I was wondering if there was any reason to not assume that all the cool kids are using laser based anti aircraft gear. Since Ares has managed to bring down the size of laser weapons. Aztlan may go with Gauss guns because of the pwonership by Aztechnology Smaller nations might go with a missile based system built around things like the sea dart or patriot missiles.

Laser power degrades over distance and with vision penalties, but I like them and use them for close up stuff. There's also a physiological factor to them, might be the cost or the "newness" of them. Something about Gauss cannons says "I am not fucking around", I'm just sorry the names are so hard to pronounce. The old "V" line of Ares autocannons had it right in that department.

How does this ruin a Rigger's day, any more than it would ruin any other runner's day?



-karma

For long range lasers are not that great but you are correct they would be on certain installation, ships etc.

Plus anti aircraft interceptor drones, armed and proxity detonation varitents. Mini drones, micro drones, guns, rockets, missles, fighter aircraft, magic, spirits and more! if they havent got it, you dont want it.

All layered up in defence and offensive nets with micro wave radar, all to rain on your parade.

then you got counter intellegence, satallite tracking, jamming and net work intrusion. ad nauseum

Pick what you like and place as setting appropriate. Some of the back water nations, corps will be running on inferior tech from the 60's or even 50's.

Getting his drones blown up means the rigger is having a pretty bad day. The rest of the party died when the LAV exploded in mid air. So as far as the day goes, they don't really give a flaming pile of shrapnel.

Remember kids, rigger cocoons aren't just for riggers.

Maybe this was only 3e, but I thought if you hit a rigged vehicle/drone with laser weapons, you'd deal damage to the rigger as well.

That happens with any kind of weaponry.

At least in SR3, if a rigged vehicle/drone was hit with a laser weapon (like the ANDREWS ship defense system), the hit from the laser beam caused ASIST backlash in the rigged system and dealt physical damage to the rigger. I believe (though I'm not intimately familiar with the rigging rules) that normal defense just does stun damage to the rigger. So getting hit with enough laser fire can potentially kill the rigger.

In hot sim, each time the drone suffers
damage, the rigger must also resist half that amount (round up) in Stun
damage with a Willpower + Biofeedback Filter Test; if the drone is
destroyed, the rigger is dumped from the Matrix (as with jacking out)
and immediately suffers the effects of dumpshock

So they are only hurt if they are running Hotsim. As far as I am aware there are no specialist rules for Laser hits.

i don't remember lasers having any special effect. iirc, there were certain electrical based weapons specifically designed to hurt the rigger piloting the drone, though...

Leave the LASERs to the kids. I opt for high-power MASERs. *eg*

That does kinda pose the question what would a HERF gun do to a missile? I mean can we cook a missile off at high enough speed to do any good?

Well, no one said one can't construct a X-ray maser.

Apart from the fact that X-rays aren't microwaves, you mean?

That would make it Molecular Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, wouldn't it? - Hey, we're talking about 2072!

The Jabberwocky... My personal Favorite...

I'm... not entirely sure that molecules can be amplified.

Some might call that Fusion... Just Saying...

And some might not. I doubt masers have much to do with fusion on a functional level.

*Shakes Head*... Never Mind...

in the words of rikku, ZAP!

A maser is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification due to stimulated emission. Historically the term came from the acronym "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation", although modern masers emit over a broad portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This has led some to replace "microwave" with "molecular" in the acronym, as suggested by Charles H. Townes. When optical coherent oscillators were first developed, they were called optical masers, but it has become more common to refer to these as lasers. See the section on terminology below for more on this.

Is that what you were referring to?

No... I was playing with the wording a bit...

Molecular Amplification... Fusion (Amplifying Hydrogen with Lithium to fuse Helium... You Know a Hydrogen Bomb, And yes, I know, it should be Atomic Amplification, but semantics you know, And I also know it does not quite work that way...)

Nevermind...