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Hello, fellow writers! Got any question that you can't find answer from Google or Wikipedia, but you don't think it needs a separate thread for? You came to the right place!

Don't be shy, and just ask away. The nice folks here, writers and non-writers, experts and non-experts, will do their best to help you.

The folder below contains links for special interest threads, mostly at OTC, but also from Yack Fest and Troper Coven.

    Special Interest Threads 

Also take a look at Useful Notes on various topics. They can be pretty useful.

Now, bring on the questions, baby!

edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy

SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
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#4551: Apr 8th 2012 at 11:57:24 PM

They're churned out on assembly lines like any other piece of ammunition, generally. The details are complex.

As for what's in them: it depends from model to model, but there are two types: single-shot disposable and reloadable.

A single-shot disposable launcher, like the LAW or the Panzerfaust*

, is basically a rocket in a tube. When you pull the trigger, the rocket ignites, the flame shoots out the back (thereby averting Missing Backblast and the Law of Inverse Recoil), and the projectile leaps forward. When it hits the target, the shaped-charge warhead detonates, which in turn sends a jet of molten metal forward at a temperature and velocity to penetrate several inches of steel armor. After it's fired, the tube is thrown away.

A reloadable rocket launcher is something like an RPG-7 or a Carl Gustav*

. It's very similar, with the crucial difference that it's, well, reloadable. Sometimes there are additional details: the rocket can be guided; there might be a two-step charge (the first pushes the projectile out of the tube and a safe distance from the operator, the second ignites the rocket motor); the shell might be loaded from the front or from the back. Sometimes the rocket doesn't carry a shaped-charge antitank head; sometimes it's loaded with flammable fuel, making it useful against other target types.

That answer your question?

edited 8th Apr '12 11:58:22 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
PsychoFreaX Card-Carrying Villain >:D from Transcended Humanity Since: Jan, 2010
#4552: Apr 9th 2012 at 12:22:33 AM

I think so... maybe if I read the Shaped charge page thoroughly enough I'll get it entirely.

edited 9th Apr '12 12:22:51 AM by PsychoFreaX

Help?.. please...
SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
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#4553: Apr 9th 2012 at 12:25:16 AM

Or just find any of The Other Wiki's pages on rocket launchers. We also have a page on Modern Battlefield Weapons; it's under the section Shoulder-Launched Ordinance.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
PsychoFreaX Card-Carrying Villain >:D from Transcended Humanity Since: Jan, 2010
#4554: Apr 9th 2012 at 12:35:13 AM

Thanks I just need to know what it takes for a rocket to explode. Is there like a certain amount of pressure needed at the end of the shaped charge? Is it treated like a detonation switch?

Help?.. please...
SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
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#4555: Apr 9th 2012 at 12:36:59 AM

Depends. In most cases it's a crush/impact switch, armed after a certain distance after launch for obvious reasons, but some other models use different fuses. The RPG-7 series also comes with a self-destruct that blows up the rocket after 9.4 seconds, if it hadn't hit anything by then.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
PsychoFreaX Card-Carrying Villain >:D from Transcended Humanity Since: Jan, 2010
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#4557: Apr 9th 2012 at 1:54:56 PM

Meta question: Where's the character development thread? I mean, we have the thread for discussing it, but I can't find the actual thread.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#4558: Apr 9th 2012 at 2:05:42 PM

You might be better off asking in said discussion thread.

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#4559: Apr 9th 2012 at 3:54:24 PM

I'm currently designing my own version of Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns Of The Patriots' Beauty and the Beast Unit (aka BB Corps) (expies, erstazes, legacy characters... Doesn't matter for now), and currently at a stumbling block regarding some of the Code Names. Now, for those unfamiliar with the characters in question, the first part of the BB Corps' members' codenames are derived from the emotions embodied by Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater's own Quirky Miniboss Squad, the Cobras — The Pain, The Fear, The End *

, The Fury, The Sorrow, and The Joy; incidentally, said emotions are said to be representative of the most commonly felt emotions by soldiers in war and on battlefields. Thus the BB Corps' codenames: Laughing Octopus (Joy), Raging Raven (Fury), Crying Wolf (Sorrow), and Screaming Mantis (Fear and Pain).

My personal triumph: Having come up with "Whispering Fox" to fill in the missing counterpart to The End. See, "total oblivion" (The End's emotion) is figuratively equivalent to "silence", which itself is related to "quietness", and from there leads to "whispering".

The naming issues that I have yet to solve:

  • In the original, unlike the rest of the BB Corps, the first part of "Screaming Mantis"'s codename derived from two emotions — pain and fear. I would prefer splitting one emotion into another character — I'm thinking "pain", since it played absolutely no direct role in Screaming Mantis' certainly fear-filled backstory (she was trapped in a torture chamber, but was not herself tortured) — but I'm stumped on which word to use for the new character. "Agonizing X" or "Anguishing Y" doesn't sound right to me.

  • I'm drawing blanks on coming up with other emotions that are strongly felt on the battlefield. Suggestions would be helpful.

edited 9th Apr '12 3:58:44 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
risingdreams Insert witty title here from Peixeiroland Since: Feb, 2011
Insert witty title here
#4560: Apr 9th 2012 at 5:44:08 PM

I had an idea for a Puella Magi Madoka Magica fanfiction, but would like some thoughts in it. Should I make a thread for it?

jewelleddragon Also known as Katz from Pasadena, CA Since: Apr, 2009
Also known as Katz
#4561: Apr 9th 2012 at 6:22:00 PM

[up]Yes, if you want?

PsychoFreaX Card-Carrying Villain >:D from Transcended Humanity Since: Jan, 2010
#4562: Apr 9th 2012 at 6:25:13 PM

So a rocket with a crush switch means a part of it need to break before it detonates? Is that correct? Are there really rockets like that?

edited 9th Apr '12 6:29:24 PM by PsychoFreaX

Help?.. please...
Night The future of warfare in UC. from Jaburo Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
The future of warfare in UC.
#4563: Apr 9th 2012 at 7:06:56 PM

It's a particular form of contact detonator. There are others. Crush switches can be engineered to certain impact forces, however, below which they don't fire (and far enough beyond them, they don't work; most weapons are designed in such a way this is unlikely enough to be impossible but occasionally an idiot gets in on making blueprints). There are also other methods for that as well.

Nous restons ici.
PsychoFreaX Card-Carrying Villain >:D from Transcended Humanity Since: Jan, 2010
#4564: Apr 9th 2012 at 7:29:17 PM

Thanks.

Next question. You arrived at an area that's recently attack by someone using rocket launchers. Is it possible to find enough remains of the rockets to analyze it and figure out what kind of rockets they are or even how they would work?

Help?.. please...
SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
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#4565: Apr 9th 2012 at 11:22:36 PM

Certainly. That's a matter of forensics; just as you can identify the caliber of bullet from the remains, you can identify the model of rocket shown enough evidence. Things are further helped by the fact that there aren't that many rocket types in the world.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
Kaxen Since: Jan, 2010
#4566: Apr 10th 2012 at 1:25:24 AM

Is it weird for a narrator to be incredibly beige prose-ish when she is describing her first time out of her room in her entire life? I can't decide if she should show more interest in all the things she's seeing/smelling/touching when she has been whining about seeing them in person for quite some time.

But would it make the story drag if she's stopping to poke everything? Or she's too busy being excited, she runs thing to thing so she's not really dwelling on any one thing too long.

Yej (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
#4567: Apr 10th 2012 at 4:27:41 AM

[up] I think any of the three techniques would tell us something major about the character, i.e. Beige Prose in that instance would say (to me) that the character is quite passive. However, equally, if you wrote it slightly differently, I might think she's stunned at it.

edited 10th Apr '12 4:32:10 AM by Yej

BensenDan Daniel Bensen from Sofia.Bulgaria Since: May, 2011
Daniel Bensen
#4568: Apr 10th 2012 at 5:54:23 AM

A soldier in the US military would talk and think about measurements in feet and inches, right?

www.kingdomsofevil.com http://bensen-daniel.deviantart.com/ https://twitter.com/bensen_m
jewelleddragon Also known as Katz from Pasadena, CA Since: Apr, 2009
Night The future of warfare in UC. from Jaburo Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
The future of warfare in UC.
#4570: Apr 10th 2012 at 2:51:01 PM

[up][up]Sorta. The military strongly encourages the ability to think metric so that people can talk to their allies and has designated certain things in metric since WW 2, but they recruit from a population that thinks customary. It might shift back and forth depending on the context.

Nous restons ici.
risingdreams Insert witty title here from Peixeiroland Since: Feb, 2011
Insert witty title here
#4571: Apr 10th 2012 at 11:22:16 PM

Fantasy setting. Girl convinces her friends to sneak out of the village to play. The friends die. Girl is accused of killing them, caused her and her family to be shunned by the village.

Girl's is stabbed while they're alone at home. The parents know she didn't do it. Villagers eventually set her house on fire. Girl's (remaining) family moves out of the village.

Girl becomes extremelly scared of people due to what happened.

Does this piece of backstory make sense?

edited 10th Apr '12 11:25:01 PM by risingdreams

nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#4572: Apr 10th 2012 at 11:29:28 PM

I think it seems, honestly, a little overdone, but, as long as the family took her with them when they moved (which I assume you meant, but wasn't actually stated), it makes sense.

BensenDan Daniel Bensen from Sofia.Bulgaria Since: May, 2011
Daniel Bensen
#4573: Apr 10th 2012 at 11:50:56 PM

[up][up] Do you plan to explain those events (i.e. who really killed the children)? Or will you address the problem that scarred her (i.e. scapegoating).

www.kingdomsofevil.com http://bensen-daniel.deviantart.com/ https://twitter.com/bensen_m
PsychoFreaX Card-Carrying Villain >:D from Transcended Humanity Since: Jan, 2010
#4574: Apr 11th 2012 at 11:16:51 AM

What are different ways a species adapts to cold other than growing fur?

Help?.. please...
MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.

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