I've started designing a public Full Thrust demo scenario for Cancon early
2006, and decided it will be Blakes 7, the humans vs aliens battle at the end
of season 2.
The Federation pursuit ships will naturally be firing plasma bolts. Someone on
this list once suggested restricting demo weapons to one arc to encourage
tactical cooperation, or least talking, and I've found that good advice.
So, any thoughts on what the points cost/mass
would be for a single arc plasma bolt launcher? For a public demo it doesn't
have to be perfectly balanced and I can give anyone any ship I feel like
anyway, but I like getting things right...
If this has been discussed before on the archives, could someone tell me which
year?
And while we're on the topic, have single arc SML launchers ever been
considered?
cheers,
probably about 3 mass for a class 1 plasma bolt.
I'm not sure that the Plasma bolt is the right weapon though.
The PBL has an enourmous blast radius that isn't evidenced in the Blakes 7
show. I would have thought that the plasma torpedo is the better weapon.
Then the liberator is about a mass 100 battle cruiser and the federation
pursuit ships are mass 30 -40 super destroyers.
While the liberator isn't organic it acts more like the Savasku than any
orther FT technology. Liberator regularly put on blinding turns of speed at
the expense of not doing anything else or moved slowly about and fired at
targets. It rarely did both at the same time.
Single arc missile launchers for Salvo Missiles don't sound like they would be
worth it. All it would do is reduce the mass of the launcher by about 1 mass.
The mass of the missiles in the magazine would not be affected so you won't
save much mass.
Phalon layered armor for the Liberator (with some "repair" house rule, such as
DC can repair armour only). Although S'Vasku may work, something like the
"Machine People" would probably work well.
http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernskies/ft/machines.htm
K-guns or Grasers for the federation would fit better than plasmabolts.
Brendan 'Neath Southern Skies
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> I'm not sure that the Plasma bolt is the right weapon though.
But..but..they're called plasma bolts!
My thinking was that plasma bolts are not terribly fast moving in Blakes 7 and
can be dodged or avoided, which is more like placed ordnance in FT. And the
one turn delay between shots gives players more choices to make.
You do have a good point though. If I use pulse torps, I can make the Fed
ships smaller and stick with human technology.
I believe though that the Liberator will have to be more super dreadnought
sized. It's only in serious danger from 3 Fed ships when the defences are
almost exhausted ("Duel"). And in the battle I'm basing the scenario on,
the Liberator holds off a fraction of a 500-600 ship
alien fleet for a couple of hours, or maybe 8 FT turns.
> While the liberator isn't organic it acts more like the Savasku than
My interpretation is that the Fed ships are not very good at turning, so
Liberator usually escapes just by going fast in a direction they can't turn to
match, so doesn't need to shoot. Liberator does shoot at high speed when
attacking Space Command at the start of season 2 ("Trial").
Thanks for the suggestions.
cheers,
> Phalon layered armor for the Liberator (with some "repair" house rule,
Layered armour is a very good idea. It will nicely simulate being almost
invulnerable at the start, and slowly becoming less effective as the energy
banks drain. Thanks!
I don't think a repair rule is needed. Unlike Star Trek, the Liberator never
manages to recharge during a battle, and I'm pretty sure in a couple of
episodes
the crew/Zen say they need several hours.
> K-guns or Grasers for the federation would fit better than plasmabolts.
Mostly Fed ships launch plasma bolts as if they were projectiles, so I'll keep
grasers for the Liberator. I like John Tailby's idea of using pulse torps, as
there only seems to be one size used by the Federation but some ships can
apparently fire more than others.
Thanks for the suggestions.
cheers,
> >I'm not sure that the Plasma bolt is the right weapon though.
Just because the name is similar does not mean it has the right effect for the
game.
There are 2 weapons called Plasma one is a torpedo and the other is a bolt.
Both are complely different effects.
The Plasma Bolt actually sounds more like a burst or radiation. It has similar
properties to anti matter torpedo explosions and the damage is affected by
shields.
based on its effects the plasma bolt should be renamed the Rad pulse.
Another thing to do may be include the feul rules discussed a few days ago.
I remember that in "Duel" the pursuit ships each fired all their energybolts
before the next ship started firing; so they don't have unlimited
ammo/endurance. I also vaguely recall that the Federation were firing
their 3rd pursuit ship and Liberator's Force Wall was running low towards the
end of the combat.
Brendan 'Neath Southern Skies
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