Is there any reason one can't mount two sidecars? Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Switch to: Outline Standard Switch to: Linear+

[ShadowDragon8685]

Sure, it would probably look strange (not to mention shoot your handling all to hell,) but is there any particular reason you can't mount two sidecars - say, one for a passenger, one for a machine gun? Or one for a machine gun and one for a rocket launcher?

Also, is there any compelling reason why a sidecar can't be a modular thing - something you could take off or mount with a few hours' work and a few Mechanics checks? So if you're planning to go driving somewhere it's considered impolite to roll around packing heavy artillery, for instance, you can take the guncart off?


Obviously, besides 'runners, I'm thinking of the sort of thing that go-gangers would do when going to war.

[Chainsaw Samurai]

There is only one reason why you can't mount 2 side cars. 2 is a number which is less than 4. 4 is the right answer.

[Stahlseele]

a sidecar should have space for both a pintle-mount and a passenger to fire the mounted gun O.o

[ShadowDragon8685]

a sidecar should have space for both a pintle-mount and a passenger to fire the mounted gun O.o

Or alternatively, just use a remote-control turret to the fire the mounted gun.


Specifically, I'm coming up with an Ancients Lieutenant that has taken a shine to one of my players. She drives a Horizon-Double Revolution. (And yes, I know it's technically "Doble," but I misread it the first time and by now it's gotten weight of use behind it in my game.)

It works out that a sidecar adds a net of +2 mod slots to the vehicle. It adds +3 body, but takes up a mod slot to use. I figure it's kosher if the mod slot you use to add the sidecar is one of the mod slots the sidecar itself gives you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Basically, when arming for war, I figure she attaches a sidecar to the bike - one has a Shiawase Nemesis LMG (so you can spray without shooting your chummers, natch.) If an extended engagement is expected, she can add an additional sidecar which carries two extra bins of belt-feed ammunition, feeding through one of those ammo feed rectangular tubes that gets fed through the main body of the bike, under her legs.


Or there's the secret weapon BoomCart - the same set-up as the GunCart, but in place of an LMG it mounts a Gonryu automatic grenade launcher. And since the Gonryu is a belt-feed weapon, per the vehicle mounted belt-fed weapon rules, it upgrades to 250 rounds per belt, so it can carry 250 rounds in its own cart, or 750 if, for some insane reason, there's a need to pack that much boom into one bike. (More likely, it would be mounted opposite the Nemesis.)

It also has Gecko Tips on it, because why wouldn't you want a motorbike that you can back up a sturdy highway pillar or skyscraper and ascend. The Spikes will never see it coming when you ambush them and open fire on them from above and in a weird spot! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Raiki]

I like it. I'm not sure how feasible it is to use gecko tips to drive a monocycle up a wall/pillar...but other than that, I like it.


~R~

[UmaroVI]

Huh, I never noticed that extra body deal. Hmm...a Dodge Guardian with four sidecars has 20 body, and still has 12 mod slots left too. It's not very fast, but it is cheap. You could even make room for another one by adding in Engine Customizations, for a 23-body, 6-passenger "motorcycle."

[ShadowDragon8685]

I like it. I'm not sure how feasible it is to use gecko tips to drive a monocycle up a wall/pillar...but other than that, I like it.

Admit it, you like the idea, though. And I figure it would stand a good chance of driving up anything heavy-duty and hardened, what with having an absolutely enormous contact patch. (Remember, it's a giant Smart Wheel, so it can extend and retract to produce the largest possible contact patch.)

Sometimes, the Rule of Cool bends the Laws of Physics. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Huh, I never noticed that extra body deal. Hmm...a Dodge Guardian with four sidecars has 20 body, and still has 12 mod slots left too. It's not very fast, but it is cheap. You could even make room for another one by adding in Engine Customizations, for a 23-body, 6-passenger "motorcycle."

It would have a top speed of 24 kilometers per hour... It... I... I can't...

My brain rebels at the concept!

[Stahlseele]

Then let's go deeper!
A Trike!
Or Monocycle!
With sidecars!

[ShadowDragon8685]

Um, the Horizon Revolution is a monocycle.

[Stahlseele]

It is?
I don't know much about the SR4 toys, i just heard that there are monocycles in there . .

[Summerstorm]

FOUR sidecars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoZdkItsoP4

Put them on cars too... Why not? You just making them unwieldier and slower. Eh... ok... the text just mentions adding A sidecar to a motorccle... but it doesnt EXCLUDE anything else expressly *g*.

EDIT: Wait it does... Motorcycle only... meh... that's lame, hehe.

[Angelone]

Wasn't the Murdercycle something like this but with a ramplate?

NM- it had a rigger cocoon.

[Yerameyahu]

The book specifically suggests putting two sidecars on the 'big wheel' monocycle.

[Snow_Fox]

I've never mounted asidecar on any bike I've ridden , RL, let's put aside the handling and you can't do that on a mon-wheel, you need the longer wjhell base of a real bike just to lead into that. It should be easy to make it modulae , of course a glitch might be a seperation like an old silent movie.

The concern would be does the bike engine have enough power to pull that much weight? A big bike like a Honda viking might pull it off, no pun intended, but not if it has to carry a troll too.

[Yerameyahu]

RL concerns aren't really a factor, of course. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[crash2029]

I agree, War Wheels in SR would be awesome.

[Stahlseele]

something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Wheel_(comics) might actually be possible. if a bit smaller . .

[Udoshi]

It works out that a sidecar adds a net of +2 mod slots to the vehicle. It adds +3 body, but takes up a mod slot to use. I figure it's kosher if the mod slot you use to add the sidecar is one of the mod slots the sidecar itself gives you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The beauty of a sidecar isn't that it increases the body.

Its that you can Overmod it with a Facility level tools.
Its hella HARD to do it, but is possible.

[Snow_Fox]

you're also increasing weight, unless you up mod the engine and handling speed, accel and handling should drop like a rock.when you do the math my 1200 bike RL has about 50bhp- massive for a bike with a small woman on it but start to add on weight like multiple sidecars and it will start to struggle. sure it can do one but the drag will start to tell when you get more...creative

[Yerameyahu]

That's already in the rules. Major reductions to Speed, Accel, and Handling.

[ShadowDragon8685]

That's already in the rules. Major reductions to Speed, Accel, and Handling.

Ironically enough, you can compensate for this by adding the TurboCart - another sidecar with two mod slots spent on turbochargers. No, I don't know how it works either, I suspect it contains high-throughput batteries that send a motherload of juice to the main wheel's drive engines for acceleration. The result is a 20% reduction in base speed and base acceleration, and then a numerical bonus of +10/+20 acceleration.

[Yerameyahu]

That's fine with me. You're spending money and slots. (Of course, always subject to GM approval.)

[Udoshi]

The biggest use I've found for motorbikes with sidecars is in making walker mode powersuits and cyborgs conversions.
You can use sidecars to bring the body up to near the limit for walker moding, and hardly care about the speed hits because even with the penalty you're still way faster than everything else on foot.

[Dakka Dakka]

The biggest use I've found for motorbikes with sidecars is in making walker mode powersuits and cyborgs conversions.
You can use sidecars to bring the body up to near the limit for walker moding, and hardly care about the speed hits because even with the penalty you're still way faster than everything else on foot.

Why don't you just use the Patrol 1? BOD 10, Great Handling, Armor etc. Only drawback, it's restricted.

[Manunancy]

Or alternatively, just use a remote-control turret to the fire the mounted gun.It works out that a sidecar adds a net of +2 mod slots to the vehicle. It adds +3 body, but takes up a mod slot to use. I figure it's kosher if the mod slot you use to add the sidecar is one of the mod slots the sidecar itself gives you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I don't think picking the slots from teh extra brought by the sidecar would be good : you need to install the sidecar's fixation on the bike and that's going to eat into ti's basick mod slots.

Taking the slots from the sidecar can give utterly ludicrous results where you ads a sidecar on teh left, then uses it's extra slots to fix one on the right.

[ShadowDragon8685]

As long as it all works out slot-wise, there's no real problem. A sidecar basically adds 3 body and 2 expansion slots. I don't have a problem with that.

[Udoshi]

Why don't you just use the Patrol 1? BOD 10, Great Handling, Armor etc. Only drawback, it's restricted.

Because sometimes, a Contrail with a single overmodded sidecar, is better. 13 modslots at body 9 makes a difference when you're talking about using lots of slots for arms and legs.

[Snow_Fox]

Ironically enough, you can compensate for this by adding the TurboCart - another sidecar with two mod slots spent on turbochargers. No, I don't know how it works either, I suspect it contains high-throughput batteries that send a motherload of juice to the main wheel's drive engines for acceleration. The result is a 20% reduction in base speed and base acceleration, and then a numerical bonus of +10/+20 acceleration.

fuel economy goes into the crapper though.

[Angelone]

Now I'm imagining a bunch of mages combining their ally spirits like Voltron.

[Manunancy]

As long as it all works out slot-wise, there's no real problem. A sidecar basically adds 3 body and 2 expansion slots. I don't have a problem with that.

the problem I have with that is simple : take off the sidecars and you have a bike that's as good on it's own as a regular bike - where a bike that's modded to haul one sidecar on each side (or worse) should have less room for gadgets when on it's own than a 'bare' one.

So in my opinion the 'sidecar fixation' mods should be taken from whatever the sidecar is fixed to (which means you could possibly daisy-chain them into absurdity, though each 'inside' sidecar would have only one slot available and only the 'outer' ones would use the two.

[ShadowDragon8685]

the problem I have with that is simple : take off the sidecars and you have a bike that's as good on it's own as a regular bike - where a bike that's modded to haul one sidecar on each side (or worse) should have less room for gadgets when on it's own than a 'bare' one.

So in my opinion the 'sidecar fixation' mods should be taken from whatever the sidecar is fixed to (which means you could possibly daisy-chain them into absurdity, though each 'inside' sidecar would have only one slot available and only the 'outer' ones would use the two.

I'm gonna say "nah," because that leaves you with only four slots to mod the base bike, and that's not enough to have a cool bike.

[Halinn]

Sidecars could have supermagnets attaching them to the bike (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[ShadowDragon8685]

Sidecars could have supermagnets attaching them to the bike (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That could be handy. Fired through 500 of your 750 rounds of belt-feed? Jettison the empty AmmoCart and get back some speed and acceleration.

Or else fill it with a lot of Boom.

[Yerameyahu]

Ah, but it's costing at the very least 1 mod slot to have Quick Detach sidecars. Otherwise, they take the listed time * 1/2?

[ShadowDragon8685]

Not everything neat has to cost a mod slot, Yerameyahu. Just call it a more expensive version of the same one-slot "Sidecar" mod that you can get simply by having the sidecar itself.

[KarmaInferno]

Sidecars could have supermagnets attaching them to the bike (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Gecko Grip.

Then again, you can probably just gecko grip two whole motorbikes together.




-k

[Yerameyahu]

Everything neat has to cost a mod slot. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) And lots of cash. TANSTAAFL 4 Life!

[almost normal]

Gecko Grip.
Then again, you can probably just gecko grip two whole motorbikes together.
-k

Nazis did it.

[Speed Wraith]

The only reason I could think of is that your GM just wouldn't allow it.

I would allow it, but only because if there is one thing I've learned playing with the current vehicle mod rules, it is how damn expensive things can get, rather quickly. Take a mini-drone designed for recon work. After loading up the improved sensor array with gadgets, and loading those gadgets up with gadgets, then throw in some useful autosofts and sensor software,upgrade its system to handle those autosofts, and then fill in the rest of the slots with useful gear, you end up with the perfect drone that you never want to use for fear of it being destroyed or captured.

[Yerameyahu]

That's certainly true. And then the GM'll just wreck them first chance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[SpellBinder]

Nazis did it.

Just because you can doesn't always mean you should.