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Old 10-24-2012, 05:27 PM   #22
DouglasCole
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
Default Re: [LT] Monstrous Bow SM+3

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
At more human poundages, both give lower damage ratings than you'd get from a comparable GURPS thrust damage, but cinematic is closer. At higher poundages, it does spiral off.
I suspect that the reason for that is higher poundages tend to drive thicker arrows, and the GURPS penetration model goes up as sqrt(KE), as it does in TDS, but goes down as some lower power of the diameter of the projectile. My old ballistics article has this as about diameter^0.3 or so, if I remember (cross section to the 0.152?).

In any case, normalizing by the arrow diameter divided by 10mm and that to the 0.3 power might tame the penetration of spears . . . but at some point, "impaling" just doesn't cut it. :-)

Anyway, compare the energy and the mass vs. ballistic projectiles, and see if it's really insane, or just mildly insane. I seem to recall that a ST 35 bow can deliver nearly as much energy as an M16 (5d), though the projectile was a lot larger (should lower damage) but a lot longer and heavier (tends to penetrate better due to momentum/collision effects).
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