Something that's always bothered me about cannon companion. Under firearm custimization, it lists removing the trigger as having an FCU value of -.5 (_r_). I've always thought this was an error, since removing the trigger should give you more room, not less, but the errata doesn't mention it. I would think that any room needed is already taken care of by the smartlink system needed. Does anybody have any idea why it's listed this way?

The (_r_) also means if its attached to a mounting point instead of a permanent fixture it takes no room. How do you have a temporarily removed trigger?

Edit: (_r_) was writing as ®.

Even if it used a smartlink the gun would still need some mechanical component to make the firing pin hit the igniter on the bullet's propellant, but I wouldn't think that would take up as much space as a normal trigger. If anything, you'd break even, space-wise. So that sounds like a typo to me.

I noticed that a while back. Never did properly figure it out...

~J

It made sense to me. I figure that you remove the physical trigger and replace it with some type of actuator that would disegage the sear when commanded thru a smart link. It seems reasonalble that this actuator and the control and power links would take up more room then the relativel simple mechanical trigger that is tied to the sear.

Impossible. You can fire any smartlinked gun without actually pulling the trigger, so the removal of said trigger should not require any further equipment.

~J

Got me then. Maybe the FCU cost should only apply for removing the trigger from a non internal smartlinked gun?

Hm. That could actually make sense. I personally hate external smartlinks, so it hadn't even occurred to me to take them into account. Seems kinda limiting, though; a gun that can only fire when an external accessory is mounted?

~J

A removable trigger that could be put back into place, yes.
The target audience for what you're talking about won't be implanting smartlinks in their body much, I think.

~J

The electronic components are more bulky. It's just that they're already present in a Smartlinked gun, so removing the trigger ought to either reduce the amount of stuff present or leave it unchanged, not increase it.

~J

Then I think its one to point out to Fan Pro for the Errata, cos you're right, that doesn't add up.

FCU also seem to represent "limiting your ass so you don't cram too much crap in a gun," even though I'm not particularly fond of that mentality. I mean, simply replacing metal parts with ceramic parts take up a huge amount of space (up to 0.75 ECU for Ceramic Components 3). And whether you're adding length or shortening a barrel, you lose 0.5 FCU -- unless you saw it off, at which point you lose no space. Yet oddly enough, making the weapon smaller for a dwarf or larger for a troll doesn't change the amount of space available.

There's a lot of odd things about the CC's creation rules, but overall they tend to do a decent job at limiting what you do with a firearm. The Remove Trigger option is, indeed, a baffling one, but so are a couple others as previously mentioned.