Parasite Racks, External Mounts and Reactive Armour (Was Re: SPOILER

During one of my first creative burst of weapon and system designing fot FT,
shortly after I'd played the game a few times, I came up with the idea of a
'small craft boom' that could be used by vessels to
launch/recover fighters, gigs, launches and other small craft. I figured
with the number of unstreamlined ships, packed to the gunwales with weapons,
there had to be some form of interface transport. Picture the booms kinda like
a cross between a boarding ramp in an airport and a World War One Biplane
launch hook on a Zeppelin. Pretty easy to launch, but I wouldn't want to have
to do the piloting under fire to recover.

Small Craft Boom Mass 2, Cost 5 (per craft)
Allows launch/recovery of small craft (fighters included.)
Launch as normal rules, recovery time suggested as 1d6 turns Any hits to a
ship with small craft booms require a threshold check for all booms mounted at
a '6' (or less if you aren't generous)

More expensive in the long run than dedicated fighter bays, but kind of
'realistic' IMHO.

Also, External ordnance racks, same kind of deal, somewhat influenced by
Starfire XO's

Mass varies with the size of the ordnance installed, but a good rule is.5 the
mass of the weapons installed. Only missiles, mines, scatterguns and
submunitions packs (relatively low
powered, self-contained, or 'unguided' weapons) may be so mounted.
A ship that exceeds its limit in weapons percentage (e.g. military ships: 50%
'civilian' ships: 10%) is penalized 1 thrust point in maneuvering for every
10% over the limit. (I imagine an exception to this would be a ftl or system
tug which could theoretically mount it's own mass in weapons on xo racks,
hmmmmmmm....) racks can be jettisoned with a written order, this takes 1 round
to complete. Any hits to a ship with xo racks require a threshold check for
all racks mounted at a '6' (again, less if you aren't feeling generous) or
they are destroyed (if you are really mean, destroyed racks cannot be 'popped
off' and drag the ship down for the rest of the game)

Well ? Whatta-ya think ?

> ----------
However,
> the parasite racks (with fighters) have to make a threshold check (roll
Assume
> that the loading process is lengthy compared to combat (or even