Re: Beam Weapons Redux

On Mon, 2 Dec 1996, Alan Brain wrote:

> A few random thoughts:
> 
> A class batteries have 1 dice at long, 2 at Medium, 3 at short - total
6
> B Class batteries have 1 at Medium, 2 at short - total 3
> C Class batteries have 1 at short - total 1
> 
> Points values could be made accordingly: 6:3:1. This means though that
> you'd restrict the weapon to no more than 1 extra die per band as the
> range shortens.
> 
> Alternately, you could apply a bias to the weapon, according to range.
> Say a die at long range has a value of 3, medium 2, short 1.
> 
> So an A class has a value of 1x3 + 2x2 + 3x1 = 10.
> B Class has a value of 1x2 + 2x1 = 4.
> C Class has a value of 1x1 = 1
> 
> Which rather favours C class batteries too much IMHO. Though it does
> make for good tactics, as the long-range snipers must keep the range
> long to avoid being swamped.

I've recently tried to incorporate 'power' as a limiting parameter 
(...mainly since I've tried to convert Leviathan stats into FT...); in 
this variant the various power requirements were similar to the above 
weapon masses. Power is supplied by engines (...those remaining 25% of 
the hull - crew quarters etc are taken to be included in the various 
systems masses so far, but it doesn't really matter).

In Leviathan, ships cannot fire all weapons and accellerate flat out; 
they have to make compromises. (...besides, all non-*DAF weapons are
single-arc...). Choosing the right engine configuration is fairly
important; in FT it became more so, since engines become more
inefficient
with increasing mass (I used <power> proportional to <engine
mass>^(2/3)),
but with certain difficulties to coordinate more than 3 or 4 engine
blocks
in a ship (ie, a mass or cost penalty proportional to <#engines-1>!...
which makes the penalty go up _fast_ from 5 engines and up).

Anyway; my goal with this dabbling was to provide a games/design
mechanic 
which allows small ships to mount big weapons - but they'll have to 
decide beforehand which weapons they can fire while using their full
thrust.

This is all _very_ vague so far, though...

Later,

Oerjan Ohlson

"Father, what is wrong?"
"My shoes are too tight. But it does not matter, because
 I have forgotten how to dance."
- Londo Mollari