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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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 Posted: 09-Oct-2002 20:19 Post subject: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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Since a Gauss rifle explodes when hit, is it possible to turn one off much like a heat sink can be shut down? Like...if I ran outa Gauss amoo in the middle of a fight, and didnt want to make it a liability?
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chihawk
Clan Blood Spirit
Master Bartender
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 09-Oct-2002 20:30 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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It is a level 3 rule, and one that I never allow in any of my games.
You use a mech with a gauss, you takes your chances 
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AlexxKnight
Federated Suns
Colonel
Joined: 11-Feb-2002 00:00
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| Posted: 09-Oct-2002 22:57 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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Chihawk, I must say, I think that is a crappy house rule. I know I would wantto turn hte dman thing off if I ran out of ammo or if I lost all the armor in the location that contained a Gauss Rifle. Why take the chance of getting yourself killed by your own stupidity? If it is "broke" don't use it. If it is a liablity/safety hazzard don't use it. It is all about survivabilty.
Let me ask you this: Do you let your players dump ammo, to avoid an ammo explosion? Isn't it the same thing? (here is where you say yes) I thought so.
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Alexx Knight, Lance Sgt.
Command Company, Crimson Janissaries
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 09-Oct-2002 23:28 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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I agree with Chihawk. It just seems odd to me. Can you turn off a PPC or a Missile Launcher or Autocannon? (here is where you say no) I thought so.  (Sorry, I had to do that. I just had to!)
Mainly, it keeps game balance. The ammo doesn't explode, but the Gauss is a long range head-chopper. So the reverse edge of the weapon is the possibilty of an overload. All weapons in BT are double-edged to some extent.
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CO 17th Recon Battalion,
Harewood's Harvesters
“An engineer can look at a pile of junk and tell you what it was, a good one can tell you what went wrong and an expert engineer can put the pile of junk back together.”
[ This Message was edited by: CO_17thRecon on 2002-10-09 23:34 ]
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Jarylan Blackwell
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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 00:23 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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Yeah...but you can turn of Heat Sinks and a few other pieces of equipment.
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 01:07 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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The ONLY reason I don't allow players to turn off their Gauss Rifles is because it is NOT a Level 2 rule. It is a Level 3 rule. Turning off Heat Sinks is mentioned in the book (at least I think so). The reason they don't let you turn them off is game balance. Every big weapon has a drawback. The AC/20 doesn't have a lot of Ammo, the Gauss explodes, stuff like that.
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chihawk
Clan Blood Spirit
Master Bartender
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 06:12 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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As Mordel pointed out its not a house rule, but the rule in level 2.
The main draw back of the gauss rifle is it explodes when hit...to allow a guass--which is a head hunter weapon that can be fired from 22 hexes away!--to be turned off and removing that explosive possibility turns it into a munchy weapon.
Every weapon system has "negative" to offset it's positive, so why should the gauss be any different?
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 07:31 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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So what's the Liability of a Medium Laser???? 
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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Shadowking
Kell Hounds
Captain
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 08:26 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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| Does that mean you would allow the player to shut it off if you were playing a level 3 game? Or would you still say no? In which case, you might as well not allow people to dump their ammo for their non-gauss weapons either
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Col. Dwight Chandra
Lewis' Executioners
C.O., Alpha Co.
Joined: 15-Aug-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 09:37 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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Quote:
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On 2002-10-10 06:12, chihawk wrote:
...The main draw back of the gauss rifle is it explodes when hit...to allow a guass--which is a head hunter weapon that can be fired from 22 hexes away!--to be turned off and removing that explosive possibility turns it into a munchy weapon.
Every weapon system has "negative" to offset it's positive, so why should the gauss be any different?
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I can share an old house rule that one of former BT buddies used in his campaign. He allowed you to power down gauss rifles, but it would take 5 turns to do so. In other words, you had to declare that you were shutting it down, and then 5 turns later the rifle would be completely discharged. This prevented someone from saying "ooops! I have no armor protecting my gauss rifle! I'll shut it off!" At least with this house rule, that person would still be at risk for five turns.
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 10:00 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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The handicap of the medium laser? Short range.
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Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Jade_Dragon
8th Sword of Light
Sho-sho
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1325
Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 11:19 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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Technically you can turn off any piece of equipment, AMS and Heat sinks I think of directly. Why not the Gauss? Though I do like the house rule that it takes time to fully discharge, but I would probably lean more towards 3 turns, or at least reduce the damage dealt every turn.
The point is mot when it comes to most equipment, why turn off a medium laser?
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Mordel
Mordel.Net
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 11:22 Post subject: RE: Shutting off a Gauss rifle? |
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Technically speaking, you're correct. There's no reason you couldn't turn off any particular piece of equipment on your BattleMech. The whole argument has been based on what is allowed in the rules. Turning off a Gauss Rifle is not allowed under Level 2 Rules.
I do agree, that giving it a turn amount to shut off is a great idea. With reduced damage per turn making complete sense. After all, it's powering down. Less electrical charges flowing through it, the less damage it will cause when hit.
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Raven!
Clan Snow Raven
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1326
Location: United States
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 12:06 Post subject: Here's a thought |
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Rather then discharging energy or something why not this rule:
You can "fire" the guass rifle with no ammunition. All this does is the electormagnets flash out the energy in one turn leaving it uncharged. However safeties built into the Guass Rifle go off because no shell was fired. This causes it to slowly recharge as it checks for damage. So the next turn you have no charge (emergency shut off to find out why no shell went down the barrel). So no damage. So the computer checks and sees all green. So it recharges a little and does a check, so you have a 1/3 charge on the next turn (5 points of damage if hit), then on the second turn more energy (10 points of damage if hit) as the computer slowly asserts that nothing is damaged in a very careful check over (cause you don't want the guass rifle to explode because of a damaged coil or something) and then on the third check the computer declares the Guass Rifle "Green" and you have a full charge again.
I came up with that rule a while ago when I did a campaign with a buddy of mine in Manchester. The area over the guass rifle was damaged and for kicks (cause I was the GM) i said it was damaged, but didn't explode and he needed a tech to fix it before it could fully function (I killed his techs in the last game MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) anyway he was like fine fine fine. Well anyway later on I managed to hit the Guass rifle and said "HA! 20 IS damage" and he was like "NO! You said it didn't have a full charge.." and i was like "Oh yeah." So we came up with this system for more realistic playing.
Raven!
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AlexxKnight
Federated Suns
Colonel
Joined: 11-Feb-2002 00:00
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| Posted: 10-Oct-2002 15:58 Post subject: RE: Here's a thought |
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Chihawk, what I meant was this:
If you are playing a level 2 game, Guass Rifle's can't be turned off (since the Rules Say it is a Level 3 Rule). but if the Game was using Level 3 Rules, then you should let hte players turn it off. Otherwise, it is being munchy.
As for turning off PPC's and Auto Cannons, a critcial hit to those two systems does not cause a massive explosion. A hit to the Auto Cannon ammo does however, and you can dump ammo under level 2 rules.
As for turning off the Gauss Rifle in 1 turn, I don;t see it as a big problem, since all you are doing is discharigng the capacitors and open a breaker, preventing them from recharging again. (But htat is Real World Physics, not FASA physics).
What I meant by house Rules is that the option to use Level 3 Rules is generally a house Rule. I hope that clears up what I meant earlier.
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Alexx Knight, Lance Sgt.
Command Company, Crimson Janissaries
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The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. . . And you
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