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Post by loyalist on Mar 30, 2016 17:08:38 GMT
I'm building a Royal Scientist and have made some mods to it.
The most obvious is a set of standard plastic tripod legs. The metal legs, which I don't particularly like, were needed for an incomplete Harvester kit I was able to obtain (head, metal 'face', the 2 small tentacles by the grinder and the large tentacle with victim); I liked the look of Mikedski's Royal Scientist with plastic legs in the Ambler River battle report. Because the resin RS head and its metal fittings are much heavier than an Assault tripod's head I used 3 of the solid legs for improved support and let the plastic cement set overnight. I blanked off the two tentacle slots at the front of the body with 1 x 1.5mm strip styrene and Tamiya putty.
One thing I didn't think made sense was the Heat Saw design, a short blade of light projecting upward from a short arm, which could not get anywhere near ground level. I decided to rotate the Heat Saw arm 180 degrees on its axis and reposition it. I drilled a hole in the underside of the head below the tentacle mounting points and installed the Heat Saw arm there, extending forward and angling down. I then drilled a hole in the ball at the end of the arm and fitted a longer piece of translucent red plastic rod in line with the arm and reaching almost to the ground. (The original hole for the plastic rod on the top of the ball is now upside down and out of sight.) The medium heat ray was installed where the Heat Saw arm usually goes.
I don't know if there were supposed to be left and right hand 'horns' that project from the back of the RS head but my kit appeared to have two right hand horns. I filed the slanted bottom of each 'horn' level so they would sit at the same angle to the head when installed. If that hadn't been done they would both have tilted to the left and looked asymmetrical.
Photos to follow. I think the Royal Scientist looks better with the repositioned weapons and the heat saw can now reach targets on the ground.
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Post by Quendil on Mar 31, 2016 10:16:40 GMT
Look forward to the pictures. I just checked my scientist and royal scientist and the horns are all the same in those. Whether they were supposed to be or not I don't know but at least I know to file them down now
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Post by madmorgan on Mar 31, 2016 11:15:16 GMT
I'm sure that the model will be more of your outstanding work loyalist. The 'saw' should definately be able to reach the ground. I found the horns to be interesting on my one Scientist model, as they don't seem to serve any real function. I decided to try and rule them a form of sensors per my 'detection drone' ideas; it just seems logicial that a Scientist Tripod would have enhanced sensors and be able to detect things much like or even better than a detection tower (due to an active user). Making the Scientist a walking detector makes it much more likely to be on a battlefield instead of following up on a finished battle (picking through the pieces so to speak).
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Post by loyalist on Mar 31, 2016 13:11:29 GMT
I like your idea about the Scientists being detectors. I'd thought the horns were a large version of the two much smaller things on the front of the Slaver. I assumed those had something to do with the Slaver's controller function. If the Scientist's horns were larger control units for drones and lobototons maybe they should have improved function, such as longer control range.
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Post by mikedski on Mar 31, 2016 15:37:06 GMT
My quibble on the royal scientist is the heat saw is an assault weapon (+7) but the tripod has two reaper claws (+5) but I do not think you can use them concurrently.
My preference is the heat saw have a range of 4 inches using the sweep template.
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Post by loyalist on Mar 31, 2016 16:58:28 GMT
Other tripods with reaper claws and reaper tentacles can't use them simultaneously so I agree the RS can use either the heat saw or the reaper claws in a single assault phase but not both.
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Post by terrance on Mar 31, 2016 18:05:07 GMT
Also, Reaper tentacles, Reaper claws, and heat saw cannot be combined and the only differences are number and power. Seems like there should be a reason to equip a tripod with multiple weapon systems. That is, for example, reaper claws should be better at something than the heat saw.
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Post by mikedski on Mar 31, 2016 22:10:12 GMT
Other tripods with reaper claws and reaper tentacles can't use them simultaneously so I agree the RS can use either the heat saw or the reaper claws in a single assault phase but not both. The actual reaper tripod can with three claws and two tentacles. I remember getting that clarification from Ernie on the old forum. |
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Post by loyalist on Apr 1, 2016 0:21:46 GMT
The AD Martian rules available on this site state the Royal Scientist can't use the heat saw with reaper claws or tentacles (though it doesn't have reaper tentacles!), but there is no mention of a restriction on how many of its weapons the Reaper tripod can use in an assault phase. Considering the Royal Scientist should be a more advanced machine, why the restriction for it and not for the Reaper? Seems like those tripod rules are inconsistent and were not well thought out.
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Post by madmorgan on Apr 1, 2016 9:47:37 GMT
Very good discussion going on here. Indeed, there are some problems with the rules. After I've got the corrections finished (...Chapter & Verse...) we'll be able to start going into changes - which should generate a whole lot of new pages I expect! Any thoughts on how best to present these changes as to format??? Without a 'chapter' setup, AQ rules makes for some confusion in regards to where one set of stuff starts and ends. I'd appreciate any feedback on how I should present the Changes to AQ for our Living Rulebook. I'm thinking a 'Changes' section followed by an 'Optional' section for totally new rules (like ship or aircraft stuff).
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