Damn the torpedoes

Mikko Kurki-Suonio writes:

@:) In FT A's and B's are NOT the weapons to use against cap ships,
@:) since they generally suck against well-screened targets. If you
@:) make them unusable against smaller ships, they become unusable,
@:) period.

  So I've heard various arguments one way and the other about A vs
Torp vs Big Ships and I decided to take a quick look at the numbers.
They came out more favorably (for the torpedo) than I would have
expected.

Weapon	Screen	0-6	6-12	12-18	18-24	24-36	Total	d/in

A	3	.5	.5	.33	.33	.17	1.83	.05
A	2	1	1	.67	.67	.33	4.00	.11
A	1	1.5	1.5	1	1	.5	5.50	.15
A	0	2	2	1.33	1.33	.67	11.33	.31
PT	ANY	2.33	1.75	1.17	.58	0	5.83	.24

  This is interesting to me - in my group we've only had one
successful experience with torpedoes and that involved building a
non-FTL cruiser class that carried six torps and getting to within six
and demolishing a dreadnought.	Other than that we all kinda thought
they were pretty useless.  This chart makes them look better.

  On second thought, be aware that this chart makes them look better
than they actually are.  The damage/inch line is total damage/24 for
the torp which makes it somewhat bigger than the A lines - but of
course the A's are still doing damage out there at 36" and that can
mean a few important points of sniper damage before the battle is
joined.

  The second thing not to forget, that isn't covered here at all, is
the firing arc situation.  Fact is, while I might _like_ to be able to
expect 2.33 points per weapon against a screen-3 target, I might
actually _buy_ the .5 point-per-weapon weapon which, because it has a
270 degree firing arc, will actually be able to hit the target.  It
might be interesting to experiment with arcs similar to SFB's right
and left plasma arcs (45 degrees left and right) and see whether they
make PTs more flexible.  Certainly that would allow an attack to pass
on an oblique course behind the target and fire all the torps.	Might
make them more useful.

  Well this is all sort of out of the blue but if anyone has any
comments, fire away!

-joachim