Aiming Time for vehicle/ship weapons

[archhealer]

Is there any 'official' line on how long it takes to bring a large vehicle scale or starship scale weapon to bear? I mean, I've seen tanks, and it takes a bit for those big ass cannons to swing all the way around. They're not slow, but still not as fast a whipping a handgun around...

And tanks are small. What about the really big guns on battleships (The water variety) and such? If you're in a jeep driving circles around such a gun, can you just kinda keep ahead of it? not let it point at you? I'm sure not, but the question is there as to why it wouldn't work.

 

[tjoneslo]

There is no official rules for turret rotation.

Current tanks are designed to have their turrets do a full rotation in 3 seconds, or less. Assume most tanks can aim their main turret gun anywhere within one combat round. I'd make the same assumption about starship turrets as well.

Older tanks (TL6, early TL7) are hand cranked. So the turret rotation speed depends upon the strength (and fatigue) of the loader. Assume 24 seconds for a full rotation, or a quarter rotation per combat turn.

For simplicity I'd make the same assumption about large powered turrets as well. (1/4 rotation per turn). It may not be completely accurate, but it simple to game.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Archhealer:
Is there any 'official' line on how long it takes to bring a large vehicle scale or starship scale weapon to bear? I mean, I've seen tanks, and it takes a bit for those big ass cannons to swing all the way around. They're not slow, but still not as fast a whipping a handgun around...

And tanks are small. What about the really big guns on battleships (The water variety) and such? If you're in a jeep driving circles around such a gun, can you just kinda keep ahead of it? not let it point at you? I'm sure not, but the question is there as to why it wouldn't work.

Which is why most of those types of vehicles have secondary weapons. You might be able to keep your jeep ahead of the gun if you are close enough but watch out for the tank fender when the driver decides to stop you. (Or the .5 cal on the top that the vehicle commander has at his disposal.)

One of the issues I have had with Traveller is that most versions of Traveller don't really deal with is secondary weapons. I mean except for MT there was almost no provision for Starships to mount light weapons. (In T20 it is theoretically possible but the power requirements at vehicle level are inconsistent with Starship power requirements. )

 

[archhealer]

Ah, as for the power conversion, I just wrote it off as 10 vehicle EP = 1 starship EP. I know it's not perfect, but it's pretty close and good 'nuff.

It also allowed one of my players (I've NO idea why) to create a fuel cell powered spaceship(Not starship, but still pretty bizarre).

As for the turret rotation... I asked initially because I was remembering a situation in a game a long time ago, star wars, not Traveller, wherein somebody used the starship turret to physically batter a mobo f people who were swarming onto the landing pad. It was pretty funny.

 

[tjoneslo]

Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
One of the issues I have had with Traveller is that most versions of Traveller don't really deal with is secondary weapons. I mean except for MT there was almost no provision for Starships to mount light weapons. (In T20 it is theoretically possible but the power requirements at vehicle level are inconsistent with Starship power requirements. )

The both versions of Fire, Fusion and Steel allowed (encouraged) mounting secondary weapons on starships. GURPS Vehicles and the GT starship design system also allowed for it quite easily. But as you will note, FF&S and Vehicles are highly complex vehicle design systems.

 

[archhealer]

All of my vehicle designs (Except the really small/simple ones) have a 'main' weapon and at least one (Usually several) secondary weapons. In the most recent barrage of designs, I made a bunch of very large 'walker' type vehicles with a large cannon on the back, and several linked, smaller pulse lasers on the front and sides for support and point defense. These could be either computer controlled or remotely controlled from the cockpit. The main gun also had a fire control computer, but a less advanced one that was pretty inept without an actual gunner at the controls.