels. Meanwhile, automatic Grenade Launchers from Rifts Merc sling smaller rounds (40mm grenades vs 50.9mm for a 2 inch plasma cart) that are capable of a lot better damage.
Sure they're heavy, but you could make lighter GLs if you cut down ther accuracy and did single shot and the like.
The whole plasma cartredge thing just seems...silly to me
The sun chariot I would like better if it didn't have the silly/pathetic plasma field. I'd like it better fi it turned into something other than a unicycle, but I could get over that
ANyhow, there's still a fair amount of cool stuff. I like the shadow bike (though the SDC machineguns confuse me) and the spitfire
uh, it discribes how plasma cartiges work very clearly in mercenaries.
when the trigger hits the primer on the cartrige, the entire cartige is excited to a plasma state right then. it goes from solid to plasma.
Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:43 am
by The Beast
I just tend to use Naruni's equipment and vehicles, although I started having a couple of my characters use the Ripper weapons. I avoid the plasma cartridge weapons because of the ammo issue.
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:37 am
by Nekira Sudacne
Dr. Hellstromme wrote:Nekira Sudacne wrote:uh, it discribes how plasma cartiges work very clearly in mercenaries.
when the trigger hits the primer on the cartrige, the entire cartige is excited to a plasma state right then. it goes from solid to plasma.
Unfortunately it does, right under NE-10
. But...
It says exactly „cartridge is converted to energy”. Like in E=mc2 ? Thats a bit hard to believe… And alot of energy indeed.
So lets read it as „cartridge is converted to plasma state”. Btw thats still a lot of plasma, if the whole cartr. is converted… (Do we know how many grams is a cartr?)
Now, what does the „primer” do on the cartr? The rifle mechanism hits it mechanically, and the cartr goes kaboom. A little primitive, isnt it?
And what if I hit it mechanically, without a rifle? It should work as a small fusion block, or not? Since all the plasma-converting mechanism is in the cartr, it seems.
it does work like a small fusion block without a rifle. in fact, they use them as such, a naruni plasma cartige mine is an offical trap under the construct traps skill
as to how it works? well of course it's hard, it's why no one but naruni seems to be able to make them...
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:15 pm
by Braden Campbell
Of course, another way to balance this issue is to declare all e-clips non-rechargable...instead making them like giant capacity disposable batteries.
Reduce the cost significantly. Now every PC has to worry about running out of ammo.
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:50 am
by KLM
From an (armchair) military viewpoint, it is better to have
like 5000 shot per grunt at hand, than 500 per day.
From the technobabble, it is feasible and neccessary to
"tap" the energy of the cartridge, to power a - magnetic -
field, which protects the barrel and propells the plasma
bolt (or else I want to coat my armor the same way as
the NE cartridge guns barrel is coated from the inside).
Adios
KLM
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:09 pm
by RockJock
The reason Naruni uses Plama Cartridges instead of e-clips is simple. It is the same reason HP makes more money off ink then printers. If NE is the only, or even just the major supplier of plasma cartridges then they always have the replacement business. If they just sell two e-clips per gun then they are done with the sale.
Another reason I see is they sell a good deal of weapons to lower tech cultures that might not be able to easily recharge e-clips.
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 1:34 pm
by KLM
gadrin wrote:I see PB as "idea books" NOT "rule books"...
They don't seem to have a good grasp on writing "rule books".
It's worth a second posting, ain't it?
Adios
KLM
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:53 am
by The Beast
Dr. Hellstromme wrote:So whats the point is using cartridges?
Because it looks cool.