Name: Rocket Spears Description: Usually bulkier than your average spear, rocket spears only get so much more in depth than what their name entails. It is quite literally a spear with some kind of propulsion system mounted in the base with other miscellaneous technologies mounted into the shaft. Due to the technological aspect of rocket spears their tip can be anything from hardlight or plasma to drills or more conventional spearheads. Abilities: We have liftoff +: A rocket spear is capable of lifting it's wielder into the air, charge across great distances and in some cases pull one along through space. Missile spear +: Many rocket spears feature some kind of independent targeting allowing them to streak forward at a low burn and control themselves. This can be used to do anything from attacking an opponent to returning to the wielder. A so called missile spear can actually have disturbingly good thruster control, to the point of rearranging it's thruster to face backwards if it were to get stuck. Limitations: Jetlag -: A rocket spear is usually not very strong and cannot carry it's wielder like a jetpack. Instead it can at most boost their speed and agility and make landings from far up way softer on the person as well as enhance their leaps into the air. Overheating -: A rocket spear can only burn in short bursts or else it risks overheating. These bursts can last up to ten seconds (~6 rp turns) on a low burn or three on a high burn (~2 rp turns). (Cooldown takes about 2 rp turns.) Indumbpendant targeting -: A missile spear can quite easily be outsmarted, as they cannot afford the space or energy to run proper targeting computers onboard. This leads such a spear to always aim at where the target is and not where the target will be. Additionally such a missile spear cannot afford to burn for longer than ten seconds (~6 rp turns) before shutting off to prevent damage. How does it work: Rocket spears are very self descriptive. At the bottom of the shaft it widens into a nozzle, usually burning with low temperature plasma that quickly cools and diffuses into the atmosphere for the wielders safety. In the centre there's usually a gyroscopic array to give the spear additional stability so it doesn't grow unstable in one's hands. This is usually also accomplished with fins and control surfaces across its exteriors that adjust accordingly in atmospheric environments. Rocket spears, due to often utilizing plasma thrusters, are often fueled by simple atomic power cells and hydrogen fuel cells. Their location varies depending on who made it but it is often located at the bottom near the thruster. There's usually several burn “modes” preprogrammed into a rocket spear. Low burns are the most fuel efficient and safest for the wielder. These however cannot carry the person into the air. Contrary to this, high burns only act for very short bursts but are very capable of lifting the person several metres into the air provided the spear is of appropriate size. A common plasma spear can carry a person of 130-150 lbs around 5 metres into the air and dash across a distance of 20 metres in a couple of seconds. Greater weight will dramatically reduce a rocket spears power, and already at 170 lbs your common rocket spear will degrade to 3 metres into the air and a dash of 10 metres. As for missile spears, they usually utilise fairly rudimentary targetting methods, often times relying on simple tracking software and optics with maybe an inclusion of thermal cameras. These require a couple seconds (1 rp turn) to fully lock on and rely on simply following the predesignated target. Flavour text: Highly diverse, rocket spears are inexplicably very popular with scrappers and scavengers who realistically wouldn't have access to the technology and expertise to produce such tech. However that is because they don't need it. Usually many of the needed parts could be ripped from premade salvage. Need a gyroscopic stabilizer array? Salvage a common military protocol drone. Plasma thruster? Hoverbikes have those in spades. Safe ones at that! After that you only need the knowhow of basic electronics, programming and a whole lot of tenacity to create a fully functional rocket spear. The reason why they popular within scavenger societies? Bragging rights. These societies value ingenuity, creativity and skill interwoven with resourcefulness and elegant combat expertise. The rocket spear embodies all of these aspects and is thus very popular. Attainability: [Open] Tags: [Military] Category: [Melee Armaments]
Hi. I'll be grading your application today. I just have a few questions. "This leads such a spear to always aim at where the target is and not where the target will be." How does the targeting differentiate between hostile and nonhostile? What is the mode of targeting (heat, laser, etc.)? "A rocket spear is capable of lifting it's wielder into the air," How high at most, at what weight at most? That aside, for forward boosts, how quickly can one go, and across what distance? All of these should, and will vary depending on the weight of the user. What's the typical fuel used and where is it typically located on the spear? @TrIpTiCuS
"As for missile spears, they usually utilise fairly rudimentary targetting methods, often times relying on simple tracking software and optics with maybe an inclusion of thermal cameras. These require a couple seconds (1 rp turn) to fully lock on and rely on simply following the predesignated target." "A common plasma spear can carry a person of 130-150 lbs around 5 metres into the air and dash across a distance of 20 metres in a couple of seconds. Greater weight will dramatically reduce a rocket spears power, and already at 170 lbs your common rocket spear will degrade to 3 metres into the air and a dash of 10 metres." "Rocket spears, due to often utilizing plasma thrusters, are often fueled by simple atomic power cells and hydrogen fuel cells. Their location varies depending on who made it but it is often located at the bottom near the thruster." Hopefully this clears up any confusion!
The first and last questions are answered acceptably, but for the second one, I'd just like more specific numbers. Could you give me an exact velocity for how quickly it would allow somebody to move? Keep in mind, this is just a person holding onto a stick, essentially. This thing moving too quickly could prove incredibly dangerous if one's hands were to slip or something, and I'd go as far as to say it's almost guaranteed they'd injure themselves at a certain speed. The reason I'm asking this is mostly to gauge how much time a person would have to react to one of these charging at them from a much shorter distance than their maximum. For balance purposes this is important.
Many apologies for the long wait. How does a top speed when unwielded of around 50~ MPH (22.4 metres/second) with an acceleration of ~10 metres/second^2 sound? When weilded this would be much slower, around 25 MPH (11.1 metres/second) with an acceleration of ~5 metres/second^2 to make sure you can actually hold onto the damned thing without your shoulder dislocating. Naturally to go at what essentially amounts to its "top speed" you'd probably need some kind of tether or harness to make sure you could get a solid grip on it. When not using such a thing, acceleration would probably end up in the low ~3 metres/second^2.
