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Originally posted by Lionel Deffries:
Hello.
The intelligence of the rifle is the person shooting it (i dont run on a battery).
That's why I typed "intelligence". The quotes denote that I'm using that word in a special way. In all versions of Traveller that I've come across, weapons get progressively smarter with increasing tech levels. CT Book 4 specifically mentions that weapons above TL9 incorporate advanced sights and gyroscopic stabilization. I'm assuming that this means some kind of onboard computer, even if its just a task-specific, embedded system. While I don't have citations handy, I have also seen reference to integrated weapon and CES/Combat Armor. Presumably, targetting information is projected by the rifle to a HUD in the futuristic soldier's environment suit or combat armor.
That's specifically what I'm referring to when I mention "intelligence". It doesn't make sense to me that this continuous feed of information should be interrupted by the need to swap out magazines. Remember that gauss weapons have ridiculously high rates of fire. Any time you start playing rock'n'roll, you're going to be changing 40-round magazines like crazy.
I don't think that a rifle should leech power from the CES/CA since those batteries are already driving the HUD, an IR masking system, commo, etc.
I dont remember M16's having an ammo counter.
You must be using Hollywood clips.
Oh, I'm confused: I thought we were discussing Gauss rifles--electromagnetic coil guns with presently-unavailable power levels and nifty features such as gyroscopic stabilization. You know: high tech weapons which haven't even been invented yet.
It would seem to me that with all of the information which a 57th century infanteer would have to process, providing an ammunition counter would be a courtesy if nothing else. I mean do you really want to have to count rounds expended when your weapon is capable of 1200+ rpm? Would you want to risk having your clip run dry just as that Ine Givar terrorist popped around the corner and started hosing the area with an ACR?
Why would the rifle need to reboot (reboot what its a rifle).
I was being facetious, but see above. Any onboard electronics are going to need to draw at least a trickle charge in order to remain functional. I don't imagine that a 57th C infanteer gets a new rifle and then starts zeroing iron sights. Instead, "zeroing" the rifle is going to involve training the onboard computer system to manage the gyroscopic stabilization, HUD feed, etc.
If the only power supply resides in a magazine, your weapon loses power when the magazine is swapped out. What happens to all of the information needed to keep the rifle in proper operational condition? Try unplugging your PC and let me know what happens to its operating system.
I have never read anywhere in traveller where weapons have intelligence (you can do whatever you like in your universe),
"Intelligent" weapons are canonical--the canon sources just don't explicitly state what form this takes.
When you are dealing with complicated electromagnetic flux generation plus gyroscopic stabilization, automatic atmospheric allowance calculation... all the stuff that a future infanteer is going to be too busy trying to survive rather than worry about, then you
must assume some level of computer automation. I call this "intelligence", in the same way that "smart bombs" are "smart".
Sensors like low light IR passive sonic would be very good in the helmet but not in a gun (it's less intrusive to turn your head than to swing a rifle).
Okay, but you can't sight a gun properly with a fully-enclosed helmet, such as your CES or Combat Armor requires. So how does the HUD "know" what your rifle is "seeing" and allow you to target accurately? The obvious answer is that the rifle is feeding targetting information to the HUD. Unless the HUD is going to incorporate a whole wack of processing power, plus storing ballistic characteristics, atmospheric performance, recoil stats, etc. for dozens of available weapons, it makes more sense for this targetting feed to come from the gun itself. This means that the gun has onboard electronics which interface with the CES (onboard electronics are canonical: how else does gyroscopic stabilization work?). This means that a gauss rifle, prevalent at TL 12+ is much more than an electro-magnetic M-16. It's going to have its own brain, though we needn't associate anything like AI capabilities. An onboard computer needs onboard power: thus it makes more sense to have a battery integrated into the gun.
The above is not a critisism just an observation of how it works in MTU, as you said in yours guns have intelligence, is the intelligence palm print readers so only the registered owner can use the gun or like the downloaded personalitys in AD2000.
While palm or voice activation may exist on some civilian models, this kind of technology would be useless for a military weapon. Yeah it's a good idea to have some mechanism which prevents a cop's gun being used against him, but the future infanteer has bigger fish to fry. The gauss rifle is going to be a weapon which, regardless of form factor, will provide a "standard" targetting feed to a standardized HUD interface. See GT:GF--infantry weapons must be standardized across the various armed forces both for cost effectiveness and for the efficiencies which come from standardized training.
Yup, the weapons will get smarter and they'll need their own onboard power supplies in order to stay that way.
) that more than a few veterans would have a jury rigged backup battery on the side of the stock so if they slap a dud mag in the backup battery lets them fire. Handy even for the odd not quite full power battery clip you might get now and then.
