Thanks to Loren for his comments re high-tech weapons in TNE
> I rated the weapons for TNE. The ammo weight and performance
> numbers to feed into the rating formulae were taken from Mega,
> per my instructions, and those values were what I got. Mercenary
> gives different numbers, but we wanted a single source for the
> data, and Merc didn't have all the stuf they wanted to include.
> FF&S will allow the design of hotter TL 8 to 10 slug throwers and
> Gauss weapons (Merc gives a higher mass for the 4mm Gauss round).
> Frankly, I think the VRF GG as it stands is a Veg-o-matic for
> unprotected infantry due to the high ROF.
>
I never did get the TML digest that my latest message was in so I did not even
know if it had been sent out. I still disagree, though. A VRF GG weighs 2
tonnes and costs 200,000 Cr(from memory, could be wrong). As it stands in TNE,
a TL7 7mm gatling is slightly less effective, but is much smaller, lighter and
cheaper. Can you see the advertising - "Roll up, roll up and buy our new,
improved 2 tonne gatling gun" :-)
High-tech weaponry has to be more effective than low tech, if only to justify
the (almost invariably) massive cost increases. I already have variant stats
worked out, but this produces the problem of diverging from the official rules,
which makes new GDW products less useful, as others have already commented on.