Captain Stiffy, on 03 October 2013 - 09:02 PM, said:
For the record the "LB" in LB 10-X is "Large Bore"
Zyllos, on 03 October 2013 - 09:21 PM, said:
The "X" also usually means "extended range".
Tincan Nightmare, on 03 October 2013 - 11:44 PM, said:
Not to be too much of a {Noble MechWarrior} (but what the hell I am) I'm pretty sure it stands for Lubalin Ballistics, the original developer of the weapon. Course you may have known that and just been making a play on words, but I get a cheap thrill when I get to throw information of little import out into the internet.
The weapon's original designation was "Lubalin Ballistics 10-X autocannon", and it was introduced for use on the 60-ton
Champion BattleMech (as described on page 34 of
Technical Readout: 2750).
More specifically, "The
Champion's weaponry consists of one
Lubalin Ballistics 10-X autocannon, one Harpoon-6 short-range missile launcher, a pair of Magna MkII Medium Lasers, and two Martell Small Lasers."
The "large bore" nomenclature came from a German fan organization/magazine called
Mechforce Germany.
As a non-canonical source, it "doesn't count".
More recently,
Era Report: 3062 (on page 104) used the phrase "class-ten light barrel, extended range automatic cannon" as merely a description of the weapon, rather than an actual designation.
More specifically, "The
class-ten light barrel, extended range automatic cannon was a breakthrough in autocannon technology when it was first introduced, and the Clans were able to further refine and deploy the technology in every autocannon class."
The idea is that "LB"/"LB-X" (from "Lubalin Ballistics") has since become the
generic trademark (that is, "a trademark or brand name that has become the generic name for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service") to represent "BattleMech-scale shotgun-like autocannon, including those produced by other manufacturers", in much the same fashion as "Aspirin" and "Heroin" (originally trademarks of Bayer AG), "Escalator" (originally a trademark of the Otis Elevator Company), "Zipper" (originally a trademark of B.F. Goodrich), and so on.
As such, Tincan is most correct on this point.
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Zyllos, on 03 October 2013 - 09:21 PM, said:
So why is the LBX considered a shotgun by PGI if it's an extended range AC?
What the LBX should be doing is firing a flak canister that bursts when within X meters from a solid object in front of it's flight path, releasing it's pellets out in a spray. What this does it let the LBX have further range than a regular AC at the expense of being spread out and terrible against armored locations. But hit unarmored locations, you have a pretty good chance of destroying equipment there.
The LB-X family of ACs
is, and has always been, a family of "shotguns"; nearly every canonical source published over the last three decases has described the LB-X as "an anti-BattleMech shotgun" or "acts/acting like an anti-BattleMech shotgun".
Much like the real-world
M1028 canister round used by the Abrams MBT (among others), the LB-X Cluster rounds (along with the Flechette rounds used by standard ACs (and described on page 208 of
TechManual)) "fragment at muzzle exit" (or, to use the terminology used on page 08 of TRO 2750, "after being fired").
The difference is that LB-X submunitions are explosive in nature (that is, more like impact-detonated bomblets or grenades), while the submunitions of the Flechette rounds are inert (that is, more like conventional shrapnel).
By contrast, only the Flak rounds used by standard ACs (and described on page 352 of
Tactical Operations) are explicitly described as using a proximity sensor to trigger a post-muzzle-exit detonation.
As such, PGI's "shotgun-like" implementation of the LB-X Cluster rounds is both true-to-BattleTech, and fine as is.
If anything, what the LB 10-X needs is the ability to fire LB-X Slug rounds (which should act like conventional AC rounds) in addition to LB-X Cluster rounds, as well as some ability for the player to manually toggle between the two.
With the "viability"/"competitiveness" of the AC/10 (versus the LB 10-X) being a concern, the dual munition system could be implemented by forcibly including both munition types (at as close to a 1:1 mix as practicable) within each ton of LB-X ammunition - that is, each one-ton increment of MWO LB 10-X ammunition (a total of 15 rounds) would contain either [7 Slug rounds & 8 Cluster rounds] or [8 Slug rounds & 7 Cluster rounds], with the two munition types
never being available separately; this would give the AC/10 greater "pinpoint damage capability" per ton of ammunition, while the LB-X would essentially be feature-complete while maintaining its traditional characteristics.
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