Artillery

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Icelander

And according to Spaceships they need both Gunner and Artillery if they mean to use both direct and indirect fire with their main guns.

This seems extra wonky to me. Let's consider the M224 60mm Mortar. It is designed to easily be both a direct fire and indirect fire weapon. In GURPS then a gunner needs both Guns/TL8 (Grenade Launcher) and Artillery/TL8(Cannons). With a -2 familiarity penalty from Guns he can also use the M203 grenade launcher and a -2 penalty from Artillery he can fire a 409mm naval cannon. However in RL firing the mortar in direct fire is almost exactly the same as indirect fire, the main difference is that you aim at the target, not an aiming stake and there is no FDC or FO. It's not much like firing an M203, and it is nothing like firing a 409mm Naval Gun (I imagine, I've never done it, but I'm pretty sure it's not a muzzleloader:) ). If an Artilleryman (that lacks Guns/TL8 (Grenade Launchers)) were to fire it in GURPS he'd be able to use it in direct fire at -2 to skill but would have to default to DX for Guns. It seems odd that he loses the default for a change in way the weapon is deployed that isn't especially significant.

IMO, I think that Artillery should be the skill of Fire Direction only, the gunners and loaders should use Guns.