[HoE] More confusion on Junkers

[Afterburner <afterburner@erols.com>]

	The other day, someone on the list pointed out that there's a Junker
Modifier for "Generates ammo".  This further adds to my confusion between
"physical damage" and "energy damage".  Viz:

	I have in mind a spiffy new weapon.  The weapon will do 5d6 worth of
damage, will have 1-pt Armor Piercing, will generate its own ammo, and will
have a ROF of 1, a speed of 1, and a range increment of 10.  It will also
be rifle-sized.  This gives us a base cost of:

	5d6 Damage:                 75

	1-pt Armor Piercing:        +10%
	Generates ammo:             +50%
	ROF of 1:                   +0%
	Speed 1:                    +20%
	Range Increment 10:         +10%
	Rifle-sized:                -10%
	--------------------------------
	Total mods:                 +80%
	Final point cost:            135
	Structural Components:         7
	Mechanical Components:         5
	Electronic Components:         2

	But wait!  I didn't specify the damage type.

	Physical damage:            +0%

	Okay, no adjustment to the final point cost.  Still 135.

	Energy damage:              +25%
	--------------------------------
	Total mods:                 +105%
	Final point cost:            153
	Structural Components:         8
	Mechanical Components:         6
	Electronic Components:         3

	So with the device doing physical damage, it'll take me 2d20 hours with a
TN of 11 to build it.  With the device doing energy damage, it'll take me
2d6 days with a TN of 13 to build it.  The energy damage device also
requires more components than the physical damage device  And my chances of
getting Junker backlash increase slightly from 2 cards drawn for the
physical damage device and 3 cards drawn from the energy damage device.

	The problem is: I can't see any actual benefit to taking energy damage vs.
physical damage.  Call me a munchkin, but if X costs more points than Y, X
should have some benefit that Y doesn't.  If X and Y are identical in every
respect except that X is more expensive than Y, I'm going to select Y over
X every time.

	Does energy damage affect only the guts or noggin?  Not as far as I can
tell.  It's mentioned elsewhere in the book that spiritual damage affects
the guts directly, but it doesn't say anything about energy damage.  I
would say that this is also counter-intuitive given our idea of laser guns
and blasters from all the SF movies.

	Is energy damage innately armor piercing as someone on the list suggested?
 Since "armor piercing" is listed as a separate modifier, my interpretation
sez "No, energy damage isn't innately armor piercing."  

	Does energy damage automatically generate its own ammo as I suggested in
an earlier message?  Since "generates ammo" is listed as a separate
modifier, my revised interpretation sez "No, energy damage doesn't
automatically generate its own ammo."

	Maybe you can't use physical damage weapons to generate a 30-degree cone.
But if so, it doesn't mention that specifically under the "30-degree cone"
section.  And I can certainly envision a shrapnel-projecting weapon (like
the Junkgun) that could fire physical ammo in a 30-degree cone.

	The only thing that I can think of that makes any sort of sense at all is
that physical damage devices which generate their own ammo require some
sort of raw fuel (e.g. big hunks of metal for the junkgun) *plus* they use
up energy from the spirit battery.  Whereas energy damage devices that
generate their own ammo would just use the spirit battery to generate the
ammo and wouldn't need any other raw fuel.  But then you'd have to take the
"generate ammo" modifier to get the benefit of using energy damage.

	I kinda get the feeling that when this section was written, the folks
writing it said "Oh, well *obviously* lasers are better than bullets, so it
should cost more."  But either they didn't really think about *why* lasers
are better than bullets, or they thought about it, came up with something
that hasn't yet occurred to me, and wrote it down only to have it left out
of the rulebook for whatever reason.  In any event, it's got me scratching
my head in foncusion.

	AB