Re: FT-SV ships

G'day,

 >My idea is for SV ships to be able to
 >consume a disabled ship, converting
 >it to either energy (say a ratio of 10 mass
 >to 1 energy point), or biomass (same ratio).

If you gave them wombs of the right size (along the lines of large bays
for 
human ships, so 1.5x what they were going to hold) I'd let them already.

 > there could be a bio-construct that flies
 >onto the hull of a ship, and rips the ship
 >apart physically. I leave it to others to think up
 >stats for these ideas, or to shoot them
 >down in flames <G>.

Well as a start, you could adapt the leech torpedo, so it absorbs hull 
boxes per turn instead of doing damage. So how about this:

Parasite Pods
These pods are related to the leech pods, but do damage by absorbing
hull 
mass rather than just mangling it. They require 6 points and 1 biomass
to 
create and they may be fired at any target that falls within the fire
arc 
of the pod launcher. The range and to hit mechanism is as of the lance
and 
leech pods.
	When a parasite pod hits its target it absorbs one biomass and
does one 
point of damage straight away. On every subsequent turn it continues
this 
pattern and absorbs one biomass and does one damage. The parasite pod is

none penetrating and must consume all of the armour before moving on to
the 
hull. The removal of parasite pods is done in the same way as for leech
pods.
A parasite pod may also voluntarily drop off. In the orders phase this
is 
noted and during movement the pod detaches and sits in space. At this
point 
any ship that wants access to this collected biomass must come and pick
it 
up. If the pod has a total mass of 6 or less than normal drone wombs may
be 
used to pick it up, if it is larger then special large wombs are
required. 
Until it is picked up it may be attacked by fighters or targeted by 
defensive fire (PDS, Class 1 beams, Scatterpacks, Pulsers, Spicules and 
Interceptor Pods) within 6". Every hit taken reduces the mass of the pod
by 
1. A detached pod has a limited self-defence capability. For every 6
mass 
it may have EITHER one stinger with an in-built supply of 1 PP OR 1 
spicule. Note, if the pods are large enough to have multiple stingers
this 
does NOT mean that one stinger may lend its PP to another stinger and 
increase its range.  The stingers on parasite pods are restricted to 1
PP each.

I'm not sure if 6pts for the initial launch is enough given the extra 
capabilities out the other end, but maybe the fact it becomes a target 
itself balances that out. I also went with one damage and 1 absorbed per

turn as I was thinking of mass conversion issues, but I guess you could 
switch to a straight two mass absorbed per turn. That should probably
knock 
up its cost though as it'll get larger faster and be potentially harder
to 
kill off at the other end I'd guess. Anyway just a few quick thoughts

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au