|
Just browsing the rules and I noticed these things . . .
Shoulder Laser
This laser weapon has a smooth, curved housing and an eyelike aperture, and it can be installed in an armor upgrade slot, leaving the wielder’s hands free for other tasks. As the name implies, most users mount the eyelike aperture over one shoulder, but it can work just as easily mounted on the torso or a forearm. Many shoulder laser users are androids who integrate them into their bodies as emergency weapons. Azimuth, corona, aphelion, and perihelion shoulder lasers are available in most areas.
Computer Interface
With 10 minutes of work, you can set the computer’s control module to operate any one system in your armor, as long as that system doesn’t take a full action or longer to activate or deactivate. Common applications are environmental protections or a force field armor upgrade. You can set the computer to operate the upgrade at your command (allowing you to activate one such item each round without taking an action to do so), or set it to automatically trigger the system under specific conditions as follows: the first time you take damage, the first time you take Hit Point damage, when you are stunned, when you are staggered, when you are unconscious, or when the atmospheric conditions change. If the trigger occurs, the computer automatically activates the linked system. This occurs at the end of your next turn after the condition occurs. The control module can be linked to weapons or tools that are part of the armor, subject to the normal limitations of control modules.
However here's where I hit a problem a control module merely allows you to control something remotely e.g. piloting a drone. So it sounds like the computer interface can be linked to the shoulder laser allowing you . . . to shoot it as if you didn't have the computer interface? Does anyone know how the rules on this work?
1) Computer interface is needed to use a shoulder laser at all.
2) Computer interface is useless for shoulder laser.
3) Computer interface shoots the laser for you with some rules allowing you to be free to do other things.
4) Something else.
Because honestly as fun as the idea of a shoulder laser swivveling around shooting at things is its not worth 2 upgrade slots 1 for the laser and 1 for the computer system unless the system can attack with it for you even if its just 1 attack a round.
The greatest rules problem presented here would be determining what attack bonus would be used if the Computer Interface DID fire the weapon. The clear intention of the CI system is to operate minor systems. Using it for more advanced purposes in combat would indeed require additional rules.
Now, if the CI was linked to a VI (SOM pg. 35), this would make sense, but that introduces the problem of determining what the cost for such systems would be, as the costs listed in the source book are in build points, which doesn't translate into credits very well. There are some guide lines on using normal computers of various tiers as starship computers, and vice versa, so you might be able to work backwards from there, but overall that would be an expensive upgrade to the CI, and possibly not worth the effort.
VIs can't be installed in armor or non-starship computers.
You don't need a computer interface to fire a shoulder laser.
A computer interface with a control module can operate the shoulder laser independently. Under the rules: Computers - Control module, It has an attack bonus equal to the computer's tier. Which tends to be both expensive and inaccurate unless you have an integrated explosive weapon, or say a grenade launcher fusion in the shoulder laser.
|
|
The greatest rules problem presented here would be determining what attack bonus would be used if the Computer Interface DID fire the weapon. The clear intention of the CI system is to operate minor systems. Using it for more advanced purposes in combat would indeed require additional rules.
Now, if the CI was linked to a VI (SOM pg. 35), this would make sense, but that introduces the problem of determining what the cost for such systems would be, as the costs listed in the source book are in build points, which doesn't translate into credits very well. There are some guide lines on using normal computers of various tiers as starship computers, and vice versa, so you might be able to work backwards from there, but overall that would be an expensive upgrade to the CI, and possibly not worth the effort.
Except its flavour text specifically states that it can be linked to weapons so I think that comes under its intention since that's the example given. Still Garretmander has seen what I missed so . . .
VIs can't be installed in armor or non-starship computers.
You don't need a computer interface to fire a shoulder laser.
A computer interface with a control module can operate the shoulder laser independently. Under the rules: Computers - Control module, It has an attack bonus equal to the computer's tier. Which tends to be both expensive and inaccurate unless you have an integrated explosive weapon, or say a grenade launcher fusion in the shoulder laser.
Ah I was looking in a different section of the book (computers rather than computer use). Of course now I need to figure out what tier the bsaic integrated computer is (tier 1?) and whether an engineer's exocrtex computer could be used for this . . .
Still seems a lot less useful than on first sight since even a top tier computer is only +10 to attack and you'll probably have much less than that.
You typically want control module weapons to be either explosive (half damage on save) or do something neat like install a bombarding fusion and a summoning grenade so you can summon a creature for 'free'. Even then, they still aren't great.
