> > I was thinking of adding a Meson battery as another weapon: size of
That's what I figured. The Meson Gun comes from Traveller and is a short
ranged weapon. Maybe have it do 3D6 from
0-12" and 1D6 from 13-24"?
But then I thought about it some more and having Meson batteries would mean
you want all Meson batteries. Any other weapon system will still have to go
through armor. But this might add "flavor" for another race that uses mesons
instead of "lasers" (or whatever the "humans" use as the beam weapons). A
small Meson battery (marked with a little "m") would be the same as the class
1 (C) in mass, points, and damage (and ignores armor).
How about armor-penetration missiles? The first point
of damage from a missile hits armor, the rest goes against hull? If a missile
only does 1 point of damage then all it does is damage to armor. These
probably should take up 50% more mass than a regular missile.
Not that I'm anti-armor, but looking for a few more
options in ship design. After designing Traveller ships with all of its
options I find desiging FT ships to be a little lacking.
Re: FTLing damage I would houserule against such, and will in my campaign.
> Glen Bailey wrote:
> > > I was thinking of adding a Meson battery as another weapon: size
Let me revise that statement now that I've done some calcs: *Definitely* a bit
weak. If the Meson battery is to be better than
pulse torps or Class-2 standard batteries, your enemy needs enough
armour to make the NSL heavies look under-armoured - 15% or more of the
total hull Mass to compete against pulse torps, and 25% or more to
compete with Class-2 batteries. (Most NSL ships use about 10% of their
mass for armour, but the scout and the corvette have 13-14%...).
> That's what I figured. The Meson Gun comes from Traveller
Looks better, yes. Not as elegant and not as easy to expand into more classes,
but balances better.
> But then I thought about it some more and having Meson
Meson batteries, needle beams, MT-style EMP missiles, the other EMP
weapons that have been discussed on the list, and boarding parties... quite a
lot of choice, I think.
> But this might add "flavor" for another race that uses
It must *not* be the same in mass and points if it is the same in damage and
ignores armour. Same damage but ignores armour requires
higher cost in mass and/or points, or specific anti-meson defences. If
the mass and cost is the same for the same damage, we get either of two
effects: the meson-using race gets something for free (bad for game
balance, as shown by the Kra'Vak), or no-one uses armour any more (bad
for game variety, which you say is a bit weak already).
> How about armor-penetration missiles? The first point
Game-mechanic-wise I don't see a problem with AP missiles (though I'm
not sure whether you are talking about MT missiles or SM missile
salvoes). Anti-missile defences are good enough to make the increased
size (and therefore the reduced salvo density) take out the reduced power of
The main problem with AP missiles is PSB-based: they require direct
hits to work, or possibly a laser warhead which somehow manages to channel
virtually all of the energy into one single lazing rod. I'm
much more comfortable with proximity-hit dirty nukes or multiple-rod
laser warheads PSB-wise.
However, to bring the screens back into favour the EMP missile is
probably better - AP missiles only mean that ships use stronger hulls
and less armour, but EMP missiles means that the screens will actually do some
good.
Regards,
> Glen Bailey wrote:
> That's what I figured. The Meson Gun comes from Traveller