Firebrand
Inactive Member
Scot said:Seriously though, melee weapons have their own section, I don't see why this spear has to be special.
Gamerofthegame said:How does a overall society who is thrust into a advanced age, having no memories or history of whatever it was they came from (IE: We'll assume Earth) save for just a faded legend know what a spear is?
Vesper said:Putting the angst and drama from y'all aside, the submission does have some issues that need to be addressed, Fivemarks.
1) What is the spear head made of? The shaft is made of durandium and the edge is made of ADNR but there is no mention of what the primary make-up of the spear itself is. Some of the people reading it are assuming the entire spearhead is composed of neriumium, clearing the composition up would go a long way to clearing up problems with it.
2.a) What are characteristics of the launched dart? DR, range, etc.
2.b) By what mechanism does it launch the dart? Is it a railgun, a chemical-propellant weapon, or does it use springs?
3) What is the spear actually intended for? At first glance I was assuming that it was meant for larger PA/Mecha what with a length of 10m (which keep in mind is the length of a bus), but from everyone’s comments I may be wrong here.
4) Related to the above, why was it made? I realize you are going for the "because its cool" explanation, but you really do need to provide a explanation for why the company, ICly, is making the spear. What niche in the market are they looking to fill? No one is looking for a treatise here, just a short explanation on why they thought it would be profitable to design and market a spear.
5) As a FYI, I do not believe melee weapons have a set DR. A melee attack has many more factors entering in to its damage potential than does, say, a railgun sabot.
6.a) By what mechanism does it shorten? Is it made of segments that are pushed in to each other, do they screw together, is the shaft accordion-like and just collapses what?
6.b) As was already asked, what triggers the above? Is it a button, a switch, manual effort, or a squirrel doing the correct Tango?
6.c) If it has any electronics in it, how are they powered?
7.a) What kind of scale is it? This ties in with 3). Is the shaft and spearhead (apart from the things overall length) scaled for a human-sized user or is it meant for a PA or bigger?
7.b) What kind of weight are we looking at for this thing? It is not that important if it is meant for a PA/Mecha (since they can toss cars around) but if it is meant for human-sized persons a weight entry is a necessity.
8) Just as a note, I don't think it is all that crazy to use starship-grade material as a bullet. It is stated that it is pretty abundant, so its not going to be that hugely expensive. In any event, munitions cost has not proven to be a big issue for any of the militaries in this setting (just look at the prevalence of mini-missiles).
9) A second note; While melee is not a primary component in combat in the setting, it is considered a area of concern for militaries. Almost every PA or Mecha in the setting has some form of built-in melee weapon (quite a few have a veritable armory for close-in combat) and a add-on would make sense for those people who like to get up-close and wail on the enemy, however unlikely such a scenario may be. Even for the more balanced, you always want to be prepared for melee, even if you do not intend on getting in to it.
The fact that an armored spear took up three pages when a starship can be approved in two posts is confounding to me.