Explosives/Munitions/Lord of War Vent

The solution of melee weapons wearing out too would be nice, but I imagine not popular, even though it brings things a bit closer together, so now weapon specs just do all weapon repairs, pending some tools and consumables, not just firearms. Still firs a lord of war schema.

I fully get the inconvenience of having to go to a tech to fix/clear/maintain your weapons but… Well, it's RP game, and its a fun way to get to rely on others a bit more. Or just get a skill slot, and soft, and tools.

Crafted specialty ammo or bombs and janky firearm mods like an oil filter suppressor is something I've wanted for a while and made @notes about before but never went anywhere. That and/or customized weapons or armor that is @worn or @description only, like the sticker machine but without the limitations of the sticker machine, that only munitions techs can use is also something I've made posts about here before. Imagine if you could put spikes on your favorite protek trench, or dune dragon horns on your xo3 helmet. So much personality compared to a stock standard armor design.

In general, though, I still think if the two skills were combined it would be a coherent enough single skill rather than the sort of half-skills they are now, and people who aren't interested in bombs or munitions can just do one part of the skill, like how not all artistry characters tailor, etc.

I am obviously bias though.

So, with that aim in mind: I'm a strong advocate for red text functions in skills, namely things that do things in combat and can be used in a combative way (if not necessarily weapon attacks). Explosi-Munitions getting a skill roll bonus on thrown and placed explosive items would be a start, likewise a breakpoint for no longer taking damage from their own placed or throw explosives so they could use smaller explosives to their advantage in combat situations.

New explosive items (even if they're just renames) would be a must because the current ones are too idiosyncratic to build a whole skill fantasy around. A simple satchel charge that is more meaningful than a grenade but not as block-levely as timebombs would fit into a lot of different archetype fantasies (balance this around the question of what would be worth giving up a round of attacks for in the middle of combat). Ditto breaching charges for attacking vehicle panels that are subject to the same rules and functions as rocket attacks.

Finally if gun cleaning has to remain at all, given Explosi-Munitions a negative modifier against firearms wearing to the point that an expert munitioneer doesn't worry about mid-fight jams.

So that doesn't add cost to current firearm use, but if you want to have extra reliable heater, pay a pro for extra service.

Raging fire that takes a bit of time to put out is a great way to draw someone into a vulnerable position with the right planning. It's a secondary effect. It also draws and keeps away as means of a distraction too.

While I find bombing for the sake of bombing to be obnoxious and less than ideal, and I utterly loathe fire damage to clothing (and when under armor), it has it's appeal and usefulness.

So for starters I'd like to say that there is sort of an IC running gag about new weapon specialists boothing.

And I believe that had I chosen to pursue the Lord of War archetype like I wanted to I too would've boothed out of boredom and stopped playing Sindome.

To begin, there is only one type of Lord of War. A legal one. Illegal ones don't exist because they can't. And yes I'm serious on that.

Now for the legal types there are only two paths. A new player can run off and join Viriisoma, the only corp offering Weapon Specialist on their job board. And now the new player has nothing to do coupled with being sealed off from half the playing population, along with the problems of being Jr. Corp. Unless a player relies on meta knowledge of how to actually survive this period, I forsee a fall and a booth.

The other path was, until recently, VERY heavily gatekept by… yeah, moving on.

But what about the illegal weapons specialist servicing the criminal scum of The Mix? Doesn't exist. The idea of the Nic Cage Lord of War illegal weapons dealer is in no way supported in the slightest.

1.) Gangers don't use guns - There may have been a time when the streets were ablaze with gunfire, but it is NOT now. It's almost as if the gangers want to obey the law. I know the idea was floated at some point at a Town Hall about arming some of the NPC's with lower end calibers, and the response was a very loud negative on that.

2.) Guns sit where they end up - That's either in the hands of solos/syndies or sitting on a shelf collecting dust in a closet somewhere. Either way the odds of those weapons suddenly entering the market are slim to none. The dealer will never be able to lose the weapon because gangers don't buy and the solos either already have one of those or they have better. And Solo McSwingdown isn't going to be losing his smudge anytime soon when (Shroud + Xo3 + smudge) > (Getting Jumped + Depot + cricket bat).

3.) Zero profit. And I mean zero. - The market is frozen and prices of firearms can't be haggled over. In the markets, Gomer Pyle can get as good of a price on his heater as "Bob" Dobbs can. We're not even going into there being zero secondary market for weapon mods. For Trading being marked as an IMPORTANT skill for a Lord of War to have, it is useless for any trading involving Lord of War activities.

Also unpopular opinion, but being able to haggle over sheathed firearms is abusing an exploit. If it's the design decision to lock the prices as they are, tossing it in a sheath to haggle for better prices is an exploit.

4.) Insanely high investment in comparison to any return. - Take a second to think about the general street price for a ballistic belt. Now think about the average cost that you think is acceptable to fix a jam, or clean a gun.

Given the need for a specialist is once in a blue moon, how long do you think it'll take to just pay off the belt? Heaven help the fool who invests in repairing armor.

5.) Repairing Armor will get you killed - There seems to be a stigma around repairing your armor in the Mix. Mixers would rather die than ever subject their armor to a repair dummy. I can't blame them, considering that no matter how good of a ballistic tech you are, the end result is always the same. YOU FUCKED UP. Now their armor is permanently weakened all because of you convinced someone to patch up the cannonball holes in their jacket. So because of this there is zero way to gauge how your skill is increasing, and even the best of the best will inevitably risk IC repercussions for ruining things when they can not in any way not ruin it.

6.) Insane UE investment - As has been said, not only do you need skill in Munitions, you need skill in whatever you're working on too. So that means investing in not just one, but five separate skills, all of which you'll most likely never actually use. Meanwhile the solo/syndie can ignore your entire existence by buying a toolbelt of their own and a bronze skillsoft.

7.) The people who would benefit from you can ignore you completely - Here I'm talking Syndicates. Logically, crime families would probably love to have someone on the payroll to make sure everything is in perfect working order and to take care of their stockpiles of weaponry. Except that syndicates are arbitrarily labeled as big boy clubs that you must be so many UE to join. And even then, I'm willing to bet they have ways of obtaining their illegal weaponry that skips any form of IC interaction with other players, and when they do need a specialist, they no doubt have a toolbelt and skillsoft lying around to just do it themselves after a day or two.

So yeah, rant over, but all of these issues, I'm going to agree that with less support than cyberjocks that the Lord of War archetype be removed completely. It gives too much of an idea that themes exist within Sindome gameplay when they very much do not.

Really all the archetypes should be gutted and redone from the ground up, but that's a bridge to burn another day.

The other thing was that armour showing weakening from repairing never ever seemed to translate to detectable gameplay differences, but it's not like a ran a simulation of thousands of rounds of combat so that may have just been a sample size issue.

> 1.) Gangers don't use guns

They definitely do, first hand knowledge. I would love way more, and not just as sometimes, but they do.

> 2.) Guns sit where they end up

> and

> 3.) Zero profit

Guns move quite a bit in the mix. Actually too much, which means the only people who can really compete are people who buy and sell 2nd hand, realisticlt as trying to sell new ones… Yeah, the secondary market is too big and too easy to access for most pieces and with not enough demand to drive prices up.

> 4.) Insanely high investment in comparison to any return. - Take a second to think about the general street price for a ballistic belt. Now think about the average cost that you think is acceptable to fix a jam, or clean a gun.

Ballistic belt is not needed for cleaning. I'd love it to be hah as for things needing a belt you can happily charge more.

> 6.) Insane UE investment

> 7.) The people who would benefit from you can ignore you completely

That's quite true, well, you don't need INSANE ue, but it is quite a bit of UE, though bronze munition I don't think replaces a tech for anything but cleaning. But yes, the point stays that skillsoft could really get in the way here, no idea if they actually do.