Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - TL 5-8 firearms in Ultra-Tech calibers

clu2415 · 02-06-2020, 10:16 AM

Lower strength requirements can come from more aerodynamic bullets. At lower tech levels, you take a big bullet and put a bunch of powder behind it to fling it with brute force. With advanced aerodynamic modeling, you can design bullets that lose much less energy to drag, thus dealing the same damage at the same distance, but with lighter ammunition and less recoil.

One of the major obstacles is chamber pressure. Newer calibers operate at much higher pressures, so building a lower-tech firearm that can handle that pressure could be tricky. You’ll see a major reduction in accuracy due to low tech manufacturing having much less precision and repeatability.

02-06-2020, 10:16 AM	#2
clu2415 Join Date: Jun 2016	Re: TL 5-8 firearms in Ultra-Tech calibers Lower strength requirements can come from more aerodynamic bullets. At lower tech levels, you take a big bullet and put a bunch of powder behind it to fling it with brute force. With advanced aerodynamic modeling, you can design bullets that lose much less energy to drag, thus dealing the same damage at the same distance, but with lighter ammunition and less recoil. One of the major obstacles is chamber pressure. Newer calibers operate at much higher pressures, so building a lower-tech firearm that can handle that pressure could be tricky. You’ll see a major reduction in accuracy due to low tech manufacturing having much less precision and repeatability.