Re: [HoE] Junker construction question

[Afterburner <afterburner@erols.com>]

>Hi all. Just picked up HoE last week and have some
>questions about how constructing Junker equipment works.
>I had to say I was disappointed with the Junker section
>in the book. Not only do we only get two powers, but no
>examples of device construction. Oh well. So anyway, this
>is how I THINK it works, if I'm wrong please let me know.

	No, I think you got it essentially right.  I could make a hand-waving
argument that fire is "physical damage" since they mention "energy damage"
as being "advanced" and mention lasers and plasma as examples of energy
damage, whereas an explosion is listed as an example of physical damage.
And I'd say a flamethrower has more in common with an explosion than with a
laser.

	But no matter.  Here are my thoughts:


>Gee, too bad the beasties are attacking tomorrow. Oh well.


	If the beasties are attacking tomorrow, I'd say that limits your options.
All the stuff you had might be nice, but apparently you don't have time.
If I know that an attack is imminent, "speed of construction" is going to
be my #1 criterion.  All else will be secondary.  So here's what I'd have
Doc build:


>THEORY
>   Flame thrower, throws flame in a big blast using alcohol for fuel.
>
>POWERS
>	Damage. Nothing fancy here.

	Werks for me.



>BUY POWERS
>	Damage 4d10 (Snow Beasties are tough)

	Here's where I'd start disagreeing.  4d10 damage might be nice, but
frankly Doc doesn't have the time and he knows it.  I'd do either 2d10 or
3d8 damage.


>	Energy Damage (its flame, right?) +25%

	Maybe.  We'll say it is just to keep the calculations somewhat even.


>	Armor Piercing 2 (burns through armor) +20%

	Definitely wouldn't worry about armor piercing.  If you make the damage
2d10 and they have 2 points of armor, you'll still get 2d6 points of
damage.  If you're really convinced that all that fur and gristle will
produce two points of armor, give it just one point of armor piercing for
+10%.


>	30 degree cone 20 yards (Doc's not a good shot) +25%

	20 yards = 60 feet.  That's a ways.  Making it 10 yards would still keep
the Snow Beasties 30 feet away while knocking 10% off of the modifiers.


>	Speed 1 +20%

	Agreed that this would be a good thing.


>	ROF 2 (there's a lot of them) +25%

	Maybe so, but a 30-foot long 30-degree cone of flame is 15 feet wide at
the end.  Unless the Snow Beasties are particularly huge or particularly
spread out, you should be able to gout two or three at once.  So I'd set
the ROF at 1

	Without any armor piercing at all, the total modifiers are 60%:

	Energy damage:   +25%
	30 degree cone, 10 yards long:   +15%
	Speed 1:   +20
	ROF 1:  +0%
	-------------
       Total Mods:   +60%

	With 1 point of armor piercing, the total mods are 70%.

	2d10 without armor piercing == 50 + (50 x .6) == 80
	2d10 with 1-point armor piercing == 50 + (50 x .7) == 85
	3d8 without armor piercing == 60 + (60 x .6) == 96
	3d8 with 1-point armor piercing == 60 + (60 x .7) == 102

	The first three are under 100 points and can be built in 2d6 hours with a
TN of 9.  The third could be built in 2d20 hours with a TN of 11.  Note
that you actually have 2d10 damage with 4-point armor piercing, which would
be 100 points and still be built in 2d6 hours with a TN of 9.

	My two cents.

	AB