[FT] WotW - needlebeams

> Robertson, Brendan wrote:

> Below is a commentary on the systems brought up & possible >balance

Disagree. In my recorded playtest battles, all-arc 6mu-range weapons
(PDS and scatterguns) have had non-PD targets almost exactly as often
(per turn the weapon was operable) as 1-arc, range-12 weapons
(Pulser-C-1s and MKPs).

If that holds true for Needles as well (fairly likely but not certain,
since the Needles are multi-shot and can never be distracted by point
defence duties), an all-arc, 6mu-range Needle should have the *same*
Mass as a normal, single-arc Needle... not 3.5 times more.

Also from the recorded playtests, double the range band is worth ~3x
the cost (at least for normal damage-inflicting weapons). Applying this
to the Needles, an all-arc 12mu-range Needle should be ~3x as big as an
all-arc 6mu-range Needle, which in turn is worth as much as the 1-arc
12mu-range Needle. The above proposal makes the 6-arc version 3.5x as
big as the standard and the 5-arc one (which is effectively the same as
a 6-arc if you don't use the (A)-arc fire optional rule) 3x as big.

All in all, the above Mass scheme - Mass = 2 for a single-arc mount, +1
Mass for *each* extra arc - seems like it should balance OK. No, it
wasn't me who thought it up originally :-/

Previously I thought that a multi-arc Needle would work with Pulser
Mass, but that is too little. That idea was based on relative values of
fire arcs for longer-ranged weapons, but those values don't work for
short-ranged weapons. I hadn't looked carefully enough at how often
PDSs got to fire at starships.:-(

'Course, then there's the question of whether or not the standard
(1-arc) Needle beam is balanced against the normal "pure damage"
weapons. Judging from the number of Needles present on the designs in
my archive - currently 93 Needle beams spread over 36 different ship
designs, out of over 1100 Human-tech designs - I'm not entirely certain
it is. With the above Mass, the wide-arc versions should be just as
underpowered as the 1-arc one though :-/

> Phalon Pulsar-N

Comparing the cost of Pulsers with the cost of the above wide-arc
Needles, an 1-arc Pulser is rather more expensive than an 1-arc Needle,
a 3-arc Pulser marginally more expensive than a 3-arc Needle, and a
6-arc Pulser slightly less expensive than a 5-arc Needle (and a fair
bit less expensive than a 6-arc one, but see the above note about
(A)-arc fire). If any penalty is necessary (which I doubt), forbid an
N-tuned Pulser to fire in PDS mode.

Regards,