But I think you got a bit overzealous in cherry picking your numbers. Yes, the numbers all came from somewhere, but where they came from was not always appropriate, and then you did not choose to take the numbers next to some of those numbers, but choose to cherry pick those other numbers elsewhere. The way they are all put together didn't really make sense to me.
My concerns lie in several areas: Damage, Power, Weight, Construction, Capabilities, etc.
First is damage. "The Dmg is the same as the Perkins Steam Gun". The Perkins Steam Gun is a 90 lbs, £200 stirling vehicle mounted weapon. The 90 lbs and £200 stirling numbers do not include the steam source, which is a feed off of the vehicles main boiler. This is a steam engine that can move a steam ship or a kettle with tons of armor, I don't think you can just take this damage step without taking the other two numbers and the vehicle sized power source as well. Then you add a second weapon's damage, which does not work at all like your weapon, as well. If you are calling this thing a shotgun, it ought to do something similar to shotgun damage.
Microsteam power source. As pointed out above, the Perkins Steam Gun uses a vehicle sized steam engine. More to the point it uses an engine that can move tons of ship or or a kettles armor plating around. I would think that using a microsteam engine sized for a prothetelic hand (not even a whole arm, just a hand) would be massively, massively, massively underpowered. I would think that such a small power source might be able to throw a bullet about as fast as a human hand can throw a bullet. OK, I will grant that there are design efficiencies to be had, and grant that maybe a microsteam engine sized for a prothetelic arm might be able to throw a bullet as fast as a human hand using a slingshot could fire a bullet. This would of course be one bullet at a time. But I don't think that such a small engine (that can run for 20 hours on a single load of fuel) is going to be shooting bullets at anywhere even near gunpowder speeds and power, much less what a high pressure steam gun would do. And make no mistake, I don't consider a microsteam engine sized to power an arm to be a very high pressure system. Nor do I think that the amount of fuel required to power a hand for 60 hours is even 1% enough to keep an "Oven" preheated to high temperature 24 hours a day. Massively, Massively, Massively underpowered and underfueled for what you are saying it will do. I mean I understand why you want to say that the tiniest of microsteam engines is a suitable replacement for a vehicle sized engine. You want a man portable gun that does vehicle weapon damage. I understand. But it is Ridiculous.
In one sentence you say that reloading the drum is time consuming and not practical in combat. In the next you say that it can be done by passing a simple test. Pick one. As described I would say the reloading a drum is a sustained action (come up with how many rounds it takes), not a standard action. However, while I hate to alleviate the only part of the gun that is not already overpowered, I feel I must point out that if the ammo is simple metal balls, with no requirement that they all face a correct direction or anything, then it seems like the drums are unneeded and a simple single hopper is all that is needed. The hopper could drop balls into a loading tube that keeps the next 4 or 5 rounds ordered.
The first paragraph of "the oven" section said the gun spat out "molten projectiles". I was going to call you on that, but then I saw later on that the projectiles were supposed to be heated red hot, but not quite molten. That is good since molten projectiles would have almost no ability to penetrate armor.
I did some googling on Heat Transfer Theory, and used some online heat transfer calculators, but was unable to find some easily digestible figures on how long it would take to heat a bullet to red hot. I did find that it takes 25 minutes to heat a 24 pound cannonball in a preheated furnace. Anyway, given how long it takes a 500 degree oven to cook a pizza, I am fairly positive that heating a .75 inch brass bullet red hot would take a lot longer than you seem to think. I would be interested in hearing what somebody more mathematically literate than me thinks it would take as far as oven temperature and time.
Even if the oven did heat the shot cherry hot, I don't think it would do anywhere even near the damage of a flame-thrower like the Chinese Dragon. Frankly a self cauterizing bullet might in certain circumstances do less damage than a normal temperature one.
A clockwork frame would be lighter than a standard gun frame. It would also be much less sturdy and prone to breakage due to the numerous massive shocks it would be subject to.
I could probably go on, but in conclusion I will say that if you want something of the damage step of a combined Steam Gun and a Flame Thrower, it would require something of the combined weight and price of a Steam Gun and a Flame Thrower, and would require a massive external power source like the Steam Gun does. I would also say that a Perkins Steam Gun with a coaxial Chinese Dragon mounted on it, since the two effects have different trajectories could not really be fired at the same target as one action. One could fire one gun, then if one had second shot, could adjust the aim and fire the other gun. Also, I would not really suggest trying to get your GM to agree on a maximized weapon that you then plan to improve later with Forge Firearm to make even better. I think you need to start with something that is within spitting distance of standard weapons that do standard damage, and then hope to improve those numbers with forge firearm.
As for what is practical with a hand held weapon. I would say lose the Oven and the whole steam powered concept. keep the drums and make a fairly standard semi-automatic gunpowder cartridge shotgun. Add in whatever extra features and components you think you can talk your GM into. You could, if you want, maybe do a combined Chinese Dragon, but this would be fired as a separate weapon as a second action. Then you can start using forge firearms to increase from tha base.
So what I have listed is about 80% less cool, but it is at least within spitting distance of being reasonable.
My humble opinion only. Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Sun Aug 22, 2021 11:32 am
]]>