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What's the Buzzer?

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Sun, 2015-01-18 10:48
#1
thebluespectre thebluespectre's picture
What's the Buzzer?
The description for the Buzzer says that it runs on a "Specalized nano-hive" with three shots, that grows back once depleted. Does this hive cost the same as an all-purpose nano-hive? Can you just jam a phial of normal nanobots into the Buzzer and reprogram them to act as (single-shot) ammunition? This thing is grossly under-explained. Also, chemical Sprayers have a tank capacity of 20 shots, and fire one "dose" of chemicals per shot. Other spray weapons have ammo with a Low price for 100 (or 20) shots, but it sounds like I would have to pay like, 50 credits for every squirt of Tracker Paint I want to annoy my co-workers with, so 100 shots would cost me 5.000 PC funbux. Compare that to Splash bullets, where making 100 tiny paintballs out of the stuff would cost 100 credits, or 10 water balloons that costs 300. Is it just me, or is the Sprayer the least efficient piece of kit in the equipment list?
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"Still and transfixed, the el/ ectric sheep are dreaming of your face..." -Talk Shows on Mute
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Sun, 2015-01-18 12:48
Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture
thebluespectre wrote:The
thebluespectre wrote:
The description for the Buzzer says that it runs on a "Specalized nano-hive" with three shots, that grows back once depleted. Does this hive cost the same as an all-purpose nano-hive? Can you just jam a phial of normal nanobots into the Buzzer and reprogram them to act as (single-shot) ammunition? This thing is grossly under-explained. Also, chemical Sprayers have a tank capacity of 20 shots, and fire one "dose" of chemicals per shot. Other spray weapons have ammo with a Low price for 100 (or 20) shots, but it sounds like I would have to pay like, 50 credits for every squirt of Tracker Paint I want to annoy my co-workers with, so 100 shots would cost me 5.000 PC funbux. Compare that to Splash bullets, where making 100 tiny paintballs out of the stuff would cost 100 credits, or 10 water balloons that costs 300. Is it just me, or is the Sprayer the least efficient piece of kit in the equipment list?
It shoots persistent nanoswarms. You hit someone with a Disassembler swarm from one of these, and they are going to be taking 1d10(/2? I can't remember) damage every turn until they die or destroy the swarm. Remember that swarms only take 1 damage per successful attack from normal weaponry and have something like 20-40 Durability. For the hive, I would say that it comes with it included. And you probably could use a normal swarm as a one-shot ammo thing. On the Sprayer side of things, remember that it is basically shooting a cone of whatever you load into it. So you could hit multiple people per shot with that Acid Gel stuff and watch as it eats through them.
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In other words, firing off a laser with a sufficient TWR for the recoil to be noticeable would require a post-miracle-tech laser weighing less than a disposable plastic spoon and powerful enough to shoot down Death Stars? -- ShadowDragon8685
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Sun, 2015-01-18 21:25
thebluespectre thebluespectre's picture
I kinda get it.
Thanks, this has saved me a ton of frustration. So would a Buzzer would cost Medium plus the cost of the swarm, or Medium plus the cost of the hive? I didn't think of the Sprayer as being a Burning Hands style cone, that was my mental block. I was picturing like, a super squirter.
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"Still and transfixed, the el/ ectric sheep are dreaming of your face..." -Talk Shows on Mute
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Sun, 2015-01-18 21:40
Nerathul Nerathul's picture
From the description, it
From the description, it seems the hive is already integrated in the gun. So i'd charge the gun and the Swarm but not a specialized hive.
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In the sea without lees Standeth the bird of Hermes Eating his wings variable And maketh himself yet full stable
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Sun, 2015-01-18 22:47
Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture
thebluespectre wrote:Thanks,
thebluespectre wrote:
Thanks, this has saved me a ton of frustration. So would a Buzzer would cost Medium plus the cost of the swarm, or Medium plus the cost of the hive? I didn't think of the Sprayer as being a Burning Hands style cone, that was my mental block. I was picturing like, a super squirter.
I would go with either a flat Medium or Medium plus swarm-cost. Either way, I would also have it use the usual Spray Weapon ammo costs to represent feedstock for the hive. It would come down to GM fiat in the end, though. For the Sprayer, it's description does indeed come across as a super-soaker-on-steroids type of thing, but since it falls under Spray Weapons, the rules for those apply.
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In other words, firing off a laser with a sufficient TWR for the recoil to be noticeable would require a post-miracle-tech laser weighing less than a disposable plastic spoon and powerful enough to shoot down Death Stars? -- ShadowDragon8685
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Tue, 2015-01-27 02:23
thebluespectre thebluespectre's picture
Related topic!
I did not want to create a new topic for this one… do all Beam Weapons come with a nuclear battery pre-installed? Is that why there are no "cheap" lasers? Can that battery be removed and used to power other devices?
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"Still and transfixed, the el/ ectric sheep are dreaming of your face..." -Talk Shows on Mute
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Tue, 2015-01-27 02:57
NimbleJack3 NimbleJack3's picture
thebluespectre wrote:I did
thebluespectre wrote:
I did not want to create a new topic for this one… do all Beam Weapons come with a nuclear battery pre-installed? Is that why there are no "cheap" lasers? Can that battery be removed and used to power other devices?
Yes (p.338, Beam Weapons, Batteries) Maybe (the real reason is game balance) I wouldn't think so given they're heavily shielded and rated for 3 years. If your pulser's nuclear battery runs out, it's time to fabricate a new one.
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Tue, 2015-01-27 12:12
Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture
I would agree with
I would agree with NimbleJack3. I would say that you could probably pull the battery out and hack together a connection with a successful Hardware roll if you were somewhere where you couldn't get the right feedstock to fab a new one.
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In other words, firing off a laser with a sufficient TWR for the recoil to be noticeable would require a post-miracle-tech laser weighing less than a disposable plastic spoon and powerful enough to shoot down Death Stars? -- ShadowDragon8685
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Fri, 2015-01-30 20:15
Nerathul Nerathul's picture
The revised core book
The revised core book actually has rules for buying cheap use-and-toss batteries. "Batteries: Beam weapons are equipped with both a standard and nuclear battery. The standard battery is good for the listed number of shots before it is depleted. The nuclear battery will recharge the standard battery completely in 5 hours. Standard batteries may be swapped out with a Simple Action. [Trivial (Standard) or Low (Nuclear)]"
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In the sea without lees Standeth the bird of Hermes Eating his wings variable And maketh himself yet full stable
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Sat, 2015-01-31 03:38
Chrontius Chrontius's picture
As I understand it, standard
As I understand it, standard batteries represent the sort of lithium packs our laptops and phones run on. Really disposable (IE, it's dead, fab a new one) chemical batteries usually have twice the energy density. Even older printings mentioned swapping battery packs on beam weapons if you're out of juice in a fight. The munchkin in me is wondering about laser guns with extension cords, though. Can we get rules for that? :D
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Sat, 2015-01-31 09:15
NimbleJack3 NimbleJack3's picture
Sure! You'd just better hope
Sure! You'd just better hope the enemy doesn't fall back and your cord goes taut as you follow them, or your fancy modded cable spindle doesn't cough and start feeding out air, or your cable doesn't get shot or cut. And that's assuming you can even find a power outlet. Almost everything's powered with batteries and microwave energy transfer in 10AF, neither of which are rated to power energy weapons for long periods of time.
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Tue, 2015-02-03 17:29
Nerathul Nerathul's picture
Wouldn't a power outlet have
Wouldn't a power outlet have a rather low voltage? I doubt laser guns come in the 120Voltz/60hz or whatever the standard is.
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In the sea without lees Standeth the bird of Hermes Eating his wings variable And maketh himself yet full stable
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Tue, 2015-02-03 21:11
ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture
actually they are probly not
actually they are probly not using low extremely low voltages. Lasers are pretty inefficient energy wise. they will also need active cooling systems. a 400mm laser, home built mind you, has a duty cycle of 45 seconds. 15 on 30 off. current us Standard is 120 volts 30 amps at 60 hertz alternating current and second phase 240 volts 30 amps at 60 hertz alternating current. BTW 240 does not feel good :P
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