Before he forgets, Bishop does some final tests with his new weapons on robotic opponents on passive in duel, namely full body prosthetics and other robots. As he mulls over his token shortage, an idea comes to him. Bishop logs out for a moment and looks up at the roof.
"Computer, I know that your listening, so I have a deal for you. I am willing to sell the schematics to two new useful weapons, for the armory to reproduce for others. Doutlessly you have seen the results in the VR machine I've been using. Intrested?"
Test out both new weapons on robotic enemies in duel, then talk to steve about if he's interested in buying the schematics to the new weapons for the armory. If he requires more convincing, tell him that I'll also work on another blueprint for free if he's willing to pay a good price for these two, and that the results speak for themself as he's doutlessly seen. After his response, search for the hottest containable liquid and the coldest containable liquid as well as what material is required to hold them. If said materials are far to expensive to use in ammunition, then search for more affordable options.
You try out the weapons in Duel against various robotic and synthetic prosthetic. The bolo cuts through the artificial muscle on the robot, but fails to penetrate the metallic "bones". Against the Synth-flesh it cuts in a bit and then stops for some reason. Hmm. The EMP works quite well on the robot but doesn't seem to have any effect on the synth-flesh.
>Their usefulness is still in question. I'll tell you what though, if you can find some way to prove that they're viable in actual combat situations-the fact that they kill dummies and unarmed, passive simulated targets doesn't amount to much- and worth the cost of manufacture then I'll place them in the armory for mass use and give you a bonus for aiding in the war effort. You try to search by the temperature of the material and find it doesn't have such a setting. [intelligence roll:5] You realize you might be going about this the wrong way. Objects don't have inherent temperatures so searching for the hottest or coldest liquid doesn't make much sense. What you need to do, you figure, is find a vessel capable of heating or cooling something very dramatically and then find a substance that would handle how you'd like it to under those conditions.
Work out the next three designs: a gauss rifle with two charging circuits, a gauss rifle with four charging circuits and a double-barreled gauss rifle with four charging circuits (two per barrel). Then put on an exoskeleton and test them with or without using overcharge against an unarmed battlesuit and then against an Avatar of War. Compare the price in tokens for each of these three weapon designs.
"Punch many holes in things", huh? *chuckle*
...Also, Steve, do the 'Corps ever employ any tripods or bipods?
You begin fiddling with the design of the rifle, copying and pasting the charging circuits around. With two charging circuits the time between shots is cut in half. With 4 it's down to a little more then a 1/3 of a second between shots. The effect of two barrels with 2 circuits is that you can get off a shot roughly every 1/3 second, each barrel firing with .75 second intervals between shots.
You head to duel and test out each configuration against a battle suit and avatar. As expected, the rifles with more charging systems fire quicker. The damage is universal, as none of the guns have any sort of power advantage as they are wired.
Battlesuit: normal: Small dent, Overcharged: slightly larger dent.
Avatar: Normal: Bounced off cloak. Overcharged: Bounced off cloak but tore a small hole.
>What do you mean?((And I'll try to get some research on shielding that exoskeleton computer from EMP - among other research projects, that is.
Oh, and also - how do you feel about making a general policy to share knowledge as well as schematics among all the 'Corps members? Do you think it will be IC (for the most of characters, at least)? Well, I guess, 'making the lemmings invent useful things before being expended' as well as 'the spirit of comraderie demanding to help each other' would be two viable reasons, but what about the rest of us? Oh, and also I'm not quite sure that it would be IC for my character to bring up such an idea - unless he thinks that others would approve of it. Hmmm.))
Think over the personalities of the comrades and try to guess whether the idea of sharing knowldge (e.g., how to use this and that) and research data/projects would appeal to them, or not.
You'll have to ask around about that, I don't want to go volunteering people.
((Ivan wants some vodka))
If you live you can always check the armory, they have a lovely supply of chemicals to "augment" yourself with.