Re: GZG DS2 Mikko: Genres for DS2.

 ---- mikko wrote: 

> Technically, these bits don't speak of the actual guidance mechanism,
but
> I submit my final bit of evidence as to *how* they are dealt with: 
> 
> "Reconnaisance satellites, computer fire control, and powerguns
combined
> to claw *missiles* out of the air before they were dangerous. ...
locked
> defensive weapons on the *missiles* in microseconds. And a single
> light-swift tribarrel could hose any *missile* with enough fire in its
> seconds of flight to disintegrate it." - David Drake, Interlude:
> Supertanks, 1979 (emphasis added)

aha! so the top-mounted cannon doubles as PDS. this makes sense - the
heart of a pds is the fire control. we have already seen a proposal to
make ADS an extension of ordinary weapons, so that we can have, eg+iirc,
ADS/2-HEL/2, ie and ADS based on a twin HEL/2. we extend this to point
defence as well. it all seems quite obvious really:

(1) you have some sort of weapon something of mass 2 or smaller, ie
(where XXX is any weapon system) XXX/1, GMS/L, LAD, APSW, *on its own*
in a turret (eg if you have an MDC/3 in a turret, you can't use your
coaxial RFAC/1 as PDS - the turret must weigh twenty tonnes!). you might
want to exclude HKP, and the list-proposed LVC (low velocity cannon).
HVCs are excluded by the fact that you can't get them in size 1. also,
GMS/L and LAD are essentially the same sort of thing anyway; maybe it
turns out that LAD is really a PDS/GMS/L?

(2) a PDS fire control unit. this comes in basic, enhanced and superior,
for some points (and probably mass) (the details are left as an
excercise to the reader :-), and turns one specified weapon mount into a
pds. the pds can either be in air-defence mode or anti-surface mode,
like ADS.

Also, i think that we need to be able to have multiple turrets on one
vehicle, so that the PDS weapon can be on its own. although i don't
think the rules ever say so explicitly, this should just be allocated +
costed as a normal turret (ie the RFAC/1 in a turret on the roof of the
main turret takes up 3 mass).

most vehicles will want to use their free APSW as their PDS weapon, as
(a) they don't need it most of the time and (b) it is free anyway. this
would explain why most tanks (without a decent weapon dedicated to PDS,
only the APSW) are still vulnerable to missiles to some degree. this
also allows us to derive the mass and pv of the PDFCS - it is the mass
and pv of the PDSs given in DS2.

i am not sure exactly what this improved PDS would do, but having a
PGN/1 on the case would, i feel, give you more security than an APSW.

> >	They didn't have PDS in the stories! Therefore it's not allowed
by
> > the genre!
> 
> Erm, isn't shooting down missiles exactly what PDS does? Fill in the
> blank: If a computer-controlled tribarrel automatically tries to shoot
> down an incoming missile, it is functioning as a ... system.

exactly. if the mountain will not come to mohammed, mohammed will go to
the mountain.

> Maybe your Drake books came from an alternate universe?

now, now: let's keep this civil!

Tom

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