G'day Schoon,
> It should let people know what's going on in my tiny little brian.
Or not so timy;)
> BPS Pricing: the log scale doesn't work. Since range is the same
With you so far.
> BE Pricing: same story. Three BEs are only 3 times as effective as 1
Oops now you lost me! The BE just directs whats stored in the capacitor so if
you factor it into the capacitor then you don't need to factor it into the BE
as well IMHO.
> The BPS is a combination of generator, capacitor, and discharger that
Now we really are parting company <Schoon breaths sigh of relief> just for
ease of remembering I'd keep it that the BPS class = number of dice it can
hold.
> The BPS generates power at the beginning of each turn,
Still with you on this one.
> When taking damage and a BPS fails a threshold check, they are not
Can live with that <your right probably will makes things go faster too>
> Beam Power System:
Shouldn't that be 36 points?
> EPs must be channeled through a Beam Emitter. Each BE is linked to a
Yep that's how we play it too.
> The BE must also be of the
Now we're parting company again... I guess if you keep to your EP=2*rating
then this is OK, though I'm inclined to say still too high. I don't have my FT
stuff with me for
comparisons sake right now, but how does this compare to P-trops and
Waveguns?
<Aside/>
Not that I want to start talking at cross purposes either, but lets just say
you go back to rating = max number EP (for slow people like me who get
confused easy) then paying 45 points (assuming 36+9) for 3D6 which get
-1
per 6" just seems an awful lot (but my opinion may change once I see how
expensive P-torps are).
</Aside>
I just think that BE should just be a straight system with no associated
class - that comes from the BPS. If you do want to get into classes then
I'd suggest more along the lines of EFSB
Young races (Narn/Earth) BE can only take max of 6 dice = your class 1
cost etc Older races (Minbari) BE can take 12 dice = your class 2 cost etc
First Ones (Shadows etc) can take 18 (or 24 or whatever) dice = your class 3
And then mix and match so, for arguments sake I buy class 12 BPS <and not much
else cos I just bankrupted the economy;)> but only attach it to some class 1
BEs (cos I'm Narn) then all I can pump through each is 6 EP. But if I went and
got a couple of class 2 BE instead (presumably with bump head gear to match)
then I can put 12 dice through each. If I went one step further and got a
class 3 BE then I could put all my dice through that one projector (OK most
people would probably use smaller combinations incase of thresholds, but just
imagine we're building a Shadow ship).
I agree that these systems need to be costed well, but I also think the
less change from EFSB the better - St Jon^3 seems to have got it pretty
right there and it should take much to bring them across.
Anyway thats just my 2 razoos of erratic rambling.
Keep up the good work and thanks
Beth
Hello Beth, Schoon, everyone!
I may be quite off with what I have come up with, but I'm not scared of
throwing it out here and seeing what becomes of it. ;-)
I looked through Schoon's Heavy Beams, even adjusted the copy of Beth's rules
I had on my site (URL:
http://members.xoom.com/bstraycat/ft/newsystems.htm)
because I liked the feel of Schoon's charging mechanism. Like Beth, however, I
wanted to preserve as much of the EFSB rules as possible. While doodling with
what everyone had come up with, the following idea (which ventures far from
the EFSB) sprang to life...
What if there were one class of BPS? This BPS can store up to 6 EPs that are
generated in the aforementioned Schoon style. A vessel can carry multiple
one-arc BEs linked to the BPS. If separate BPS are allowed onboard,
then a system to clearly define which BEs are linked to which BPS will need to
be
developed. This could be similar to the SM launcher/SM magazine
concept.
A single standard BPS necessitates several classes of BEs as defined below:
Class 1 Emitter -- can emit up to 2 EP (2 dice)
Class 2 Emitter -- can emit up to 4 EP (4 dice)
Class 3 Emitter -- can emit up to 6 EP (6 dice)
Emitters are one-arc weapons unaffected by screens. Cost for all
components is 3 x Mass.
My numbers are arbitrary as I have not played Full Thrust nearly as long as
many of you, but they felt right to me. It would be simple enough to rearrange
the numbers or variate the Emitter classes. It is the concept upon which I
would like comments and critiques.
> Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 00:14:40 EST
[snip]
> What if there were one class of BPS? This BPS can store up to 6 EPs
[snip]
> Bill Shatswell
bill,
this is certainly simpler, but how do you represent the nasty beam weapons of
the vorlons and shadows that (should) do more than 6 dice? there would have to
be a larger class of BPS or the first ones would need to have multiple BPS
feed a large emitter (which is an exception to a previous rule).
hmmmm....
thanks for the food-for-thought.
dave
> Class 1 Emitter -- can emit up to 2 EP (2 dice)
I like this plan.
...and as for more dice, just up the class - it follows a linear
progression.
> BE Pricing: same story. Three BEs are only 3 times as effective as 1
True. However, consider if we make a BE a single system with a fixed cost. Is
that same Emitter just as valuable if connected to a Class 1 or Class 3 BPS?
If you don't take the BPS into consideration, people who buy Class 3 BPSs get
ALOT more for their money when buying extra Emitters. They "add arcs" to their
system more chreaply than someone with a Class 1.
> Now we really are parting company <Schoon breaths sigh of relief> just
I did this because it was too difficult to get a good geomentric progression
for cost with 6 classes. Now that I've gone back to a linear system, this is
possible again. However, I like the "double the Class" deal because you can do
damage very easily.
> Shouldn't that be 36 points?>
Erm... yes.
> Now we're parting company again...
Just slightly more efficeint overall compared to P-Torps. I didn't, and
really can't compare to Waveguns.
> And then mix and match so, for arguments sake I buy class 12 BPS <and
But if
> I went and got a couple of class 2 BE instead (presumably with bump
Agreed. See the 3rd draft...
Thanx for the input!
Hello Dave!
In a message dated 02/01/2000 8:34:22 AM Central Standard Time,
> davidar@nortelnetworks.com writes:
> this is certainly simpler, but how do you represent the nasty beam
> multiple
Well as soon as I let the send button fly, the same thought slapped me in the
face. The first way I conceived of dealing with this situation was to have a
superheavy beam system that could store up to 12 EPs and to continue the
emitter progression as well.
Upon further review, however, this setup just wanders too far from the
original conception of heavy beams for me. A more amicable solution for me
would be to mass and cost the original EFSB HBs as they are.
Bill