More importantly I would imagine that a lot of weapons come with remote activated 'safeties'. So if you are squaring off against a DirectAction hit squad, you probably don't want to be packing DirectAct Firearms in case the hit squad has a 'IFF' that locks your weapon down (or perhaps just prevents them from being used against the squad itself). It just makes sense, and smart weapon-dealing anarchists would likely use just such a trick to prevent power struggles or being shot in the back. Of course knives, swords, etc are another kettle of fish but there is nothing to stop a ruthless manufacturer from encoding a 'self destruct' into the weapon so that it breaks down when the command is given. Also it makes sense if local law enforcement has a list of such code over-rides.

Ah, reminds me of the moment in the [url=http://www.sleepydog.net/tvproduction/slingers/]Slingers[/url] sizzle reel when Gun won't fire because her operator is too stressed out and his blood pressure is to high... "Click!" "That's not funny!"

Another idea: Equipment that has the "wrong" software version. And somehow decide to update, perhaps entering a unfamiliar mesh or have been away for a while. Or yet another succesfull sabotage attempt. " This equipment software is of the wrong version. Updating file 1337 of 57411... Please hold." *cue pause music* I wouldnt have Equipment failing only from unlucky rolls; Successes, local laws & environment could cause them in various forms as well. Some equipment could also candidate for oyster awards (exceptionally difficult to open).

Quote:

“As manufacturers create packaging that more aggressively discourages theft and tampering they are concurrently creating a package opening nightmare for many consumers.” Tod Marks, a Senior Editor at Consumer Reports.

Thampsan wrote:

More importantly I would imagine that a lot of weapons come with remote activated 'safeties'. So if you are squaring off against a DirectAction hit squad, you probably don't want to be packing DirectAct Firearms in case the hit squad has a 'IFF' that locks your weapon down (or perhaps just prevents them from being used against the squad itself). It just makes sense, and smart weapon-dealing anarchists would likely use just such a trick to prevent power struggles or being shot in the back. Of course knives, swords, etc are another kettle of fish but there is nothing to stop a ruthless manufacturer from encoding a 'self destruct' into the weapon so that it breaks down when the command is given. Also it makes sense if local law enforcement has a list of such code over-rides.

Just imagine combining the two. Combat knives that explode when swung/stabbed at someone with the correct IFF reading. Obviously if your stabbing at one of your "own" you either got the weapon illegally, or you are deranged. Either way, you didn't really need that hand, did you?

urdith wrote:

Ah, reminds me of the moment in the [url=http://www.sleepydog.net/tvproduction/slingers/]Slingers[/url] sizzle reel when Gun won't fire because her operator is too stressed out and his blood pressure is to high... "Click!" "That's not funny!"

"You need to enhance your calm, Citizen."

Arnt vehicles now also morphs? body & machine malfunctions & car manufactures reasons for recall is where I would seek inspiration. [b]Tremor & Vibrations[/b] something inside "involuntary" or unexpectedly start a rhythmic distinct vibration & perhaps a noisy ruckus. [b]Faulty sensors, displays & warnings[/b] Despite a full tank, low fuel warnings are issued. Probably caused by a malfunctioning auditing fuel tank sensor. [b]Steering lock problems[/b] Depite course heading is neutral its still steers right, (or another direction determined by scatter dice) [b]Extra weight[/b] "I think it uses up more fuel" "Yes of course, Its become fat -obese even" "My ship isnt fat...Oh it is" "From my experience: the hull repair systems needs a complete overhaul"

We shouldn't forget the charmingly nasty environments the solar system delivers. The moon, like most asteroids, is covered with very fine and abrasive dust. It is abrasive, it gets into everything (during the Apollo missions astronauts had problems with it getting into their underwear), covers lenses, seals, windows etc., cannot be brushed off due to electric properties, and irritates the lungs. Some of it is also magnetic. Now imagine that getting into hightech equipment like, say, a railgun... Similarly, going out on Titan means dipping your equipment in a dense atmosphere of very cold nitrogen with some oily carbon compounds. I would rule that if a non-native character goes to the outside (and their Muse fails at the relevant roll to warn them) equipment not specifically intended for outdoors use will have a decent chance to malfunction. When you fire the railgun it attracts a flurry of abrasive nanoparticles on Luna, and the next few shot will seriously abrade all internal mechanisms. That nice covert operations tool is rated for indoors temperatures, not -179C - the nanomachines get sluggish and just stop when you go out on Titan. The feedstock supply to the nanohive freezes in the martian air. And those guardian bots will never get clean again after moving over a dusty lunar Mare... which is too bad, since the dust really messes up their joints.

nezumi.hebereke wrote:

"Outside" being 'anywhere except a vacuum, the location it's designed for, interior of habitats and (presumably) Earth'?

You know, I had a thought. Some equipment might be specifically tailored to environments that won't allow it to work in a Hab without adjusting something or modifying it. Like, say, a sensor package that is designed for scouting extremely cold areas. The designers stripped off the heat sinks/cooling fans because, hey, where it's going to be used heat won't be an issue. Now bring that inside and it overheats constantly, gives false readings, and generally raises hell because it's operating a much much higher temp then it's supposed to be. Or a weapon, like a gyrojet or traditional ballistic, that is designed to be used in low-G environs but is brought to Venus where it craps all over itself because of gravity and it can't hit anything at range. Or a weapon designed to be used in around 1G being shot in less then that. A traditional Thompson Submachine Gun would be absolute hell to fire in .5G as the already absurd recoil would only be much much worse (all the forces the SMG puts out from recoil stays the same, but no Gravity to help control muzzle climb). Laser weapons would have to be calibrated to the local environments. Not hard, especially with Smart weapons, but what if the user forgets or does not have time? Does the shot go wildly out of control? Make the atmosphere explode, or simply act as a really expensive flashlight? Or, perhaps, is it doubly effective?

Arenamontanus wrote:

King Shere wrote:

"What?! My weapon isn't responding; child safe lockdown...?" "You may want to check & renew your status as an adult; apparently its been revoked"

This is a beautiful way for a creative hacker to sabotage the enemy weapons. Just confuse their AIs about which age verification server to use. In fact, some weapons might malfunction when the Mesh is down. "This weapon cannot fire until it has contacted the licence server. In the meantime, here is some pause music."

I am saving this for the first time one of my players rolls a fumble with a firearm. It's going to be glorious.

I usually don't try to mess with PCs on every piece of equipment, but on the other hand I let them pick up a lot, with the understanding that pretty much everything is fair game, and that some people will specifically target their resources. Having said that... Weapons can be a relatively straightforward case when characters want to massively augment them. First, why isn't everyone -- or at least everyone who needs a rail gun assault rifle or sniper rifle -- using as many useful modifications as possible? That's usually an easy question to answer. I start with the assumption that most weapons and ammunition come with at least one modification that relates to their purpose. Rail-gun rounds intended for heavily armored reaper drones or TITAN constructs may be armor-piercing or explosive. Assault rifle ammunition used by deep-space habitat security for moderately lethal opponents may be frangible, more to save on hull damages than to savage their foes. The weapon itself is apt to have one or more basic add-ons. Sniper rifles will have scopes, and possibly advanced sensors or compensators for specific environmental conditions (Titanian cold snaps, or Martian winds). Assault rifles, like many 20th and 21st Century versions, may have an underslung second weapon ("grenade launcher"), removable/retractable scope, and other assorted options. So what limits player abuse? A number of factors. First off, realize that the universe of Eclipse Phase has been beset by horrifically powerful invaders/infiltrators who have already killed off about 95% of the human/transhuman race. There are a [i]lot[/i] of people about sporting weapons designed for an apocalypse that could be just around the corner or, depending on your perspective, already here. So, most first-rate military weapons are already intended for the kind of intense firefights a combat-heavy game could see. The limits on weapon/ammunition modification tend to be mass/volume, operability, hackability, visibility, cost/resources and "social acceptability" (whether people kill you when you approach their habitat carrying your monster supergun). To sum up: You can build a gun that has eight barrels, fires giant armor-piercing guided rail-gun rounds filled with compressed antimatter, EMP bursts, autonomous lasers, particle beams/plasma plumes, brilliant fusion warheads, nanoswarms and the odd biochem weapon, all while offering a full suite of advanced sensors, providing AGI targeting and serving as a full body shield. It can also be so distastefully designed as to offend the senses of every sentient being who dares to approach who is not summarily destroyed. In fact you can buy these more or less of the shelf, practically unmodified. They're called tanks, or possibly destroyers. To sum up the problems with the above you have mass/volume -- a weapon could be built with those capabilities, but would be far to heavy to move. Even a less ambitious version would require at least a very strong biomorph or a synth or vehicle morph -- again, bringing up the tank. So any weapon or ammunition can be built fairly simply with advanced features, if you can, among other things, haul it around. Which brings us to operability. Now, we already have multi-feature weapons in the real world. If anything, Eclipse Phase will be even better at building them and have far more reasons to do so. Usually, you will only hit operability issues when you try to have your weapon do a really remarkable number of things at once, like firing from three different barrels simultaneously, especially at three different targets. Are your reflexes up to this? Your targeting software? The limbs you're wielding it with? On the other hand, it's quite possible to have a perfectly reasonable, say, handgun, that fires off 20 separate, devastating attacks with a single pull of the trigger. How, you ask? By firing one handgun and setting off 19 other contingencies, from EMP bursts to preset botnet attacks against preselected targets to triggering other weapons. The downside here is that you can't get that kind of effect with your next shot, and you had best "be certain of your targets" if all of them get hit or at least attacked upon the same signal. Which brings us to hackability. In an era of basilisk hacks, Exsurgent psis, AGI hackers and random nanoswarms, there's a host of entities that might try to tamper with your electronics in case they ever need to distract, mislead, manipulate or kill you. Hence, there are far fewer palm-recognition gunlocks and hackable electronics on most handweapons that could easily shut down or otherwise sabotage them. Physical sabotage is also a concern with complex systems -- a gun that allows you to feed in your choice of ammo from multiple magazines can have that option controlled manually or electronically, but still get shut down by scattered adhesives or nanites, where a simple railgun with high tolerances and external diamondoid construction could weather substantial degradation without complaint. Antimatter and other forms of ultra-high-density power storage are another, even greater concern, given what could happen if they were abruptly released (by, say, industrious nanoswarms). Visibility is another concern. Dragging around a weapon that is not only military class, but has obvious, unconcealable mods that scream "ultimate mega-weapon" is a good way to get yourself marked out as either a lunatic or a heavy-handed foreign agent -- either being a really bad result for Firewall agents. So whether you show up at customs or are found wandering around in the wilderness, the nature of the weapon in your possession speaks volumes about you. Not that there aren't locations where it will be seen as logical. But, say, trying to egocast into a habitat and then going to pick up the mega-cannon you had assembled at a local nanofab can create all kinds of problems, *especially* if no one makes a fuss. Remember, as a high-level agent, other intel people, criminals, Exsurgents and so forth may be far more interested in your allies than in you alone. After all, when you pick up that weapon, you probably don't look all that bright at all. Cost/resources are an ever-present consideration for most characters. One of the best twists to Eclipse Phase is that you can be incredibly well prepared and still not have access to all your gadgets and allies in places you can otherwise get to quite easily. Even if you could conceivably have the weapon you're looking for with little trouble at the hab you're visiting... do you really want to build some incredibly expensive weapon on site for a place where you're just looking for leads or rumors? Where you'll have to leave it behind almost immediately, and where you may fight no one at all? Social acceptability is, again, mostly whether people kill you outright when they see your reaper morph coming over the horizon, dragging a giant howitzer as it comes. Most significant habitats have the firepower to absolutely crush an ordinary transport, or any raiding party trying to come through their main docking stations. No when they say "No," you'll have few options. You'll have even fewer when they tell you to put down your weapon and to come away for a bit of questioning. Just remember that new habitats watch you very carefully when you seek entrance, and that most significant powers can deploy massive military resources against a clear threat. Like nanoswarms, waves of reaper drones or orbital killsats. Having said all of that, I have nothing against PCs using clever and powerful devices if they can get around the obvious drawbacks inherent in them. Exceptional characters probably should have the savvy to pull something formidable together, and the skills, tech or even raw physical strength to use it. That's why some PCs are actual combat specialists, and why it's sometimes hard to replace them with just a few security drones and mercenaries and a huge security budget.

Rhyx wrote:

Well first off I think that the system doesn't do enough to limit the "firmpoints" on a weapon so opportunistic players might try to exploit that.

But even if all weapons have few firmpoints, there is nothing to stop a weapons hacker from making a design with the maximum geometrically possible number and open source it for everyone. This is why I prefer to use the system that the risk of a failure grows with the square number of the components. If it is not an amazingly well-built and well-tested compound device there are going to be plenty of misfeatures that show up at the wrong moment. Besides the many other soft constraints Dry Observer mentioned.