View Single Post
Old 02-14-2013, 11:15 AM   #6
Phoenix_Dragon
 
Phoenix_Dragon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: Building Zentraedi Power Armor

Quote:
Originally Posted by ssveter View Post
Cannons:
2 Moldile Mistraekor-49 (also known under the Terran designation of RGT-F) 79.2mm triplebarreled rotary liquid-fueled, self-propelled low velocity cannons in the port and starboard torso. The cannons fired rocket-assisted semi-active laser guided HESH-shells with a maximum speed of 480 m/s at 180 rpm to a maximum effective range of up to 1.9 km in an Earth-like environment.
The ammunition bin for each weapon could contain 60 rounds.
Rough-guessing it from the Ultra-Tech stats for a 64mm charge and bumping up the explosive power slightly for the larger round, that would put these at doing about 6dx3 cr ex. Guessing from the 64mm mortar box (A similar-caliber, similarly low-velocity gun), I'd put the kinetic damage at around 6dx2 (0.5) pi++. Accuracy and range would be somewhat similar too, I suspect. If both the kinetic and explosive damage fail to penetrate armor, the HESH round then inflicts 108 cutting damage with AD(100), except against laminate armor.

Quote:
6 x Makharsz Vawnous-12 (also known under the Terran designation of DP-1) particle beam/pulse cannons, in two clusters of three cannons, one in each arm. In pulse mode, each cannon fired particles discs ('annihilation discs') at 4000 m/s to a maximum effective range of 8 km. In beam mode, each cannon fired a particle beam. Typically, the cannons fired in series when
in beam mode and in parallel when in pulse mode. In both modes the yield of each cannon was 3.5 MJ per second.
Judging by Spaceshipes, a 3.5 MJ particle beam would hit for about 6dx5 (5) burn rad sur damage.

Quote:
Missiles:
 2 x Diwhaug Ratsatoul-8 missile launchers in the hips.
 2 x Diwhaug Ratsatoul-9 missile launchers in the shoulders.
Need info on warhead size and type. "Dogfight missiles" make me think anular-blast fragmentation, like modern air-to-air missiles; a Sidewinder, for example, bursting to attack with 194 fragments dealing 6d+1 pi each. If instead we assume that they're more like anti-tank missiles, with a HEAT warhead, it might do something more like 6dx12 (10) cr ex on contact with a linked 8dx5 cr ex blast.

Quote:
VIII. Armor:
The armor of the Queadluun-Rau was composed of an advanced titanium-steel alloy. The armor stopped all small arms and heavy infantry weapons fire, provided reasonable resistance to light mecha-mounted weaponry, such as the Zentraedi 22.3mm HE autocannon round, and poor resistance to medium mechamounted weaponry, such as the Valkyrie's 55mm APFSDS round.
The closest weapon I could find to a 22.3mm autocannon would be the 25mm M242 Bushmaster, firing a SAPHE (More capable against armor than HE) round which deals 6dx4 pi++ with a 3d+2[1d+1] cr ex follow-up. With that, I'd guess their armor at somewhere around DR 100. The 55mm APFSDS autocannon I'm having a much harder time finding a comparison for. I'd rough-guess it at around 6dx10 to 6dx15 (2) pi++ inc. That'd easily go through DR 100, but the Bushmaster would have a very hard time going through anything more than that, so it seems reasonable. You could possibly make a case for more armor, basing it more off the 55mm APFSDS and ignoring the smaller autocannon.

If the armor is laminate, even DR 100 is enough to make it safe against its own 79.2mm cannons. Every other weapon it has would go straight through its armor. If it's not laminate armor, even the 79.2mm cannons would mulch it.

Quote:
In short this thing is bad ass
Going by these stats, it's a glass cannon. It's very fast and carries a lot of weapons, but its a large target (A walking five-story building), with weapons that can't scratch a modern MBT from the front (Some of which can't do it from the side) and armor that can be penetrated by any anti-tank weapon.

Part of the issue is that most mecha-genre stories tweak reality in favor of the mecha, which is pretty much a necessity for them to work. Fortunately, Supers is a good genre for such tweaks, too! While these would probably be the most realistic numbers, given the description here, what probably matters more in those genres is how they stack up against the expected opponents. If you're not expecting to fight tanks, then how it performs against them isn't terribly important (Although with its mobility, it'd probably do well against tanks in a constrained environment, like a heavily built-up urban area). Instead, it'd be best to evaluate the expected threats and then tweak the numbers to handle them as you would want a giant mecha to do.
Phoenix_Dragon is offline   Reply With Quote