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Melee Weapons

The way I designed the Hostile and Aggressor on their respective weapon compliments, I followed the idea that melee weapons are your either your last line of defense and your utility. It's no secret that the myriad of disadvantages of a melee weapon in this setting makes them pretty dangerous to use as your primary, or even secondary and tertiary methods of damage, unless your opponents are using the same methods. Any frame-sized weapon is naturally going to do more damage because of the increase in size.

As for how to make an effective melee weapon, that's a tricky situation. If you're worried about things like weapons using spatial distortion, distortion shielding would negate the effect and just reduce the weapon to what it is underneath. Things like energy weapons are based off of heat; if you make your weapon out of material that is resistant to that heat, they shouldn't be able to slice through it.

Personally, I'm still in the neighborhood of not putting too much stock into melee weaponry. The setting has somewhat outgrown them.

If you're just worried about how these weapons and their use will effect your players and your plot, remember that weapon damage is subject to GM discretion above DR numbers. You can make your weapon, but proper regulation of its use IC by the GM is what will really define whether or not players can "drop mooks left and right by coughing at them", and all similar scenarios.
 
Tactically you have to consider one important quote "You do not bring a knife to a gun fight."

A melee weapon in a setting like this is an absolute last resort. If you every have to break out your melee weapon in combat, chances are you are having a very bad day.
 
That's not what Cadetnewb is asking. He;'s very well aware of all those points by now - as much as I agree with that position, we've repeated it as nauseum. Now, he's reminded us in his last post about his objective - which is making a melee weapon competitive for close combat against their chosen target, and also of being capable to exchange blocks and parries - as mecha sword dueling appears to be his objective.
 
He's not asking what he can do to make a primary melee weapon, he's asking what he can do to make a good melee weapon. There's a difference. Having a damn good backup is still a good idea, even if it's just a backup.
 
When it comes to combat, the utility of a weapon is usually far more important that the weapon's stats. The cartage being fired, the RPM, ect, are far less important that what the weapon does for the soldier. For the AK-47 it is reliability, for grenade launchers it is the ability to deliver a range of payloads, for weapons I've seen used in the modern military it would be utility. You bring a knife to 'look cool' (or if you're smart you bring it to open things, crimp wire, ect). Weighted shoves are used as Axes, and trench digging tomahawks are well, used for helping sculpt hard to mold terrain.

For SARP weapons, the better guns tend to be the ones that are intuitive for the players to use and that give the players more options in RP.

In your case (for a mecha) I'd imagine that they would be mainly construction tools. A powered hammer for breaking things, a jaws of life type weapon for cutting or lifting, or a blow torch / thermal lance type weapon.

You could also use reactive armor panels on a mecha's arm, or mounted on a long armor plate / I beam, to cut into a target. It makes since that in a pinch your reactive armor could double as a close in defense system.


(Bah, post ninja'd: and like we've said before you bring a pistol or some other gun as a backup. Having a melee weapon as your second or third line of defense is asking to get shot)
 

Mecha Sword Dueling, yes!

I am Well Aware of all the disadvantages of a melee weapon in a sci-fi, high-tech, gauss cannon wielding, mini-missile spamming, Aether spraying setting such as this. I Know they're not the most practical of things, but I'm Still chasing after giant mecha swords for one, very, very good reason;

Because it is what my players are after. Its amusing. Its enjoyable. Hell, series such as Gundam have even painted it as Romantic for crying out loud. That is my sole motivation for going after this type of weapon.

I want my players to have fun.

But not without creating something OP, or violating the rules. Or overly violating the laws of physics beyond the point of belief, lord knowing how many times we've done that to her here. That's why I'm here, asking for help in coming up with some way to make a more feasible sword. Yes, sword. There, I said it.

I've thought of creating a containment field holding hot plasma, but its not solid, nor will it block other melee implements. I've thought of going for a solid sword, but what's to prevent plasma from cutting through it? Perhaps I could make something much similar to the weapons in the videogame "No More Heroes", and have it as a beam passing between two emitters and the shaft acting as a physical block?

Ideas! I need ideas!
 
I can dig it.

You should make some kind of flail, you know a hilt with a chain attached to a big metal ball with spikes? and when it hits BLAM gravity field or something aid in increasing the force of the impact.
 
How about vibro sword (although I would enjoy being it a saber :3 ) encased in magnetic field? Field would perfectly copy the sword so it would not be in a way of cutting and it would be able to defend against plasma somewhat and sword would still be able to block physical attacks against it. Plus it could be used on many sizes and shapes of swords and the best is that the weapon could still look like a sword and not some wird techno-whatever.
 
Nepleslians have used knives with chainsaw edges coupled with vibro technology, akin to those wacky swords everyone talks about from Warhammer 40k. I remember at once point, EARTH armors came with a warhammer that used gravimetric repulsion. Yamatai has been using aether blades for as long as I can remember. Iroma have those mecha blades with VT distrotion technology.

Despite this being a sometimes-ridiculous setting, you'll see a lot of the same melee weapons. There's only so much you can make while still being viable. Laser swords, vibro swords, aether laser swords, swords with distortion technology, swords with vorpalized edges.... and just switch sword with your preferred tool.
 

I've been thinking of this myself for a bit, but am a little uncertain. Just how feasible is this approach? I like it since its so simple in operation, but am not sure if it'll block the worst of strange weapons.

A magnetic-gravmetric system similar to what is used in shields would be very nice, but is it enough to protect the blade from plasma and exotics while ensuring that the blade can still reach out and cut?

And are vibroblades still feasable here? I know they've been used extensively in the past, but someone mentioned heat radiating from them would make it inoperable?
 
Oh well there are vibroblades used all over the place. They are even in list of general melee weapons. I don't really see big problem using it.
 

Honestly, unless the two enemies are wielding the same physically sound weapon, like vibroblades or the like, it will be next to impossible to have what you would call a 'sword fight'. You can't do it with plasma melee weapons, or distortion weapons, because they would just pass through one another.

Here's the deal: if you want to have meaningful combat that revolves around melee weapons, you simply equip both parties with similar stable, physical weapons. Since the whole purpose is to provide fun combat, you will not need to worry about one-upping your opponents because you are in control of those opponents, and equip them as you see fit.

You don't need the flashy plasma blades or the distortion weapons, because blocking with them is an issue, and you appear to want that aspect of melee combat. So just go with simple things versus simple things.

And are vibroblades still feasible here? I know they've been used extensively in the past, but someone mentioned heat radiating from them would make it inoperable?
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Plenty feasible; Nepleslians use them as the staple all-purpose knife on powered armorsuits. They serve their planned purpose of providing the utility a soldier might need in a long-duration stay in the field (a reliable precision cutting tool that requires no fuel and is incredibly easy to repair and maintain, due to its simple mechanisms and design), as well as a last line of defense; despite being old technology, it will still damage most armor with sustained pressure. But it's first and foremost a utility tool, like actual knives in today's military.

As for heat making them inoperable, I've never heard anything like that, nor will it be a problem. It's sci-fi, and very simple to just add a method to disperse heat for sustained use.
 
I am wondering something. I was looking up info about the Katana in the world of SARP but I do not understand this one thing. It says that military personnel can buy a Katana but wouldn't that be restricted to say like the Ketsurui samurai or something or is anyone in the SAoY allowed to have one?
 
A katana is something anyone could purchase. What would make it an off-limits weapon is that if it was made of Zesuaium.
 
So even a Santo-Hei could purchase one if it isn't made of restricted materials such as Zesuaium. Just one more question. Do you have to be an officer or a Ketsurui samurai to purchase a Zesuaium blade?
 
You might be able to find one second-hand (eg it was stolen from a dead Ketsurui samurai) but it would be expensive and very rare since the samurai don't die often. Currently the only manufacturer of Zesuaium swords is the Ketsurui Zaibatsu, and they only make a couple hundred a year exclusively for the Ketsurui Samurai.
 
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