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Hey Everyone, I was bumbling around the web as I often do at night and I ended up on the SAS4 Wiki which was awesome fun for me to read. It's such a long time ago now that we started penning the outline for SAS4 that I went back in to the early notes and found my original descriptions on the weapons manufacturers which I thought people might be interested to read. They're not very lengthy but I think they do add some game colour so I'll start with a couple here and then post a bunch if people dig.
Cheers
Chris
Ronson - Ronson is the oldest major weapnons manufacturer operating today. They've been able to operate for such a long time due to excellent innovations and a diverse product range (They are the #1 supplier of automated flame turrets in 7 of the 8 star systems in the Trans-System Federation). While conservative in their choice of design materials one only needs to look at the stunning Ronson 55 SMG with it's twin alternating barrels to be convinced they have some pretty dynamic design thinking.
HVM - Previously known as "High Value Metrics", HVM was a company formed to identify and exploit high profit industries and it's manufacturing reach is broad. Weapons and armour now represent the vast majority of it's highly profitable business although it has faced several lawsuits (all withdrawn before reaching trial dates) relating to it's business practices. HVM is the largest and least innovative arms manufacturer in the Trans-System.
Right here are the rest:
Rubicon Industries - In business since 3003, Rubicon developed a stong business providing good quality MEP weapons for the Trans-System Marines after it won a mult- trillion dollar contract to provide 3 versions of the RIA 20 Rifles. Rubicon's high technology division is also responsible for creating the first DPU (Distributed Processing Unit) an technology now used in all artificial lifeforms and a patent licensing revenue to make nations blush.
Critical Mass - Critical Mass is something of a showpony. The guns are functionally very good but a little gimmicky for real soldiers to use. Critical Mass is most famous for its "Sublight COM2" rifle round that uses technology similar to air burst munitions to trigger an ultra high speed event in the final metre before target impact through "Centre of Mass Displacement" technology.
Smokestack - A niche weapons manufacturer, Smokestack make old-style weapons for collectors and eccentrics. The guns while modified to be genuinely effective nonetheless look like trule ancient weapons. THe 1887 Shockfield is a good example.
Rancor - Not surprisingly, the founders of Rancor aren't terribly nice people. Their slogan is "Hold hate in your hands". Rancor is a boutique weapons and ammunition manufacturer that go out of their way to contravene every war crimes convention, protocol and idea of humane killing. Their weapons are designed to burn, chemically disrupt and shred flesh and they make no apologies for it.
HIKS - Harris Intelligent Kill Systems are primarily manufacturers of Power Assisted Weapons (PAWs) which allow the user to wield and even wear massively heavy weapons. These range from gyroscopically balanced hand cannons to half and full mech suits. Although they have been awarded some small contracts they have been criticised for the impractical nature of the size of their equipment. Loading a squad drop vessel with 1800kg (dry weight) suits is a big ask. HIKS have recent started turning their genius to specialist squad weapons too.
Shotlite - Shotlite is a subsidiary of high speed space vessel manufacturer "Shiplite" who have developed an enormous patent catalogue heavy in research on ultra-light materials. Bringing the weight of an empty gun down by 90% has tremendous mobility advantages and they even have developed a lighter than air paint.Gun power cells and ammo however still have weight but these guns and armour are still the choice of ultra high mobility stealth kill teams.
Teknoboom - All about engineering excellence and simple designs, Teknoboom have a reputation for beautiful and functional weapons. They have been awarded several military supply contracts for their heavy weapons and rocket guns.
D E E P E S T L O R E
Rancor is so edgy
umm.....Rancor might be a bit too over on the hate...
Many love different companies because they make different types. Rancor make flesh shredding ones, Teknoboom make explosive while rubicon make variable so no one is best. the one i like best is RANKOR
10/10 ign approved
Very interesting elaboration. Thank You so much for Your work ! Regards, MaSchu. :))
Are u ever gonna add new weapons?
How about this: Spaceskin: A company dedicated to making armor that is comfortable as well as functional. After discovering the secret to working with graphene, they became a major leader in the production of armor for soldiers. Their body armor is claimed to be like wearing normal clothes, yet is protective enough to protect against any possible situation a soldier could encounter on the battlefield. Atomic: A armor manufacturer that decided that normal armor was too inadequate and that major improvements were required to bring combat to true 4th millenium standards. With a newly created blend of materials and a goal to "transcend all limits", their new armor pushes the limits of human capability and has been dubbed the "Titan" after the strongest being in the Olympian universe. Z-Armtech: A mainstream arms manufacturer from the 3rd millennium that specialized in their Z-series upgrade kits. Went out of business recently due to newer and more advanced weapons from competition companies, but many military departments still use Z-series weapons as their standard issue.
Hehe, HIKS has Harris in it, nice job.
They forgot the Z-Armtech, like AwesomeNinjaFace7 said. They would probably put that Z-Armtech has been expired since 2800, however. I always wonder if they will put the Z-Armtech as a BLUE color: 2 times more powerful then RED.