RE: [FT] Cutter Beams & vertical damage.

With all these variations floating around, I've been having a few
thoughts
myself.

The closest analogy to the desired effect I can see is the Primary Beams
from Weber's "In Death's Ground" which punch a 2" hole through most
ships
(regardless of size).  I see it more as firing once in the turn (like
Pulsetorps) with extreme penetration than as a multiple pulse beam
trying to
"shotgun" the target area to increase hit potentiol (normal beams).
The primary effect is to kill DCPs and I have included an option for
critical damage.

*****
Cutter Beam
Mass/cost: same as Pulsetorp
Symbol: Pulse torp with bottom half enclosed in a circle.
Effect: same as Pulsetorp except damage is marked vertically from the
topmost undamaged box of armour or hull.  Any damage in excess of the
current number damage rows is wasted.  If the last box of a row is
destroyed, this has no effect unless ALL boxes in that row have been
destroyed (similar to Sa'vasku expending their own hull).  Note that no
row
can be hit more than once due to the nature of damage distribution.

eg 1:  Unarmoured ship taking 5 damage (1 is wasted):
before	after
[xoooo] [xxooo]
[*oooo] [*xooo]
[o*oo]	[oxoo]
[ooo*]	[oxo*]	Kills 1 DCP

eg 2:  Armoured ship taking 5 damage (none wasted):
[XOO]	[XXO]
[ooooo] [oxooo]
[*oooo] [*xooo]
[o*oo]	[oxoo]
[ooo*]	[oxo*]	Kills 1 DCP

[option 1]: Increase the mass by 2; damage that penetrates past the last
damage row, make an immediate Core System check against 1 random system
at
current value +1 per point of penetrating damage.  In example 1, one
core
system would fail on a roll of 6; in example 2, there is no roll, as it
failed to penetrate past the last row.

This makes it very difficult to inflict critical damage on an undamaged
ship
(there is still potential), but the chances increase as damage
accumulates,
due to various sections of the hull missing.

Neath Southern Skies -http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernskies/
[Pirates] Dame Captain Washalot
[NPJB] Absorbent Sponge Sheesh'Ka'Baab

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bell, Brian K [SMTP:Brian_Bell@dscc.dla.mil]
> Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 1:56 AM
> 
> Cutter Beam A
> Mass/Cost as Class-3 Beam (max 3 arcs)
> Dice: 3 hit on 4+
> Range: 36tu
> Screen Effect: As Beam
> Armor Effect: As K-Gun
> Damage/Effect: Verticle Damage. If bottom hull box is damaged, ship
takes
> a
> threshold check at 6. Extra damage (past bottom row) is lost.
> 
> Only version A has been play-tested.
> 
	>A Goodall wrote:
> If you REALLY want to simulate weapons that punch deep holes without
doing
>THAT much hull damage, you have to go back and re-think the weapon
system.
>What is it, and what does it do? Is it a B5 Shadow-style huge cutting
beam?
>Is it a big rock fired at hyper velocity? Is it a big pulse of energy
fired
>from a HUGE spinal mount weapon? Consider what it's supposed to be, and
what
>the damage is supposed to do. Small hole that goes all the way through
the
>ship? BIG hole that goes all the way through the ship? What does it do
to
>the hull and what does it do to the systems in front of it?