Marathon weapons.. for Traveller

Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 00:17:27 -0400
From: Roderick Darroch Elliott <rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca>
Subject: Marathon weapons: MA-75B AR/GL

Here's the last Marathon weapon I'm doing tonight. Parental
Advisory Follows:

I suppose it's only to be expected; video-game designers can hardly be expected to let realism get in the way of coolosity. In order to get the grenade launcher numbers I had to fudge by running it through both the small arms and heavy weapons sequences, and in the case of the cylinder, work up the mass of the reciever by working backwards from the desired magazine capacity. So it's somewhat fudged, but I figure that given the extreme nature of the design averaging the numbers from both sequences would be a good way of reducing error. I'm tempted to put a stock and pistolgrip on the grenade launcher; a 38-cm 40-mm grenade launcher is pretty nasty and quite funky all by itself.

Any way you cut it, this thing is simply scary, though; blasting away on full auto while firing the grenade launcher ought a) to thoroughly kill whatever you're shooting at, b) thoroughly spatter it all over the landscape, c) make one helluva racket, d) light up the sky for miles around due to absence of flash hiders etc, and e) knock you on your butt. And it's heavy as all bloody hell, even using advanced materials throughout (and if you thought the weight was bad, wait until you see the price tag!). However, at least the weight helps keep the recoil within the realm of (relative) sanity. On to the description!

The MA-75B is a 5X75mm assault rifle equipped with a 7-round 40X140mm rotary-magazine grenade launcher slung under the barrel. It is issued to UESC security troops. It is a standard configuration (i.e. magazine in front of pistol grip) assault rifle with a smooth and rounded light gray plastic housing protecting the reciever and barrel. The grenade launcher is similarly streamlined and slung beneath the barrel in lieu of a forestock. No stock is provided for the grenade launcher; its trigger is housed just ahead of the rifle magazine. The weapon is notable for its
complete absence of sights; sighting is done along a raised ridge running along the top of the housing. It takes a 52-round banana magazine; the grenade launcher has a 7-round rotary cylinder which accepts 7-grenade "speedloader" magazines.

* T4 Stats:

Name:	MA-75B Assault Rifle/Grenade Launcher.
Damage (Rifle):	4.
Damage (GL):	5* explosive.
TL:	9.
Range (Rifle):	Short (42.33 m).
Range (GL):	Direct Fire: Short (23.7m).
Shots (Rifle):	52.
Shots (GL):	7
Mass (empty):	11,47 Kg.
Mass (loaded):	16.57 Kg.
Reloads (Rifle):1.04 Kg.
Reloads (GL):	3.694 Kg.
Price:	11,614 Cr.
Reload price (Rifle):	33.42 Cr.
Reload price (GL):	369.32 Cr.

* I ran the grenade launcher through both the small arms and heavy weapons
sequences and averaged the results they gave me (6 and 4.64) to get this
figure.

FF&S/TTA design notes (Rifle):

* Cartridge (5X75mmSR Necked)

Caliber= 5mm
Rated energy= 2,200 joules
Base area= 19.63 mm^2
Propellant volume= 1,833 mm^3
Bullet length= 10mm
Case length= 65mm
Round length= 75mm
Round mass= 14.72 g
Ideal barrel length= 88 cm
Round price= 0.59 Cr. (Ordinary)
Designation= 5X75mmSR UESC Rifle

* Barrel (68 cm heavy rifled, TL-8 advanced materials)

Barrel length= 68 cm
Mod(Blen)= -0.22
Barrel mass= 1.53
Barrel price= 4080
Actual Muzzle Energy= 1,958 joules

* Reciever (TL-9 heavy full-auto, TL-8 advanced materials, stock, pistolgrip)

Reciever length= 23 cm
Reciever mass= 1.837 Kg
Reciever price= 2296.88 Cr

* Magazine (52-round banana-mag box)

Mass= 274 g empty, 1040.21 g full.
Price= 2.74 Cr empty, 33.42 Cr full.

* Weapon Evaluation

Weapon length: 116 cm
Bulk: 7 (actually 7.733)
Basic Range: 42.33 m (Short Range in T4 range bands)
Damage: 4 (actually 4.2)
Recoil: 1 single-shot (actually 1.4), 6.65 on full-auto

FF&S/TTA design notes (Grenade Launcher). Recall that these are a product
of both the small arms and heavy weapons sequence, although I stuck mostly
with the small arms one:

* Cartridge (40X140mm caseless grenade*)

Caliber= 40mm
Rated energy= 4,000 joules
Base area= 1256.64 mm^2
Propellant volume= 3333.33 mm^3
Bullet length= 0mm
Case length= 14cm
Round length= 140mm
Round mass= 527.78 g
Ideal barrel length= 10 cm
Round price= 52.76 Cr. (Ordinary)
Designation= 40X140mmC UESC Caseless HE Grenade

* Designed as per shotgun rounds in the small arms sequence.

* Barrel (10 cm heavy smoothbore, TL-8 advanced materials)

Barrel length= 10 cm
Mod(Blen)= 0
Barrel mass= 0.3*
Barrel price= 150
Actual Muzzle Energy= 4,000 joules

* Actually the mass using the normal materials; seemed way light to me so I
just charged the advance materials price and left it at that.

* Reciever (TL-9 7-shot double-action revolver, TL-8 advanced materials)

Reciever length= 28 cm
Reciever mass= 7.43 Kg
Reciever price= 3343.50 Cr

* Weapon Evaluation

Weapon length: 38 cm
Mass: loaded 11.52 Kg, empty 7.73 Kg
Price: 3383.5 Cr.
Basic Range: 23.7 m (Short Range in T4 range bands)
Damage: 5
Recoil: 2.57

Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 21:46:18 -0400
From: Roderick Darroch Elliott <rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca>
Subject: Marathon WSTE-M Combat Shotgun

In Marathon, you never have to reload it; you keep on blasting away until you run out of shells. I've implemented a more realistic magazine capacity (in this case 2 shells per magazine); thus the weapon can be fired three times before reloading assuming the magazines are full and there's a round in each chamber. With one in each hand, that'd give the shooter 6 2-barrel blasts before reloading, and boy will he look studly while he's blasting away. Ross Coburn can testify to this, as I've whacked him with WSTE-M's once or twice in netted M2 games :).

Under my house rules, this weapon benefits from a positive DM to hit due to the shortness (15 cm or 6 inches) of its barrels, and suffers from increasingly reduced damage at increasing range bands.

T4 Stats:

Name:	WSTE-M Combat Shotgun.
Damage:	6 (Special; resolved as two separate 3-die volleys).
TL:	9.
Range:	Very Short.
Shots:	3 (3 2-shell blasts).
Mass (empty):	3.3 Kg (3.66 loaded).
Reloads:	0.366 Kg.
Price:	6,962 Cr.

FF&S/TTA design notes:

* Cartridge (20X65mm shotgun)

Caliber= 20mm
Rated energy= 1,000 joules
Base area= 314 mm^2
Propellant volume= 833 mm^3
Bullet length= 0mm
Case length= 65mm
Round length= 65mm
Round mass= 61 g
Ideal barrel length= 10 cm
Round price= 0.61 cr/round ordinary
Designation= 10X65 WSTE-M C.S.

* Barrel (15 cm TL-9 advanced materials smoothbore)

Barrel length= 15 cm
Mod(Blen)= +0.5
Barrel mass= 0.225
Barrel price= 112.5 Cr
Actual Muzzle Energy= 1,250 joules

* Reciever (TL-9 advanced materials heavy lever action double)

Reciever length= 15 cm
Reciever mass= 2.25 Kg
Reciever price= 6,750 Cr.
Grip: 0.5 kg, +15 cm long

* Magazine (2-round tubular, doubled)

Mass= 244 g empty.
Price= 2.44

* Weapon Evaluation

Weapon length: 45 cm
Bulk: 3
Mass: loaded 3.66 Kg, empty 3.294 Kg
Price: 6,692 Cr.
Basic Range: 9.72 m (Very Short Range in T4 range bands)
Damage: fudged based on T4 shotgun values; I've reduced the damage due to
the short barrels.
Recoil: 4.88

Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 22:54:33 -0400
From: Roderick Darroch Elliott <rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca>
Subject: Marathon .44 MMC

* Cartridge (11X52mm straight cased)

Caliber= 11mm
Rated energy= 1,500 joules
Base area= 95 mm^2
Propellant volume= 1,250 mm^3
Bullet length= 11mm
Case length= 32mm
Round length= 43mm
Round mass= 32.68 g
Ideal barrel length= 11 cm
Round price= 1.31 cr/round ordinary, 0.65/round mass produced
Designation= 11X43 .44 MMC A1

* Barrel (9 cm light rifled)

Barrel length= 9 cm
Mod(Blen)= -0.18
Barrel mass= 0.18
Barrel price= 36 Cr
Actual Muzzle Energy= 1,365 joules

* Reciever (TL-9 advanced materials light semi-auto)

Reciever length= 20 cm
Reciever mass= 1.312 Kg (1.712 incl grip)
Reciever price= 1,968 Cr.

* Magazine (8-round grip)

Mass= 131 g empty, 393 g full.
Price= 1.31 Cr empty, 11.79 Cr full
(it can take a 12-round magazine as well, but I'm sticking to Marathon
specs; for those who care its mass would be 175 g empty, 568 g full)

* Weapon Evaluation

Weapon length: 29 cm
Bulk: 2
Mass: loaded 2.285 Kg, empty 2.023 Kg
Price: 2,560 Cr.
Basic Range: 13.32 m (Very Short Range in T4 range bands); takes into
account optic sight.
Damage: 3.5 (actually 3.518)
Recoil: 3.42