Re: S'V Seekers

On Monday, December 10, 2001, at 11:58 PM, Jaime Tiampo wrote:

>> I question giving a seeking weapon a secondary move. It virtually
>> assures a hit on the target, assuming it wasn't launched too early in
>> the approach.
>
> Same thing with fighters. They get an amost asured hit on target too.
> Considering that MT missiles are considered to ahve advanced AI that
> pilot them like fighters this has never really bothered me with
seeking
> wapons.

True.  From a balance point of view although fighters do have the 
secondary move they only do on average approximately 0.8 damage per turn

(for a max of 6 turns, less if they do a secondary move) while the 
seekers do all they're damage at once.	Although fighters suffer a minor

penalty for performing a secondary move, one that may not always come 
into play, seekers suffer effectively no penalty (one less turn of 
movement when the secondary move is probably moving them into an attack 
anyway).  Of course there's always exceptions.

>> ...and with that assured hit, these damage ideas are a bit on the
>> excessive side. Consider that MT missiles are 2 MASS for their
effects.
>
> And Seekers require 1 mass and 1 energy (which is mass used there
where
> it could be used somewhere else), same as a figher. Perhaps 2 energy
> then?

Lance pods are 1 MASS and 3 energy.  MASS is probably a better balancing

factor with SV IMHO especially with a weapon that promotes use at longer

ranges.

> What has always been a ponderance to me is that MT missiles were
> designed to attack MT ships. Now the ships have aprox. twice the hull
> space for the same ship, and it's 3 times as easy to kill an MT
missile
> yet their damage yield hasn't changed. Maybe they were just too
powerful
> under MT.

Good points.  In MT I thought they were too powerful.  With the FB 
changes they took a real hit.  Still if they're each treated as a 
separate target vs. PDS systems they're some hope - not nearly as good 
as they use to be though.

One thought - how about modeling seekers or something like them based 
upon the FB missiles?  Just a thought.

Kevin Walker
Horizon Concepts, Inc.
Macintosh & Windows Development
Miniature Painting & Sculpting