Want some insight? Here is some insight for you.
In the Silver Spiral Galaxy there are generally three types of ranged weaponry types. These are slugs, blasters, and bolts. On this page we see two types. Mara is using a pair of bolt-pistols, while Guugel’s rifle and the various pirate weapons use slugs.
Slugs are physical objects, like bullets. These are finite and based on how many you can carry with you. However they make up for this by having varieties such as incendiary rounds and cryo rounds. Generally these are favored by space pirates due to their completely analog mechanics. Generally, though, most military weapons are equipped with UASs (Universal Ammunition Systems) allowing them to always have an option on the field.
Blasters are laser guns. A blaster can always recharge, though many have a secondary energy-clip system in place. Blasters are generally favored by the military. Blasters are generally more expensive and require frequent maintenance. Proper blaster care goes a long way, however, and a blaster can keep shooting for a long period of time in the right hands.
Bolts are ionic, or electric projectiles. These too can recharged, but are more designed for disrupting electronics or non-lethal strikes. Bolt guns are also prone to overheating. They are also highly effective against robots. Tazers are a widely used weapon as they are generally non-lethal. Many military blasters have a tazer function built into them as well for crowd-control and non-lethal takedowns. Bolt guns are common to any spacer’s toolkit.
I think of gun-fights in the Silver Spiral a lot like rock, paper, scissors, or a weapon triangle from Fire Emblem. Specialty armors exist for each type and there are some fun techniques that you’ll see over the next few pages to deal with these different ammo-types.
Just as a heads up, Dash is rocking a blaster, and Kracker has a bolt gun.
Anyway, I’ll be streaming this Saturday via Picarto.tv, so please roll in around 4pm Pacific. I’ll update the streaming section of the site to reflect this as it’s looking like I will be switching from ustream to Picarto.