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What makes blasters accurate (or inaccurate)
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2020 7:15 pm    Post subject: What makes blasters accurate (or inaccurate) Reply with quote

Any ideas on what specs affect a blaster's accuracy?

Been thinking about working up a system for weapons design but wanted to see if anyone had any insight on this.

In manufacturing in general, the quality of materials AND the quality of the tooling affect the final quality of the product.

With regards to shooting precisely in real life, there are factors such as wind, bullet drop, humidity, altitude, etc... that all come into play. I can see some of this affecting perhaps the lethality of a blaster bolt, but not necessarily the trajectory of it. What do you all think?

What differentiates an "accurate" blaster from an "inaccurate" one.
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Raven Redstar
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PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2020 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Accurate blasters grant fire control or some other bonus to hit. Caelli-Merced Blasters gave people with a minimum blaster skill a bonus to hit.
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2020 1:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry, I should have been more clear: from a story standpoint, what in-universe features/attributes contribute to a blaster's inherent accuracy or inaccuracy? Not rules-based stats, but rather, in-universe manufacturing processes, materials, technology, etc.?
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2020 2:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Are you talking technobabble explanations here? One obvious component that already exists in the EU is the galven circuits in the barrel that help focus the beam. The longer the barrel, the more galven circuits, and thus greater beam coherency at long range.

An extension of that could be quality of the galven circuits, such that a higher quality galven imparts fractionally superior beam coherency, making the beam less susceptible to dispersion at range. Or a good blastersmith could make precision tweaks to the galven circuits or the firing chambers, etc.

There's also blaster gas. Much as how certain ammunition types will be more accurate and more reliable than others, certain gas types or mixes may "burn off" more cleanly, or produce a more intense or stable beam. Or maybe even the detonation of some blaster gases offers reduced recoil, even less so than the miniscule recoil already observed in SWU blasters. Some shooters might accept higher-recoil blaster gas for greater hitting power (which might explain some of the differences in shooting styles seen in the films; note that Han Solo's pistol appears to have a noticeable recoil, while many other weapons, like the Blaster Rifles used by the stormtroopers, Leia and Chewie in ESB, do not).

Just some thoughts.
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Darklighter79
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PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2020 9:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naaman wrote:
Sorry, I should have been more clear: from a story standpoint, what in-universe features/attributes contribute to a blaster's inherent accuracy or inaccuracy? Not rules-based stats, but rather, in-universe manufacturing processes, materials, technology, etc.?


For inaccuracy:
a) Jury rigging (Nolands' plasma caster from Predators,
b) Poor maintenance (Sanyassan Marauders from Battle of Endor),
c) Custom engineering - a weapon created from different alien technologies that are not entirely compatible.

Both:
a) Alien design. For example, a weapon created for for one particular species like squid-like lifeforms but used by humanoids or requiring some STR to control the recoil (Noisy Cricket from Men in Black (1997), alien gun from Dark Angel (1990)),
b) Alien environment that affect the weapon's efficiency/functionality (Exogol's environment made ships' shields and sensors inoperable).
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Naaman
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PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2020 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
Are you talking technobabble explanations here?


Yes, exactly.

CRMcNeill wrote:
One obvious component that already exists in the EU is the galven circuits in the barrel that help focus the beam. The longer the barrel, the more galven circuits, and thus greater beam coherency at long range.

An extension of that could be quality of the galven circuits, such that a higher quality galven imparts fractionally superior beam coherency, making the beam less susceptible to dispersion at range. Or a good blastersmith could make precision tweaks to the galven circuits or the firing chambers, etc.

There's also blaster gas. Much as how certain ammunition types will be more accurate and more reliable than others, certain gas types or mixes may "burn off" more cleanly, or produce a more intense or stable beam. Or maybe even the detonation of some blaster gases offers reduced recoil, even less so than the miniscule recoil already observed in SWU blasters. Some shooters might accept higher-recoil blaster gas for greater hitting power (which might explain some of the differences in shooting styles seen in the films; note that Han Solo's pistol appears to have a noticeable recoil, while many other weapons, like the Blaster Rifles used by the stormtroopers, Leia and Chewie in ESB, do not).

Just some thoughts.


Okay. Cool. Do you know of any good sources off the top of your head (I'm using my google-fu and wookipedia here and there, but if you know of any direct links, much appreciated. I'm not asking you to do my research for me, just whether you happen to already know of any direct links or sources).

Darklighter79 wrote:
Naaman wrote:
Sorry, I should have been more clear: from a story standpoint, what in-universe features/attributes contribute to a blaster's inherent accuracy or inaccuracy? Not rules-based stats, but rather, in-universe manufacturing processes, materials, technology, etc.?


For inaccuracy:
a) Jury rigging (Nolands' plasma caster from Predators,
b) Poor maintenance (Sanyassan Marauders from Battle of Endor),
c) Custom engineering - a weapon created from different alien technologies that are not entirely compatible.

Both:
a) Alien design. For example, a weapon created for for one particular species like squid-like lifeforms but used by humanoids or requiring some STR to control the recoil (Noisy Cricket from Men in Black (1997), alien gun from Dark Angel (1990)),
b) Alien environment that affect the weapon's efficiency/functionality (Exogol's environment made ships' shields and sensors inoperable).


Wasn't exactly what I was looking for but actually opens the door to a more detailed system that I hadn't even considered. Thanks. Smile
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2020 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Naaman wrote:
Do you know of any good sources off the top of your head (I'm using my google-fu and wookipedia here and there, but if you know of any direct links, much appreciated. I'm not asking you to do my research for me, just whether you happen to already know of any direct links or sources).

Here's the relevant Wookieepedia links:Everything beyond that is pure theory on my part, but I've been told recently that my technobabble-fu is quite strong.
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Mamatried
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PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 2:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am not this will apply directly with blasters, but if we look to friearms we see that the barrel length do affect accuracy and aactually power.

A snubnonse revolver is far less accurate and have a noticable less poer than a 6 inch barreled "normal size" revolver.

and while most automatics do have a lenght of barrle where the differences are so minicule, we still have example there as well.
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