User:LRichardson/Interpolated Autocannons

Abstract

Considerable gaps exist in the selection of ranges and damages of autocannon types. Desired damage values are derived. The various types and subtypes of Autocannon are plotted graphically and interpolated values for 8, 12, 15 and 18 damage are read for standard, LB-X Autocannon and ultra autocannon types. Battle values were calculated separately.

Purpose

A common comment on autocannons as published is that relative to their actual performance, autocannon are over represented in canon designs. AC/10's lack the one hit kill possibility of a gauss rifle, and AC/20's lack the reach. Indeed, the gulf in performance between the 10's and 20's is so wide that it is something of a stretch to see them as part of a continuous spectrum.

The fluff description of autocannons describe them as being put into general classes where the size of a single shell is irrelevant. That is to say an AC/20 may represent 10 shells doing 2 points of damage each all to the same location or it may represent two shells doing 10 damage, or any other combination of values adding up to 20. Personally, this has never been much of a satisfying description as with only a minor exception here and there the rules behave as though a single shot from an AC is exactly that, a single shot. Realistically, insofar as that term applies to a sci-fi game about giant robots slugging it out on 31st century battlefields, autocannon would be possible in a pretty much continuous spectrum of damages.

Nonetheless, likely for practicality reasons the number of weapon types in the early incarnations of BattleTech were kept limited. Initially there were no "types" of autocannon. The AC was an AC 5 and that was the only one. CityTech was where the AC/2, AC/10 and AC/20 were introduced. Even a brief look at the stats for these weapons reveals a strong set of trends. As damage goes up, mass and size go up, heat goes up, range drops, shots per ton drops, ect. With this in mind, I've set about trying to fill in the gaps between autocannon sizes to give a little more variety of choices within the existing technology paradigm. With the trends in the stats for AC's it would seem that as the projectile gets heavier its damage goes up and its range goes down, generally consistent with a single shell being fired with a similar amount of propellant. This essay will assume this to be the case, even though this is directly contradicted by fluff.

Basis

Autocannon as a whole are not simply one type of system. There are "standard" autocannon, LB-X autocannon, Ultra autocannon and others. Each of these subtypes has a base set of trends that hold only within that type. As such, each of these ought to be handled separately as families of weapons for analysis. Further dividing the classes is the issue that for both the Ultra and LB-X families two different set of stats have been published over the years. The first versions to be published were in the Tactical Handbook as what were then known as "Level 3" rules. These will be referred to as THB types. Later, a new set of LB-X and Ultra autocannon were published in BattleTech Master Rules with slightly altered stats. This second publication gave these types as being "Level 2" rules, suitable for tournament play. For the sake of completeness, all five of these families will be looked at and filled in, Standard, Ultra, Ultra (THB), LB-X and LB-X (THB). Important to note is that the generated types are listed as being level 1, 2 and 3 in accordance to the types that they were generated from. Strictly speaking, if using the rules levels, all custom weapons are "Level 3" rules, that is to say optional rules to be used at players discretion by mutual agreement. The rule levels are left as they are simply to infer that the general performance of the weapon types are compatible with other weapons available at that level. Furthermore, the whole classification of rules levels has itself been eliminated from [[Total Warfare]. Again, the rules levels are left here only for the sake of comparison.

With an interpolative method, in theory a design could be made for every single integer value between the published types. For the sake of brevity however some arbitrary points have been selected that ought reasonably fill in the gaps in the published values. Between an AC/2 and an AC/5 there is relatively few values, so no midpoint was selected. Between an AC/5 and an AC/10 there is more room. 6 and 9 damage were considered to be too near 5 and 10 damage respectively and were not considered. This left 7 and 8 as the available points. For essentially aesthetic reasons 8 was chosen as preferable as 8 damage is in line with the damage a large laser does. The choice of 8 is though otherwise arbitrary. Between 10 and 20 damage first there is the obvious midpoint, 15 damage and this was selected. Between 10 and 15 the choice was between 12 and 13. 12 damage is a significant threshold in that the total of the maximum armor and structure of a `Mech's head is 12. Assuming the ability of a one shot kill is the desired result doing more than 12 damage is excessive. Granted, an argument could be made that 13 allows for a total head destruction PLUS one damage transferred to the CT (and its potential for a critical roll), but for most `Mechs the destruction of the head is the loss of the unit. Lastly 18 damage was chosen for the sake of symmetry with 12 and 18.

Graphical Results

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Observations

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Tabulated Results

These tables list the result of the graphical interpolation of the plotted trendlines of canonical autocannon weapon stats. Battle Value and Ammo Battle Value are BV1 and are not interpolated graphically but are instead calculated via Heavy Metal Pro version 5.22 R03. Calculated results for both Tactical Handbook and Total Warfare versions of LB-X and Ultra autocannon have been listed for completeness.

Standard Autocannons

Type	Level	Heat	Damage	Min Range	Short Range	Med Range	Long Range	Mass (Tons)	Critical	Ammo/Ton	Weapon Cost	Ammo Cost	Weapon BV	Ammo BV
Autocannon/8	1	2	8	1	5	11	16	11	6	12	175000	5500	105	13
Autocannon/12	1	4	12	0	5	9	14	12.5	8	8	220000	6500	165	21
Autocannon/15	1	5	15	0	4	8	12	13	9	7	250000	8000	178	22
Autocannon/18	1	6	18	0	3	7	10	13.5	9	6	280000	9000	179	22

LB-X Autocannons

Total Warfare

Type	Level	Heat	Damage	Min Range	Short Range	Med Range	Long Range	Mass (Tons)	Critical	Ammo/Ton	Weapon Cost	Ammo Cost	Weapon BV	Ammo BV
LB 8-X AC	2	1	8	1	6	13	19	10	5	12	340000	11000	125	16
LB 12-X AC	2	3	12	0	6	11	17	12	7	8	445000	13500	201	25
LB 15-X AC	2	4	15	0	5	10	15	13	8	7	495000	26000	222	28
LB 18-X AC	2	5	18	0	4	9	13	13.5	10	6	555000	18500	232	29

Tactical Handbook

Type	Level	Heat	Damage	Min Range	Short Range	Med Range	Long Range	Mass (Tons)	Critical	Ammo/Ton	Weapon Cost	Ammo Cost	Weapon BV	Ammo BV
LB 8-X AC (THB)	3	2	8	1	7	13	19	10	5	12	350000	12000	126	16
LB 12-X AC (THB)	3	3	12	0	6	11	16	12	7	8	445000	14000	193	24
LB 15-X AC (THB)	3	4	15	0	5	9	14	12.5	8	7	505000	19500	206	26
LB 18-X AC (THB)	3	5	18	0	4	8	12	13.5	9	6	560000	26000	213	27

Ultra Autocannons

Total Warfare

Type	Level	Heat	Damage	Min Range	Short Range	Med Range	Long Range	Mass (Tons)	Critical	Ammo/Ton	Weapon Cost	Ammo Cost	Weapon BV	Ammo BV
Ultra AC/8	2	3	8	0	6	11	19	12	6	12	275000	11000	169	21
Ultra AC/12	2	5	12	0	6	11	17	13.5	7	8	355000	13000	284	36
Ultra AC/15	2	6	15	0	5	10	14	14	8	7	405000	16000	302	38
Ultra AC/18	2	7	18	0	4	8	12	14.5	9	6	450000	18000	302	49

Tactical Handbook

Type	Level	Heat	Damage	Min Range	Short Range	Med Range	Long Range	Mass (Tons)	Critical	Ammo/Ton	Weapon Cost	Ammo Cost	Weapon BV	Ammo BV
Ultra AC/8 (THB)	3	3	8	0	7	14	21	11	6	12	330000	12500	196	24
Ultra AC/12 (THB)	3	5	12	0	7	13	20	12.5	8	8	450000	17500	335	42
Ultra AC/15 (THB)	3	7	15	0	6	12	17	13.5	9	7	510000	22000	365	46
Ultra AC/18 (THB)	3	9	18	0	5	9	14	14.5	10	6	565000	27000	351	44

Bibliography

• Tactical Handbook
• Total Warfare