Super Rocket - too risky?

[HeatDeath]

I'm reading the last few stories in the Autoduel Tales anthology, and I hit the one where the ice cream truck has a hidden "supermissile". Looking in my UACFH I found that's probably the "Super Rocket". Fifteen THOUSAND dollars, one shot, NINE d6 damage. Wow.

9D6 isn't a confetti-ing autokill on most cars as far as I can tell, but it's still a LOT of damage. Expected value of 30.5 points.

For that kind of investment I wouldn't want to launch it until I was practically up my target's tailpipe.

Anybody have any stories about one of these things?

[43Supporter]

Well, there was Mike Garrity's _CW Tanks_ design with SRs to the 1/3-spaces limit.

"See that guy? [CENSORED] him, and everyone in his ZIP code."

<- walks away, humming "Katyusha"

[swordtart]

Never bothered. Better to build a subcompact kamibomb (or several) and remote control it to the target :)

The rocket sidecar was expensive enough.

The stat escalation doesn't make any sense. It is 50% heaver than the Heavy Rocket and does three times as much damage, yet the Heavy Rocket is twice as heavy as the Medium Rocket but only does 50% more damage.

I would allow it on the same basis as the Existential Blue Crayon Gun - i.e. only if I was heavily medicated.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by swordtart

The stat escalation doesn't make any sense. It is 50% heaver than the Heavy Rocket and does three times as much damage, yet the Heavy Rocket is twice as heavy as the Medium Rocket but only does 50% more damage.

IMSMC: SR is supposed to be Mil-Spec; hence the cost inflation.

[juris]

The whole idea of super-powered 'military' hardware was just dumb. 'Civilians' can only buy lasers and not 'super rockets', uh huh.

Some military equipment was decently balanced though, but not the super rocket

Originally Posted by swordtart

The stat escalation doesn't make any sense. It is 50% heaver than the Heavy Rocket and does three times as much damage, yet the Heavy Rocket is twice as heavy as the Medium Rocket but only does 50% more damage.

I would allow it on the same basis as the Existential Blue Crayon Gun - i.e. only if I was heavily medicated.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by juris

The whole idea of super-powered 'military' hardware was just dumb. 'Civilians' can only buy lasers and not 'super rockets', uh huh.

The implication in the early days was: "Civilian" weaponry was depowered compared to MilSpec -- shorter barrels leading to lower accuracy; less-powerful shells; etc. That got lost somewhere along the way; and with what Reality has been showing lately, well, it's another aspect of the game which has Aged Like Fine Socks. .:)

[Racer]

Trouble with charging $15K for Super Rockets , is that creative players just used 7" Artillery Rockets instead & those were 15d Damage AND could be made Armour Piercing and still have a 1" Burst Effect .

Much cheaper (but heavier at 450lbs) than those Super Rockets ...

In Campaign where we used Military stuff , we threw the $15K out the window and stated that yes it 'may' have been that price on the BLACK MARKET in 2042 , but legitimate Military Buyers could get them for $3,000 by 2050 and after .

Used them many times particularly in wreaking buildings in Urban Combats .

The Camouflaged 7" Rocket Battery on a larger Trailer or Open Mount on a Flatbed , is a favourite & cost effective weapon system .

Blew away a Super Heavy Tank & damaged another using Direct Fire from undergrowth , while a couple of fast moving planes distracted them . Second tank couldn't bring it's main gun to bare on it , before all Rockets shot off . Artillery crew bailed & went down foxholes into prepared tunnels to escape the area .

Big Mac was not amused when we did that to him ... *evil smile*

[swordtart]

The other issue with these things in "normal" games is that it took away your agency as an opponent. Basically if this thing hit and they rolled good on damage they won, if it missed or rolled low damage they lost. You didn't need to be there really.

I like games where your skill and their skill was fairly tested over the course of a game. Lots of manoeuvre to get a shot in and a few shots needed to end the fight. You can trade a few hits before getting into the end game.

It is not really the cost, you can get round that by just upping the division, it was the weight and space per dice damage that went out of the window.

Logically of course the HR should have been 75lb, but then RL rounds shouldn't have been only 5lb each. I am not sure why I am stressing about this, it was always numberwang :)

[juris]

I think all single shot rockets should have been upped by a die - so a HR would do 4DD. A mini rocket a full DD. They just got left behind in the power creep.

Originally Posted by swordtart

Logically of course the HR should have been 75lb, but then RL rounds shouldn't have been only 5lb each. I am not sure why I am stressing about this, it was always numberwang :)

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by juris

I think all single shot rockets should have been upped by a die - so a HR would do 4DD. A mini rocket a full DD. They just got left behind in the power creep.

As I've noted elsewhere: One big problem OG CW faced was "not having a consistent editing staff".

One-shot rockets possibly should have been more powerful from the off, balanced by the "all or nothing" aspect (and with TH9...). That rockets became almost worthless when Metal Armor came along didn't help.