There was a time in the era of competitive Quake 3 when I was young enough to have ridiculous reflexes and a DSL line giving me a sub-fifty ping. (Do you younguns still know what ping is? Everyone has broadband these days, and ping doesn’t really come up unless you insist on playing on a server on another continent for some reason.) Anyway, my favorite weapon in the game was the railgun. Hitscan for life, baby! The best thing about the combination of hitscan, young person reflexes, and minimal ping was that anytime anyone jumped in Quake 3, they had a predictable trajectory until they landed again. Granted, a jump in Q3 only took you off the ground for like 3/4 of a second, but it was enough. PEW! Or more like a PWEWP! sound.

My point with this is, Peggy waited till the RPG was at the top of that arc, rebounding from the bump in the terrain as the guy tried to bring it back on target. Basically it was in the most predictable spot it would ever be and moving the least it would ever be. I did google “will a grenade explode if you shoot it.” I mean, it seems obvious, but I wanted to not rely on every movie ever where someone shoots a grenade. The answer was “maybe?” Basically you have to ignite the explosives in the grenade, and just putting a hole in it or shattering it doesn’t guarantee anything. Maybe there’s a spark, but probably not. But if you hit the stuff inside the grenade that makes the grenade explode, then the grenade will probably explode. Again, it’s not a guarantee. I didn’t find any hard numbers, but I came away with the impression it was like a 40-ish percent chance, and maybe higher if the pin has been pulled and chemical things are starting to happen inside the grenade. I also stumbled into the “can you shoot a grenade out of the air” and the answer was basically, sure, if you’re a good shot. The issue is what happens if you do that. With a bullet, it’s likely to explode, if it’s a live grenade, if you hit it with some buckshot, it’s less likely to explode. Not that it won’t, just there’s less chance the exterior gets shredded and something ignites on the inside. Also, the chance of actually knocking it back exactly into to the lap of the person who threw it is best left to the movies. Like, in the history of warfare since hand grenades have existed, it’s probably happened at least once, but, yeah. Don’t count on it.

RPGs are basically the same as grenades, except they have propellant. That and launching them is what arms them. Though hopefully there’s like a one second delay after you fire so you don’t do something like accidentally shoot the hood of your truck when it hits a bump and you blow your everything. I assume “better” RPGs do that, and old school RPG7 doesn’t have a lot checkboxes that would help them pass and OSHA inspection.

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The new vote incentive is up!

Dabbler went somewhere tropical, in a very small bikini. As you might guess, it doesn’t stay on for long, which of course, you can see over at Patreon. Also she has an incident with “lotion,” and there’s a bonus comic page as well.

 

 

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Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.