Re: FT-WotW (Railguns)

From: "Matthew Smith" <matt@smithdom.freeserve.co.uk>

>> My personal bias is to just rename K-guns. There's not logic in
creating
>> something that is basically a K-gun and give it  a differnet mechanic
just
>> so Humans can use them.

>I disagree. I think that just re-naming K-Guns removes some of the
>individuality of both KVs and humans. KVs and Humans both have their
own
>very individual fighting style, and by porting the main KV weapon
directly
>to the humans this is spoiled. 

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. FT is a KISS system, and
creating a new weapon mechanic for a failry cosmetic difference adds
unneeded complexity. If you want Human Railguns to be less hard-hitting
than
K-guns, limit humans to K-3 and under. You can make the weapons can
"feel"
quite different with a small amount of effort in PSB. The tactics will
_have_ to be different, since Human ships will not have Advanced Drives. 

> The main human weapons are beams and (to a
> far lesser extent) SMLs, giving them KV K-Guns provides a third
primary
> weapon option that does not fit with their "image". 

Don't forget Torps.

Adding railguns as a "new" system in _any_ form doesn't change this
problem
at all. 

One alternative practical and KISS solution is renaming single or dual
arc
P-torps as Railguns. Easy mechanic, easy limitations. It's less
versatile
than most KV weaponry becuase it's not classed (unless you play with the
Heavy and Light torps), making up for it a bit by having up to 2-arcs of
fire where K-3's only get 1. 
It's less hard hitting because it divides damage evenly b/t hull and
armor
instead of penetrating after 1 point, and can't ever score more than 6
points (like K-4+ can).

Noam