RE: FT-Anime designs in FT
From: Charles Stanley Taylor <charles.taylor@c...>
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 23:15:30 GMT
Subject: RE: FT-Anime designs in FT
In message
<9DB05BB477A8D111AF3F00805F5730100D10070E@exchange01.dscc.dla.mil>
"Bell, Brian K (Contractor)" <Brian.Bell@dscc.dla.mil> wrote:
> I once did a classed Wave Gun for an Anime Specific series of games.
>
> The Wave Gun as listed in MT with cost/Mass from FB1 was a class-2
> Wave Gun.
>
> Classed Wave Gun:
> Mass: 6 x 2^(Class - 1)
> Cost: 3 x Mass
> Charge: 3/Class (1d6 during orders)
> Range: Equal to Class number of Range bands (min. 3)
> Range Band (RB): 12mu
> Width: Class for RB1 and gain 1mu per RB
> Damage: Class d6 in last RB + 1d6 for each closer RB
>
> It worked well in the Anime specific series of games we ran.
> But is probably skewed for normal play.
> Classed Wave Guns
> Class Mass Cost Charge RB RB1 RB2 RB3 RB4 RB5
> L W D L W D L W D L W D L W D
> 1 6 18 3 12 12 1 3 24 2 2 36 3 1
> 2 12 36 6 12 12 2 4 24 3 3 36 4 2
> 3 24 72 9 12 12 3 5 24 4 4 36 5 3
> 4 48 144 12 12 12 4 7 24 5 6 36 6 5 48 7 4
> 5 96 288 15 12 12 5 9 24 6 8 36 7 7 48 8 6 60 10 5
>
> We also used "Mecha" fighters that could choose to land on a ship
> INSTEAD of attack it (if it survived PDS). If Mecha were on a ship,
> any attack against the ship was as Attack Fighters and they were
> treated as Heavy Fighters if they were shot at (while on the ship).
> Additionally, while on a target ship any fire directed against them
> that rolls a 1, automatically damages the target ship. Also, for any
> attack against a ship with Mecha landed on it, the Mecha group took
> 1d6 beam damage. In space, the Mecha were treated as standard
> fighters. Landed Mecha vs Landed Mecha was treated as a
> Interceptor vs Interceptor dogfight (very vicious). We costed them as
> Attack Fighters.
>
> Additionally, we also had "Chargers" for the Wave Guns. A charger
> had a mass of 6 and cost of 3 (identical to Class-1 Wave Gun),
> and rolled an ADDITIONAL 1d6 power for a Wave Gun. Power from a
> charger was stored seperatly and had a discharge mechanism. So
> if a charger was lost to a threshold check or needle attack, it did
> NOT damage the ship. This also meant that the wave gun usually
> had a smaller charge in it when it was hit by a needle attack or
> threshold check.
>
> This game balanced fairlty nicely as ships had to decide if they
> wanted to fire the main gun or defend against mecha.
>
>
>
>
> -----
> Brian Bell
> bkb@beol.net
> -----
>
>
I've been bouncing similar ideas around inside my head recently (ow!)
mostly inspired by stumbling on a number of "Space Battlecruiser Yamato"
websites :-)
>From whay I gleaned from these sites (and a friend - never saw the show
myself, so this is all 2nd+ hand info), the Yamato's "Wave Motion Gun"
(???!!) was powered by its Jump drive - so...
The Spacial Discontinuity Cannon (SDC for short)
PSB: A modification to a ships FTL drive that creates an unstable FTL
drive field and projects it away from the ship, the drive field expands
and travels in a straight line at lightspeed, any object caught in the
field suffers damage from sheer effects and the energy released as local
space undergoes a phase change, and thats enought technobabble for now,
my head hurts! Due to structural contraints, the SDC must be mounted
along the spinal core of the ship (but not necessarily pointing
forwards - it could point backwards :-).
Game effects
The system requires a functioning FTL drive of sufficient size (based on
weapon class) to function. (I recommend consulting the rules on FTL-ing
out of combat just now)
If such systems are in use, I recommend changing the rules on using FTL
in combat to allow a ship to manoueuver on the turn that an FTL
charge-up was declaired (why- see below).
To use the weapon, the player first declairs an FTL charge up (but need
not state why - as an option, enhanced/superior sensors could determine
if an FTL charge-up is for an FTL jump or a SDC shot).
On the next turn, the ship cannot manouevre, and can (and must) fire the
SDC during the fire phase.
Ok, the effects are similar to Brian's "Classed Wave Gun" above, but I
have it do 1d6 per class within 12 mu, with a 1 mu wide Area of Effect
(AoE), losing 1d6 and gaining 1 mu of AoE width per 12 mu in distance
from the firing ship.
I'd say that the weapon does half to armour, half to hull (or next shell
layer)
,
and vapourises fights and missiles in the AoE. I can't decide whether
screens should protect (c.f. Phalon PBLs) or not - this would adjust
price.
Ok, from the tech description, the effect should travel in the direction
that the ship is pointing, however, remember the granularity of the FT
turning system, I'd say that the arc should be at least a 30 degree arc
centered on the ships centerline, or possibly the whole F arc for
simplicity.
Ok, MASS and COST:
Class MASS COST Minimum FTL drive MASS required
1 2 6 1
2 3 9 2
3 6 18 3
4 12 36 5
5 24 72 10
6 48 144 20
each larger class is 2x the MASS, COST, and FTL requirement of the
previous.
The costs are based on the costs of beam systems with equivalent damage,
with fudge factors to try and cover things like the area of effect,
needs a turn to charge first, cannot manouvre on turn it is fired, etc.
Oh, and _yes_ you can have more than one SDC on a ship, if you have
enough FTL drive mass to power them.
And _yes_ there is no reason why a ship could not carry an over-sized
FTL drive to power it SDC
Well, I've rabbited on enough - any comments?
I have other odball designs too - the Expanding Plasma Blast (a
'classed' nova cannon), generic rules for 'pushing the design limits'
weapons (you've already seen the generic spinal mount concept - the
other is "insufficient power supply" - getting a big weapon cheap
because you don't have enough power to use it _and_ the other ships
systems in the same turn - c.f. SMNC) - and something I call the
"Disintegration Vortex" - remember "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" -
remember the ship-eating energy bolts - I'm trying to design a
_balanced_ (i.e. weaker) FT version - basically it flys around for
several turns, and if it hits, it does damage for several turns.
Charles
wierd weaponry for Xmas :-)
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Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 23:28:43 GMT
From: Charles Stanley Taylor <charles.taylor@cableol.co.uk>
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: Iain Banks' Culture in FT (was Ship Names )
Message-ID: <06591e314a.Charles@cableol.co.uk>
References: <20001222005749.1767.qmail@web1405.mail.yahoo.com>
<20001222005749.1767.qmail@web1405.mail.yahoo.com>
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In message <3.0.6.32.20001222133214.00842970@earthlink.net>
Ndege Diamond <nezach@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >Unfortunately no one on that site has accumulated the Idiran ship
names. I
> >always loved "The Hand of God 137".
> >
> >Out of curiousity, has anyone attempted a conversion of Banks'
Culture, et a
l
> >ships to FT? I'd love to see that done. I'd do it myself, but I've
got too
> >many irons in the fire as it is, and it's been too long since I read
any of
> >the books.
>
> Wow, a Culture conversion would be something.
>
> Hmmm, lets see. For weapons I seem to remember in one of the books a
> Culture ship mentions that ship effectors have ranges in light years
and
> can slag planets. AM and nanohole cluster munitions are also
mentioned.
> Paraphrasing from Excession "The average General Contact Unit is more
than
> a match for the vast majority of of alien craft it will come across
during
> it's career".
>
> Ships have many shields/structural fields, with the outer layers
starting
> kilometers from the acutal hull surface. Ships measure from a couple
of
> hundred meters in length for Rapid Offensive Units to 50-75 kilometers
or
> more for the larger General Service Vehicles. The GSVs have cargo
capacity
> measured in gigatons.
>
> Ships speed is measured in Kilolights. Excession gives the speed of
the
> average Plate class GSV at a maximum sustainable speed of about 104
> kilolights with a cruising speed 40. Superlifters, which are about 90%
> engine, can make 220 kilolights; ROUs are just a bit slower than that.
Then
> there is the Sleeper Service, but that was a Special Circumstance
(along
> with the "cloud of warships").
>
> On the other manipulation appendage, I guess you could just tweak the
FT
> scale assumptions a couple orders of magnitude and go from there.
>
> Yep, that would definitely be an interesting conversion.
>
>
> Ndege "ROU I'm Ignorant So Give Me My Bliss (Psychopath Class)"
Diamond
All of my musings are being discussed at once! (I go away for a week and
see what happens :-)
I've had some thoughs on a 'Culture inspired' (but toned down a
bit) alien(?) race for the Tufflyverse - most is still very much 'work
in progress' - their chief purpose was to irritate the Sa'Vas'Ku - but
I have thoughts about FT systems:
Effectors - very effective at fiddling with systems (or peoples brains!)
my current thoughts are of a long range needle-beam like system - that
_may_ be able to knock out core systems (on a very good roll at shor
range I think!) - very nasty!
Displacement pods - treat as a 'placed counter' weapon system, c.f. SMLs
and PBLs - but the counter is a 'displacement point' - flipped to reveal
what it _really_ is _after_ PDS is allocated - Displacement pods can
come with either warhead magazines (like SML magazines, but smaller) or
plasma generators. These can also be used to place bording parties near
enemy ships, launch fighter groups, (or even small craft if the DP is
big enough).
Gridfire projectors and CREWs - use standard FT beam rules.
Help - I think I'm aquiring an obbsession with designing new and weird
weapons for FT! (mostly based on Books, Films, & TV).
Charles
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Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 23:53:57 GMT
From: Charles Stanley Taylor <charles.taylor@cableol.co.uk>
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: Those Darn Star Destroyers (was Re: New Conversion of Babylon 5
for FT)
Message-ID: <71a820314a.Charles@cableol.co.uk>
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In message <200012192137.WAA26067@d1o901.telia.com>
"Oerjan Ohlson" <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com> wrote:
[snip]
>
> I can name another well-known SF series (movies though, not TV) where
> the biggest capital ships are called "destroyers"... and at least one
> SF author who uses the terms "battleship" and "cruiser" to mean
> "short-ranged ship with endurance for a single battle only" and "ship
> with endurance for long-distance patrol cruises" respectively (which
> IIRC is closer to the original naval meanings of the words than
today's
> usage is) :-/
>
[snip]
>
> 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
>
Hmm.. I'll have to try and find the URL of a website that did a lot of
discussion on the relative sizes of 'star destroyers' and the 'super
star destroyer' - the author came to the conclusion that there was
little reason to believe that the big ship was officially designated a
'super star destroyer' and that it could be a battlecruiser or
battleship! In which case the 'star destroyers' (SDs) would be about the
right size for - destroyers!
Hmm.. what kind of navy has a fleet consisiting of:
1 or 2 battleships
lots and lots of destroyers?
OTOH, the SDs in Episode 4 were mostly performing patrol and pursiut
duties, those in Episode 5 were 'escorting' a lone 'battleship', while
in Episode 6 we see a fleet of them with 1 (or maybe more?) 'battleship'
and a 'fortification'.
Hmm.. thinking about that, many of the rebel ships were described as
'frigates' or 'corvettes', although I think the big MonCal ships were
called 'cruisers'.
A really screwy Star Wars/FT conversion comes to mind, but I'm sure its
been done before :-)
Charles