Re: Area effect 'arc-o-death' weapon idea

>Genre category weapon.
>The 'Shockfront' area effect energy field weapon (SFAEEF)
>(I'm trying desperately to avoid any use of the word 'wave' in this
weapons
>name :-)

I'd go ahead and use "wavefront." It's a better description. Perhaps
Wavefront Energy Field (WEF) would be far less ungainly.

>Prototype #1 - low power/short range varient.
>This weapon has a single fire arc, and fires an expanding energy field
that
>strikes all targets within the fire arc that are in range (doesn't
>necessarily do damage though, read on...) When fired, any ships in the
fire
>arc of the weapon (friend -or-foe, it's indescriminate) may take
damage, for
>each ship, roll a number of dice equal to the class of the SFAEEF,
reduced
>by 1 for every full 6 mu of range, and score them _exactly_ as beam
damage,
>counting screens, armour, etc. as usual.

I like this so far. Simple but different.

>Alternatively, just roll one lot for the weapon, then figure effects on
>ships on a case-by-case basis, when reducing the number of dice as you
cross
>range bands, discard the _largest_ dice result. (you _might_ want to
cut
>the MASS/COST down if you use this option)

IMO, a bad idea. A separate roll for each ship is far better.

>I can't decide if you need a firecon to fire this monster :-(

I'd say "Yes."

>Ok, the bottom line:
>Class	MASS
>1	 10
>2	 30
>3	 90
>every additional class is triple the MASS of the previous.
>COST is MASS x4

I'm not going to do the math at the moment to figure if these are decent
figures or not.

>Prototype #2 - high power/short range
[snippage]

This one seems too over the top. I'd vote against it.

>Prototype #3 - low power/long range
[snippage]

Still like #1 best.

>Prototype #4 - low power/long range/'slow'
[snippage]

Too complex. Too much of a hassle.

>Ok, I based the math on a lot of beams and firecons, does anyone think
these
>things are any use? if so, are the costs right? or wildly off? (won't
get a
>chance to playtest them myself for a while :-( )

Like I said, no idea about the cost, but I like the mechanic far more
than
the existing Nova and Wave weapons.

Schoon