RE:FT-Kenetic sheilds, armour dogdeing weapons etc

>From Donald Hosford, the "Darlington Space Rifle", I know as the C+
cannon,
from the beserker series of novels, a very good read.  My two pennerth
worth
is a rail gun that projects a hyperspace feild around the projectile,
popping the round into hyperspace, and the field is charged to drop the
round out of hyper at the point you calculate the enemy ship will be.
The
hyperspace field is generated by the hyperdrive on board the ship, and
if
the hyperdrive is disabled, the gun cannot fire. This idea is to allow
hyper
capable ships a advantage over non-hyper capable ships of the shame
mass,
and makes having the extra mass of the hyper drive a advantage, not a
penalty in a battle. The actual hitting of the enemy ships is dependent
on
guessing where the enemy ship will be, and range has no effect on the
die
roll. The projectile consists of a core made out of the same material as
a
hyper space core, with a piece of anti-matter (forewith refered to a
AM),
contained in a sphere of superconductor magnets, to ensure that the AM
does
not come into contact with any normal matter. When the projectile hits
the
target, the magnets are smashed by the impact, allowing the AM to come
into
contact with normal matter, and KABOOM!! A hit on the weapon would
detonate
the magasine with the AM, detonating any AM still on board, and probably
destroy the ship it`s self. The weapon would consist of the gun (mass=5,
cost=25, fore arc only), magazine (mass=1 per two rounds (1/2 mass per
round), cost=6 per mass). The chance to hit is based on predicting where
the
target is going to be, and you place a marker at the point where the
round
will emerge (before movement, after movement orders are written, a la
sml`s). If the target is within 2 MU of the marker, the round hits the
target, by passing the defences (armour, sheilds, pds) of the target,
causing 3D6 DP directly on the hull of the target. If the rounds are
detonated onboard the ship, it causes the same dammage PER round to the
ship. The range of this weapon would be based on the size of the
hyperspace
drive, representing the ammount of energy capable of projecting the
projectile into hyper. The range would be size of the hyper drive x10
(ie-range = mass of ship), with a maximum range of the limit of your
sensors
(cannot remember this limit at the moment). The hyperdrive is incapable
of
being used to jump the ship while using this weapon, due to the
hyperdrive
being used to propell the projectile, and cannot be used for 2D6 turns
till
after the C+ cannon has been deactivated. The gun cannot be used until
1D6
turns after a ship has used it`s hyperdrive (so you cannot hyper in,
shoot,
and hyper steight back out). If the gun is disabled, but the magasine is
untouched, the remaining rounds can be jetisoned to prevent detonation
from
dammage. The rounds can only be jetissoned at the start of the turn, and
must be wrote in it`s orders on the previous turn.

For the sheild proposals I submitted, instead of  magnetic partical
sheilds,
we can say they`re gravitic sheilds. This can be postulated as a off
shoot
of gravitic technology. I see grav tech (for the artificial grav onboard
ships) as leading towards hyper technology, and could lead towards
kenetic
sheilding. The KV have a slightly more advanced grav tech (as postulated
by
the advanced drive), but the SV seem to be lacking in this respect? The
pinpoint sheilds would have a mass of 40, cost of 120, be able to absorb
20
DP, and have to roll greater than the roll to hit by the attacker to
intercept the attack on a roll of 1D6 + 2 for the first attack
intercepted.
For each aditional attack intercepted per turn, the bonus goes down by 1
(second attack=1D6 + 1, 3rd=1D6, 4th=1D6-1 etc). These sheilds can
regenerate at the rate of 1D6 + 1 DP per turn (after all attacks
compleated). With the pinpoint sheilds in use, normal mag sheilding is
inoperable. Multipul pinpoint sheilds can be mounted in a ship, and used
at
once, to intercept separate attacks, or overlayed to intercept one
attack
(like a wave gun/nova cannon). Against missiles, the sheilds roll a 1D6
after pds, to see how many of the remaining missiles they stop.

The globular sheild, when used would totally stop any attack(s), upto
it`s
DP. When used it prevents the mounting ship from appling thrust, firing
weapons, or launching fighters. When used, the hyperdrive has to be shut
down, due to the power requirements of the sheild, and cannot be
reactivated
for 2D6 turns. The sheild would have a mass of 3 mass for every DP of
sheild, and a cost of x4 the mass. The sheild would regenerate at the
start
of every turn at the rate of 2 DP per turn. If the sheild takes more
dammage
that it`s DP remaining in one turn, the generators overload, taking a
threshhold check, but can be repaired with DC parties. If repaired, the
sheild is re activated at half it`s original DPs, and can regenerate as
normal from there.

Oerjan, thanks for the reply on the needle, that what I was after for my
needle beam/primarry armed bug SD. Yes, I meant the HET laser uses the
same
die as beams (3 die at 8 MU), and I proposed it this way, because it is
a
simple way to read dammage, doesn`t involve a extra die roll for dammage
applied, and is simple to read (die -3 is dammage applied, reroll on a
6).
Against vapour shrouds, you would have a extra -1 to the die roll
(sorry,
forgot to include that <g>).After a quick perusal of your figure
compairing
the HET lasers to beam bat.s, I have to say the cost is low for the
dammage
you get. But the mass I`d try to keep the same as beam bats so you could
replace beams for HETs as a streight swop, and ensuring that these
weapons
aren`t too heavy to fit on the smaller ship in reasonable numbers (due
to
the size, I cannot see the point of building anything smaller than DD`s,
except for scouts/message curriers*, and these would be unarmed, max
thrust
ships anyway). I would say the gravitic sheilds I`ve just proposed would
stop even these weapons, in fact, I would say they stop everything. I
don`t
know if this makes them cheap/light for what you gain, but it`s only a
idea
at the moment. I have another idea along the lines of each sheild
generator
generates X ammount of DP, minus the size of the ship (say 40 DP - ship
size
divided by 20, rounded up. So a DD (40 mass) would have 38 DP, and a SD
(200
mass) would have 30 DP).

Also, how about AM missiles, in both SML and MT missiles, at double
cost/doubled dammage, with the same chance of detonation if dammaged?

For the hyper sml`s, how about a extra mass of 2 per laucher to
represent
the hyperfeild generators, and the same restrictions per the hyperdrive
as
the sheilds above, but the to hit rolls/ missiles on target, no idea.
Anybody out there any idea`s?

* This raises another question, in that are Hyperspace communications
posible (like star tr*k), or do messages have to travel on ships between
stars (like HH universe)? I prefer the latter, from reading the books,
and
it also opens up the posibilities of intercepting mail ships to cut coms
between systems. With computer securities, the messages themself`s would
be
indecipharable without the key, which the enemy would not be able to get
(think PGP, with public/private keys). My currier design would be mass
10
ship, with 1 hull, 1 mass Hyperdrive, and 16 thrust drive, at a cost of
30.
Just try and catch one of these.

Some off the wall ideas for anyone out there.

BIF
"yorkshire born,yorkshire bred,
strong in arms, thick in head"

PS-I know this mail ramble on a bit, but my server`s having problems at
the
moment, so can only get/reply to messages infrequently at the moment.
Ignore
any spelling mistake, ta! Robertson Brendan, I would love to take part
in
your PBeM game, but going by past experience, my server won`t be up by
then
(f$%$^ng off peek freeserve).