Re: Fw: Weapons for Newtonian based FTIII

Mikko Kurki-Suonio writes:

@:) >	armor negates or reduces the effect of sand.
@:) 
@:) Well, a special rule like this would limit sandcasters... but it
@:) wouldn't really help against the logical conclusion of such
@:) inertia-based weapons.  If I can throw small pebbles at you, I
@:) should be able to throw a lesser amount of larger pebbles... all
@:) the way up to planetoids if need be.

  Sure, but there really isn't any way to fix this "problem" because
in fact there IS no problem.  If I attack you with a weapon against
which there is no defense, you can't expect to defend yourself against
it.  If I lob Jupiter at your base, guess what?  You're going to lose.

  The issue is one of playability.  People like to have bases, people
like to attack them, weapons are available that are inimical to base
use.  There are many possible solutions, all of which are scenario
related (back to that topic again).  If you're playing a one-off base
attack scenario, set low entry speeds for the attacking ships.	Assume
they haven't fired until they get closer.  It's defense by fiat but it
works fine.  If you're generating scenarios in some automatic manner,
say by running a campaign, you can set things up so that ships will
always have to move relatively slowly towards bases.  Here is an
example.

  Sand Field
  This is a system used for base defense.  Huge amounts of sand are
spread in a large (how large depends on your PSB, lets just say large
enough) sphere around the station.  The sand is widely dispersed and
will not cause problems for vessels moving at low speeds (less than
36" or whatever you prefer) but vehicles moving faster than this will
take half as much damage as they would when hit by a sandcaster cloud
(depending on how you define that this could be 1d3 or 1d6-1 of beam
damage or whatever).  Sandcaster clouds moving at speeds in excess of
the allowable maximum are immediately dispersed.

  Now please note that if I roll Jupiter at your base your sand field
is not going to save you.  But I don't think that's the point because
it can only happen if the situation is taken to a fairly ridiculous
extreme.  I know, I know, optimization is eternal.  I say let the
optimizer win once and then write a house rule.  And optimize yourself
- it will only make the entire gaming universe more rich in the end.

-joachim