[FT] WotW #12

For WotW 12, unless someone else else vociferously disagrees, I'd like to
think about alternate ammo for Hu'Man railguns. We start by assuming the
basic round works exactly the same as for KV K-guns (except they have
"Made in Alarish" labels). Now, it's easy to miss with a K gun, so if I were a
HM engineer, I'd put a guidance package on it, or have it orient and fire on
the target at closest approach (eg bomb-pumped laser), or just put out
multiple smaller rounds instead of one large one.

If I were an AE engineer, I'd also think about antimatter or fission rounds
(the latter would hit the target hard enough to collapse the round
and make a critical mass)--but that might be a tiny bit excessive.

In message <000701c12750$7b77cbc0$1e0aa8c0@hqmknt04enu>
> "Chris DeBoe" <LASERLIGHT@QUIXNET.NET> wrote:

> For WotW 12, unless someone else else vociferously disagrees, I'd

It doesn't say anywhere that the Kra'Vak _don't_ do this - IIRC there
was some discussion of 'shotgun' rounds for K-guns in the playtest for
FB2.

IIRC Paul Radford proposed 'incendiary' rounds.
> If I were an AE engineer, I'd also think about antimatter or fission
Well - as the KV have been doing these for a lot longer than humans - I
think they get 'first call' on any Kinetic Weapon tech :-)

My recommendation is first, I think we need some more details, write up the
systems & send them to Noam so he can put them in the archive.

Then we can have a WotW discussion of them.

My personal preference for WotW #12 discussion is 'Alternative Dice Beams',
ie.

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Heavy Beam  [Alan Brain] (GZG-L, 9 March 2001) Heavy Beams cost and mass
the same as normal beams. A Heavy beam rolls 1 less die than a normal beam at
every range. So a class 3 heavy beam rolls 2 dice at 12MU, and 1 die at up to
24 MU. Hits by a heavy beam do 4,3,2,1,0,0 points of damage (i.e., a roll of a
 6 does 4 pts, and a re-roll, a roll of 5 does 3 points, and so on).
 Re-rolls also do 4,3,2,1,0,0 points, not counting screens, with scores
 of 6 causing further re-rolls as do normal beams.
Screens are particularly effective vs Heavy beams. Subtract the screen rating
from the damage of each die. So a Heavy Beam that scored a 4, which would
normally be 2 hits, would only do 1 against a target with screen 1, and would
do no damage against a target with screen 2. PSB: These fire far fewer bursts,
so have a smaller chance of hitting, and thus have a lesser effective range.
However, they have much larger capacitors, so when they hit, they really hit.
They are no more effective than normal beams vs screened ships, less so vs
heavily screened ones, but against unscreened ships they are rather more
 deadly. Usually Heavy beams are found as limited-arc "Spinal Mounts".
Those mounted on UN vessels came as a nasty surprise to the KraVak
 during the Siege of Earth, matching the firepower of the larger K-guns.
 Playbalance, Game aspects. The most cost-effective Heavy Beams are
those of Class 4 and above, though some Class 3s are sometimes found. Class 2s
are even rarer, and Class 1s cannot be constructed. This is a solution
 to the following problems/requirements: * It gives an incentive to have
screens as opposed to nothing but lots of armour. But not such a huge one as
to disadvantage the NSL or KV unduly.

 * It gives us a spinal mount - just try making a Heavy Beam that can
hit at range 48 with anything more than a single arc! * It prevents "small
boys", the ones that won't have screens anyway, from carrying them vs their
normal opponents, other small boys. So the current Frigate and destroyer
designs still make sense.
 * We don't need another mass/cost chart - a Heavy Beam costs the same
as a normal one with the same arc, it's just shorter ranged. * Finally, the
same principle could be extended to a "Super Heavy Beam", which does
5,4,3,2,1,0 but rolls 2 less dice, and so on. But these would have to be at
least of Class 6 to match the effectiveness of conventional beams.

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========

H.E.T.
 Laser (High Energy Throughput Laser)  [Bif Smith] (FT-List 28-Jan-01)
Mass: Same as beam batteries (including arcs) Cost:: 4x MASS Range: 8 MU per
class
 Damage: Die rolled -3, reroll on a six (i.e. 1 to 3 = miss, 4=1 dp, 5=2
 dp, 6=3 dp + reroll [use this system to avoid extra die rolls])
 Special: PDS Cl.1 L Bats-Same as Cl.1 beam batts
Symbol: Same as a Beam batt, except with a L added in the icon.
 Notes: Shields have no effect due to the beam being non-charged,
therefore not affected by the magnetic shielding used on human ships. Is
affected by Phalon vapour shields (diffused by the vapour droplets). Icon:Â

Comments/Analysis:
 [Oerjan]
 - Average damage per die is 1.2 (including the rerolls).
 - Comparing 6 Mass of 3-arc weapons and assuming that the HET lasers do
have the same dice per range band as beams:
 -  Avg. damage for 6 Mass of...
 Range:      L2-3     L3-3     P-torp     B2-3*   Â
Pulser-C-3*
 0-6              7.2         3.6       Â
2.91Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4.8Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 9.6
 6-8              7.2         3.6       Â
2.33Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4.8Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 9.6
 8-12            3.6         2.4       Â
2.33Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4.8Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 9.6
 12-16          3.6         2.4       Â
1.75Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2.4Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0
 16-18          0             1.2       Â
1.75Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2.4Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0
 18-24          0             1.2       Â
1.17Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 2.4Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0
 24-30          0           Â
0Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0.58Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0
 * The B2-3 and Pulser are of course degraded by screens.
 The L3 and P-torp have the same Mass and both ignore screens, which
 simplifies the comparison considerably. The P-torp inflicts less damage
at most ranges, but has longer range (and also better armour penetration,
though not enough better to matter much).
 The L2 looks very nasty up close. Not quite as nasty as Pulser-Cs
 (unless the target has level-2 screens and is within  8mu), but with
somewhat longer range to compensate (and also somewhat cheaper). Can't say I'm
too hot at introducing yet another way to read a damage die, but
 it looks OK balance-wise. Making them cost 4xMass might be a bit
 conservative, but not much - and a little too expensive is always
better
 than too cheap! What effect does vapour shrouds have? Another -2 to the
dice?

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