Modifying guns - What skill would I need?

[PalladiumBrony]

In a certain video game (maybe several, I won't name them in order to comply with the rules of this board but I'm sure you'll recognize at least one with the mechanic I'm talking about) you can modify guns you find - change the stock, change the sights, extend or shorten the barrel, change it from semi- to full-auto or vice versa, re-chamber the gun to fire in a different calibre or accept non-standard ammunition, adjust the firing properties of energy weapons etc. Which skill would I be looking at to allow a character to do that in the Megaversal system? I'm assuming for some changes like switching iron sights for a scope, or attaching/removing a silencer, you wouldn't actually need a skill because they're designed to be changed on the fly by the end-user, without specialized skills or equipment. I usually use skills from Rifts Ultimate Edition, except where another book just plain does that skill better in my opinion, but any skill from basically any book would be an excellent starting point for advice, thank you. If it's a Palladium Games book, odds are I have it somewhere. If I don't have it, I can find it!

[Killer Cyborg]

Pretty sure that Operators and Hardware (HU) characters can do that.
And/or somebody with the Armorer/Field Armorer skill.

For minor stuff, you'd just need the appropriate Weapon Proficiency.

[Orin J.]

field armorer for most of those, but i'd file changing the caliber/energy weapon properties squarely in weapons engineer unless you've got a kit.

[guardiandashi]

for things like adding a scope, changing a scope, modifying sights, and similar "maintenance level" changes I would say WP weapon will work
changing the calibur, rate of fire, (to some extent) limited changes in output of energy weapons I would say armorer

for more extensive changes weapons engineer, and or related engineering skills

[slade2501]

Field Armorer would work for small arms (any infantry carried, non- vehicle mounted weapon). A field armorer can fix, unjam, maintain, modify and clean/reload or recharge any man carried, portable weapon, ammo drum or e-clip. This would include adding a scope, changing caliber, stocks, hand grips, sights, scopes, slings, barrel weights, bullpup conversions, extended magazines, E-clip type changes (short to long, or canister, or Triax FSE, etc.). Adjusting trigger guards for larger hands, barrel extension or shortening (range enhance or decrease).

Weapons Engineer would allow you to design a weapon from scratch, or Re-design an existing weapon with new capabilities or change the very nature of a weapon.

[drewkitty ~..~]

These are my opinions about what skill is needed for what...
➣for the HU:AU accuracy mods, removal & replace meant of mounted weapons: Feild Armorer
➢For modifying the configurations or damage of firearms: field armorer or weapons eng.
➣for modifying the damage of energy weapons: Weapons eng. &electrical eng.
➢for changing between types of e-clips: field armorer or weapons eng. (if they already have the parted to make the conversion.) if no conversion kits: & electrical eng.

[gmg4rwf]

... I usually use skills from Rifts Ultimate Edition, except where another book just plain does that skill better in my opinion, but any skill from basically any book would be an excellent starting point for advice, thank you. If it's a Palladium Games book, odds are I have it somewhere. If I don't have it, I can find it!

Actually - the thing about Palladium is that it is multi-dimensional, so, when there is a particular skill (like say Basic Mechanics or Weapon Systems) that show up in different books with slightly different write-ups, I use them all, each are valid within that universe, so think where was the character trained, or his mentor. A pilot trained in North Gun would use Rifts/NG listing for these skills if he took it there, but lets say he didn't, but was running around with a techie from Nij&SupSpies who has that skill, and the pilot levels up and wants Basic Mechanics so he can help with repair/mod. The NSS techie has the skill from that book and trains the pilot according to that games stats/write-up. So you could conceivably have the same skill with several different stats from different books if you have a truly Trans-D team, but such instances should be minimal as most experienced players naturally diversify and take skills other players don't have rather than duplicate.
Also check out the OCCs for Sentinels/REF, particularly the Science/Engineer/Bio-Maintenance, They include rules for (them) working with Alien Tech. For an REF Field Scientist I would say NG rail-guns would somewhat qualify, the GM can adjust penalties accordingly (they are "human" made after-all) but they provide some basis for rulings between different skills from different books. (tech-"I trained on VF Valkyries what the heck is this weird contraption?" pilot-"Its a SAMAS." Tech-"Well ... Kind-a' looks a little like a small Zentradie Male Power Armor. I'll see what I can do.")

[gmg4rwf]

for things like adding a scope, changing a scope, modifying sights, and similar "maintenance level" changes I would say WP weapon will work
changing the calibur, rate of fire, (to some extent) limited changes in output of energy weapons I would say armorer

for more extensive changes weapons engineer, and or related engineering skills

Yes, the weapon proficiency includes basic maintenance skills - so WP-Rifle would work to mount a scope on a rifle, WP-Auto Pistol for mounting a silencer on a Beretta 92f, etc... but the other stuff - changing damage/range/capacity etc... that's WP Engineering. I would say the tech should also have Mechanical (standard) or Electrical (Energy) Engineering as well, and depending on what is being attempted perhaps the appropriate WP skill as well, so he knows how the thing is normally used and maintained.

[torjones]

In a certain video game (maybe several, I won't name them in order to comply with the rules of this board but I'm sure you'll recognize at least one with the mechanic I'm talking about) you can modify guns you find - change the stock, change the sights, extend or shorten the barrel, change it from semi- to full-auto or vice versa, re-chamber the gun to fire in a different calibre or accept non-standard ammunition, adjust the firing properties of energy weapons etc. Which skill would I be looking at to allow a character to do that in the Megaversal system? I'm assuming for some changes like switching iron sights for a scope, or attaching/removing a silencer, you wouldn't actually need a skill because they're designed to be changed on the fly by the end-user, without specialized skills or equipment. I usually use skills from Rifts Ultimate Edition, except where another book just plain does that skill better in my opinion, but any skill from basically any book would be an excellent starting point for advice, thank you. If it's a Palladium Games book, odds are I have it somewhere. If I don't have it, I can find it!

The way I look at the various skills, and this is just from the basic skill descriptions from RUE:
WP: reload, field strip & clean, attach/detach quick-mount items (Lights, lasers, optics, as to a Picatinny Rail) If it doesn't require a tool to do, you can "modify" your normal weapon. (such as adding a drop in barrel sleeve for your 12ga to shoot 9mm) (If a barrel swap is part of the normal operation of a particular machine gun for example the US M249, then you can do a barrel change, other wise, see field armorer) You can adjust sights meant to be adjusted quickly and without tools, like many military rifles' iron sights. Anything that is the normal part of operating such a weapon.
Field Armorer & Munitions Expert: Above plus: Modifications to existing designs, such as actually changing caliber, adding/removing safeties, replace worn and broken parts. If it's more than a field strip, this is likely the skill you'll need. If it requires tools, but isn't a complete redesign or making it do something it clearly isn't intended to do (make your semi-auto 12ga full-auto for example) this is likely the skill for you. To put it in modern terms, you could finish an 80% kit, bevel the mag-well, enlarge the ejection port, and just generally be a good gunsmith. You can build from parts, you can assemble, but designing from scratch is beyond this skill. I basically look at it as if it requires tools but doesn't require a machine shop, this is your skill.
Weapons Engineer: Everything above, up to and including building from scratch and designing new weapons. Still can't fix the problems with a Zip gun though. that bit of terribleness is designed in...

[glitterboy2098]

field armorer for most of those, but i'd file changing the caliber/energy weapon properties squarely in weapons engineer unless you've got a kit.

i agree with this. anything that alters the basic operating principles of the weapon like changing its caliber, or altering its action to change its rate of fire, should fall under weapons engineer. since you are basically redesigning it and will have to craft all new parts for some of it. if you have a pre-existing kit for the task (like a replacement barrel and breech for changing caliber) i'd allow the field armorer skill to do the job though. since that is usually a case of just slotting new pre-made parts in place of old ones.

as far as adding scopes and other such features.. if the weapon has rail attachments i'd allow someone with the WP skill do it, as those are usually fairly simple to use. however for something like a Scope you would need a field armor or Optic Systems skill to "sight in" the scope and ensure that it is correctly zeroed in to provide any bonuses. (i would allow a character without such a skill to do so as well. but it would require them to fire several magazine's worth of shots to adjust it or get used to the errors and compensate for them)

if the weapon does not have mounting rail systems, it will require the field armorer skill to either install rails, or to create an attachment point to mount the device without one.

[guardiandashi]

In a certain video game (maybe several, I won't name them in order to comply with the rules of this board but I'm sure you'll recognize at least one with the mechanic I'm talking about) you can modify guns you find - change the stock, change the sights, extend or shorten the barrel, change it from semi- to full-auto or vice versa, re-chamber the gun to fire in a different calibre or accept non-standard ammunition, adjust the firing properties of energy weapons etc. Which skill would I be looking at to allow a character to do that in the Megaversal system? I'm assuming for some changes like switching iron sights for a scope, or attaching/removing a silencer, you wouldn't actually need a skill because they're designed to be changed on the fly by the end-user, without specialized skills or equipment. I usually use skills from Rifts Ultimate Edition, except where another book just plain does that skill better in my opinion, but any skill from basically any book would be an excellent starting point for advice, thank you. If it's a Palladium Games book, odds are I have it somewhere. If I don't have it, I can find it!

The way I look at the various skills, and this is just from the basic skill descriptions from RUE:
WP: reload, field strip & clean, attach/detach quick-mount items (Lights, lasers, optics, as to a Picatinny Rail) If it doesn't require a tool to do, you can "modify" your normal weapon. (such as adding a drop in barrel sleeve for your 12ga to shoot 9mm) (If a barrel swap is part of the normal operation of a particular machine gun for example the US M249, then you can do a barrel change, other wise, see field armorer) You can adjust sights meant to be adjusted quickly and without tools, like many military rifles' iron sights. Anything that is the normal part of operating such a weapon.
Field Armorer & Munitions Expert: Above plus: Modifications to existing designs, such as actually changing caliber, adding/removing safeties, replace worn and broken parts. If it's more than a field strip, this is likely the skill you'll need. If it requires tools, but isn't a complete redesign or making it do something it clearly isn't intended to do (make your semi-auto 12ga full-auto for example) this is likely the skill for you. To put it in modern terms, you could finish an 80% kit, bevel the mag-well, enlarge the ejection port, and just generally be a good gunsmith. You can build from parts, you can assemble, but designing from scratch is beyond this skill. I basically look at it as if it requires tools but doesn't require a machine shop, this is your skill.
Weapons Engineer: Everything above, up to and including building from scratch and designing new weapons. Still can't fix the problems with a Zip gun though. that bit of terribleness is designed in...

I would allow the WP skill to go a bit further, because part of maintenance of modern firearms involves tearing them down and reassembling them.

with that in mind I would allow minor changes that require only basic hand tools.
for example on something like an autopistol (example being 9mm, or the classic 1911 series pistols) removing the slide, removing the grips tweaking the sights etc. basically anything that doesn't require extensive changes. (https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/tactic ... =101928617 ) IF you have the replacement parts on hand that change performance, and they can be swapped or adjusted using said simple tools, then WP can handle it.

if you need to modify parts to make the change, then I would kick it to field armorer or equivalent electrical/mechanical skills as needed.

if you need to fabricate new parts to make the change unless you have detailed instructions/plans on exactly how to make them, this would fall into the weapons engineer. especially if you are having to design the change from scratch.

[torjones]

The way I look at the various skills, and this is just from the basic skill descriptions from RUE:
WP: reload, field strip & clean, attach/detach quick-mount items (Lights, lasers, optics, as to a Picatinny Rail) If it doesn't require a tool to do, you can "modify" your normal weapon. (such as adding a drop in barrel sleeve for your 12ga to shoot 9mm) (If a barrel swap is part of the normal operation of a particular machine gun for example the US M249, then you can do a barrel change, other wise, see field armorer) You can adjust sights meant to be adjusted quickly and without tools, like many military rifles' iron sights. Anything that is the normal part of operating such a weapon.
Field Armorer & Munitions Expert: Above plus: Modifications to existing designs, such as actually changing caliber, adding/removing safeties, replace worn and broken parts. If it's more than a field strip, this is likely the skill you'll need. If it requires tools, but isn't a complete redesign or making it do something it clearly isn't intended to do (make your semi-auto 12ga full-auto for example) this is likely the skill for you. To put it in modern terms, you could finish an 80% kit, bevel the mag-well, enlarge the ejection port, and just generally be a good gunsmith. You can build from parts, you can assemble, but designing from scratch is beyond this skill. I basically look at it as if it requires tools but doesn't require a machine shop, this is your skill.
Weapons Engineer: Everything above, up to and including building from scratch and designing new weapons. Still can't fix the problems with a Zip gun though. that bit of terribleness is designed in...

I would allow the WP skill to go a bit further, because part of maintenance of modern firearms involves tearing them down and reassembling them.

That's called field stripping. Modern firearms are only meant to be taken apart so far before the average Joe is supposed to hand them over to the armorer/gunsmith. Take the FN FiveSeven pistol. It field strips to 3 components, the slide assembly, the barrel assembly, and the frame. To go any further than that requires more training than the average shooter has, and more than a Swiss Army knife. Even the venerable 1911 doesn't field strip much farther than that (8 pieces), and the same is true for the Beretta M9 (92FS) (5 pieces). The only people who should be tearing them completely down are the armorers and gunsmiths who know how to do so without losing any captured springs. (Field Armorer skill)

Field strip, clear the GSR and pocket lint from the internals with some Hoppes #9 Solvent and lubricating oil, knowing where to put that oil, how little you're really supposed to use, etc. Yeah, that's all WP.

with that in mind I would allow minor changes that require only basic hand tools.
for example on something like an autopistol (example being 9mm, or the classic 1911 series pistols) removing the slide, removing the grips tweaking the sights etc. basically anything that doesn't require extensive changes. (https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/tactic ... =101928617 ) IF you have the replacement parts on hand that change performance, and they can be swapped or adjusted using said simple tools, then WP can handle it.

if you need to modify parts to make the change, then I would kick it to field armorer or equivalent electrical/mechanical skills as needed.

if you need to fabricate new parts to make the change unless you have detailed instructions/plans on exactly how to make them, this would fall into the weapons engineer. especially if you are having to design the change from scratch.

That's a cleaning kit. So, yeah, that's about all you'd be able to use with WP, imo.

If I were to put it in game terms, if it has any effect on the game (such as increasing accuracy or anything like that), it's likely going to be field armorer, with the previously mentioned exceptions. Quick detach accessories are things that didn't really exist yet when Rifts was first getting started. If the gun has picked up a penalty from use and no regular maintenance, WP will allow you to perform that maintenance and remove that penalty. But turning a -1 to strike (from the factory) into a -0 strike? That's Field Armorer.

You want to customize it by changing your walnut grips to pearl, yeah, that's going to be WP. You want to tweak the fixed iron sights on a WWII 1911, without making things worse than they already are, that's going to require a skill check of some kind, and that's not something WP provides. Tweaking sights, especially fixed sights, ain't that easy, even if the concept can be explained in a few minutes.

You want to clip a light to your pistol that has the attachment point for it? Sure! Laser? You Betcha. What's that? It doesn't have a rail for those accessories? That's Field Armorer. Screwing a suppressor to a pistol that already has a threaded barrel? No Sweat for WP. Adding threads to your barrel so you can screw that can on? Field Armorer. Swapping the barrel out for one that already has threads? Field Armorer. (There are some pistols I'd let someone without the skill to do that with, but that's because I know those pistols specifically.) What's that? You want to spray paint it? Cackles Maniacally and okay...

[ryokoryu]

One of the most dissapointing things I ever did was making a better weapon. I took the concept of a railgun and bumped up the size of the slug to be hide, increased it's range to 2 miles, put a huge scope on it, and made it so that it fires 1 time a round (round not action) doing 3d6*10 to make an actually functional sniper rifle. The GM asked me if I had the weapons engineer skill which I did and he said ok you made it. No rolls no chance to not make it wrf where's the challenge. Make your players roll for these things.

[Orin J.]

One of the most dissapointing things I ever did was making a better weapon. I took the concept of a railgun and bumped up the size of the slug to be hide, increased it's range to 2 miles, put a huge scope on it, and made it so that it fires 1 time a round (round not action) doing 3d6*10 to make an actually functional sniper rifle. The GM asked me if I had the weapons engineer skill which I did and he said ok you made it. No rolls no chance to not make it wrf where's the challenge. Make your players roll for these things.

so you made an autocannon for a tank, but very very small somehow. or he just never told you it's two tons and you munchkin'd around with a fourteen foot long cannon emplacement strapped to your shoulder......

[ryokoryu]

One of the most dissapointing things I ever did was making a better weapon. I took the concept of a railgun and bumped up the size of the slug to be hide, increased it's range to 2 miles, put a huge scope on it, and made it so that it fires 1 time a round (round not action) doing 3d6*10 to make an actually functional sniper rifle. The GM asked me if I had the weapons engineer skill which I did and he said ok you made it. No rolls no chance to not make it wrf where's the challenge. Make your players roll for these things.

so you made an autocannon for a tank, but very very small somehow. or he just never told you it's two tons and you munchkin'd around with a fourteen foot long cannon emplacement strapped to your shoulder......

Autocannon how? it was a single large round being fired by an electromagnetic coil about the size of an AMR today. the idea was instead of lots of small rounds like a normal railgun it fires 1 big one doing tons of damage. a real MD sniper rifle which is not something that exists in rifts cannon, mainly because KS has no idea what a sniper rifle is or what snipers really do.

[Orin J.]

One of the most dissapointing things I ever did was making a better weapon. I took the concept of a railgun and bumped up the size of the slug to be hide, increased it's range to 2 miles, put a huge scope on it, and made it so that it fires 1 time a round (round not action) doing 3d6*10 to make an actually functional sniper rifle. The GM asked me if I had the weapons engineer skill which I did and he said ok you made it. No rolls no chance to not make it wrf where's the challenge. Make your players roll for these things.

so you made an autocannon for a tank, but very very small somehow. or he just never told you it's two tons and you munchkin'd around with a fourteen foot long cannon emplacement strapped to your shoulder......

Autocannon how? it was a single large round being fired by an electromagnetic coil about the size of an AMR today. the idea was instead of lots of small rounds like a normal railgun it fires 1 big one doing tons of damage. a real MD sniper rifle which is not something that exists in rifts cannon, mainly because KS has no idea what a sniper rifle is or what snipers really do.

an autocannon is a smoothbore autoloading cannon, like the kind usually mounted on tanks and the like. most of the them listed in Rifts do about the same damage with an armor-piercing Sabot discard round which is essentially just a huge bullet.

[ryokoryu]

For the record I am applying logical steps to this. Today's sniper technology would easily be considered MD from normal rounds.
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b ... aae90.webp
rounds today are capable of penetrating to an engine block in a medium tank and disabling the vehicle and that is before we add fancy things like HE munitions and incendiary to them. Specialized rounds can penetrate even more with one combat cameraman catching an instance where they shot the wall and red misted the 3 insurgents behind it. One sniper round and 3 kills. Now imagine something the same size only sliming it down and making it out of MD materials. Since all that propellant is replaced by solid slug due to the magnetic firing mechanism.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S8NHNrM5XIE/maxresdefault.jpg
Now look at a basic modern sniper rifle, you ain't firing that just by shouldering it with any accuracy, you need the bi-pod legs to stabilize it.

[ryokoryu]

my issue was I expected to need to roll adv math, mechanical engineering, weapons engineering, come up with prototypes, revise said prototypes etc over time and he just said ok you made it.

[Orin J.]

For the record I am applying logical steps to this. Today's sniper technology would easily be considered MD from normal rounds.
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b ... aae90.webp
rounds today are capable of penetrating to an engine block in a medium tank and disabling the vehicle and that is before we add fancy things like HE munitions and incendiary to them. Specialized rounds can penetrate even more with one combat cameraman catching an instance where they shot the wall and red misted the 3 insurgents behind it. One sniper round and 3 kills. Now imagine something the same size only sliming it down and making it out of MD materials. Since all that propellant is replaced by solid slug due to the magnetic firing mechanism.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S8NHNrM5XIE/maxresdefault.jpg
Now look at a basic modern sniper rifle, you ain't firing that just by shouldering it with any accuracy, you need the bi-pod legs to stabilize it.

no, i'm aware of all that (i'm also aware that .50 cal rounds do MDC damage as explosive rounds, but that's its own topic) i just thought it was funny you made effectively a rift-age tank cannon into a sniper rifle because the GM wasn't paying attention to what you wanted to do. also it's not mass that's important with a rail gun- it's velocity. even for a railgun for a single round to nearly one-shot most power armors in the chest is a silly amount of power put into throwing a round for something not built into a large weapon emplacement.

[ryokoryu]

For the record I am applying logical steps to this. Today's sniper technology would easily be considered MD from normal rounds.
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b ... aae90.webp
rounds today are capable of penetrating to an engine block in a medium tank and disabling the vehicle and that is before we add fancy things like HE munitions and incendiary to them. Specialized rounds can penetrate even more with one combat cameraman catching an instance where they shot the wall and red misted the 3 insurgents behind it. One sniper round and 3 kills. Now imagine something the same size only sliming it down and making it out of MD materials. Since all that propellant is replaced by solid slug due to the magnetic firing mechanism.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S8NHNrM5XIE/maxresdefault.jpg
Now look at a basic modern sniper rifle, you ain't firing that just by shouldering it with any accuracy, you need the bi-pod legs to stabilize it.

no, i'm aware of all that (i'm also aware that .50 cal rounds do MDC damage as explosive rounds, but that's its own topic) i just thought it was funny you made effectively a rift-age tank cannon into a sniper rifle because the GM wasn't paying attention to what you wanted to do. also it's not mass that's important with a rail gun- it's velocity. even for a railgun for a single round to nearly one-shot most power armors in the chest is a silly amount of power put into throwing a round for something not built into a large weapon emplacement.

Partly acceleration but keep in mind (and imagine the 2 here as a tiny 2 to represent squared) E=MC2 which means the kinetic force of that round being larger will increase as it's mass is greater. keep in mind things like take a 10x10x10 cube of matter then make it 20x20x20 keeping the same density it will have 8 times the mass. the math gets a lot fancier when calculating the larger bullet but the same idea comes in. The mass increases faster than the size will and the kinetic force will be greater. Keep in mind by kicking up the range for that heavier larger round the acceleration will be greater as will the velocity. Also we just lost like half the readers here.

[Orin J.]

For the record I am applying logical steps to this. Today's sniper technology would easily be considered MD from normal rounds.
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b ... aae90.webp
rounds today are capable of penetrating to an engine block in a medium tank and disabling the vehicle and that is before we add fancy things like HE munitions and incendiary to them. Specialized rounds can penetrate even more with one combat cameraman catching an instance where they shot the wall and red misted the 3 insurgents behind it. One sniper round and 3 kills. Now imagine something the same size only sliming it down and making it out of MD materials. Since all that propellant is replaced by solid slug due to the magnetic firing mechanism.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S8NHNrM5XIE/maxresdefault.jpg
Now look at a basic modern sniper rifle, you ain't firing that just by shouldering it with any accuracy, you need the bi-pod legs to stabilize it.

no, i'm aware of all that (i'm also aware that .50 cal rounds do MDC damage as explosive rounds, but that's its own topic) i just thought it was funny you made effectively a rift-age tank cannon into a sniper rifle because the GM wasn't paying attention to what you wanted to do. also it's not mass that's important with a rail gun- it's velocity. even for a railgun for a single round to nearly one-shot most power armors in the chest is a silly amount of power put into throwing a round for something not built into a large weapon emplacement.

Partly acceleration but keep in mind (and imagine the 2 here as a tiny 2 to represent squared) E=MC2 which means the kinetic force of that round being larger will increase as it's mass is greater. keep in mind things like take a 10x10x10 cube of matter then make it 20x20x20 keeping the same density it will have 8 times the mass. the math gets a lot fancier when calculating the larger bullet but the same idea comes in. The mass increases faster than the size will and the kinetic force will be greater. Keep in mind by kicking up the range for that heavier larger round the acceleration will be greater as will the velocity. Also we just lost like half the readers here.

you know rail gun ammo is already the size of an actual bullet in a .50 cal, right? it's smaller because it doesn't need the cartridge with propellant, if your argument is it went from 1D4 to 3D6x10 per round through size increase then you're arguing your rifle is lobbing autocannon siabots downrange which, again, is hilarious to picture.

i'm not dissing you i'm just saying it's a funny mental picture.

also for E=MC[sup]2[/sup] you wanna use the [ sup ] modifier up in the font modifiers are the top of the text box.

[ryokoryu]

First of all the round would be about 5 times the size
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/a1/59 ... fa5bf8.jpg
consider that this means there is exponents involved in the calculation not just adding 4 times more damage taking thee damage average of the railgun rounds per round, keep in mind I don't remember reading anywhere a cannon size for all railgun rounds as the books tend to indicate slightly different sizes and power behind the magnetic coils. Gun manufacturers found this out with conventional rounds a long time ago, 20% more size was more penetrating and hit harder than 50% higher velocity. REgardless the boost per round from the size of the round in the first place comes up to about 70 max damage. TOn top of this in order to increase the range to 2 miles the velocity has to be boosted considerably. 5000 feed is about average railgun range and 5280 is 1 mile in feet. This means we need more than double the speed because the round falls to the ground at the same speed regardless. In order to double an objects speed requires 4 times the energy, this is why we eventually hit the speed of light as the limit, the exponential increase of energy become a calculation more than all the energy that exists to boost something faster. All that energy translates into force on impact so yes it is entirely conceivable and considering the thing can be fired 1 round only at a time and could only be reloaded and fired once per combat round because of the inner workings of the gun being bulky enough to not allow a semi-automatic fire. This isn't even accounting for the increased energy needed to account for the size increase to accelerate the 5-times larger round. to quote Mass Effect 2 this makes Sir Isaac Newton he deadliest son of a ***** in space.

[Orin J.]

First of all the round would be about 5 times the size-

that's over a foot long, about on par with a tank saibot. i'm not sure why you're throwing math out to agree with me here, but it sure is fun.

[PalladiumBrony]

(i would allow a character without such a skill to do so as well. but it would require them to fire several magazine's worth of shots to adjust it or get used to the errors and compensate for them)

That's actually a pretty neat concept, I like it! What kind of penalties do you think would work for a "bad sight" (as in an iron sight or scope that's been poorly adjusted)? And by "several magazines' worth, how many do you mean? I imagine that if the character was throwing shots downrange in order to adjust the sight, it would cost fewer shots than if they were just learning to compensate for the error.

[ryokoryu]

First of all the round would be about 5 times the size-

that's over a foot long, about on par with a tank saibot. i'm not sure why you're throwing math out to agree with me here, but it sure is fun.

look at the picture linked because you seem to be missing something, the actual 50 cal round only about 1/5 of the size is the projectile, the rest of the 4/5 is the propellant and casing. 5 times the mass if you made it solid round instead of needing casing and propellant. btw still looking for sources stating the size of railgun rounds are all being the same size as the 50 cal round. so no the math isn't proving you right and no you wouldn't need a tank sized sabbot to do that damage.

[Orin J.]

First of all the round would be about 5 times the size-

that's over a foot long, about on par with a tank saibot. i'm not sure why you're throwing math out to agree with me here, but it sure is fun.

look at the picture linked because you seem to be missing something, the actual 50 cal round only about 1/5 of the size is the projectile, the rest of the 4/5 is the propellant and casing. 5 times the mass if you made it solid round instead of needing casing and propellant. btw still looking for sources stating the size of railgun rounds are all being the same size as the 50 cal round. so no the math isn't proving you right and no you wouldn't need a tank sized sabbot to do that damage.

i'm not sure why the confrontational tone, but sure i'll debate it. the bullet in .50cal cartridge itself is about 3" long. assuming that you're streamlining the railgun projectile and not asking for a chromium fastball in the interests of maximizing accuracy and range (since your man portable tank gun is supposed to be a sniper weapon) the material is going to be in roughly the same shape. maybe longer or with vanes for keeping it from developing flight irregularities. so five times the mass is going to roughly be five times the length. 5 X 3" = 15". unless you're taking the coalition standard SAMAS railgun ammo and propelling it to speeds that hilariously break the laws of physics that makes the 800lb. Boom Gun's sonic boom sound like a wet mouse fart, you're hucking the penetrater from a tank saibot downfield.