[Basic] Skill Question: Dropping vs Artillery (Bombs)

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Bombsights in both cases though.
Artillery is a weird and confusing skill in GURPS. It's still unclear to me why it is an IQ based skill at all, if it doesn't include any fire direction.

Why is artillery an IQ skill?

Artillery is about calculating where your shot (or bomb) will end up, depending on:

Initial velocity of your projectile (and velocity of the plane you fly on if you are in a bomber or an AC-130).
Strength and direction of the wind.
Correcting for leading a moving target.

And more, but none of these depends on your arms and how accurate you are with them. An AI with no arms could just as easily do that.

Hell, the german supercannon in WWI fired shells so high they had to compensate for the curvature of Earth!

Artillery is all about mathematics and physics, at no point it involves physical accuracy, so it's an IQ skill. Dropping is all about having a good aim with your arms, so DX skill.