Re: [sg] Support Weapon Questions (Somewhat related)

agoodall@canada.com wrote:

> On the other hand, I think it's ASL that has the concept of firelanes,
or something like it. In real life, a lot of fire is poured down by a
machine gun. You don't want to try running through a machine gun's fire
lane. This isn't supported in SG2.
> 
> (This got me thinking about something. Machine guns don't actually
fire in flat trajectories, like a laser. They have to fire in some sort
of eliptical trajectory due to gravitational effects. You could argue,
then, that depending on the range, a machine gun firing at a distant
squad has to "arc" the shots up to hit the target. 

Up to a point, the arcing trajectory of a bullet can be
approximated as a flat, laser-like trajectory. The barrel of a
rifle, SAW, whatever, is angled slightly upwards compared to the
line of sight and starts beneath it. The shot rises up to a
maximum point before falling downwards. If you point the weapon
accurately at the centre of a target's mass and shoot, there's
going to be little difference in effect between shooting, say,
100mm too high or 100mm too low, so as long as the bullet is
within this (or your choice of other) margin you can consider the
trajectory flat. This gives the weapon's "point-blank range" (as
I've heard this distance described).

You can get ballistic tables from various sources that tell you
how much modern bullets will fall at different ranges. You might
assume that the line of sight starts 50mm above the muzzle and
allow the bullet to rise 150mm and fall 200mm, for a total drop of
350mm (or 14"-ish). I expect most modern rifles/SAWs will shoot
approximately flat out to around 200-300m... somewhere around the
same sort of maximum range troops are allowed in SG2, I hope. (I
haven't a copy to hand for reference.)

However...

> However, a laser -- like a vehicle mounted HEL -- should be able to
fire in a flat trajectory and cut through anything in its path. A gauss
SAW would still have to worry about gravity, but to a lesser extent due
to the weapon's high velocity. I'm not sure how this could be
implemented, though.)

...this assumes not only a flat trajectory but abnormally flat
terrain. Your table may be billiard-ball smooth... but is the
ground it represents really that flat? 
 
-- 
David Brewer

"It is foolishness and endless trouble to cast a stone at every
dog that barks at you." - George Silver, gentleman, c.1600