RE-FT PBC

Oerjan Ohlson wrote-

> Apart from the question why you'd want a space combat game to better

Please note- this is a example of pedantic, otherwise known as taking
the p**s by being literal in whats said. Otherwise called being loyal to the
exact words, not what was actually meant.<G> You couldn`t have 15" guns on a
starship, due to the low speed of such a projectile, they`d be easy pds
targets.

> "Roll same as a Cl.2 batt" means including re-rolls on the dice? In

No, I meant that the rerolls are on the beam die, no reroll on dammage die. I
meant the dammage is worked out by rolling just like beams (same die for
range/modified by sheilds etc), but where beams do 1 or 2 DP, the PBCs
do 1D6 or 2D6.

> If the range and number of fire arcs is the same, double (average)

Yes, and no. You have to think also of the fact that a more massive weapon (eg
HPBC), if at twice the mass (compaired to Normal PBC), would be at more
of a disadvantage to threshold checks/critical dammage. The idea for
these guns was to combine a beam cannon with a p.torp. Instead of firing a
partical beam, the beam acts as a guide for the charged plasma packet fired by
the p.torp (thinking like the discription given for the hellbore guns in
bolos, where a plasma round is fired down a laser beam. The laser was used to
create a vacumn, along which the plasma bolt traveled. Otherwise, the plasma
bolt just vaporised on leaving the barrel when contact with air is made). The
mass for the weapon was made from combining 2 cl.3 bats
+p.torp
(for normal PBC), 2 cl.3 bats +2 p.torps (heavy PBC), and 2cl.2 bats
+p.torp
(for the light PBC). Just realised, the mass for the light PBC should have a
mass of 8 ofr 3 arcs, 10 for 6 arcs.

Would allowing no rerolls alter the mass/dammage ratio? The dificulties
of compairing it to other weapons are the fact that its to hit is the same as
beam batts, but the dammage is the same (or greater) as a p.torp. When
compairing it to beam batts, the dammage is greater than the same mass in beam
batts, but they are also more vulnerable than the same mass of beam batts to
dammage (threshold checks). When compairing to p.torp, the hits are better at
longer range, but also the total dammage would be less than the same mass in
p.torps. Also, the PBCs are effected by sheilds, where as p.torps are not.

These may sound (or be) difficult points to ballance, so you see why I placed
them out here in electronic limbo, to get some arguments to help.

> Bif Smith wrote:

> Oerjan Ohlson wrote-

OK. You explicitly specified re-rolls on a "6" for the damage dice, but
I'm glad to see it gone :-)

> If the range and number of fire arcs is the same, double (average)

But big weapons *aren't* at a disadvantage to threshold checks compared
to small ones. In the first check they even have an *advantage* - eg.,
if you have one big weapon and your opponent has six small ones inflicting as
much damage as your biggie you'll both reach the 1st
threshold at (roughly) the same time - but after the 1st threshold he
is almost guaranteed to have at least one weapon knocked out, so you'll outgun
him slightly less than five times out of six. The sixth time
however you lose your one big weapon :-/ The big difference between one
big and many small systems comes when you attempt to *repair* them:
getting the one big system back on-line takes just as many DCPs/just
the same die roll as getting one of many small systems back, and this is a
major advantage for the big weapon.

The big systems have two main disadvantages: they're more vulnerable to needle
beams than multiple small systems are (though needle beams aren't very
common), and more importantly you can't distribute your fire as efficiently if
you have one big weapon as if you have several small ones. IME, these
disadvantages more or less cancel the big
weapon's threshold check/repair advantages.

> Would allowing no rerolls alter the mass/dammage ratio?

Anything that alters the average damage per shot also changes the
damage/mass ratio, so yes it would.

> The dificulties of compairing it to other weapons are the fact that

Not at all. If you roll "to-hit" dice as for beams but read each "beam
DP" as 1D6, the weapon inflicts (average of 1D6) times as much damage per shot
as the beam it was modelled on. The average value of 1D6
without re-rolls is 3.5 (the average if you re-roll "6"s is 4.2), so
the light PBC inflicts 3.5 (or 4.2) times as much damage as a B2 battery and
the normal PBC inflicts 3.5 (or 4.2) times as much damage as a B3 battery.

If you price the PBCs at 3xMass, the proper Mass of the light PBC is
3.5 (or 4.2) times as much as the Mass of a B2 battery, etc - or as
close as possible without using fractional Mass ratings.

If this seems too big, you can make the PBCs cost more per Mass (4xMass,
5xMass, whatever) and adjust their Masses so their total points cost is 3.5
(or 4.2) times as much as the total points cost of the corresponding beam
weapons. (I discussed the "total points cost" concept in a post yesterday, so
won't repeat it here.)

Later,