Bullet flight time conventions

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

This is true, but I think 'glide path' isn't really the best way to think about something that's only up for a handful of seconds.

Also, steadily shrinking area it can reach applies in much the same way to high-speed missiles. Even ignoring the eventual exhaustion of their propulsion, they (like a smart bullet) will inescapably overshoot the target. As the remaining range to the target decreases, so does the space the missile can maneuver into before such maneuvering becomes irrelevant.

Teleporters and some kinds of magic would probably make the seeker lose track of the target. At which point if it's not a lot smarter than I'd expect in a bullet-sized package it probably will either fly dumb or attack something that was right next to the target when it disappeared.

Time interval doesn't matter - if it has control surfaces and no propulsion it has a glide path - even if it is an F-4 (which was said to have the glide characteristics of a brick with the engines off)... No controls and no propulsion? It is a ballistic object trapped on a trajectory.

Re: shrinking area of opportunities - Exactly. The difference is that missiles have continuous propulsion (until the fuel runs out) and controls and bullets get one good wallop and then nothing so what ever controls they get in GURPS with a G&H system has to make do with the energy they have. If we postulate that they have some sort of energetic jet to add energy to the system then they are really a hybrid gyroc. And that stuff is generally less dense than the bullet is so we go down a rabbit hole of trading off penetrating mass for controls to raise the probability of hitting the target and it's a mess.

Re: Dumb rounds - RAW says any Homing system with IR gets a skill 13 so no downside to packing it into as small a round as allowed. That aside there are a lot of complications to think through for this tech.

Passive camouflage countermeasures, heat control/matching, active measures and intercepts. The interplay of powers.

Several posts have been about sniping but is that the best use of such technology? The intention is to raise the hit ratio of the user - one bullet, one kill. A novice may be able to do very well with such a system so that leverages the manpower and lets less skilled people do better. But you could run a sensor over a crowd or a base, pick targets in real-time and then fire a burst of active homing rounds. Do it from within the one second range to reduce some counter measures. Send an armed drone as the firing platform and remotely engage if the range is too close for the firer to escape and evade retribution. Fire from further out if there is a need to cover more wiidth. And thus begins wheels within wheels of strategy and doctrine.