Author Topic: Elemental (Imperio) One shot launchers are lighter than you might think  (Read 996 times)

Liam's Ghost

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  Clan Goliath Scorpion was in a poor state when it absorbed Nuevo Castile, particularly in terms of its ability to manufacture replacement equipment. While they had taken what industrial equipment they could from their last holdouts in the Homeworlds, the machine tooling wouldn't be of any use until it was actually installed, and the Clan would still face shortages of critical resources and subcomponents for their most advanced technologies for decades to come as they struggled to properly establish themselves on the Castillian worlds.
  However, the needs of the Warrior Caste could not simply be put aside, with hostile powers not far away and regularly probing the territory of the new Imperio for weaknesses or opportunities. The clan thus began settling for less, concentrating on producing less sophisticated, simpler weapons and equipment as their weapon industries struggled to recover, or simply get established.
  The first generation of Elemental armor produced in the Imperio are a clear example of those compromises. While visually not terribly different from standard elemental armor (with one very obvious exception), they are built to simpler, some might say cruder design standards. The first notable compromise made is that these suits lack the harjel system that is otherwise standard on Elemental armor. At the time, harjel was a resource in critically short supply to the touman, with no expectation of those supplies being replenished, and the difficulty of integrating a harjel system into the relatively crude design was thus considered more trouble than it was worth. The weight saved from omitting the system did allow this version of elemental armor to carry a potentially greater combat load than a standard elemental, though even this was of questionable utility.
  The second compromise in the design is responsible for the suit's distinctive visual appearance. The cruder design of this generation of suits is overall more cumbersome and less agile than the standard Elemental, to the point where it is unable to safely use its jump jets when the standard missile pack is attached. Designers anticipated that warriors would be deeply uncomfortable with this restriction to their mobility, enough to likely discard the missile pack either immediately or after only a single volley of missiles to grant them something closer to their full range of mobility. The twin pack with its single reload of missiles was therefore replaced with a single shot missile system. The weight saved from removing the reloads and the feed system for them allowed the designers to up the total number of missile tubes from two to six in a hulking and visually striking backpack mount which gives the armor the capacity for a devastating initial volley. Notably this missile pack is (with some small modification and a software update to the suit) entirely compatible with standard elemental armor, giving even the more conventional suits that would follow this first generation the option for such a withering opening salvo.
  The suit's primary weapon mount is little changed from the classic loadout of Elementals stretching back to their introduction. Notably absent from these suits are more advanced weapons such as the Micro Pulse Laser and the AP Gauss, a deliberate decision to conserve these weapons for more experienced troops using standard battle armor, and instead the old standbys of small laser, machine gun, and flamer are normally issued. As mentioned before, the weight saved from omitting the harjel system does give this generation of suits a bit more flexibility however, and recoiless rifles or the blakist designed King David Gauss are also possible options.
  This first generation of newly manufactured Elemental Armor would only be in production for about a decade until the Imperio was able to switch back to standard Elemental production (though as noted before, the suit's distinctive missile pack would find a second life with these newer suits as an optional refit), and these older suits would be gradually shifted to second line or locally raised troops, who are at the very least happy to have them. With the Imperio still only making slow progress on bringing its military industries to clan standards, these suits are likely to remain in service for years to come.
 

Elemental (Imperio)
Type: Elemental
Manufacturer: Unknown
    Primary Factory: Unknown

Tech Base: Mixed (Standard)
Chassis Type:  Biped
Weight Class: Medium
Maximum Weight: 1,000 kg

Equipment                                     Slots      Mass   
Chassis:                                               175 kg    
Motive System:                                                   
     Ground MP:          1                               0 kg    
     Jump MP:            3                             150 kg    
Manipulators:                                                    
    Left Arm:            Battle Claw                    15 kg
    Right Arm:           None                            0 kg
Armor:                   Standard (Basic)       0      250 kg    
    Armor Value:         10



(Small Laser)                            Slots           
Weapons and Equipment         Location (Capacity)   Mass 
SRM 6                           Body       4       120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount   Left Arm     1        5 kg 
Small Laser                   Right Arm     1       200 kg
Battle Value: 398


(Recoilless Rifle)                       Slots           
Weapons and Equipment         Location (Capacity)   Mass 
SRM 6                           Body       4       120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount   Left Arm     1        5 kg 
BA Recoilless Rifle           Right Arm     2       250 kg
Battle Value: 506


(Machine Gun)                            Slots           
Weapons and Equipment         Location (Capacity)   Mass 
SRM 6                           Body       4       120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount   Left Arm     1        5 kg 
Machine Gun                   Right Arm     1       100 kg
Battle Value: 355


(King David)                             Slots           
Weapons and Equipment         Location (Capacity)   Mass 
SRM 6                           Body       4       120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount   Left Arm     1        5 kg 
Gauss Rifle                   Right Arm     2       275 kg
Battle Value: 377


(Flamer)                                 Slots           
Weapons and Equipment         Location (Capacity)   Mass 
SRM 6                           Body       4       120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount   Left Arm     1        5 kg 
Flamer                        Right Arm     1       150 kg
Battle Value: 355
Good news is the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show an immediate latency of 44.6 years. So if you're thirty or over you're laughing. Worst case scenario you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you've forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator, it makes a happy face.

(indirect accessory to the) Slayer of Monitors!

Cavgunner

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You know... I tend to greatly dislike one-shot weapons, and I like standard Small Lasers on Clan units even less, but I might make an exception here. That IS a heck of a lot of firepower for not much weight. Certainly enough to wreck a tank, or make a mech really regret its life choices.

Retry

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Vehicle one-shot weapons mostly suck, but BA one-shots are actually fairly capable.  A clan SRM-2 with 2 volleys weighs 110 kg, which is actually more than a one-shot -5 rack and almost as much as a one-shot -6 rack.  On a strictly expected damage basis, the one-shots are usually superior until you start mounting roughly 3 or more turns worth of ammo.  Sure, it's an all-or-nothing thing, but if your squad gets wiped before you can get the 2nd or 3rd shots in it's a moot point.

DevianID

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The issue I have with oneshots is how superior they are.  The clan elemental with an srm2 with 1 reload is worse then an OS srm5, but the 5 OS missiles are cheaper, smaller, and less BV then 2 with 1 reload.

There isnt anything wrong with this BA, using an OS srm6 in place of the srm2 with 1 reload, but it feels like turning LRM20s into LRM5s on mechs with double  heat sinks.  It's kinda too easy I guess?  Turning the small laser srm2 447 bv elemental into the small laser OS srm6 elemental for 398 bv is the boring kind of better.

Liam's Ghost

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The initial impetus for using the one shot launcher was purely because it was effectively an inner sphere chassis (a "cruder" design if you will), and thus would be incapable of jumping until it had expended its missiles. In that context, I felt like having a multishot missile launcher was more of a hinderance than a benefit.  Though to be honest I did not expect to be able to cram a one shot SRM 6 in the same space as an elemental's SRM 2. Having not tinkered with battle armor too much, I had assumed I'd be able to stick in a one shot SRM 3 or 4 at best.

(For reference, the SRM 6 fits as a swap for the standard elemental as well, as that suit has an extra ten kilograms free to make up the difference)
Good news is the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show an immediate latency of 44.6 years. So if you're thirty or over you're laughing. Worst case scenario you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you've forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator, it makes a happy face.

(indirect accessory to the) Slayer of Monitors!

Retry

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An OS SRM-4 should be generally better than a SRM-2 with 2 reloads (in weight and cost, not BV), adding that extra reload mechanism should come at a meaningful cost in weight and C-bills for the launcher.  For the most part, you should only be taking reloading launchers over OS ones when you need high enough endurance that a reloadable launcher + ammo becomes lighter than an equivalent size/amount of OS launchers, or when said equivalent of OS launchers is just too bulky to fit.

Frankly, the vehicle OS launchers should have taken a page from their book.  They're totally pointless unless they happened to be called "I-OS" and also happen to be the Clan SRM-2 or SRM-4, and those are also extremely niche.  They should really just be half weight across the board, if not quarter-weight.

As for this suit itself, it's quite good.

DevianID

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Retry like you say, an SRM4 OS should be better, or at least equal, to an SRM2 with 2 salvos, but instead the BV is less then half.  Which is crazy.  Getting an OS SRM10 for the BV of an SRM2 with 1 reload, or by weight an OS SRM5/6, is just an artifact of bad battle armor design making OS systems too light/cheap.

I really like iOS launchers, and since they are tech B I have iOS primitive launchers available the same way they retconned primitive RL10s.  Take a -1 to cluster, and use them whenever the ammo exists.  The extra cost of prototype iOS, like prototype rocket launchers, 'explains' why they arnt popular in the succession wars despite the technology not being complicated.
« Last Edit: 02 March 2024, 21:32:49 by DevianID »

Retry

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Retry like you say, an SRM4 OS should be better, or at least equal, to an SRM2 with 2 salvos, but instead the BV is less then half.  Which is crazy.
Won't disagree with you there, BV is a mess.