[Invention] A Progression In Weapon Technology -- The Archbullete

[Swgrclan 2682]

Archbullete Mk. I
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI0BUr5ux-g 

Consisting of a slender, rifle-like structure, a built-in, interior bow-lock, an iron barrel and a trigger-mechanism, the Archbullete is a weapon designed for long-ranged lethality. Without the use of gunpowder (a material long-lost since Asulon’s fall) or other force-driven substances, it’s design was focused on what the crossbow’s force relied on -- it’s reinforced bow. Gravity is the Archbullete’s friend, as it was for the crossbow, all of it’s models, and even it’s ancient ancestor still used today by most of the Elven race.

 

 

Below the barrel lies a handle connected to a crank, designed to hook up against the reinforced, enchanted bowstring upon each release of the Archbullete’s unique ammunition. Unlike traditional crossbows and bow-based weaponry, the handle assists the weapon’s wielder in pulling the strong string back -- and with moderate ease, allowing for quick reload times to further make combat for the Archbullete’s wielder a smoother, non-rigid process.

It’s ammunition was designed far from the common crossbow’s own bolt-like structure. Instead of utilizing the penetrating strength of a sharp, shortened bolt, the Archbullete bears smaller, spherical rounds -- balls, or otherwise deemed “bullets” as derived from the weapon’s title. These bullets are comprised of stone, lead or iron material, with the effectiveness drawing from stone to iron. The ability of the Archbullete depends on the quality of ammunition -- stone bullets cannot damage or penetrate armor of the iron variety without shattering after a meager dent upon impact, but it is cheap; whereas iron bullets are capable, in most instances, of penetrating iron armor and even leather to chainmail because of it’s hardness and strength in it’s structure.
 

 

But it is not solely a bullet’s quality that makes up for the Archbullete’s ability. The weapon’s creator, the Knave of Graves, created the bullet-based weapon with the intentions of enchanting several parts and components in both it’s structure and it’s ammunition in order to provide utmost power in every shot made. An Archbullete’s round alone is as capable of penetrating leather, chainmail or iron armor as much as it’s crossbow kin is alone -- but when enchanted components and ammunition are added to a common Archbullete model, it can act as a devastating, albeit expensive, tool.

The bowstring is intended to be enchanted in itself. It is designed to pull far back -- farther than the traditional crossbow, and because of this added stress, the string is enchanted with special magics as to prevent it from snapping from the sustain weight. The same magical enhancements are made for the Archbullete’s structure, which on it’s own is comprised mostly of iron or steel parts with simple wooden layering as to make the weapon less clunky.

The ammunition bears more.. peculiar enchantments, however. Intended to be created in separate bunches, the various material-types of Archbullete rounds are able to be individually enchanted as to provide lethal result upon impacting the enemy. These enchantments are strong -- but they cannot truly be considered destructive in most cases. The common myth of long-ranged explosives that old-Age Asulonian cannons provided are an impossibility for the Archbullete, for complications would arise even when the enchanted “explosive” bullet is launched -- estimated to simply explode in the wielder’s face, possibly wounding or killing it and destroying the rifle itself.

It is why round-enhancements are either based on penetration or pure damage, with “pure damage” often being filed as incendiary enchantments or some form of alchemical, non-magical addition. Penetration is based on the hardiness and shape of the bullet and how dense the round itself actually is, and with the assistance of Alteration, an Archbullete round may fire much more powerfully, or perhaps even more accurate, than the standard, non-enchanted models can send their bullets.

The raw power of an enchanted model comes at a cost, however, as producing such things takes time; and because of this, the advanced Archbulletes are better meant to be used by elite forces, kings or trained nobles. However, as the Archbullete is as powerful as the common crossbow, standard models are able to be common -- given that the weapon’s creator is willing to provide groups or even nations the elaborate schematics of the weapon’s design and structure.

---

Basically, this is a weapon intended to take a step in the direction of magically-technological progression without the use of gunpowder, giving the chance to provide LoTC’s medieval-fantasy setting a “gun-like” weapon without the weapon itself being an actual, gunpowder-based tool. Furthermore, it’s possible enchanted qualities are intended to reflect on Minecraft’s enhancements provided for the bow. Should someone put work into it, they may now utilize legitimate Power I+ or Fire Aspect bows, should there be cooperation between the GM overseeing the Archbullete’s creation and the crafter itself.

Thanks for reading!

[ARCHITECUS 4788]

"The bowstring is intended to be enchanted in itself. It is designed to pull far back"

Unless this is a slingshot, the string does not give a projectile its force. The returning action of the bow quickly draws the string taut and launches the bolt/arrow away. You could change the enchantment to affect the bow, but realistically it would become more difficult to draw and experience diminishing returns in force.

 

the Archbullete bears smaller, spherical rounds -- balls, or otherwise deemed “bullets” as derived from the weapon’s title

I'm not sure why there's a picture of a conical bullet when the text describes the spherical type. Spherical bullets would be viable, not as much as a bolt in terms of penetration and suppression, but for their enchanted properties. (Good aspect of the weapon, although I believe arrows and bolts are already able to be enchanted.)

 

Unlike traditional crossbows and bow-based weaponry, the handle assists the weapon’s wielder in pulling the strong string back -- and with moderate ease, allowing for quick reload times

Even with the assistance of a handle, which would hardly help, only low poundage crossbows could be drawn by hand. (two hands! The archbullette leaves one hand on the handle) The addition of a strong working crank would make this weapon easier to believe.

[Sneaky 189]

((It's good many just a couple questions can you list like what armor it would pierce and like an example of the emotes on how it takes to load and so on?))

[oblivionsbane 714]

     What the guy above me said actually summed up a few of the things I was thinking of(And when I say above me I mean two above me). Although this idea isn't exactly a terribly one, as I have seen much worse, it is just overly complicated and you would be much better off with a crossbow. The two crucial things I either missed or didn't see was the lack of an explanation of the nut and the barrel, and how the string even manages to work with the barrel. To explain, you would have to have a notch going all the way down the barrel on both sides to the end where the string could go in between. Then, when you drop the projectile down the top of the barrel and fire it, the strong string hitting the front of supports of the barrel that makes it a 'barrel' would destroy some part of the machine eventually.

 

     But as the one above said, you would be better off just making a powerful slingshot. After all this would generally be less effective than a crossbow, if you think about it. Think about it any more and you will realize you can actually get a normal crossbow we already have and put a ball in its notch and fire it, although, yes, it would work like crap, but you get the point.

 

PS. It would more than likely not pierce even leather, after all, why would it? When was the last time an airsoft bb went through your clothes? Keep in mind crossbows back in the day fired projectiles between 200-400 fps (Apparently from some quick googling, I actually gave about 100 fps grace for innacuracy and lack of information. Also to answer this, apparently modern crossbows are engineered to be more efficient which is why they get such FPS with such low draw.)

 

TLDR: The concepts of the idea are good, but the machine would be generally less effective no matter how you look at it than a normal crossbow. Not to mention a pain to design and manufacture.

[Lego XBOX 915]

Gravity is in no way the friend of a cross-bow, much less the friend of the archbullete. The point of such weapon was to put more force into the firing mechanism so that penetration could be achieved with a much larger projectile.

 

A crossbow bolt will rarely hit and most likely bounce off iron armour if fired at someone at long range. The bow however, uses arrows which are lighter and do use gravity if fired at long range. The bullet fired here would bounce off just as easily as a bolt would at long range.

 

This is a short range weapon. 

[Swgrclan 2682]

"The bowstring is intended to be enchanted in itself. It is designed to pull far back"

Unless this is a slingshot, the string does not give a projectile its force. The returning action of the bow quickly draws the string taut and launches the bolt/arrow away. You could change the enchantment to affect the bow, but realistically it would become more difficult to draw and experience diminishing returns in force.

 

the Archbullete bears smaller, spherical rounds -- balls, or otherwise deemed “bullets” as derived from the weapon’s title

I'm not sure why there's a picture of a conical bullet when the text describes the spherical type. Spherical bullets would be viable, not as much as a bolt in terms of penetration and suppression, but for their enchanted properties. (Good aspect of the weapon, although I believe arrows and bolts are already able to be enchanted.)

 

Unlike traditional crossbows and bow-based weaponry, the handle assists the weapon’s wielder in pulling the strong string back -- and with moderate ease, allowing for quick reload times

Even with the assistance of a handle, which would hardly help, only low poundage crossbows could be drawn by hand. (two hands! The archbullette leaves one hand on the handle) The addition of a strong working crank would make this weapon easier to believe.

 

The propelling force behind the Archbullete, being it's built-in bow, can be considered something of a slingshot, though it's hard to classify it as that with how the weapon itself is structured. It is why, several times in the post, that there are implications that refer to a magically-enhanced version of the Archbullete being the model to use over it's basic form, which is without enchancements - or at least enchancements that define the weapon's power.

The Archbullete accepts both spherical and conical rounds, given that they would actually fit the loading chamber. Different ammunition-styles are dependent on how the wielder of an Archbullete wants to damage his enemy -- spherical rounds are capable of denting and deteriorating iron/plated armor, and conical is capable of penetrating lesser armors like leather and chainmail alongside it's overall capable damage to flesh alone. It better these said rounds are enchanted, however, just like the weapon itself. It betters the effectiveness of each shot. I base the power of the Archbullete mostly after it's enchanted variants which are supposed to be as powerful as old medieval muskets or gunpowder weaponry, hence why I suggested adding Power I+ enchantments to the weapon upon it's creation.

I like the crank suggestion, however. It makes more sense than the basic handle-system. I'll play around with the idea and add it soon after this post. Thank you for your feedback.

 

((It's good many just a couple questions can you list like what armor it would pierce and like an example of the emotes on how it takes to load and so on?))

 

Good suggestion - I will provide examples of how an Archbullete can operate outside of battle and in it later today. Thanks. 

 

     What the guy above me said actually summed up a few of the things I was thinking of(And when I say above me I mean two above me). Although this idea isn't exactly a terribly one, as I have seen much worse, it is just overly complicated and you would be much better off with a crossbow. The two crucial things I either missed or didn't see was the lack of an explanation of the nut and the barrel, and how the string even manages to work with the barrel. To explain, you would have to have a notch going all the way down the barrel on both sides to the end where the string could go in between. Then, when you drop the projectile down the top of the barrel and fire it, the strong string hitting the front of supports of the barrel that makes it a 'barrel' would destroy some part of the machine eventually.

 

     But as the one above said, you would be better off just making a powerful slingshot. After all this would generally be less effective than a crossbow, if you think about it. Think about it any more and you will realize you can actually get a normal crossbow we already have and put a ball in its notch and fire it, although, yes, it would work like crap, but you get the point.

 

PS. It would more than likely not pierce even leather, after all, why would it? When was the last time an airsoft bb went through your clothes? Keep in mind crossbows back in the day fired projectiles between 200-400 fps (Apparently from some quick googling, I actually gave about 100 fps grace for innacuracy and lack of information. Also to answer this, apparently modern crossbows are engineered to be more efficient which is why they get such FPS with such low draw.)

 

TLDR: The concepts of the idea are good, but the machine would be generally less effective no matter how you look at it than a normal crossbow. Not to mention a pain to design and manufacture.

 

Understand that the intention of this invention was to usher a little progression into the world. The weapon is a complicated one to create, yes, but not if a group of enchanters and skilled craftsmen put their minds to it, given that they have the schematics. In the end, it is intended to be complicated, because it's often that complicated weapons or objects are complicated because of the power they back.

An airsoft pellet wouldn't do much to any kind of armor, though this isn't an airsoft gun in it's intended state. Magical engineering allows it, as stated in my reply above this one, to be as powerful as muskets -- if it's created legitimately. Again, hence why I referred to Power I+ and other bow enchantments that shell out more damage. Non-enchanted variants of the Archbullete, however, are far more understandably weaker.

 

 

Gravity is in no way the friend of a cross-bow, much less the friend of the archbullete. The point of such weapon was to put more force into the firing mechanism so that penetration could be achieved with a much larger projectile.

 

A crossbow bolt will rarely hit and most likely bounce off iron armour if fired at someone at long range. The bow however, uses arrows which are lighter and do use gravity if fired at long range. The bullet fired here would bounce off just as easily as a bolt would at long range.

 

This is a short range weapon. 

 

 

Basic crossbows, however, are not enchanted. The preferred enhanced model of the Archbullete is supposed to be capable long-ranged damage because of it's magical qualities. Look above for my point on the non-enchanted variant of the Archbullete. 

[Sentlit 108]

I believe that a common misconception about bows and crossbows is that the tension in the strong provides the forward force. In reality, much (if not all) forward force in these devices is provided by the bending of the wood. A projectile weapon that relies on tension in a strong is a slingshot, which are, in some aspects, not as powerful as a bow.

Without gunpowder, the longest range weapon that can be made would be a longbow, or perhaps a trebuchet of some sort. To me, the Archbullete seems to be an enchanted slingshot or crossbow.

Also, a long-range easy to load, armor piercing weapon seems a bit to powerful imo, even regarding the seldom adhered to "long construction time".

[Birdwhisperer 1174]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.