[FT] The Infamous A-Beam

6 posts ยท Dec 1 1999 to Dec 2 1999

From: William Spencer <williamspencer@h...>

Date: Wed, 01 Dec 1999 12:47:22 PST

Subject: [FT] The Infamous A-Beam

Yes, I know it's probably on a FAQ somewhere, but I'm curious and I couldn't
find it on the web.

What suggestions have there been for handling the infamous "A-Beams are
too powerful" problem? I've seen a few answers already...

-Ignore it (I could, but as I said, I'm curious).
-Increase A-Beam mass by 1 (Simple, but I'd have to renovate my ships.)
-Add bonuses to C-Beam, like the AF modification (Simple, but it doesn't

help B-Beams)
-Buy Fleet Book (Errr, maybe later. When I have the spare cash.)
-My House Rule (at the moment, at least): "Beam-Focusing" A trio of
C-Beams
could be fired separately, as three C's, or focused on a single target to be
treated as a single A-Beam (3d at 12", 2d at 24", etc.). Or they could
be
fired two - as a B - and one C, or fire one C with a B to get an A
beam-equivalent. (Maximum is still A-Beam - you can't focus _all_ your
beams
into one big huge one.) I like this, but it seems to make the _C-Beams_
too powerful...putting me back at square one.

Have there been any other ideas?

From: Laserlight <laserlight@q...>

Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 18:16:34 -0500

Subject: Re: [FT] The Infamous A-Beam

> What suggestions have there been for handling the infamous "A-Beams

It's still the correct answer. Meanwhile, leave A as is and let C batteries
double as PDS.

From: Tim Jones <Tim.Jones@S...>

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 08:05:58 -0000

Subject: RE: [FT] The Infamous A-Beam

> Yes, I know it's probably on a FAQ somewhere, but I'm curious

You should have kept your sign on message all the FAQ information is contained
within.

A Batteries are so cost effective why should I design a ship with anything
else? This is known anomaly in the design costs and a suggested house rule to
stop design abuse is to increase their MASS to 4.

There is also the list archives to trawl through if you're keen

http://people.canoe.ca/jhan/ft/Archive/home.html

The class 1 - 3+ beams in the FB have different design MASS/costs
but the same mechanics as FT you can get an FB design
spreadsheet/application here

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/3565/

or do it at http://www.primenet.com/%7Ereynol/gaming/war/ao/fbsd/
by browser

The bottom line is the MASS/Cost fix is the best.

From: Roger Books <books@m...>

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 08:50:27 -0500 (EST)

Subject: Re: [FT] The Infamous A-Beam

On  1-Dec-99 at 15:48, William Spencer (williamspencer@hotmail.com)
wrote:
> Yes, I know it's probably on a FAQ somewhere, but I'm curious and I

You could give it a max of one arc.

From: Tim Jones <Tim.Jones@S...>

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 13:56:32 -0000

Subject: RE: [FT] The Infamous A-Beam

> You could give it a max of one arc.

Yes this is part of the FB fix - extra arc costs for
class 3 (1 free) batteries are higher than 1 (6 free) & 2 (3 free)

From: Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@t...>

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 21:29:27 +0100

Subject: Re: [FT] The Infamous A-Beam

> William Spencer wrote:

> Yes, I know it's probably on a FAQ somewhere, but I'm curious and I

It's on the GZG web ring; there was a direct link to it from Mark Siefert's
Unofficial FT page, etc. Have another look <g>

> What suggestions have there been for handling the infamous "A-Beams >
are too powerful" problem? I've seen a few answers already...
> -Ignore it (I could, but as I said, I'm curious).

Tends to result in very boring ship designs, though.

> -Increase A-Beam mass by 1 (Simple, but I'd have to renovate my >
ships.)

This is the [OFFICIAL] fix.

> -Add bonuses to C-Beam, like the AF modification (Simple, but it

Doesn't help that much. The anti-fighter ability of the C beam lifts it
to almost comparable to the B, but both are badly outclassed by the A.

> -Buy Fleet Book (Errr, maybe later. When I have the spare cash.)

Definitely. The Fleet Book, if I were to buy a second copy, would cost
me about as much as 3 Big Mac&co hamburger meals - not *that* expensive
:-/

Regards,