Re: OUDF - Railguns??

> Hello,
>
> I'm one of those grumpy conservatives who tend to have cynical
comments
> on other peoples' new tech items. Don't take it personally; I'm like
> this towards everyone - up to and including Jon T. :-/
>
> Matthew Smith wrote (welcome on board, BTW):
>
> >Railguns come in classes 1-6 like K-Guns, and obey the same rules
> >with regard to arcs of fire.
> >
> >Roll to hit like K-Guns, but the ranges are doubled - 0-12 mu: 2+,
> 12->24 mu: 3+, etc.
> >
> >If you hit, roll 1 die per railgun firing, and take the result as the
> >damage, BUT you cannot do more damage than the class of the firing
> >railgun. For example, if you hit with a class four railgun, you would
> do >the damage as on the die, but rolls of 5 or 6 would only inflict
4.
> >
> >Damge is inflicted as per K-guns with regard to armour / shell.
> >Screens / vapour shroud / whatever have no effect.
> >
> >Class 1 Railgun (all arcs):	       2 MASS
> >Class 2 Railgun (one arc):	     3 MASS
> >Class 2 Railgun (two arcs):	    4 MASS
> >Class 3 Railgun (one arc):	     5 MASS
> >Class 4 Railgun (one arc):	     6 MASS
> >Class 5 Railgun (one arc):	     7 MASS
> >Class 6 Railgun (one arc):	     8 MASS
> >
> >All Railguns cost 3 x MASS.
>
> OK. Let's look at the average damage inflicted by this Class 6 railgun
> and a single-arc Class 4 Beam Battery (which is 8 Mass and costs
> 3xMass):
>
> Range: R6: B4 (vs level-0/1/2 screens)
> 0-12 2.91 3.2/2.53/1.87
> 12-24 2.33 2.4/1.9/1.4
> 24-36 1.75 1.6/1.27/0.93
> 36-48 1.17 0.8/0.63/0.47
> 48-60 0.58 0/0/0
>
> The R6 has the same Mass and cost as the Class-4 beam, but outranges
it
> by 20%. At range 0-24 it inflicts somewhat less damage than the B4 at
> unscreened targets, but inflicts more damage if the target has at
least
> level-1 screens. Beyond range 24, it beats the B4 against *all*
> targets, screened or not.
>
> Looks as if the R6 is a wee bit more powerful than the B4 (and
> therefore should cost more), don't you think?
>
> >Tell me what you think.
>
> Vastly underpriced (or vastly overpowered, whichever you prefer - but
> it's easier to increase the cost than to change the mechanics to
reduce
> the power). Given a cost of 3xMass, all the railguns should be 50-100%
> bigger (except the R1, which needs to be about the same Mass as a B3 -
> 3 or 4 Mass for the single-arc version, +1 per extra arc).
>
> Regards,
>
> Oerjan Ohlson
> oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

Thanks very much for the constructive critiscism - I'm really no good at
the
mathematics part of it!! I appreciate your comments and agree with your
assessment of the pricing. My costs were mostly based on the pulse
torpedo,
which is 4 MASS for a one-arc launcher and costs 3 x MASS. Since the R6
is
basically just a double range P-Torp, I reckoned doubling the mass would
be
OK. However, as I can now see this is a little too cheap. As I mentioned
before, these prices were totally off the top of my head, so were bound
to
be a little unsuitable. In order to allow me more accuracy in creating a
replacement, do you think that you could tell me the formulae that you
used
to work out the damage values above?

Thanks,