Talk:Autocannon

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Concerning autocannon descriptions to avoid misconceptions

Over the course of BattleTech's development as a franchise, there has been many canonical (primarily TRO) entries that are inconsistent or use phrases specific to the games. Primarily "single shot". Where often a weapon is given to be, say, 120mm AC/20 on a Thunder, and the phrase "a single shot", where many of us know that isn't how autocannons work. Although, actually upon looking it up that's an error on a Sarna editor's part as the TRO makes no mention of single shot in TRO 3055 Upgrade (or even the caliber). My point though is that often there are entries stating "single shot" when referring to a single round (as Battletechnology the magazine defines it a 'round' is a cassette full of ammunition which when consumed takes 1 digit off of the counter. This is an in-universe way of saying 1 round = one 'complete' use of the weapon in BattleTech), which in turn can be anything from 1 projectile (unlikely for an AC given the nature of Rifles) to 100 projectiles (ever so rare).

So when I see entries such as the hyper velocity autocannon at damage 10/shot and heat 7/shot, or Thunder's 120mm stated to have 20 damage in a single shot, or Hunchback's Tomodzuru mount type 20 180mm AC/20 with 20 damage in a single shot (which is directly in TRO 3025), or the Atlas's Defiance Mech Hunter 185mm stated to only have 14 shots (as opposed to 14 uses or reloads or what-have-you), it makes it no wonder that the BattleTech layman is simply confused or assume that mechs must be 20-30 meter tall giants with tanks the size of city blocks as they're sporting 285 lb bullets from a fully automatic weapon that mysteriously shoots once every 4 to 10 seconds.

If you were to choose a term to use instead of shot to convey a single use of a weapon without implying an exact projectile amount, that a player could read and understand it to mean a "turn" or "standard activation of the weapon" or what-have-you, what would it be? Koniving1

And this is one of the reasons that I have started changing the way that the wiki handles the weapon systems. The old system (as shown in the LB 20-X AC article) basically only deals with game stats and manufacturing info, the new style (as shown on the Autocannon/20 artice) allows for specific weapon brands to be wikilinked and fluff be added as to specific performance factors. Personally I feel that one "shot" is indeed a full cassette rather than a single shell, I also believe that the people who spend considerable amounts energy trying to match up rules elements to real life physics based on a fictional universe data kinda need to remember that it ain't real so if something does not work, it can just be ignored. I eventually hope to have enough in-universe cited weapon statistics to force even the most determined number cruncher to admit there is no one magic formula to how AC's would really work.--Dmon (talk) 19:22, 26 September 2019 (EDT)

Specifically regarding the terminology, you could get away with substituting the term shot with burst, or depending on the context, firing. As mentioned, the number of bullets thrown varies wildly. For an Autocannon shooting one round, the term burst would be inaccurate, but no worse than shot. If you were to somewhat personalize it, trigger pull can be accurate, but we want to avoid personalization whenever possible on a Wiki.Admiral Obvious (talk) 22:01, 26 September 2019 (EDT)

Thank you for the replies. Firing can work, use perhaps. Outside of Sarna I have taken to using the term rating, given that the weapons are "loosely rated" and I take that to be expected damage and heat buildup within a specified amount of time. But rating wouldn't work for say a first time visitor.--Koniving1 (talk) 02:22, 27 September 2019 (EDT)

That sort of brings up another thing since you mentioned LBX. The LBX is frequently described as a shotgun, even within many BT sources, though the very first description of LB 10-X describes it as firing flak-like projectiles, implying they explode. Further supporting that is the description of cluster ammunition.(TRO 2750 both versions) When combined you get a projectile that within proximity to the target specified by the targeting system to release smaller cluster munitions and then detonate which completely covers how it fits and many misconceptions associated with it, as well as some 'issues' such as LB 10-X being shown as a rotary cannon (Atlas II and Partisan_AA_Vehicle ) as well as range issues from the spread of projectiles over distance. The "Mech Shotgun" explanation is a very simplified way to tell other people about this as people will instantly pick up exactly what to expect of the weapon, but that version leaves the "space magic" of how it somehow gets superior range or lack of penalties and buffs due to spread regardless of range. Thoughts there?--Koniving1 (talk) 02:22, 27 September 2019 (EDT)