Can someone please explain "slow-firing" to me?

[haremlord]

Relevant text:

d20pfsrd wrote:

Slow-Firing: A slow-firing weapon requires a full-round action to use, and thus cannot be used to make iterative attacks.

Here's my confusion:

1) Is it like a full attack where, on your initiative, you do your attack but you cannot do anything else in the round or is it like a full round spell where you start using it on your initiative and it goes off right before your initiative in the following round?

2) If it's the latter, do you need to declare your target or can you change targets when you finally fire? I can see many situations where the battlefield has changed significantly enough by the time it goes off.

2a) Can you cancel your attack if it goes off right before your next action in case there are no valid targets, or if too many bystanders are in the way?

3) I assume it's no good for AoOs (if you had the ability to make AoOs with ranged weapons) but considering you are basically standing there, powering up your weapon and preparing to fire, does that mean you PROVOKE AoOs during that entire time? Basically, say my initiative is 13. At 13, I'm not currently threatened and I start pulling the trigger. My railgun starts heating up preparing to unleash hell on my enemies, but it doesn't fire until right before 13 of the next round. While it's powering up, and enemy approaches me. Does he get an AoO because I'm still technically shooting?

That's all I can think of right now :D

[Chess Pwn]

Slow firing is a trait on some siege weapons. It's not good or useful

[Bob Bob Bob]

1. It's a full round. Like full round spells, which take a full round action to use. Spells that go off at the start of your next initiative are 1 round spells, completely different. You can take a swift and as many free actions as your GM says in the same round as you take a full round action. You can start a full round action as a standard action and finish it by spending another standard action on your next turn.

2. N/A
a. N/A

3. Still N/A? The only one this might apply to is if you start a full round action using a standard action, but even then it really doesn't matter. You provoke for actually making a ranged attack (usually), reloading a ranged weapon (usually), you do not provoke for "charging your weapon".

[Shar Tahl]

They use the full round action to fire. They are not the same as 1 round spells. You get one shot on your initiative regardless of your Bab.