Re: [FT] Beam Battery Idea - reload delays

On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, Jerry Han wrote:

> Anyways; here's the idea.  Many times on the list, analogies have been
> drawn between batteries and naval cannon i.e. class-1s are the quick 
> firing 76mm or 5" gun, while class-3s are 16" battleship cannon.
> 
> One thing that makes the analogy break down is that, under current
rules,
> all batteries have the same 'rate of fire' i.e. they fire once a turn.

not necessarily. i've always thought of it as a turns firing being equal
to possibly several shots: three pulses from a 3-batt, fifteen from a
1-batt or several hundred from a PDS. those with a more hard-sf view see
it instead as some period of continuous fire, sweeping a laser beam back
and forth across a region of space, trying to hit something.

given that the general consensus for turn length is on the order of 15
minutes, which is plenty long enough for pretty much any weapon to fire,
dealing with reloading is probably not appropriate.

still, this is FT, so if you want to, do it!

tom