Re: MT missiles

Laserlight wrote:

> >The problem in Weber's backgrounds is that the missiles come
> *really*
> >fast. "High-velocity" means that the missiles are coming in at
> 0.99c or
> >thereabouts. Do you have enough time to detect them and
> launch/trigger
> >your area effect weapons before it's too late?
> 
> In Weber's background--HH, that is, I read a Starfire novel or
> two several years ago & don't recall specifics--you've got
> instantaneous gravitic sensors, so yes, you can see them coming.

The HH gravitics basically can't detect anything which doesn't have an
active wedge.  Missiles (and even ships) that just coast without using
their drives are extremely hard to detect even at short ranges, which
is demonstrated in quite a few episodes in the HH books...Even active
missiles seem to be pretty hard to detect if you're too far outside
tactical ranges.

>You may need to use a house rule "area effect weapons attack any
>target which _passes through_ their danger zone" to account for
>the granularity of the system.

Sure. It makes the area-effect weapons extremely powerful - I'd really
love to play a Phalon fleet with such a house rule, for example - but
it would stop the vector-moving missiles.

'Course, that house rule won't do anything to stop the vector-moving
Nova Cannon shots which are, unfortunately, the logical extension of
vector-moving missiles :-/

>But the 54 mu sensor limit isn't "realistic" and the complaint
>was that high-velocity missile strikes weren't handled
>realistically.

Realistic ranges for detecting a stealthed missile at ambient
temperature with a shut-down drive? Maybe, maybe not.

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry