One Shot T-Bolts - what should they look like?

[Avimimus]

Well?

I figure the unusually large size of the missiles requires a heavy loader - hence deleting the loading mechanism should reduce the weight of the missile. So a one-shot TBolt would actually be considerably lighter than the normal reloadable weapon (unlike all other one-shot missile arrays).

What do you think?

An eight ton Thunderbolt 20? Six tons? Ten tons?

[A. Lurker]

Thunderbolt (OS), add 0.5 tons to launcher weight; Thunderbolt (iOS), subtract 0.5 tons from launcher weight instead.

Unless and until we're looking to "fix" the weights of one-shot missile racks in general once and for all, it's probably best to just stick with the established formula.

[evilauthor]

Thunderbolt (OS), add 0.5 tons to launcher weight; Thunderbolt (iOS), subtract 0.5 tons from launcher weight instead.

The first is arguably just a vanilla launcher with the one shot already loaded and no ammo bin attached to the loader (the 0.5 tons comes from rounding up the tonnage of that shot).

The improved version probably removes the loader, and the rest of the tonnage probably comes in the form of fire control gear, extra armor to protect the weapon from enemy fire, and what not. Rocket Launchers which notably DON'T have fire control gear (or loaders for that matter) get very very light since they're not spending tonnage on such luxuries.

[A. Lurker]

The first is arguably just a vanilla launcher with the one shot already loaded and no ammo bin attached to the loader (the 0.5 tons comes from rounding up the tonnage of that shot).

The improved version probably removes the loader, and the rest of the tonnage probably comes in the form of fire control gear, extra armor to protect the weapon from enemy fire, and what not. Rocket Launchers which notably DON'T have fire control gear (or loaders for that matter) get very very light since they're not spending tonnage on such luxuries.

Oh, trust me, I'm fully looking at rocket launchers (which are close enough for government work to being the real one-shot MRMs, after all) as evidence of what weight savings one-shot racks could allow if somebody -- heck, anybody at all -- in-universe decided the idea was worth enough to finally stop half-assing their attempts at implementing it. (Even the "improved" versions quickly get ridiculously heavy, after all, which tells me right there there's plenty of potential left.)

But as long as that doesn't happen, I don't really see any more effort being put into creating specifically weight-efficient one-shot Thunderbolt launchers either, so as far as I'm concerned they'd likely end up simply being more of the same.

[majesticmoose]

The mech warrior adventure unbound has single shot thunderbolts. It's actually where the weapons came from.

[worktroll]

While I'd agree that the stock one-shot Thunderbolt should obey the usual one-shot rules ... how about a honking big Rocket-Launcher style unguided version? Blunderbolt launchers? ;)

[evilauthor]

While I'd agree that the stock one-shot Thunderbolt should obey the usual one-shot rules ... how about a honking big Rocket-Launcher style unguided version? Blunderbolt launchers? ;)

Hmm...

An RL-10 is 0.5 tons.
10 LRMs is 10/120 of a ton, or 0.08333 tons.
One Thunderbolt 5 missile is also 1/12 of a ton, or 0.08333 tons.

So an RL style launcher firing TBolt 5 would be 0.5 tons.

A TB10 missile at 1/6 ton per missile would be 1 ton per RL style launcher.
A TB15 at 1/4 ton per missile would have a 1.5 ton launcher.
And a TB20 at 1/4 ton would have a 2 ton launcher.

A 20 point damage hit. For TWO tons. Even with truncated range brackets (5/10/15?) and possibly a -1 TN penalty due to being unguided, that's STILL way overpowered and broken.

[CloaknDagger]

A 20 point damage hit. For TWO tons. Even with truncated range brackets (5/10/15?) and possibly a -1 TN penalty due to being unguided, that's STILL way overpowered and broken.

Ranges on RLs go down fast. And it's not as if RLs weren't already doing absurd damage. You forgot to increase weight by 50% for Tbolts too.

[Prince of Darkness]

[quote author=evilauthor link=topic=29431.msg679218#msg679218 date=1368490009
A 20 point damage hit. For TWO tons. Even with truncated range brackets (5/10/15?) and possibly a -1 TN penalty due to being unguided, that's STILL way overpowered and broken.


Ranges on RLs go down fast. And it's not as if RLs weren't already doing absurd damage. You forgot to increase weight by 50% for Tbolts too.

Except RLs are cluster hit weapons with a penalty, not a single shot.

[CloaknDagger]

Except RLs are cluster hit weapons with a penalty, not a single shot.

That's why T-Bolts have the extra weight over LRMs. And less range.

Oh, and extra heat too. But what idiot would put RLs on a mech in the first place...

[Acolyte]

Probably something like this. ;)

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,27412.0.html

   - Shane

[evilauthor]

That's why T-Bolts have the extra weight over LRMs. And less range.

The point is that RLs get worse range brackets as they get larger is because they're firing more missiles. T-Bolts only fire single missiles and as such wouldn't be subject to the same range degradation as their size goes up. Sure, they'd have shorter range brackets than standard TBolts, but those brackets wouldn't shrink as the damage increases.

[Acolyte]

Ya, I'd range them at 0/5/10/15 and give them a +1 just like RL's. Have them "hot loaded" in the tubes so they have no minimum but blow when hit.

Maybe you don't need the +1 and maybe the range could be 0/6/12/18 if you like and don't think it's overpowered.

   - Shane