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No shit, I voted for Bill Nelson rather than Rick Scott for Senate over the Parkland package of bills further infringing on my gun rights.
So now Skeletor is pissed off that they're trying to repeal portions of it before the courts do it for Tallahassee?
Way to protect your RINO legacy there Rick.
The guy with the silver PPV had these cup-holders!
I need to hit up a couple of places to see if I can snag a couple of pistons for my own set.
We did one day of the Sick Week Drags as spectators today.
Met some fellow Australian car enthusiasts.
As a matter of fact, it does have a Hemi in it!
The PPV can be made to drag... 9.662.
The disadvantage that causes you to drop dead the moment you hit negative hit points in GURPS 4e is Fragile (Unnatural). -50 points for those scoring at home with a plan to create a Siwanis as a character.
Not quite the same as the 3eR just drops dead at zero, but very close to what I need when combined with Injury Tolerance (Homogeneous; Not horns).
The Lovely Harvey has begun her annual grapple with the US Tax Code.
This is yet another case where computers and the internet have made the task both easier and more difficult.
At least three cries of, "why would I expect my password to work twice?" have been uttered.
Every place she needs to log into has demanded a change of password and verification.
Since she has to do the verification, literally, every time she uses these sites (once a year at tax time) why even have the password?
GURPS 3eR had invulnerability, which was handy to make something, well, invulnerable.
It was:
You are completely resistant to damage from some attack form(s). Knockback can still occur, however. The cost varies according to how common the attack for is (see Absorbtion, CI p. 49, for examples of attack rarity):
Any kinetic damage: 300 points.
Common: 150 points.
Occasional: 100 points.
Rare: 75 points
Very Rare: 50 points.Note that this a powerful advantage and should not be used unless ordinary Damage Resistance truly would not suffice. Also note that this is an expensive advantage and that many attack forms have cheaper specific defenses (eg., Immunity to Poison vs. Poison, Doesn't Breathe vs. gases, etc.).
Special enhancement: The attack does not cause knockback. +20%
Expensive in this context is also 1/3 cheaper than 4e for the normal starting character too.
4e GURPS Update says:
InvulnerabilityThis advantage no longer exists. Buy a very high Damage Resistance and/or specialized Immunities instead.
This came up because I just restarted doing the Fantasy Bestiary conversion and there's an Arab critter called a Siwanis. It's like a musical cape buffalo without all the gregariousness the cape buffalo is known for... The way you kill it is to target its horns. They're well armored and hard to hit, but a mere 15 hits kills the beast. Hitting it anywhere else is pointless. 4e tells me to use ordinary Damage Resistance to make this thing invulnerable... But how far do I take that?
I hate this situation where, if I specify a DR, I have just made a "use more dakka" situation.
Do I scale it for a fantasy character? Because a fireball can be pretty damn big in 4e.
Should it stop a tank round? I like mixing genres, so making it immune to 120mm APFSDSDU would be needed. Though a HEAT round might just blow them horns right off...
One reason I set out to do this converting was to learn the differences in the rules and to make sure I could make every monster with a defined rule as written effect.
Right now I have it as DR 7,000 (Tough Skin). That should keep the typical fantasy group from killing it.
I need to figure out the special rule that keeps the 15 hits to dead from being treated like 15 HP and all the effects on movement and consciousness. I found it once, but...
There's two Roman words for sword.
Gladius which is latin for sword. It's probably a loaner word from Celtic.
Spatha which derives from a Greek word for broad bladed and morphs into several Romance languages word for sword. It also is the source word for spade.
I love that style of house, but they're all in places I don't wanna live for one reason or another.
I have been free of the wretched hive of scum and villainy which is AR15.com for two weeks.
I've actually read some books in the mean time.
Creative juices are flowing that had stopped.
Who knew that would happen.
Except for like five people who have no other way to get hold of me, I wonder how nice life without Facebook would be. I once took several years off from that place.
A legit BM-59? Not a parts kit?
I am so fucking in.
Just need to sell a couple kidneys, liver and all my blood.
You only need one liver, right?
Though it looks like their BM-59 is missing the grenade sight and the bipod. Deal breakers. Just like not including the stripper clip guide... I'm looking at you James River Armory.
I've only been working on it for 20 years...
I've got the GURPS: Bestiary 2nd edition for 3e completely converted to 4e.
I've got 15 pages left of GURPS: Fantasy Bestiary. Maybe 45 critters.
Some of the blogs on the sidebar have been moved from one category to the other.
My cutoff for moving to the "used to entertain" section is going idle for a year or longer.
A couple have even moved back to the normal blogroll by posting regular like again!
More are gone than have returned.
I have also deleted a couple where the old link is dead, but the blog is at a new address and I had both listed.
Willard suggests we replace nitrogen with helium for executions and I suggest using a full chamber instead of a mask.
Even if it causes horrible pain on the condemned, it's going to be funny as fuck listening to their high, squeaky cries of anguish.
To make the next oil change on The Beast as simple and easy as possible...
It takes two gallons of oil each change, and to save money I buy the 12 quart wine-box.
Measuring 8 quarts out of this box proved tedious.
So I bought a 2 gallon gas can.
I figure I can fill the gas can with new oil and be very close to the correct level.
Since it's oil and not gas, I have no need for the Al Gore approved pour preventing spout and have converted it to an older style one.
When I started gutting the gasoline emission features for future oil use I discovered that my BRAND FUCKING NEW gas can...
HAD GASOLINE IN IT!
Not a lot, but some. About 1/32" deep in total.
Someone used this can and returned it and Wal Mart put it back on the shelf.
That has to be safe.
The o-rings for the washer fluid filler neck seemed a bit weak, so I ordered a replacement neck.
The new o-rings are a MUCH snugger fit.
I now know what I have to remove to get the angle on the tube to get it into the hole and seated.
1. Filler neck bracket.
2. Air filter box. See important note below.
3. Unplug the driver's headlight capsule.
Important note: Never remove the mass air flow sensor from the filter side; always disconnect the downstream connection.
This leaves a gaping hole that you can get your whole torso into and reach around the radiator to get at the reservoir's inlet.
You read that right. Reach around the radiator.
The washer fluid reservoir is in the front bumper.
I know!
Now I need to get some washer fluid to see if the obvious leak was the only leak.
Update: No leaks apparent after ten minutes.
They snuffed a murderer with nitrogen gas yesterday.
The media is, almost uniformly, calling nitrogen toxic.
But it isn't.
You're almost certainly breathing it right now! I say almost certainly because there might be readers who work in places that use a pure oxygen atmosphere or a helium mix.
Toxic is poisonous. Nitrogen isn't poison. Again, 2/3 of what you're breathing right now is nitrogen.
Our murderer died from a lack of oxygen. It's what hypoxia means.
It's not even that something changes about nitrogen if the concentration increases.
He'd have still died if we'd replaced the oxygen with helium and left the concentration of nitrogen alone.
It's the lack of oxygen.
We don't call water toxic when someone drowns, for example.
The other day I noticed a pool of washer fluid under The Beast.
The problem was the fill neck had come out most of the way of the reservoir. The tube was in the mouth of the tank, but the o-rings weren't. So if you filled the tank, once the level got to the bottom of the tube, it just poured out.
Slipping the neck in all the way, seemed simple, but I couldn't quite get the angle on it.
To get a clear line of sight meant taking the driver's side headlight out. To get that out you have to remove the bumper... Nothing complicated, but enough of a chore that my inherent laziness prevented me from overcoming "start project" inertia.
While looking at it again, I wondered if I could get the angle with the neck removed from its bracket.
The answer is, "YES!"
There's no guarantee that it won't still leak, but it's got a better chance than just the tip in the hole with both o-rings outside.
A modeler noticed that the muzzles of the Vickers MG's on his Sopwith Camel were on the wrong side of the barrel jackets.
Looking at the pic, you can see the guns are completely upsidedown, including charging handles on the "left" side of the gun.
I noted that the handles are, correctly, facing down despite being on the wrong side of the gun.
I am now reading about how I am wrong because a ground gun's handles face up. Like the handles in the instructions, actually.
Look at those handles, facing down into the cockpit in this period photo of a Camel cockpit.
Guess what is being used to refute that photo!
A photo of a model.
A photo of a restored plane with dummy guns.
A photo of a model with MG.08's and a Fokker charging system in a Camel! This same someone even said the Vickers and Maxim are identical... Except they aren't. Very VERY similar, but not identical and there's more distinction between the aircraft guns than even the ground guns.
I use an NAS box to store files.
This is handy because we use laptops for most stuff.
My laptop is running Ubuntu.
When I got the NAS it was Ubuntu 20.04 and everything worked fine.
I upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04 and things took a turn for the odd.
Listed in the network list was "NAS Box" and "NAS Box (AFP)".
"NAS Box" wouldn't take the login and passwork, but "NAS Box (AFP)" did.
Kludge works, drive on!
The connection to "NAS Box (AFP)" would drop at random and take several minutes to reconnect. Irritating, but not insurmountable. Nothing critical either.
Last night there was a Linux update to Ubuntu and all of a sudden "AFP Not Recognized" shows up when I tried to connect to "NAS Box (AFP)".
Being monkey curious, I tried to connect to "NAS Box."
Login and password accepted, drive mounted!
This is what it was supposed to be doing, but wouldn't since the upgrade to 22!
Happy dance!
I am intrigued, but will prolly limit my fermented fish sauce to the Lea and
Perrin's variety.
Sounds a lot more palatable than Surströmming; which isn't bad if you decant it properly and like strong fish.
I've cooked with Thai fish sauce before, and that small bottle lasted years; until it got broken. A little went a LOOOOONG way.
The best John Moses Browning guns are from after he's in the cold, cold ground.
The M1911A1 morphs into the .38 Super Gov't Model.
But "his" best design is the Grand Puissance.
This gun was brought to fruition by his apprentice, Dieudonne Saive.
Saive lacks the name recognition that Browning gets, and two of his designs get accredited to Browning. The Grand Puissance and "Baby" Browning.
Never mind that Mr. Saive also begat the MAG; still in wide service.
I forgot John Moses Browning's birthday.
Again.
It's more post-worthy if I remembered.
My .380 Pocket Hammerless is just about my favorite JMB design.
If you really did spend $2,500 on a t-shirt and dockers; you are a fucking moron.
5.11 stuff is nice, but it ain't that fucking nice.
Shadow, being a kitten, runs 1 or 0.
Because we're still keeping her separated from Beeper, she's confined with me at night.
1.5 hours dead sleep.
1 hour "LET'S PLAY!" "And if you don't play, Monkey, I will disassemble your laptop kinetically."
1.5 hours dead sleep...
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
This has been my sleep schedule for the past... uh... when did we get the little demon again?
Don't worry, I am not in her way.
Rachel Maddow says that electing Trump will be the end of politics.
PROMISE?
I think she thinks that's bad.
I am so sick of politics I've been posting tabulations of TL3 and 4 GURPS ranged weapons in great detail rather than listen to the tripe.
But can end politics just by MAGA?
Sign me the fuck up!
Today is the 20th anniversary of me signing the mortgage on my house.
Go me!
It's a 30 year note, but we've been paying a little extra principle every month, so we should be paid off sooner than 2034.
Harvey noticed that we've both lived here, in this house, longer than any place else our entire lives.
I looked back at where I've lived and I don't think I can call myself an Iowan any more.
Just 13 years, total, in Iowa. 10 in Illinois. 2 in Minnesota. 2 in Germany. A year of other places, most shorter than 6 months.
26 in Florida. I've almost lived longer in Florida than I've lived any where else combined.
Before this house, my previous record for staying in one place was the 8 years in Bolingbrook, Illinois; and that was through the end of 4th grade.
The longest stretch in Iowa was 7 years and I didn't live longer than a couple years at any given address.
I appear to have finally defeated the wanderlust.
Daniel Defense has acquired Hudson and has a new version of the H9 coming out.
Skipping to the important part: $1,299 MSRP.
Colion Noir likes it.
For the price, it'd better be great!
But for the street price of three Glocks?
Is it substantially better or just marginally better?
Daniel Defense, you wanna send me one to review?
Not a single fantasy game I own has an arming sword.
That's not technically true. They all have one.
None of them call it an arming sword.
It's a broadsword or a longsword.
There's entire books on why those labels got applied and why they are considered incorrect today.
Everyone should make an M16A4 clone.
Don't forget the accessories out front!
Do some aiming and pointing for a while and then switch back to your normal AR.
You will be shocked at how light and pointable your normal AR is now.
Think of the kittens!
It should be noted, before I start wandering here, that all the various kinds of swords we have put names to were just called "sword" in their day. Most of the names are from archaeologists attempting to sort out the timeframes of grave goods.
Oakeshott typology is probably the most famous way to sort what GURPS will call a "broadsword" and D&D will call a "longsword."
GURPS has a list of swords that are all "broadswords" under the rules.
The D&D 5e equivalent to "broadsword" is "longsword" and it covers a wide variety of side-arms. Perhaps more because the "versatile" tag means it can be used 2-handed; which would imply bastard sword is included.KhopeshBroadswordLarge FalchionPataShotelBastard Sword (used one handed)DaoEstocHook-SwordJianKatanaLongswordBackswordCavalry SaberEdged Rapier
This is a continuation from 4e where the weapons list is a bit longer, but still much shorter than 2e. I don't have any 3e books (or 3.5e books for that matter).
2e was longer than AD&D.
D&D, starting with 4e makes a distinction between "simple" and "military" weapons. 5e calls the distinctions "simple" and "martial."
With how over-the-top inclusive Wizards of the Coast went, I cannot but wonder if these categories are from the thinking about "assault weapons" among liberals.
The historical divide over some weapons is related to sumptuary laws in that you needed to be of a certain social rank to have them.
Cost wasn't the only reason a peasant didn't have a sword in many places.
But ahistorically egalitarian D&D can't make the common/noble distinction and still have adventurers, so...
I'm amused to note that 2e has a firearm, an arquebus. It also adds the rapier. 4e and 5e don't have guns, but keep a sword that was developed from guns driving armor off the battlefield.
Warhammer FRP is even more consolidated, most everything is a "hand weapon"
Hand Weapon: This broad class includes one-handed axes, swords, clubs, maces and hammers. These weapons are all comparable in use and effect, and no distinction is made between them in the rules.
Yet it still has a rapier...
Pathfinder 2e follows the same pattern as D&D (shocking! I know) but breaks the falchion out from longsword and still has a separate bastard sword.
Rapier without firearms again...
LBB Traveller has guns, so many guns...
Sword is the one handed, all inclusive sword. Broadsword is a two-hander. Cutlass is loosely defined enough to include a rapier.
Top Secret might have rules for swords, it definitely has rules for throwing them...
Top Secret SI has a "sword".
Looking for different weapons because I've become stuck in a rut on every character sheet is something I've done before.
Amusingly, much of the time there wasn't much difference in the game stats.
A Galil in T2K is a heavy M16. It's a heavy M16A1 that does a little less damage has a little less range in GURPS.
9mm pistols are pretty much all the same with small variations in mass and capacity.
I got chided for always having a 1911, Hi-Power or Glock 17 on my character sheet depending on the game.
So one day I took a S&W M&P .38 revolver for a private detective character.
I could have knocked them over with a feather!
Discovering that the lowly sling is a valid weapon in GURPS against Smedley The Orc got me to looking at other weapons on the list that I would not typically buy for a character.
Then I was wondering if some of these weapons were also valid in D&D.
Getting a spear instead of a sword is one example.
This feels like the same moment when I realized that the bog standard mail I'd been buying for my character might not be the most cost effective option.
If you're going to advocate for GURPS, you need to say, "Hi, my name is Angus, and GURPS once sucked."
1e and 2e are very similar and they aren't very good.
The promise of a better system is there, but it's not realized.
In 2e you could make, almost, anything you could imagine but didn't quite have the tools to convert a different imagining to GURPS.
This was, mostly, fine for me because I've made up everything from whole cloth a bunch of times.
But play was clunky. There were obvious gaps where should be rules. There were even a few places where there were rules when there should be gaps!
3e went a long way towards fixing things and realizing the promise of the original game.
But things started to... bloat... from there.
Every world book and supplement had additional rules. Rules which were often contradicted by another world book or supplement.
It took major work to keep them sorted out. Squabbles occurred when someone would prefer the solution from one supplement and someone else preferred a different solution. Both being published and official rules for the game we were playing right this second.
3e (revised) plus the two Compendium books consolidated most of those extra rules and eliminated almost all of the contradictions.
Once characters were made, 3e and 3eR play very smoothly.
But there were still strange things. If you wanted to fly like Superman, the last place you'd start is by buying "Flight". You wanted to custom make a flight like power out of telekinesis. It was a LOT cheaper.
The similar Hero system had something like this too. There, if you wanted to move quickly clinging to the wall like Spiderman, you didn't buy clinging; you bought flight with the limitation, "must touch surface".
4e consolidated things again. Some of the optional rules from the compendium became core rules but the real change was the advantages becoming effect driven rather than process driven.
Flying is now flight, regardless of HOW you fly with some modifications to account for how. Flight is flight now.
Hi, my name is Angus and character creation in GURPS has always sucked.
It's not difficult. It's cumbersome.
It's cumbersome because there are so many choices to make.
There are many choices because there's a lot of detail.
The good news is, once the choices are made, the actual play is simple.
The bad news is a player new to GURPS is going to be needing a lot of hand-holding to make a character that can do everything they're expecting their character to do.
Worse, a player new to the very idea of role playing won't even know what they're expecting of their character and will completely miss essential skills and advantages while crippling themselves with disadvantages.
4e's character templates help a great deal here, but there's still a lot of choosing to do.
Class based games, like D&D, shine at character creation because most of the choices are pre-made for the player and the class also informs the player what their role in the party will be.
Admitting this is the first step to recovery.
I've been a staunch advocate for GURPS for nearly 40 years now.
I've endured a lot of people who've clearly never played it dismiss or insult the system the entire time.
Certain phrases keep cropping up.
One that's certain to raise my ire is "story driven".
What's story driven?
That's when the story is in the driver's seat and the players get to make a limited choice of actions; none of which affect the course of the plot.
The GM is letting the players add some color to their story, not the players making their own.
The counterpart is "character driven" and that's the characters in the driver's seat and the GM "simply" provides a space for them to run amok. The players call the tune and make their own story.
Wanna know something?
They are both game system independent.
You can be story driven with ANY RPG. You just need a GM to sit down and write one, then insert the players into their world.
If you prefer one system over another, that's OK, but don't think that it's inherently better for your preference.
My preference falls from having a setting in my imagination that cannot be presented with rules carefully tailored to a single setting.
Once I'd learned GURPS, I discovered that its toolbox could be applied to the settings with the tailored rules.
Remember that "for nearly 40 years"?
I also remember changing rules every time we changed setting. We had at least four different rule sets for fantasy settings along the way.
Sorting out the details and differences of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, from Chaosium Basic Roleplay, from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying from Rollmaster Rolemaster was NOT easier than converting them all to GURPS.
And those were JUST to play fantasy worlds.
Aside: To anyone bitching that GURPS is too complex and hard to play, try on OG Rolemaster someday. It's got rules and a table for what you want to do, in one of those books, someplace...
We quickly found that we could play in any of those settings using GURPS, but often couldn't play the setting from one fantasy RPG using the rules from another.
They were too setting specific.
But the road to GURPS wasn't paved from trying to run Warhawk with Chaosium.
It really started when a player in Twilight: 2000 tried to get a sword. Years before GURPS came out.
The thing that cinched it was the "reality check," or as I've said here a couple of times, "Will it GURPS?"
The challenge: Without writing new rules, take a real world situation and play it out in-game.
Over and over GURPS has succeeded and other games failed.
Aside: I am sick to death of people dismissing or condemning GURPS when it's obvious they've never played it. I've been doing this a long time and I have seen all of these arguments before, almost to the word, and the person struggling with the rules will phrase it differently from the person repeating criticism that hasn't applied since the very crude 2e rules were in print.
What GURPS is, to me, is a way to tell MY story without making my own book of rules to supplement the published text and having learned its subtleties, found that I no longer needed to learn a different ruleset every time I wanted to tell a different story.
At the end of the day, what I think the real problem is for most people is that GURPS doesn't come with a setting. The GM has to, literally, make up everything from scratch and gets nothing pre-made for them. That will include informing the players of what kind of characters they should and should not make.
The player is presented with more work as well. For many, GURPS will be the first time they HAVE to make a choice about everything on their character sheet.
I've guided a lot of players through this process and the "HAVE" to make these choices often becomes "GET" to make these choices when the GM du jour goes "story driven" and they have to make a D&D character and find many of the things they want to do are precluded by their character's class.
PS: You do need to LEARN other rulesets to port their settings to GURPS. I've done it many times. Its main strength is that you CAN.
What if Goliath was wearing DR 4 scale?
Lobbing a stone:
Heavy Sling $20, Shots 1(2), 2d cr, 36/72; 2-12 raw, 0-8 penetrates, 0-8 damage (average of 3)
Sling $20, Shots 1(2), 1d+2 pi, 72/120; 3-8 raw, 0-4 penetrates, 0-4 damage (average of 1)
Dart Sling $20, Shots 1(2), 1d+2 imp, 72/120; 3-8 raw, 0-4 penetrates, 0-8 damage (average of 2)
Staff Sling $20, Shots 1(2), 2d-1 pi, 120/180; 1-11 raw, 0-7 penetrates, 0-7 damage (average of 2)
Sending a lead bullet:
Sling $20, Shots 1(2), 2d-1 pi, 144/240; 1-11 raw, 0-7 penetrates, 0-7 damage (average of 2)
Staff Sling $20, Shots 1(2), 2d pi, 240/360; 2-12 raw, 0-8 penetrates, 0-8 damage (average of 3)
Clearly, I've been underestimating the value of a sling in GURPS, they're better than bows much of the time! Especially in the confines of a dungeon.
"E85" at the local station is anything from 52 to 83% ethanol.
Doing the test drive to Tampa now!
Update:
E85 ($2.429/gal) with 62% alcohol indicated by scanner gets 20.5 mpg.
Normal 87 octane unleaded ($2.929/gal) is 26.5 mpg.
Ethanol Free 89 octane ($3.519) is 28.7.
With current prices, E85 and Ethanol free are 12 cents a mile.
Regular is 11 cents per mile.
With the factory tune, none of the fuel choices offers more power or acceleration.
There's a form of Crossbow called a prodd.
The main distinction is it lobs a lead or stone ball instead of a bolt.
ST 12 Prodd Shots 1(4), 1d+3 pi, 240/300; 4-9 raw, 0-5 penetrates, 0-5 damage (average of 2)
ST 14 Prodd using one leg on the stirrup or a belt-hook $25 (Shots 1(5)), 2d pi, 280/350; 2-12 raw, 0-8 penetrates, 0-8 damage (average of 3)
ST 15 Prodd using both legs on the stirrup Shots 1(5), 2d+1 pi, 300/375; 3-13 raw, 0-9 penetrates, 0-9 damage (average of 4)
ST 16 Prodd using a goat's foot $50, Shots 1(22), 2d+1 pi, 320/400; 3-13 raw, 0-9 penetrates, 0-9 damage (average of 4)
ST 18 Prodd using a 1.5x windlass $55, Shots 1(16), 2d+2 pi, 360/450; 4-14 raw, 0-10 penetrates, 0-10 damage (average of 5)
ST 24 Prodd using a 2x windlass $100, Shots 1(23), 3d+1 pi, 480/600; 4-19 raw, 0-15 penetrates, 0-15 damage (average of 7)
ST 30 Prodd using a 2.5x windlass $155, Shots 1(32), 4d pi, 600/750; 4-24 raw, 0-20 penetrates, 0-20 damage (average of 10)
ST 36 Prodd using a 3x windlass $225, Shots 1(43), 5d-1 pi, 720/900; 4-29 raw, 0-25 penetrates, 0-25 damage (average of 16)
Just remember, dear readers, someone asked for all this in comments.
You might have noticed that bows give a disappointing performance against a fairly common form of armor, DR 4 medium scale.
That's when you use a bodkin.
This is the original armor piercing round.
It changes damage from impaling to piercing with an armor divisor of 2.
Longbow, $200, 1d+1(2) pi, 180/240; 2-7 raw, 0-5 penetrates, 0-5 damage (average of 2)
Regular Bow, $100, 1d(2) pi, 180/240; 1-6 raw, 0-4 penetrates, 0-4 damage (average of 1)
Short Bow, $50, 1d-1(2) pi, 180/240; 0-5 raw, 0-3 penetrates, 0-3 damage (average of 0)
Reflex Bow, $900, 1d+2(2) pi, 240/300; 3-8 raw, 0-6 penetrates, 0-6 damage (average of 3)
Straight Composite Bow, $600, 1d+1(2) pi, 180/240; 2-7 raw, 0-5 penetrates, 0-5 damage (average of 2)
It should also be mentioned that, despite the average damage seeming to do nothing, players have won fights with these weapons against this level of armor.
It just takes a while.
Of note: Stone arrow heads have an armor divisor of (0.5) and you can't make a bodkin tip with it.
Longbow, $200, 1d+1(0.5) imp, 180/240; 2-7 raw, 0 penetrates, 0 damage (average of 0)
Regular Bow, $100, 1d(0.5) imp, 180/240; 1-6 raw, 0 penetrates, 0 damage (average of 0)
Short Bow, $50, 1d-1(0.5) imp, 180/240; 0-5 raw, 0 penetrates, 0 damage (average of 0)
Cro-Magnon Man will have a rough day against Smedley.
The person who's going to be wielding the bow in a GURPS fantasy setting is more than likely only going to have a ST of 12.
Let's shoot Smedley The Orc, wearing DR 4 scale in the chest and see what happens!
All bows have a RoF of 1 and Shots 1(2). That means one shot every three seconds.
Longbow, $200, 1d+1 imp, 180/240; 2-7 raw, 0-3 penetrates, 0-6 damage (average of 0)
Regular Bow, $100, 1d imp, 180/240; 1-6 raw, 0-2 penetrates, 0-4 damage (average of 0)
Short Bow, $50, 1d-1 imp, 180/240; 0-5 raw, 0-1 penetrates, 0-2 damage (average of 0)
Reflex Bow, $900, 1d+2 imp 240/300; 3-8 raw, 0-4 penetrates, 0-8 damage (average of 2)
Straight Composite Bow, $600, 1d+1 imp, 180/240; 2-7 raw, 0-3 penetrates, 0-6 damage (average of 0)
Smedley is feeling good about his chances.
OK, how about crossbows? All are RoF 1. All are $150!
ST 12 Crossbow Shots 1(4), 1d+3 imp, 240/300; 4-9 raw, 0-5 penetrates, 0-10 damage (average of 4)
ST 14 Crossbow using one leg on the stirrup or a belt-hook $25 (Shots 1(5)), 2d imp, 280/350; 2-12 raw, 0-8 penetrates, 0-16 damage (average of 6)
ST 15 Crossbow using both legs on the stirrup Shots 1(5), 2d+1 imp, 300/375; 3-13 raw, 0-9 penetrates, 0-18 damage (average of 8)
ST 16 Crossbow using a goat's foot $50, Shots 1(22), 2d+1 imp, 320/400; 3-13 raw, 0-9 penetrates, 0-18 damage (average of 8)
ST 18 Crossbow using a 1.5x windlass $55, Shots 1(16), 2d+2 imp, 360/450; 4-14 raw, 0-10 penetrates, 0-20 damage (average of 10)
ST 24 Crossbow using a 2x windlass $100, Shots 1(23), 3d+1 imp, 480/600; 4-19 raw, 0-15 penetrates, 0-30 damage (average of 14)
ST 30 Crossbow using a 2.5x windlass $155, Shots 1(32), 4d imp, 600/750; 4-24 raw, 0-20 penetrates, 0-40 damage (average of 20)
ST 36 Crossbow using a 3x windlass $225, Shots 1(43), 5d-1 imp, 720/900; 4-29 raw, 0-25 penetrates, 0-50 damage (average of 32)
Steel Crossbows, which are TL4 like most early guns.
ST 18 Fowling Crossbow, $450 using a 1.5x cranequin $55, Shots 1(25), 3d-1 imp, 225/270; 2-17 raw, 0-13 penetrates, 0-26 damage (average of 11)
ST 24 (2) Hunting Crossbow, $600 using a 2x cranequin $100, Shots 1(39), 3d+1 imp, 300/360; 4-19 raw, 0-15 penetrates, 0-30 damage (average of 15)
ST 36 (3) Military Crossbow, $750 using a 3x cranequin $225, Shots 1(79), 5d imp, 450/540; 5-30 raw, 1-26 penetrates, 2-52 damage (average of 27)
Smedley is less enthusiastic about crossbows, but the lower rate of fire means he's got a better chance of not getting hit twice.
Now long guns!
Gonne Shots 1(30), 2d+1 pi++, 55/550; 3-13 raw, 0-9 penetrates, 0-18 damage (average of 8)
Matchlocks
Arquebus, $150, Shots 1(60), 2d+2 pi+, 65/660; 4-14 raw, 0-10 penetrates, 0-15 damage (average of 7)
Caliver, $135, Shots 1(60), 3d+1 pi+, 85/870; 4-19 raw, 0-15 penetrates, 0-22 damage (average of 11)
Musket, $175, from a rest, Shots 1(60), 4d+2 pi++, 120/1,200; 6-26 raw, 2-22 penetrates, 4-44 damage (average of 24)
Wheellocks
Carbine, $290, Shots 1(40), 3d pi++, 80/800; 3-18 raw, 0-14 penetrates, 0-28 damage (average of 20)
Wheellock Pistols
Military Pistol, $250, Shots 1(20), 2d-1 pi+, 50/500; 1-11 raw, 0-7 penetrates, 0-10 damage (average of 3)
Petronel, $280, Shots 1(40), 2d+2 pi+, 60/630; 4-14 raw, 0-10 penetrates, 0-15 damage (average of 7)
Pocket Pistol, $190, Shots 1(20), 1d pi, 25/300; 1-6 raw, 0-2 penetrates, 0-2 damage (average of 0)
Puffer Pistol, $260, Shots 1(20), 2d-1 pi+, 50/550, 1-11 raw, 0-7 penetrates, 0-10 damage (average of 3)
Bows are not so great against DR 4, so you want something with more pussiance, but the rate of fire falls off fast.
Remember! An English longbow is a ST 17 item that does 2d imp, 255/340; 2-12 raw, 0-8 penetrates, 0-16 damage (average of 6); when you read about bows in most histories this is the benchmark.
Likewise, the average crossbowman was a peasant levy with a ST of 10 using a ST 13 crossbow using both feet on the stirrup doing 2d imp, 260/325; 2-12 raw, 0-8 penetrates, 0-16 damage (average of 6)
Adventurers are different from historical people!
Reference to George Carlin bit in the title...
Will going GURPS 4e TL4 ruin a fantasy setting by introducing firearms?
I've got player data showing that the rate of fire will deter them from taking a gun instead of a bow from how seldom someone would take the slower firing crossbow.
Guns are even slower than crossbows.
But they could be game changers for people who lay in wait for the adventurers. A volley at the beginning of the fight could change the outcome...
I wish I'd remembered to play test this with FuzzyGeff when he was down.
Looking up how shooting from a tank worked in the past is a deep rabbit hole.
Rangefinding starts as guestimating.
Then stereoscopic and coincidence range finders where the TC tells the gunner the range.
Then stereoscopic and coincidence range finders, operated by the TC, that feed an electro-mechanical computer that inputs the correct elevation into the gun.
Somewhere in here the elevation is automatically changed depending on the kind of round selected.
Then a laser rangefinder, operated by the TC, that feeds an electronic computer.
Then a laser rangefinder the gunner uses themselves.
Computing the lead on a moving target went from Kentucky windage to being calculated by a computer via various means of inputing the data.
Shooting from the move was, effectively, impossible for a long while then, suddenly, commonplace.
Then there's shooting at night. Going from no better than an eyeball to active IR to passive IR then thermoraphic.
Many of these changes are still in living memory.
I've often had issue with the idea that the goblinoid races in D&D were, somehow, unable to make gear (especially weapons and armor) as well as the humanoid ones.
Jim Holloway, apparently, agreed with me, as you can see in this last stand.
Their armor is in a distinct style and it fits!
There's a lot going on in this pic.
It was the cover of Dragon 127. The about the cover says, "The last three survivors of an orcish army, their standard still aloft, challenge their elven opponents to one last fight."
Note: These appear to be bugbears, not orcs, by the description in the Monster Manual.
There were, maybe eight of the oddly ugly... people? surrounding Allen.
Not short, but looking like they should be, with blonde hair and blue eyes; but skin as dark as a snake charmer.
"Wood, does everyone have a shot?"
"Yessir."
"Then let's introduce these heathen to how The 77th does war," Lt Fowler announced as he drew the green sword.
It throbbed in his grip. Eager.
It was the most startling thing...
Today wasn't a day for blades, rifles would suffice.
"FIRE!"
Twenty shots cracked and nine Goo Goo fell dead. Allen fell as well, losing his captor's support.
The leader of the native band still stirred, looking shocked. Almost as if he expected Fowler to negotiate or something.
Well, he wasn't going to live long enough to forget that George Crook, and by extension, his men didn't ask for permission to rescue a comrade.
"They know we're here, Major," magery sergeant Harrington reported when he came back from his aerial scout.
"What did you see?" asked Major Beasley, worrying about just how hostile a reception the Sioux might offer.
"Two things, Sir: First, there's three of them just over that rise laying so they can see us, but we can't see them. Second, they didn't even try to hide the wizard eye they sent up to look at me."
Well, thought the major, at least we're not sneaking around.
"Fowler!" We set up camp here until the Sioux deign to come and say hello.
Thank providence that Sheridan and Custer had long since left the service...
You just mark time until everyone else is in bed.
Pour a beer.
Put on the headphones.
Crank it to 12.
Today is the day we celebrate the, successful, healing of the racial rift that existed in the United States from the end of the Civil War to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
Sixty years of peace, love and harmony!
Oh, wait...
I decided that I needed to start cleaning my filthy Beast.
So I started up front.
The stuff on the brake fluid reservoir is crusty, it's soaking now.
I am torn on the utility of translucent magazines, just as I am torn on the utility of the cute little window on many of my PMAGs.
For the most part I got the medium coyote tan mags with windows because of a rumor that they were being held to tighter tolerances than the other flavors because of the USMC contract. Most places don't charge THAT much more than for the non-window black ones.
It's $15 for a normal 30-round PMAG. $18 for one with a window.
$24 for translucent.
I am not sure it's worth the extra money to me, but your mileage may vary.
Water powered trip hammers are around in TL3.
I'm in a strange place of knowing what they're good for, but not knowing if they were used that way at the time.
Something else to learn!
What I do know is they were used for agricultural stuff, I don't know if they were used for metal working.
These little side tracks keep me from getting any where with other things.
Keeps me occupied though.
The M85 .50 cal. machine gun in a cupola of an M60 series tank uses 200 round belts on M15 links.
But most every source on the M60 says there's just 180 ready rounds for this gun.
Does the box in the cupola hold less than a belt? That would be stupid!
Nope, it holds a whole belt.
What's happening is a stop on the feed system that keeps the TC from firing the last 20 rounds of that belt.
This is to allow them to reload the gun more easily.
So 180 is the ready amount.
The M60A3 diverted from the M60A1 series by deleting the coincidence range finder and replacing it with a laser-rangefinder and digital ballistic computer.
Almost simultaneously, a thermographic sight was introduced and adopted, giving us the M60A3 (TTS).
What I learned today is this sight was also mounted in the M551A1 Sheridan light tank, giving us the M551A1 (TTS).
There are a couple of parallels in the upgrades of the M60 series and the Sheridans.
They change from IR to image intensification at the same time, then transition to thermal and laser rangefinding with them as well.
The level of detail for my GURPS game is getting finer all the time.
I know many of you don't care, but it's what I'm obsessing with right now.
Woo Hoo!
Got my answer!
And why would a search for the M60 series work? Not for M60 stuff.
But the information was there for the M728 CEV.
The M32, M32C, M32E1 and M32CE1 scopes are the primary sight for the M48 and M60 series tanks.
The M32 and M32C are infrared (Night Vision 4). The M32E1 and M32CE1 are image intensifiers (Night Vision 5).
It's got a reticle in it and is 8x (7.1x for the E1 versions) and will tilt up and down with the gun.
The commander cannot see the same images. Though they can both use the M105 sight that's coaxial with the main gun, it's visible light only.
The commander has the same aiming reticle as the gunner's periscopic sight inside the rangefinder, which is also slaved to the main gun.
Who has a copy of one of these?
TM 9-2350-258-10 M48A5
TM 9-2350-260-10 M60
TM 9-2350-215-10 M60A1
TM 9-2350-257-10 M60A1 RISE and RISE Passive.
TM 9-2350-222-10 M728
Need the dash-ten not the dash-thirty four!
For the M60's and M728 the commander gets a similar scope, M36 or M36E1. It looks like it's connected to the M85 machine gun in the cupola.
The M32 and M32C are introduced in 1958 with the M48A3. The M32E1 and M32CE1 are introduced with the M60A1 RISE Passive in 1980.
Night vision for the driver is introduced in 1952 with the T41 scope (Night Vision 2). This is upgraded to the M24 in 1953 (Night Vision 4).
US Tanks since the M4 Sherman have had a "panoramic" periscope through the roof of the turret for the gunner.
The M1 Abrams is the first tank since then made without it.
The M60A3 TTS replaced it with the electronic fire control and thermal sight (there's still a direct vision mirror in there, though).
Before that...
I'm finding an M24 IR, binocular sight that replaces the panoramic.
This is replaced by the M32 which has separate day and night oculars. Depending on the sub model the night side is either IR or an image intensifier.
What I am missing is dates! The internet is lacking a lot of information about these things.
I also learned that gunnery with the IR spotlight is crude as fuck.
The IR spotlight is boresighted to the gun, when the center of the spot hits what you want to hit, you guess at elevation and lead then fire.
It works, after a fashion, out to about a kilometer, in War Thunder. That struck text is based on what the game does, but they made it seem so official.
I've discovered a massive blind spot in my tank knowledge.
It was a matter of common knowledge to us in 1988 that ONLY the M1 Abrams had anything to see in the dark.
That's not true, and the dudes at 1/4 Cav showed us with their M60A3 (TTS). TTS means Tank-Thermal-Sight.
While our thermal sight used the same eyepiece as the primary sight, theirs was a big round TV screen near the gun controls.
M60A3 (TTS) gunner's hole; L->R Gunner's auxiliary sight, gunner's primary sight, thermal sight.
It's big and easy to use!
But, before the TTS, the M60 and M48 used a big ass spotlight mounted over the barrel with an IR filter to illuminate targets in the dark.
I discovered that I don't know what form of sight was used to see the IR illumination.
That Fucker Fleetwood aptly pointed out that I have been shot at unsuccessfully, and therefore I have been missed.
Touche!
Nothing about being a little bummed that the old gaming group, apparently, actively disliked me without my knowledge and my one voice in thousands wouldn't be lost at Arfcom means I am done here.
My mind would eat itself without this relief valve.
Things might have been a bit slow with dealing with the house insurance, FuzzyGeff visiting for new-years and a dozen other small things, but I'm not abandoning this place.
The very thing that caused me to leave Arfcom got me to make GURPS 4e stats for the ENTIRE Patton and M60 series as issued by the US. Plus I have a good start on the Leopard 1.
That puts me well on the way to a T2K to GURPS vehicle addendum.
I couldn't just make the versions you'd likely encounter in the game, oh no, I did all of them.
I think I have finally hit my limit on the wretched hive of scum and villainy which is Arfcom.
I think I can find something else to do rather than mindlessly log in and engage in the cesspool.
I am absolutely certain that I will not be missed.
I'm never missed.
I have GURPS 4e stats for the MBT-70, KPz-70 and XM803.
Like the M551A1 and M60A2, it works perfectly fine on paper, in the game, but doesn't reflect the flaws of such a revolutionary and experimental leap in technology over the contemporaneous M60A1 MBT.
The M60 MBT has a multi-threaded upgrade program.
From earliest to last, skipping a few minor ones.
The M60A1 (1962) starts the ball rolling with the M68 gun and cupola for the M85 MG. AVDS-1790-2A diesel, CD-850-5.
Then there's M60A1 AOS (1972) which gets stabilization.
We're skipping over the M60A2...
Then M60A1 RISE (1975) which upgrades the engine, transmission (AVDS-1790-2A diesel and CD-850-6) and electrical system. Oh, and adds AOS if it didn't already have it.
M60A1 RISE+ (1978) adds passive IR, an NBC system, better radios, ditches the M73 for the M240 and smoke dischargers.
M60A3 Passive (1978) is like a RISE+ with a better engine and transmission (AVDS-1790-2D, CD-850-6A), upgraded fire control computer wind-sensor, laser rangefinder and better night vision gear. Some tanks were upgraded, some were new build to this standard.
M60A3 TTS (1978) is an M60A3 Passive with a thermal gun sight.
M60A1 RISE Passive (1980) gets the engine and transmission upgrade from the M60A3 Passive, plus a kevlar spall liner, better night vision for the driver, deep fording kit and mounts for reactive armor. Another way of saying it, it's an M60A3 passive without the fire control and ranging upgrades that can partially submerge.
The Army and Marines made the same upgrades through M60A1 RISE+. The Marines didn't spend their budget to shoot better or see better.
I totally forgot the split between M60A1 RISE Passive and M60A3 TTS.
These are the three good gun bills so far this session.
HB 17 by Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman repeals Florida’s mandatory waiting periods. If enacted, a gun buyer can take possession of their firearm as soon as the background check is completed. Yes, you read that right — no more waiting to take possession even after the background check is done.
Rep. Rudman’s bill fixes that and goes a step further too. If the FL Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE) takes too long and doesn’t complete the background check within three days, the dealer can release the firearm. No more waiting around and having your rights delayed.
HB 1223 by Rep. Bobby Payne restores gun rights for young adults. This bill restores the right to legally purchase a firearm for those who are under 21. Sadly, back in 2018, under the leadership of then Governor Rick Scott, Florida’s Republicans stripped young adults in the state from being able to legally exercise their Second Amendment rights. Again, HB 1223 fixes that and restores their rights.
HB 1619 by Rep. Michael Beltran makes Florida a true Constitutional Carry state. This bill repeals the Open Carry ban and goes a step further; it removes several gun-free zones. These include polling places and college/university campuses. If enacted, Florida would join the 45 states that have adopted Open Carry. Currently, only Florida, California, New York, Illinois, and Connecticut ban it.Luis Valdes
Florida State Director
Gun Owners of America
I've been participating in a spirited discussion about tanks on a forum and it's been nice to be able to talk about something I actually know a bit about.
Instead of sitting there trying to absorb stuff I don't know a thing about.
It all started with someone posting an article about what a death trap the Chrysler XM1 was and its numerous deficiencies that will get our boys killed dead if we ever have a war with the Rooskies.
An article from 1980.
I remember the talk about the shot-trap and how the bottom of the turret and top of the hull would channel a round into the turret ring to the dismay of the crew inside.
Except...
The rounds that would be so deflected don't have the penetration to do any damage once they get there.
Sabot rounds don't ricochet like that.
HEAT and HESH might, but the "pinball" effect will either detonate them too soon, doing little damage; or slow them so much they don't detonate, doing no damage.
The rounds that gave rise to the term "shot trap" armor piercing ballistic cap and armor piercing hard core (APBC and APHC) do ricochet as predicted. And lose so much energy in the process that they will not damage the turret ring, let alone penetrate. APBC and APHC are obsolete rounds.
I'm also enjoying all the tank cliches being spouted as absolute facts.
Things like the Sherman being more fire prone than any other tank. It wasn't more prone than any other before wet stowage, and far less prone after.
You were far more likely to survive your tank catching fire if it's a Sherman than any other tank of the war. Crew egress is excellent.
Texas has, apparently, ordered their national guard to seize control of a park used by illegal aliens.
They are, further, barring Federal Border Control from the area.
I am cautiously optimistic.
I took some pictures of something inside The Beast to help a fellow PPV owner.
The camera can see stuff my blind eyes can't.
Time to do some detailing!
It's nasty down there.
In the car club I'm no longer a member of, there's a couple of members with impressively fast cars.
The problem is, all I can think when they beam proudly is, "You sure did pay for that, ayup! That's some mighty fine check writing you did there."
I've long maintained that the only pro sport I give a shit about is Hockey.
I don't follow other sports and only know what I know about them from osmosis.
Lately I've taken to replying to someone talking to me about other sports with minutia about battleships.
"An Iowa class battle ship has nine 16" guns mounted in three-gun rotating gun-houses..."
And such.
Their eyes instantly glaze over.
I can go for several minutes too.
When they ask what I'm talking about, I say, "you were talking about something I didn't give a fuck about; so I'm talking about something you don't give a fuck about."
You wanna talk about basketball, I'll talk about battleships.
I just got done reading that I'd be money ahead buying an LS3 long block instead of doing the displacement-on-demand (DoD) delete on my car.
On the plus side, the LS3 is a 426 to 436 horsepower motor as opposed to the "mere" 355 to 362 of my L77.
Using the LS3 cam in my motor is supposed to be worth about 40 more horses, so 395 to 402. Nothing to sneeze at.
But money ahead?
A complete kit, less programming, is just about a grand.
The best price I've found on that short block is six and a half thousand.
Basic programming is a mere $100.
Last time I checked $1,100 < $6,500.
Never mind that I already have the tools to do a DoD delete and lack a couple I'd need to swap the block.
No man's liberty is safe while the legislature is in session.
Florida's legislature is in session.
It's too early to bother listing the good and bad bills, most of them won't be progressing very far.
The usual attempts at banning normal, common use firearms and their accompanying normal capacity magazines and expanding where you cannot carry a gun are included as if this were California.
Even more fun is the redefinition of machine gun to match the language of the bump-stock ban then governor, now US senator Lurch signed.
But "little chance of passing" is not "zero chance" so we should keep a weather eye out.
The grand jury for the Houston taqueria shooter has declined to pursue charges.
When this happened, last year, the interwebs were all a quiver about how this guy fucked up and went past the requirements of self defense.
Especially the anchor shot.
Strict reading of the law will lead you to that conclusion.
I tended to agree that he'd screwed himself by taking that extra step once the threat had ended.
I maintained that he shouldn't be, but probably would be.
It would appear that I am not alone in my thinking.
The Harris County, Texas grand jury tasked with the case decided that ridding the world of one scumbag gives a little latitude about when, exactly, the threat ended.
He was not a good person. He was out on bond for domestic assault.
It needs to be mentioned, every time, that the deceased was convicted of a robbery where their fellow robber killed the person they were robbing. He served 6 of the 15 years given him for the crime.
Note: If 15 years meant 15 years he'd still be in prison, and alive; because he was convicted in 2015.
My home insurance carrier decided to drop us because we made a claim for damage from Ida and they felt we didn't sufficiently respond to their orders when told to jump.
For some reason they think the roof was damaged when it was the facing below it along the front porch.
They kept demanding inspections from people who kept telling us that they don't DO inspections.
So we've spent the past four months trying to figure out why they were dropping us and jumping through hoops to keep them.
$1,000 worth of inspections, $200 at a time, getting home and wind abatement inspectors out here was rejected by our carrier.
The crux of the matter turns out they wanted a roofer to sign off that the roof had five years left in it.
No roofer will touch that. If they say it's good for five years and it fails, they have assumed liability.
They're not stupid.
So we used one of the inspections we'd paid for to get a different company to underwrite us.
At the Venn diagram overlap of veteran, Lego and Star Wars we find:
Republic Clone Trooper Phase 1, reg.
Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, reg.
Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 187th. Legion.
Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 212th. Attack Battalion.
Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 501st. Legion.
Republic Clone Trooper Phase 2, 501st. Legion., 332nd Company.
Republic Clone Shock Trooper Phase 2, Corusant Guard / Shock Trooper
Imperial Stormtrooper.
Imperial Army Snow Trooper
I am missing several units of Clone Trooper.
When FuzzyGeff and I were taking pictures of the sun, I heard the clear note of two piston engines in the sky.
Two engines usually means something cool!
I was expecting an old war-bird, but...
Looks like two different years of Bonanzas to me.
I skipped the BRDM-3 because the vehicle in T2K never happened!
There's no 30mm armed version of the thing.
The OT-65 in the game is closest to the OT-66, but not quite the same.
I need to check if the BRDM-2 would have stayed in service, because I think they were being phased out for BTR-70 variants.
Update: The BRDM-2M remained in service with the turret from a BTR-80. Still 14.5mm gun though.
I think the same trend was going on with OT-65 users too.
Update: The OT-65 and OT-66 would have been out of service by the time T2K rolled around and were, mostly, replaced by the very similar BRDM-2M.
I feel all better now!
I might make stats for the OT-65 and 66 anyways, because there are still a lot of them around in storage depots today. Someone probably got some running, much like the Soviet Union Russia is doing with T-55's for service in Ukraine.
It occurs to me that if the plane depressurizes, they will descend rapidly to an altitude where I can breathe.
I wonder if one could simply skip the mask that drops from the ceiling, pass out, then wake up when there's enough air.
The reason I wonder, if the plane is crashing, I think I'd rather be passed out.
When I look up the stats for the motor in The Beast I find two numbers.
355 hp and 362 hp.
That's SAE-net.
Digging deeper, it says that the lower number is for the automatic.
All Caprice PPV's are automatics. The Aussies and Middle East got the manuals.
There's no actual difference in the parts of the engines, so it must be in the "net" part of the specification.
That'd be the torque converter.
It only costs 7 horses?
Color me impressed. It's not 1970 any more.
I noticed today that my Twilight: 2000 conversion missed two Warsaw Pact 4-wheel armored cars.
The Czech OT-65 and Soviet BRDM-3.
I need to fix that. Should be simple.
Later I need to do the vehicle guides.
Your Krag takes too long to load?
Anderson and Braathen have got you covered!
At least in 6.5x55mm...
Took my father-in-law to the used bookstore to get him a fresh batch of western novels.
I found the book on the right:
It's a 1919 printing of the 5th Edition.
It is substantially different from my 1990 printing of the 23rd Edition.
A bonus is the log tables! The 23rd doesn't have them. In 1990 they expected you to use a calculator.
It's neat to see what something I'm familiar with looked like 105 years ago.
You do not have to wait until the change oil light comes on before you change your oil.
This is a mystery to several people I'm familiar with.
Likewise, with modern engines and oil, you don't need to do it every three thousand miles anymore.
6,900 miles with 39% showing on the oil life monitor seems a good compromise.
I discovered that you can buy 12 quarts of Mobil-1 in a "wine box".
I need 8 quarts for the change and it's something of a pain to measure it out to keep from overfilling.
But it's also nearly $20 cheaper than buying the exact amount of oil with a single 5 qt jug and three singles.
Wayne LaPierre has resigned, as I am sure everyone reading here already knows.
He's a wonderful example of "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain."
I met him once at a book signing, still have the signed copy around here someplace.
I wonder if we're going to be able to get the NRA back under the membership's control with him out the way; or if the court case is going to nuke it from orbit.
Nothing to see here, narrative mismatch error.
No mention of the Perry, Iowa shooting on MSN now that we know it wasn't a white supremacist bigot who did the shooting.
GURPS defines the medieval period as TL3.
Players of D&D think they're playing in a medieval setting.
But much of the equipment in D&D is TL4 according to GURPS, which says it's "age of sail."
So much of D&D is already TL4, I wondered if adding the "missing" TL4 item would break it.
That would be guns.
Pathfinder even has a "gunslinger" class.
Critical Role has a main character in their anime, Legend of Vox Machina, who uses a gun.
TL4 is 1450 to 1730. Guns go from cannon lock gonnes to full flintlock in this timeframe.
But does it matter?
The only things that change, besides firearms, is the adoption of what GURPS calls fencing weapons.
D&D is early TL4 where "sword" still equates to the GURPS broadsword and not a rapier or smallsword.
Artwork from D&D clearly shows ships that are obviously NOT TL3, much like the armor available.
Matchlock and wheel lock guns don't break the paradigm.
Multi-barrel and superposed loads (which didn't catch on in the real world) might get more common if there's an, ahistorical, adventuring class.
The existence of armed and armored, but not noble, persons is also ahistorical. Never mind the racial and gender egalitarianism that's been there since day one, despite what Hasbro thinks.
Considering that I don't think it's even difficult to run a fantasy campaign with Old West gear, it's simple to add some early firearms to the mix.
I've also considered the effect of letting the dwarves and elves be the source of TL4 goods and letting people pay double for them.
The Ulfbrecht swords from history are an example. It appears unlikely that the places where such swords are found had developed the furnaces needed for crucible steel. But they did have trade networks to places that had. A pig of crucible steel could readily be hammered out into a far better blade than could be made from bloomery iron by virtually anyone who could make a sword.
Crucible steel is a very late TL3 technology, but it wasn't native to where the swords have been found.
By TL4, it's a normal technology and it leads to making the long, narrow blades of rapiers.
There's a serious case to include the H&K CAWS shotgun with my GURPS conversion of Twilight: 2000 because the gun was in the original game.
But...
I've already replaced the cancelled LAV-75 with the M8 Buford. The LAV was in the original game, the M8 was the FMC CCVL at the time.
The Army never adopted the LAV-25, but the Marines did. I've included it in my conversion.
The CAWS program withered on the vine just after the original T2K was published, and long before the timeline of the game.
There are other, small, changes. By 1997 without the "peace dividend" there would have been progress on many fronts that didn't happen in our timeline.
In the real world, even with the "peace dividend" there were no 105mm Abrams left in the system. OG T2K has an M1, M1A1 and M1A2 (M1, M1E1 and M1E2 by the rules).
By the time I'd joined the Army, two years later, the M1 was gone and 105 armed M1's were the M1(IP) standard which has the better armor of the M1A1, without the better gun.
Even with the end of The Cold War every Abrams prior to M1A1(HA) was removed from service. Continued Reaganesque funding would have put the M1A2 into service years early and what I call the M1A3 being fielded off reasearch from the, abandoned, M1 TTB.
M1E2 from the original rules was a remote turreted tank that was never adopted, but loosely based on the M1 Tank Test Bed.
I replaced the three OG listings with an M1A1(HA) and an M1A3 with a mounting more similar to what was on the Stryker than the TTB. The M1A2 would be the same as our timeline.
The point of all that was, I've made changes to suit reality...
That I've done the work to stat the H&K CAWS means little since I've fully statted out the LAV-75 and skipped it.
FuzzyGeff took an outstanding pic of the "jellyfish" from the Falcon launch.
At the top of the frame you can see the first stage doing it's retro burn, at the bottom, the second stage heading to orbit.
Gods forbid people read this shit and think for themselves...
The Perry, Iowa shooter's social media has, already, been scoured off the internet.
To prevent us from reading the killer's own words and deciding for ourselves if others like them pose a threat, I am sure.
Now we will get what the killer said filtered through the media, and more importantly, the government
Remember, we're still waiting for the Nashville shooter's manifesto to be released officially.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant and we keep shoving this stuff into the dark.
I was this many years old when I finally put together that the TRS in TRS-80 means Tandy Radio Shack.
I'm not, generally, a conspiracy theorist; but it's fucking uncanny how there's a school shooting immediately after major news that reflects poorly on liberals.
Epstein list yesterday, shooting today in Perry, Iowa.
For the M7 bayonets:
BOC, 10.4 oz.
Conetta, 10.3 oz.
Gen Cut #1, 11.4 oz.
Gen Cut #2, 11.3 oz.
MILPAR, 10.7 oz.
For the M8A1 Scabbards:
PWH #1, 5.2 oz.
PWH #2, 5.2 oz.
TWD, 5.3 oz.
VIZ, 4.9 oz.
For the M10 Scabbard:
Gen Cut, 4.0 oz.
I wonder what the target weight was for each. We've got a 1.1 oz. range for the M7's, with the 1960's bayonets being lighter than the mid-80's.
The Beast managed a respectable 24.2 mpg on the 301.2 mile trip.
Not bad for a 4,162 lb., 362 hp V-8 car hauling three people (with two being none-to-skinny).
FuzzyGeff, Marv and I went over to Titusville and watched SpaceX send up the Ovzon-3.
We met up with a buddy from the car world and had lunch at
Dogs-R-Us then went out to
watch the show.
Cameras were present.
I didn't catch the landing burn on account of the incompetence. I failed
to mash the record button, I just pressed near it.
For my birthday, Marv got me a Gen Cut M7 bayonet. It looks to be an unissued, but out-of-package example.
Because it was on sale, for an excellent price, it did not come with a scabbard.
Amazon, of all places, sells bare scabbards. Because I am awash in M8A1 scabbards, I chose an M10 for this bayonet. New in wrap!
Cage code 20014, interestingly enough, is for General Cutlery! The same folks who made the bayonet.
Compared to the vintage M8A1.
The M10 scabbard is 4.0 oz. and that's 0.9 oz. lighter than an M8A1 (both weighed without the shoelace). Interestingly, this M7 and scabbard weighed 15.5 oz. That makes it an 11.5 oz. bayonet. A previous measurement of an M7 with M8A1 scabbard was 15.3 oz. for a 10.4 oz. bayonet.
I'm interested to see what the tolerances on the parts are to give that spread.
In the original game it used standard shotgun ammo.
The CAWS program was long dead before the year 2000, it was dead before the Soviet Union went tits up and the Berlin Wall fell.
So I never included it in my GURPS conversion.
Still...
I've done some easy research and developed GURPS stats for it.
18.5x76mmB is the all brass round. It will not fit in a normal 12ga shotgun.
However, it will accept normal 12ga ammunition.
There are three rounds in 18.5x76mmB, 000 Buck, tungsten pellets and flechettes.
The "full auto" rate of fire is a mere 4 shots per round, barely better than a semi-auto shotgun's 3.
The tungsten pellets hit pretty hard, 2d+2 pi, but they don't quite go as far as normal shotgun rounds. Just 35/675 with an NP of 8. 000 does the normal 1d+2 pi out to 50/900, NP 8. The flechettes are fun, NP 20 doing 1d+1 pi-, but getting 80/950 for range.
NP is the number after the RoF 4x, so 4x20 for the flechettes and 80 shots on the RoF table for a +6 to hit! Bwahahahahaha!
Normal 12ga ammunition uses the same damage and range stats as the lowly Remington 870 you can find in High-Tech.
I'm still debating if I should include it. What's the hive think?
It was probably looking for information about neanderthals that got the Al Gore Rhythm to start sharing stone knapping videos to me on YouTube.
It's amazing how much of a nodule of flint or obsidian ends up on the ground to make one spear head.
It's misleading, most of the those flakes are purposed to other tools. Very little was wasted when this technology was at its peak.
It's sometimes strange to think of this as technology, but it most certainly is.
I'm even starting to learn the differences between early and late versions of the tools, as the technology of knocking chips off gets more refined and elegant.
It's important that only the people who did the crimes be punished for them and only those whom were harmed are recompensed.
There are no living Americans who were slaves prior to the 13th Amendment being ratified.
Likewise, there are no living Americans who owned any of those slaves.
Considering the 360,000 people who gave their lives to free the slaves and make sure those slave owners remained where the laws of The United States would affect them...
America is even with the former slaves and their descendants.
It's not America's fault that you failed to do anything with that freedom...
Except...
The Democrats.
They're the KKK, they're Jim Crow, they're who fought so long for segregation, they're who opposed every attempt to make black people actually equal for decades.
They're the people that are keeping you from succeeding and they're doing it by tricking you into thinking they're helping you.
But, you keep reelecting them...
So my sympathy is somewhat thin.
I want you to have the same chances I do, but you have to accept that will mean you risk the same failures I do as well.
I am no great success, but I know it's my fault, and I blame the correct person for my failure.
You should give that a shot.
PS: You're going to have to abandon your Democrat endorsed toxic subculture and become Americans too. Being an American is actually a pretty sweet deal, you might find it suits you.
PPS: The Democrats actively fought your emancipation so hard that there needed to be two additional Constitutional amendments just to make sure you got rights everyone else thought came with being citizens until the Democrats systematically denied them to all y'all.
Dear indigenous American people who lost the war over who owns that "sacred" land;
In the intervening 100 years since the end of that war, there's been nothing stopping you from buying much of that land back.
Especially with the largess from the casinos.
Yet...
Well, you didn't buy it back, so you don't get a say in how it's used by the present owners.
Marv got me a Crimson Trace CMR-208 light for Christmas!
It replaces the TLR-3 I had on it.
Plus, I think it looks better.
All is not wasted, the TLR-3 can live on Mollie-Bean. There's nothing standard on her, so an odd battery fits right in!
The 2nd Amendment is, indeed, for everyone. Just because that's true, doesn't mean that saying it makes your cause righteous. If you're planning on using your guns to take away anyone's rights or liberties you are not the good-guys. You are the person the 2nd Amendment was written about.
The brew-ha-ha over the KE Arms KP-15 has nothing to do with the quality of the product.
In the red corner we have fascists who think they're freedom fighters. Unrelated to this is a measurable portion of this corner are very pro-LGBT and a noticeable portion are Satanists.
In the blue corner we have Christian bigots who think they're saving liberty from fascism. But they cannot just oppose the brownshirt behavior without mentioning the LGBT and Satanists.
Would that both sides lose.
I just wanted a good product at a decent price.
But the fucktards on both sides fucked that up for the rest of us.
But I'm sure to be called a bigot for wanting equal rights. The same rights for every person. No special rights for anyone.
I've asked before, "are you a person?"
Black PERSON.
Gay PERSON.
White PERSON.
Straight PERSON.
Religious PERSON.
Atheist PERSON.
People have rights, and we all have the same rights.
Denying someone else their rights to exercise your own makes you a tyrant.
Both sides are guilty of this, though they don't appear to realize it.
And this is just skimming the surface in a Cliff's Notes manner.
This guy makes a "documentary" about how much better Switzerland is than US at
understanding our 2nd Amendment.
Colion Noir makes an excellent counterpoint.
The Swiss are pretty good about gun ownership, but the fact remains that they are still Europeans with a European outlook on things.
They also made some serious concessions to the EU concerning gun regulation not that long ago too.
The AN-94 was VERY speculative when I first converted Twilight: 2000 to GURPS, but I figured that if I was going to include the H&K G11, I might as well have the Soviet reply.
It's like a heavy AK-74S that is somewhat somewhat susceptible to debris.
And fucking expensive! Six times the price of the 74 to get that hyper-burst.
