OMG!! Sovietski preview is AWESOME!!!!

[tsh77769]

This is the first time in a LONG time that I have been SO enthusiastic about ANY fiction book!!

The setting and background is very rich, detailed, and vibrant.

There are new physical skills that interplay with one another, for example you take a basic sports skill, (the basic one being a pre-req) then there is a specialist or professional skill that builds on and adds to it.

There are new borgs, new bionics, new vehicles, new weapons, new D-bees, new occ's.

Amongst the weapons there is an interesting spin on a way to have a projectile weapon that shoots the same projectile but at radically different velocity for either SDC or MDC at the flick of a switch. Kind of a hybrid of conventional SDC rifle and low grade rail gun.

The borgs and the bionics are awesome. There is a small but very interesting expansion of the borg combat computer (which serves as a pre-req to the optional expansion programs).

The Sovietski police and military OCCs are incredibly well done, and allow for choices of special abilities or perks depending on specific departments.

There is actually a sovietski civilian OCC that is interesting.

There is more but I don't want to spill too much.

tsh77769

[The Galactus Kid]

I'm glad you like it! We worked very hard to make it feel right.

[glitterboy2098]

That rifle sounds interesting. i'm curious how they pulled that off. (i have a few ideas, but maybe they thought of one i didn't)

[Axelmania]

Any mini-missile biathlon skill for sniping bullseyes from a mile away?

Warning: Trolling. Mack

[kaid]

Any mini-missile biathlon skill for sniping bullseyes from a mile away?

Well there is a biathlon physical skill but it is more rifle+skiing less so on the mini missile launchers.

[glitterboy2098]

considering you can't snipe with missiles by the rules (not in that sense anyway), i'd be really surprised if there was.

i do need to look at that biathalon skill though.. that's something the scandinavians would definitely have.

[kaid]

They also have improved skiing skills as well and really it is a pretty handy skill to have in an area where the winters are bad now and worse in rifts. Learning how to shoot from skis is a solid skill to know in russia.

As for the previous question about the variable damage rifles. There are two types one is golden age area AK's that are upgraded to minor MDC materials. They use normal SDC bullets and have MDC explosive ramjet options.

The new sovietski super AK use advanced bullets with a rail gun assist. If you turn the rail gun option off the bullets hit hard but do SDC damage. Engage the assist and it switches to MDC. So pretty nice general purpose weapon. Also lots of neat speciality rounds for their ballistic weapons are available.

[glitterboy2098]

They also have improved skiing skills as well and really it is a pretty handy skill to have in an area where the winters are bad now and worse in rifts. Learning how to shoot from skis is a solid skill to know in russia.

As for the previous question about the variable damage rifles. There are two types one is golden age area AK's that are upgraded to minor MDC materials. They use normal SDC bullets and have MDC explosive ramjet options.

The new sovietski super AK use advanced bullets with a rail gun assist. If you turn the rail gun option off the bullets hit hard but do SDC damage. Engage the assist and it switches to MDC. So pretty nice general purpose weapon. Also lots of neat speciality rounds for their ballistic weapons are available.

ok so it was the approach i was expecting. hybrid railguns are something you don't see often in scifi but they are one of those real world concepts that might actually get used in the future.

[Zamion138]

I liked the take on AKs but wasnt a fan of the super svd, shouldnt get penalties for shooting from standing

[kaid]

I liked the take on AKs but wasnt a fan of the super svd, shouldnt get penalties for shooting from standing

I kinda like it. It is a pretty potent weapon for precision shooting and when one is trying to snipe things standing around is probably not recommended. would definitely recommend packing a battle rifle of some sort for general use.

[Zamion138]

Yeah but svds are mainly used as what we in the west would call designated marksman weapon, sniper as secondary.
Droping prone in urban setting to kick up the legs then shoot at anbattacker isnt really convenient

[glitterboy2098]

the real world one is a designated marksman rifle. that doesn't mean a rifts scifi-tech successor has to be the same role though. maybe it's been moved up to "anti-material rifle" instead?

[Zamion138]

To each their own, if you want to make a giant anti matrial rifle thats all well and good but if your call it svd be prepared for people to wonder if its the best name for the weapon system.

[ShadowLogan]

The new sovietski super AK use advanced bullets with a rail gun assist. If you turn the rail gun option off the bullets hit hard but do SDC damage. Engage the assist and it switches to MDC. So pretty nice general purpose weapon. Also lots of neat speciality rounds for their ballistic weapons are available.

Wouldn't it just be easier to have the Railgun with variable power settings rather than monkey around with trying to combine a railgun and chemically propelled bullet?

[The Galactus Kid]

The new sovietski super AK use advanced bullets with a rail gun assist. If you turn the rail gun option off the bullets hit hard but do SDC damage. Engage the assist and it switches to MDC. So pretty nice general purpose weapon. Also lots of neat speciality rounds for their ballistic weapons are available.

Wouldn't it just be easier to have the Railgun with variable power settings rather than monkey around with trying to combine a railgun and chemically propelled bullet?

In the setting, that would have been more expensive. They were trying to do more with less.

[Axelmania]

considering you can't snipe with missiles by the rules (not in that sense anyway), i'd be really surprised if there was.

RUEp309 "Only weapons that can be made to fire a single bullet/round or blast can be used for sniping" Some might mistake the examples on the "Acceptable weapons include" list as being the ONLY kinds of weapons it works on, but "include" is not "are limited to" so it would work just fine with a non-bursting pistol or a plasma cannon.

I guess technically a GM could mandate the semantics "bullet" or "round" or "blast" must appear in a weapon description to include it. The C-10 rifle on RUE 257 says "Each laser blast" for example, but so does the C-18 pistol above it and the C-27 Heavy Plasma Cannon on the next page.

I doubt I'll be able to find a missile launcher calling its ammo a 'bullet' or a 'blast' but I am going to hold out some hope on finding 'round' and do some digging.

[glitterboy2098]

The new sovietski super AK use advanced bullets with a rail gun assist. If you turn the rail gun option off the bullets hit hard but do SDC damage. Engage the assist and it switches to MDC. So pretty nice general purpose weapon. Also lots of neat speciality rounds for their ballistic weapons are available.

Wouldn't it just be easier to have the Railgun with variable power settings rather than monkey around with trying to combine a railgun and chemically propelled bullet?

In the setting, that would have been more expensive. They were trying to do more with less.

and the combination approach would be a lot simpler too. a variable power level railgun would require a more complex set of power inputs and capacitors, and a lot of programming.

whereas the dual method set up is basically a binary on/off. in SDC mode you just have the normal bullet and gun stuff, and the rail/gauss stuff is turned off. in MDC mode you just turn the rail/gauss stuff on to boost the bullet's velocity.

plus the conventional propellant in the round used to get the bullet moving helps the railgun part use less energy, since getting it moving from rest is one of the bigger inefficencies of rail/gauss projectile weapons.

[taalismn]

[

plus the conventional propellant in the round used to get the bullet moving helps the railgun part use less energy, since getting it moving from rest is one of the bigger inefficencies of rail/gauss projectile weapons.

And if you REALLY want to stack bullet velocity, make your bullet payload a ramjet round.....initial chemical boost +rail gun acceleration gets it up that much faster to efficient ramjet speed.

[Zamion138]

I thought it was good idea, if combat is crazy and your village is being overrun your going to run out of power, but your still able to large burst to do mdc , it keeps the gun light enough a strong farmer can wield it and reload it.
Its not a front line weapon, its for reserves and honestly if your down to own them hell has broken loose and youll probably be loosing anyhow

[glitterboy2098]

did a bit of research..

Yeah but svds are mainly used as what we in the west would call designated marksman weapon, sniper as secondary.
Droping prone in urban setting to kick up the legs then shoot at anbattacker isnt really convenient

technically the SVD stands for Снайперская Винтовка системы Драгунова образца 1963 года, or "Sniper Rifle System sample 1963 Dragunov", and the official designation is the SVD-63

basically "Sniper Rifle made by Dragunov", so as long as the manufacturer is the same when it is was first developed you can append the name to whatever role you want. the SVD-63 is used as a squad support weapon, so yes it is being used in the designated marksman role. however, the Russian military trains their squad support marksmen for high accuracy at long range (50% probability of hitting a standing, man-sized target at 800 m (875 yd), and an 80% probability of hitting a standing, man-sized target at 500 m (547 yd)), with low rates of fire (generally 2 shots per minute at such ranges).
this is much closer to the NATO standards for scout-snipers than designated marksmen (NATO/western training for DM's focuses more on shorter range engagements with higher rates of fire, although their weapons can actually reach just as far as the russian ones.) in order to achieve such accuracy at long ranges, russian snipers/designated marksmen are trained intensively, and generally fire from braced or prone positions.
so basically the "super-SVD" as described in this thread is probably a good weapon for for the Russian approach to the use designated marksmen.


of interesting note, the Russian military term for squad support marksmen is "sniper". they also were the nation to invent the idea of marksmen assigned as squad support back in WW2. they only recently adopted the concept of the separate scout-sniper as seen in other countries. where their squad support marksmen are expected to be highly accurate out to 500 meters, their dedicated snipers have ot meet the same accuracy out to 1.5km, according to the standards the Russian military has released for them. which means they're probably looking for even better than that. these new snipers are also being issued SVD-63's, btw.

[kaid]

I liked the take on AKs but wasnt a fan of the super svd, shouldnt get penalties for shooting from standing

Actually double checked at least the borg chasis it is designed for can use it standing. It just gets a bonus if you use the bipod and the negatives come in if you are not doing aimed/called shots. Not a snap fire in combat weapon but solid sniper tool (given its weight VERY VERY VERY solid haha)

[kaid]

The new sovietski super AK use advanced bullets with a rail gun assist. If you turn the rail gun option off the bullets hit hard but do SDC damage. Engage the assist and it switches to MDC. So pretty nice general purpose weapon. Also lots of neat speciality rounds for their ballistic weapons are available.

Wouldn't it just be easier to have the Railgun with variable power settings rather than monkey around with trying to combine a railgun and chemically propelled bullet?

In the setting, that would have been more expensive. They were trying to do more with less.

and the combination approach would be a lot simpler too. a variable power level railgun would require a more complex set of power inputs and capacitors, and a lot of programming.

whereas the dual method set up is basically a binary on/off. in SDC mode you just have the normal bullet and gun stuff, and the rail/gauss stuff is turned off. in MDC mode you just turn the rail/gauss stuff on to boost the bullet's velocity.

plus the conventional propellant in the round used to get the bullet moving helps the railgun part use less energy, since getting it moving from rest is one of the bigger inefficencies of rail/gauss projectile weapons.

Also plus side in non powered mode it does not drain its eclip so if one is out in the woods it is nice to have a gun you can use day to day hunting normally that if the fecal matter hits the fan you can flip the switch into MDC mode. Boxes of rounds is probably cheaper than boxes of eclips if you don't have the tools to recharge them readily.

[Zamion138]

I liked the take on AKs but wasnt a fan of the super svd, shouldnt get penalties for shooting from standing

Actually double checked at least the borg chasis it is designed for can use it standing. It just gets a bonus if you use the bipod and the negatives come in if you are not doing aimed/called shots. Not a snap fire in combat weapon but solid sniper tool (given its weight VERY VERY VERY solid haha)

Missed that part....so point taken.

[ShadowLogan]

In the setting, that would have been more expensive. They were trying to do more with less.

and the combination approach would be a lot simpler too. a variable power level railgun would require a more complex set of power inputs and capacitors, and a lot of programming.

Full Disclosure I don't have the RAW preview, so I'm working off of the description above in kaid's post. Which comes across as a single barrel affair like a JA-9 and not as a multi-barrel affair like a JA-11. If I'm wrong about that impression say so.

That said I don't think it would need to be more expensive or more complicated to produce a multi-setting railgun, and it doesn't require overcoming any new obstacles.

As it stands now, the railgun barrel would have to deal with the residue from firing the bullet conventionally. Residue that would not be present for a typical railgun firing IINM. Is that issue addressed at all in the design? I would also think that there might be other issues to contend with in adapting the railgun to work with the conventional bullet that could make it more complex and expensive than simply going with a pure railgun with variable output.

We know that Rifts Earth can produce weapons capable of multi-settings for energy weapons (NG-57, JA-11 laser, Wilk's laser tools, C-12 laser rifle just in the old Rifts Main Book and Ultimate Editions). Not to mention that there are railguns that can control their burst size (exs WB5's TX-500/250, VX-635, TX-50 or WB8's AT-200 or IR-60/70/120 that's 8 examples before I stopped looking). So I don't see a variable power railgun being any more difficult than what has come before and probably can be handled by a switch that open/closes paths to capacitors removing the need for complicated programming if they can control a burst size by the flick of a switch (Japan uses that basic description).

While the chemical propellant could reduce the necessary energy the eclip needs to provide, it might not be practical or easy to implement given you now need to get the timing down so that the electromagnetic force is applied at the right time. While I don't doubt it could be done, it probably adds to the complexity and in turn cost of the item. Its also possible that the amount of energy saved could be negligible (this of course depends on the velocity the round needs to achieve to do MDC vs the velocity of the round).

Also plus side in non powered mode it does not drain its eclip so if one is out in the woods it is nice to have a gun you can use day to day hunting normally that if the fecal matter hits the fan you can flip the switch into MDC mode. Boxes of rounds is probably cheaper than boxes of eclips if you don't have the tools to recharge them readily.

I agree there are advantages from this angle, but that eclip also means that you can carry more solid projectiles (no need for the propellant section) for the same weight. The projectiles are likely easier to produce. Maintaining the Eclip charge introduces additional factors, but since you have to maintain it anyway it doesn't add anything more (not to mention needing to maintain 2 different magazines for the weapon). I would also think that the SDC mode(s) of attack would use less energy than the MDC mode(s) of attack so a hunting expedition isn't going to be a major drain.