Can Someone Please Explain...

[Villien]

Alrighty, I was over a friend's house, talking Traveller, and reviewing the Traveller Arsenal I had created back when TNE was new. I am one of those types that cannot leave well enough alone when it comes to character equipment - I have to create more!!!

Anyway, as we were perusing my listing he noticed that I had copied down the PGMPs and FGMPs from the source. They seemed wrong to him, and I had to agree. So, we looked them up in both the TNE book and the RC Handbook. Still, we were unsatisfied.

What our beef is deals with how lame these massive weapons seem to be in TNE. I mean, in CT you never wanted to face a Plasmagun, much less a Fusiongun. And the players were ecstatic if the got ahold of one. Not so with TNE.

The damnable things have incredibly limited magazine capacity, too short range, and the damage just seems LOW for that kind of weapon. So, they designed the PGMP and FGMP to use these 40mm to 50mm shells.......huh? And their short range is 20m (oh yeah, that's great, yeah, a TL7 assault rifle has a 50m short range, and can burst fire...).

I thought the PGMP and FGMP were "considered" squad support weapons. The troops would be equipped with gauss rifles or lasers, and one or two squadies would have PGMP/FGMP as support fire.

Looking at their stats and abilities, I would NEVER equip a plasma or fusion weapon from TNE.

Could someone please explain the meaning of this strange information??????

 

[Colin]

The designs are wrong, later corrected in the Errata and various books. I think the design sequence itself may even have been flawed. I don't ahve access to any of the errata, but I'm sure someone around here does. Much more scary after corrected.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

You're right, Villein. But don't forget one small(ish) point. The RCES was supposed to have an "industrial wasteland" kind of feel to it. It was as if everyone understood the theories behind whatever technology, but they didn't have the industrial capacity for it. That's why you had RCES units equipping themselves by barter and an entire pocket empire fuelled by salvage!

A great deal of RC equipment was less capable than the 3I equivilent because of this. This is also why the maintainance number on their gear was so ungodly high as well. After all, it wasn't at all unheard of to have a TED better equipped than the RCES decapitation team sent in to depose him.

 

[Villien]

Ok, I can buy the fact that the RCES was running on luck, and most of their gear was scavenged and make-do .....but, by the numbers in the books I have available no one would seriously equip one of these weapons. They bite royal arse.

It seems that virtually every other weapon the RCES had was MUCH better than the PGMP/FGMPs (IMHO). Too big, too bulky, too little firepower, too few rounds, too short range.

So, anyone have the correct info on PGMPs and FGMPs for New Era?

 

[Rupert Boleyn]

Originally posted by Villien:
Alrighty, I was over a friend's house, talking Traveller, and reviewing the Traveller Arsenal I had created back when TNE was new. I am one of those types that cannot leave well enough alone when it comes to character equipment - I have to create more!!!

Anyway, as we were perusing my listing he noticed that I had copied down the PGMPs and FGMPs from the source. They seemed wrong to him, and I had to agree. So, we looked them up in both the TNE book and the RC Handbook. Still, we were unsatisfied.

What our beef is deals with how lame these massive weapons seem to be in TNE. I mean, in CT you never wanted to face a Plasmagun, much less a Fusiongun. And the players were ecstatic if the got ahold of one. Not so with TNE.

The damnable things have incredibly limited magazine capacity, too short range, and the damage just seems LOW for that kind of weapon. So, they designed the PGMP and FGMP to use these 40mm to 50mm shells.......huh? And their short range is 20m (oh yeah, that's great, yeah, a TL7 assault rifle has a 50m short range, and can burst fire...).

I thought the PGMP and FGMP were "considered" squad support weapons. The troops would be equipped with gauss rifles or lasers, and one or two squadies would have PGMP/FGMP as support fire.

Looking at their stats and abilities, I would NEVER equip a plasma or fusion weapon from TNE.

Could someone please explain the meaning of this strange information??????

Well, PGMPs and FGMPs didn't have that good a range in Mega Traveller either. However the original stats were declared to be incorrect, along with the design sequence in FF&S. There was an article in Challenge and in Striker II called Putting the Heat Back into Plasma that fixed this.

The changes were:
To FF&S:
P.67 Change the mass of EPG cartridges to volume x4 (instead of x8).
P.121 Range: Short range for plasma weapons is now 100 x the square root of pulse energy in MJ (instead of 30 x energy). Short range for fusion guns is now 150 x the square root of pulse energy in MJ (instead of 50 x energy).
Damage: DV = 30 x the square root of pulse energy in MJ (instead of 11.5 x energy).
P.122 Penetration: Both plasma and fusion weapons have a penetration rating of 1-2-10.
Price: The revised prices are:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Component Plasma Fusion
Firing Unit 600 1000
Support Hardware 600 1000
Gyro-Compensator 600 600
Inertial Compensator 1000 1000
Recoil Cradle 25 25
Towing Carriage 2 2
Autoloader 10 10
Gun Shield 1 1</pre>[/QUOTE]The charts below will allow owners of Traveller: The New Era, Smash & Grab, and the Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide to update the values for previously published high energy weapons

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> -Weight-- --Price----
Weapon TL Pulse Ammo Empty Ldd BP Mag Wpn Ammo
4.3cm Plasma Rifle 12 0.6 4.3 PPC 2.4 15.65 4.8 10 4320 15/211
4.7cm Plasma Rifle 13 0.8 4.7 PPC 3.22 36.2 4.8 20 4800 20/539
4.7cm fusion rifle 14 1.2 4.7 PFC 4.8 37.8 4.8 20 9600 9.6/331
4.1cm Fus Rif/comp 14 0.8 4.1 PFC 3.2 12.9 6.4 8 10,880 6.4/98
4.7cm Fus Rif/comp 14 1.2 4.7 PFC 4.8 19.4 9.6 8 24,000 9.6/147
5.1cm Fus Rif/comp 14 1.5 5.1 PFC 3 21.2 6 8 15,000 12/183
10cm plasma bazooka 10 2.88 10 PFC 34.6 45 -- 1i 20,736 518.4
4cm Fus Rif (Droy) 15 0.75 4.0 PFC 1.7 12.74 3 10 9500 6/111</pre>[/QUOTE]</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> Weapon ROF DAM C-B Pen Rtg Pen Val Blk Mag Recoil Range
4.3cm Plas 12 SA1 23 --- 1-2-10 23-23-12-2 5 10 11 80
4.7cm Plas 13 SA1 27 1-5 1-2-10 27-27-14-3 5 20 8 90
4.7cm Fus 14 SA1 33 1-5 1-2-10 33-33-17-3 5 20 8 160
4.1cm Fus 14c SA1 27 1-5 1-2-10 27-27-14-3 4 8 5 90
4.7cm Fus 14c SA1 33 1-5 1-2-10 33-33-17-3 5 8 5 160
5.1cm Fus 15c SA1 37 1-5 1-2-10 37-37-19-4 3 8 4 180
10cm Pla baz SS 51 3-5 1-2-10 51-51-26-5 5 1i --- 170
4cm Fus (D) SA1 26 1-5 1-2-10 26-26-13-3 2 100 5 130
125-Mj Fusion SA2 335 112-35 1-2-10 335-335-168-34 --- 300 --- 1680
4.75-Mj Plasma SA1 65 4-5 1-2-10 65-65-33-7 --- 300 --- 220
14-Mj Plasma 1/2 112 13-15 1-2-10 112-112-56-11 --- 300 --- 370
12-Mj Plasma SA1 104 11-15 1-2-10 104-104-52-10 --- 400 --- 350
76-Mj Plasma SA5 262 69-25 1-2-10 262-262-131-26 --- 100 --- 1310
2-Mj Plasma SA1 42 2-5 1-2-10 42-42-21-4 --- 200 --- 140</pre>[/QUOTE]</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> 125-Mj Fusion Intrepid
4.75-Mj Plasma Mongoose
14-Mj Plasma Ferret
12-Mj Plasma Pyrrhus
76-Mj Plasma Victrix
2-Mj Plasma G-Carrier</pre>[/QUOTE][Sorry if the formatting's stuffed up.]

There's also a fair bit of other errata and extra sequences in the various TNE sourcebooks. The errata can also be found on the web, and is worth picking up if you're intending to do much design work.

 

[Villien]

Thank you, Rupert! With that jolly bit of information my day is now complete.

Plasma and Fusion weapons have a little more umph now, thank goodness. They just didn't make any sense.

Thanks a bunch.

I can actually hit the sack now, and have one less thing to bug me!

Thanks again!