I'll have to check when I get home. I'll edit this once I do to agree/disagree then.

Edit: Upon checking the book, it does say "When firing turret-mounted weapons, reduce recoil modifiers by half before applying recoil compensation from any accessories. Turrets cancel the double recoil modifier for heavy weapons."

Now then, the way it is read is you reduce recoil modifiers by half. So, heavy weapon, firing 10 bullets = 20 recoil, halfed is 10. Then it says you cancel the double recoil modifier for heavy weapons... which has already been done, as cancelling it puts the recoil at 10.

The other way you might read it, is that you cancel the double recoil, then half, but thats backwards to the order that it is listed in the book, and is not the intent of the ruling IMO.

My standing is that they would reduce a 10rnd heavy weapon burst to 10 recoil. And a 10rnd small weapon burst to 5 recoil, as that seems to be the intent of the rule.

Tisoz, as far as fixed-mounts go... They 'fire in a fixed arc (no more than 5 degrees to either side, up or down), so a driver "aims" the fixed-mount weapon by moving his vehicle.'

Thats from the book, so it is what you're thinking, however they have enough play to be able to converge on targets.

IRL the wing mounted weapons on WW2 fighters were canted slightly inward, so that the fire would converge at around 300 meters (exact distance is variable) in front of the aircraft.

Yeah, dont go trying to make military planes with the R3r rules. I believe the body for a B-17 would have to be...

Tail Turret (2 .50)
Ball Turret (2 .50)
Dorsal Turret (2 .50)
(2) Waist Guns (.50)
1 Nose Gun (.50)
(2) Cheek Guns (.50)

Which is MIN 11 Hard points, or body 22 just for the GUNS! never mind the 8k lb bomb load.

Lets not even consider the B-24 Liberator (14 guns).

Ahh, that what I get for not checking the heavy weapons rules as well... I thought it doubled the base recoil... In that case, I have to conceed, and that with a firmpoint you can do 10 bullets = 10 recoil, /2 = 5, -4 from recoil compensators, add in an integral laser sight/underbarrel weight and 0 recoil. Don't and you have a grand total of 1 recoil for fully automatic heavy weapon.

As far as the HV one, you'd get 18, /2 = 9, -4 = 5. For a base, on a firmpoint, jump it to a hardpoint/turret, you get 18 /2 = 9, -9 = 0. Which is just insane.

As far as military planes... a LMG takes 1.5, or a firmpoint. Thats 11 firmpoints, or 11 body... Now, I think if you combined some into turrets, it might end up being able to drop down to 8-10 body... but I'd need to be able to go over the chart to do that.

Remember that a .50 cal is an HMG

And a better one for you now. De Havilland Mosquito BF 6:

4 7.62mm machine guns (fixed)
4 20mm belt fed cannon (fixed)
8 60lb rockets
plus 1000 lbs of bombs interanlly

Did I mention it was made of plywood? Somehow I dont see a twin engine aircraft with the required body of 14.

Yep. Like I said before, you should just ignore the firm-/hardpoint limits. It's far better an idea just to let the GM to figure out whether a specific combination of weapons would work, and just to use the rule on small vehicles.

Heck, the B-25H Mitchell has 1 75mm cannon (Light Naval Gun?) in a turret and 14 HMGs. That's 2 Large Turrets, 2 Medium turrets, 2 Mini Turrets and 4 Hardpoints, for a total of 20 Hardpoints required. The B-25 doesn't look like it has a BOD of 40...

Can we see some descriptions of the armlement on more modern military aircraft.

Edward

Righty-o. The AC-130H Spectre carries 2 M61 Vulcan 20mm gatling cannons, 1 Bofors L60 40mm autocannon and one M102 105mm howitzer, all in separate turrets (of a kind) on the left side of its hull. That's 3 Small Turrets and a Large Turret, which would mean a Body of 20 for this mid-size 2-engine rotor cargo aircraft.

Who says its a large turret? Or that 2 vulcans couldn't fit on a medium instead of 2 small? Also, it breaks the weapon rules because aircraft have to balance one on each wing by the book.

A 105mm howitzer is at least a Light Naval Gun (LNG probably refers to 76mm shipboard cannons), which means it has a Weapon Value of 8 or more, which means it requires a Large Turret to mount it. The Vulcans have to be on separate turrets, because 1) they are, and 2) they are capable of firing at separate targets.

Put the vulcans on fixed hardpoints instead then, that'll make it more economical for the hardpoint consumption. There are howitzers listed in SOTA2063, I assumed you were using that. I'm fairly certain it isn't a naval gun, and that it doesn't even do naval damage. But you'd use that if you wanted to use a howitzer.

I haven't got SOTA63, and I've got a feeling the howitzer doesn't have a listed Weapon Value? Now, are you going to argue that a 105mm howitzer should be far smaller than a "Light Naval Gun" (a 250kg shipboard cannon which only does 16D+5, most likely equivalent to RL 76mm cannons), or are you just dragging on because you don't want to admit that the BOD/Hardpoint rules are silly?

The 75mm gun the the B-25 was fixed not turreted, IIRC. Besides, it was hard to use and aim, and made all sorts of parts lose when fired. The later versions usually had around 8 .50 cals in the nose instead...

Modern aircraft armament (for almost all US 'fighters') the the M61 cannon. In SR terms, 18 or 20D, and HV. The cannon are never realled used much these days. The real armament of the aircraft is in the missiles. Loadouts typically being 4 medium ranged (~40 miles) and 4 short ranged (~5 miles) missles for AA work.

For A-G worg, it kinda depends on the plane but usually two short ranged AA missiles, then around 4,000 to 20,000 pounds of bombs, depending on the plane and the required range...

I simply don't expect to have to 'build' vehicles with Rigger 3 beyond the customization of vehicles you might have to deal with on the scale that runners can reasonably expect to own/modify/build.

Anything outside of that range I build as follows: I decide what it can do. It does it. Isn't being GM nice?

In 2060, the odds that PCs are going to have to design and build a WW2 bomber or a space shuttle, or Zepplin or even serious fighter aircraft are pretty darn low.