Jamming plastique in my bullets; damage for TL8- explosive rounds

[Ubiquitous]

One thing I'm noticing in HT (maybe I'm unobservant?) is that there's no damage for HE rounds. What I'm getting from the weapon charts is that loading my gun with an HE round gives me 1d-2 exp. and 1d-2 cut for the fragmentation damage.

What happens if I use a different warhead filler? Mind you I don't mean the Warhead filler listed on the HT table.

It's never said what warhead fills the bullets, so I just assumed TNT since that's what the REF chart in Campaigns went by, and it was a good starting point. Would it be right to multiply damage as per the REF of the filler?

Here's how I figured it;

METHOD 1

Shady Hitman figures he needs more pop with his bullets, and when he goes and makes his special explosive ammo, he switches up his regular (TNT?) filler for some new, more potent, hush-hush black market stuff. Say, CL20. Shady's very well connected.

So, Shady starts making it. His magazine weights 1-lb, which I assume to be half clip, half ammo. So, I take the stats for a half-pound stick of dynamite (9d+1, if I recall), multiply that by 2.3 (CL20s REF) and divide that by 30, for the number of rounds. (55 x 2.3) / 30 = 4d+1 or so? (Math might be wrong, I'm tired right now). Standard cut damage for fragmentation I assume, since nothing modifies that but the extra boom (would that make a difference? Or does cut damage involved the 'blade's' size more than velocity?).

METHOD 2

Shady does all that, but instead the 1d-2 damage is multiplied by 2.3 instead of all that other math.

Either of these make sense? Or am I missing the point of how HE bullets work?

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Ubiquitous

METHOD 1

METHOD 2

Method 3: figure out the actual mass of a projectile. This is available for-real in any number of on-line sources. Find or calculate the potential available filler material weight, calculate the damage of that mass of explosive of your choice.

By and large, this is a waste of time for rounds of less than 12.7mm with 4:1 aspect ratio or more. Basically .50BMG rounds or larger, and most won't bother to fill rounds of less than 20mm or so. Just not worthwhile.

consider that a purpose-built HE round of 20mm was canceled as being darn near useless in the OICW program. The 20mm autocannon rounds also happen to be much larger AND much faster...

[Green-Neck]

yes, no exact formula, but enough detail to extrapolate:
HT 169 gives details of explosive fillings by TL, and some extra detail.

[Ubiquitous]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Method 3: figure out the actual mass of a projectile. This is available for-real in any number of on-line sources. Find or calculate the potential available filler material weight, calculate the damage of that mass of explosive of your choice.

By and large, this is a waste of time for rounds of less than 12.7mm with 4:1 aspect ratio or more. Basically .50BMG rounds or larger, and most won't bother to fill rounds of less than 20mm or so. Just not worthwhile.

consider that a purpose-built HE round of 20mm was canceled as being darn near useless in the OICW program. The 20mm autocannon rounds also happen to be much larger AND much faster...

Method 3 is just Method 2; GURPS told me how much I can fit into a bullet with those dimensions. What I'm asking is should I multiply the damage by the REF and average it across the magazine, or should I just multiply HE damage by the REF?

Originally Posted by Green-Neck

yes, no exact formula, but enough detail to extrapolate:
HT 169 gives details of explosive fillings by TL, and some extra detail.

I don't understand what you mean; are you saying that there's a way in HT to calculate this, or are you saying that I get more boom at higher TLs, or...?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ubiquitous

Method 3 is just Method 2; GURPS told me how much I can fit into a bullet with those dimensions. What I'm asking is should I multiply the damage by the REF and average it across the magazine, or should I just multiply HE damage by the REF?

You should generally assume that the explosive used is the most powerful practical given the technology and budget, but it would be the square root of the ratio of REF.

[Ubiquitous]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You should generally assume that the explosive used is the most powerful practical given the technology and budget, but it would be the square root of the ratio of REF.

I don't get what you mean both times; A) why assume the most powerful practical? For infantry weapons I'd thought it'd be impractical, I had expected using them as such to be eccentric, not really accepted. As for square-root of the REF...you're saying that RED-squared = damage?

[Kalzazz]

Convince your DM that you should be able to get TL 9 ammo

Because then you can use the convenient tables from Ultra Tech!

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ubiquitous

A) why assume the most powerful practical?

Because weapons are not underdesigned. More power will generally cost you for reliability.

[Ubiquitous]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Because weapons are not underdesigned. More power will generally cost you for reliability.

What I'd meant was; HE rounds for infantry weapons, I assume, are still designed with minimum practicality in mind; weapons aren't 'underdesigned' but they have to be kept affordable; I'd imagine that whoever makes HE bullets experimented around to find the lowest costing-but-effective explosive and mass-produced that.

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Convince your DM that you should be able to get TL 9 ammo

Because then you can use the convenient tables from Ultra Tech!

Or this.

But I wanna see what'll do more damage; I'm trying to balance the CPS with one/two-hit put-downs, since doing this would reeeaaally bite into my character's funds.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Ubiquitous

I'd imagine that whoever makes HE bullets experimented around to find the lowest costing-but-effective explosive and mass-produced that.

No, the cost of the explosive is a very small part of the overall cost of the round. It won't be the most powerful explosive available, but it will be a strong explosive capable of practically being fired from a gun.