Chance of Normal Space Drive survival

From: Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 11:57
Subject: Nathan's FB3 comments, was Re: [FT] OU & IC & FB3

> The ORC ships (ORC is Jon's own abbreviation, not mine)

Following up that hint I came across the MT pg 7 illustration that would
appear to suggest that the ORC are not adverse to boarding.

Now boarding chances seem to be few and far between in the games I run or
participate in, so I endeavoured to work out the chance of a normal space
drive surviving assuming that all three threshold checks have been taken.

Fully effective:   28%
Reduced to half:   47%
Disabled:   25%

Naturally things like needle weapons will alter these chances. Do we think
these figures are too generous, too mean, or just plain wrong?

Now this risks relaunching the great MT missile barrage of last April, but...

If needle weapons are the only way to go if you want to capture a ship, how
about an MT chaser missile that has a terminal thrust equal to one fighter CEF
and PSB that allows it to always attack through the rear quadrant, regardless
of approach. It would attack as a needle missile but would have a reduced
chance of being shot down by its target and could only select normal space
drives to hit.

Needle weapons can have a disproportionate effect on large ships, but these
are more likely to have ADFC or a fighter screen and could easily deal with
such missiles.