So I am confused about how to resolve burst fire grenades.

Burst fire says you can use a wide or narrow burst, wide bursts add to damage (+2DV) and wide bursts subtract from defense rolls (-2 to the defender's dice pool). How does this work with grenades?

Since there is no defender roll (except soak) to grenades that I can see, one would never choose a wide burst, and a mere +2 seems very weak compared to the astounding results of MRSI (possible DV of 30 from three High-Ex grenades).

What's the deal?

Grenades are weird.

Better question is, how exactly does it use MRSI with burst fire?
MRSI only works with 2 rounds.

I know that's not raw, but using granades with an airburst link on my games is a simple action on itself (one to fire, one to give the order for the granade to detonate on the proper point). Therefore, granade launchers are only used as SA weapons. The reasononing behind this is that Issue Commands is a simple action on most computer actions.

Would this apply if the user had a DNI to the weapon? Most commands delivered by DNI are historically free actions... Also, if you did not change the detonation distance between rounds could you keep shooting as a simple action?

Well, not in real life. IRL a weapon can also do MRSI on multiple targets in an area. However doing this sort of thing involves varying the propellent charge to allow variations in muzzle velocity, as well as changing the lay of the gun. With a fixed propellant charge you are limited to a max of two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery#MRSI

Still, I had the same question about where the third round goes.

I guess I am inclined to just allow the burst to be treated as a series of 3 single grenade attacks (with double recoil applied to each shot), but that's going to be slow to resolve.

Use 4th's, not anniversary edition's scatter/grenade rules.

Those allowed a dodge/defense/dive for cover roll.

It was changed, because apparently high explosive grenades SHOULDN'T kill people, and because it can bog down the game with defense tests for each NPC in the blast.

How is this not covered by smartlinking, DNI free actions, and node scripts?

Honestly, even thrown grenades have remote, timed, and impact fusing… for free (per the rules, no explanation given). Save those Free actions.

Didn't War! change the way impact/airburst nades work vs. targets? There's that whole opposed attack test where extra hits are added to the DV and scatter is ignored. Wide and Narrow stuff would still be way foggy. Maybe the Wide does use scatter for the 2nd and 3rd rounds while Narroy would do the new War! grenade thing where you add DMG+(1/2DMG)x2 for 2xDMG total.
You can't have multiple simultaneous impacts on the same point from the same rifle. You could do it with a howitzer firing miles in the air, but not a burst from a gun.

Per WAR! you can do MRSI with a grenade launcher. In fact the description of the MGL-18 (burst fire only GL) specifies that the weapon includes MRSI software.

Hypothetically IRL you can do MSRI with any projectile weapon that can cycle fast enough if you can aim it fast enough. There is not a lot of point to doing it with a rifle of course.

For any given weapon, round and target, there is a band of ranges where exactly two different weapon aim points will strike the target. One of these is above 45 degrees, and the other is below 45 degrees. You shoot the high arc first, re-aim on the low one, and at a time I-low arc flight time (where I is the time of impact for the first shot) you fire the low angle shot.

sorry for the delay on the answer, but it was away from the internets.



Actually, it is. Actively Issue comands to a computerized device (ANY device) is a simple action, DNI or no DNI.



That's true for hackers in direct DNI with the system AND in HOT sim mode. So i see no reason why a cold sim DNI should be a free action and therefore, faster. There is the reasoning why detonating a granade with an airbust link should be a simple action, even for balancing purposes. Making Airbust Granades free actions just makes a messy problem (granade rules) even more messier.

Change Linked Mode is Free, and it's easy to argue this is Free. You need that OOC counterargument ('imposed balance') to explain why it *shouldn't*.

Pretty much all interaction with a Smartlinked gun through the Smartlink is a free action. Changing mags on a multi mag weapon? free action. Ejecting the clip/mag? free action. Putting the weapon on 'safe'? free action. etc

Unwired 58. Manual Control of a physical device is Simple.
DNI to a linked device is Free, and Changed Linked Device Mode is -specifically- called out, because its the catch-all for setting-twiddling.

Your point about hot sim and cold sim is pretty irrelevant; hotsim and coldsim they are both DNI. What you should be comparing is DNI(your brain) and non-DNI.(your hands). The point we're trying to make is that the core book list of actions isn't the end-all-be-all of how it works. Mostly by other rules that specifically say so.

Additionally, there are three levels of control to a virtual device that you are ignoring.

The first is Changed Linked Device Mode.
The second is Issue Command. (simple)
The third is Control Device (always complex)

Contrary to what you think, Changed Linked Device Mode is pretty much used for -everything-.


Additionally, there's node scripts to consider. For example, most smartguns automatically eject clips when empty(that is to say, no user input). Its used in some of the fictional pieces, it makes sense.