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

[sir_pudding]

I think this one is actually pretty simple (compared to Artillery (Cannon), anyway).

You use Dropping if you are flying over something, or standing on a high ledge or balcony, and you physically drop a thing (with your hands or whatever) on targets directly below you that you can sense with your naked senses (or are assuming are there and making a blind attack).

You use Artillery (Bombs) if you are operating a hard-point or bomb-bay.

I'm not sure what the problem is here, actually.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I think this one is actually pretty simple (compared to Artillery (Cannon), anyway).

You use Dropping if you are flying over something, or standing on a high ledge or balcony, and you physically drop a thing (with your hands or whatever) on targets directly below you that you can sense with your naked senses (or are assuming are there and making a blind attack).

You use Artillery (Bombs) if you are operating a hard-point or bomb-bay.

I'm not sure what the problem is here, actually.

Having it become a whole different skill when you use tools is a bit weird, honestly.

'I'm good at dropping things out of planes, but only when I do it by opening my hand rather than by pushing a button.' Um.

(I don't have much of a problem because once you add in a gunsight I can see a legit difference, but if you're not so equipped it's hard for me to justify.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Having it become a whole different skill when you use tools is a bit weird, honestly.

Dropping seems like a weird skill to begin with.

'I'm good at dropping things out of planes, but only when I do it by opening my hand rather than by pushing a button.' Um.

(I don't have much of a problem because once you add in a gunsight I can see a legit difference, but if you're not so equipped it's hard for me to justify.)

You are pretty much always going to have at least a simple gunsight aren't you? Early dive-bombers just used the same sight as the machineguns.

[Dalillama]

Dropping is a different skill than Artillery (Bombs) for the same reason that Flight is a different skill from Piloting (Aircraft) (in the same way, it's pretty much not a thing that entities without Flight can reasonably/usefully buy, on my view.) It's more akin to Throwing (from which it defaults), inasmuch as it's all about your kinesthetic sense of your body and its motion, your limb-eye coordination, and your visual tracking/processing. Being in a vehicle is generally not going to provide the same types of feedback, and thus calls for different ways of working out what's going on and where something's going to land.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Dropping is a different skill than Artillery (Bombs) for the same reason that Flight is a different skill from Piloting (Aircraft) (in the same way, it's pretty much not a thing that entities without Flight can reasonably/usefully buy, on my view.)

What skill do you use to drop things by hand out of an open cockpit or hatch from an aircraft?

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

What skill do you use to drop things by hand out of an open cockpit or hatch from an aircraft?

For aesthetic reasons, I would call it the Throwing skill, at a considerable (probably about -4) penalty. I would allow such a person to buy off most of that penalty via an average technique. AFAICT that was never a terribly accurate way of hitting anything though, and they tended to rely on the explosiveness of what they were dropping and the large SM of the things they were dropping on.

[Agemegos]

Are there birds that drop tortoises and other carapacious prey onto rocks with surprising accuracy? There is this story about the death of Aeschylus….

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Are there birds that drop tortoises and other carapacious prey onto rocks with surprising accuracy? There is this story about the death of Aeschylus….

There are certainly birds that drop tortoises, clams, nuts, etc. on rocks to break them open, although I'm not sure how carefully they aim, or the usual prevalence of rocks in areas where it's done. Crows are also known to just bombard ground dwelling animals (and cars) with rocks and sticks, apparently because they think it's a laugh.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

There are certainly birds that drop tortoises, clams, nuts, etc. on rocks to break them open, although I'm not sure how carefully they aim, or the usual prevalence of rocks in areas where it's done. Crows are also known to just bombard ground dwelling animals (and cars) with rocks and sticks, apparently because they think it's a laugh.

Crows are villains. Much too smart. If eagles can do it (as in the story of Aeschylus) that argues against an IQ-based skill.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Crows are villains. Much too smart. If eagles can do it (as in the story of Aeschylus) that argues against an IQ-based skill.

They certainly aren't using a bomb sight.