Re: FT-EMP/NEEDLE WEAPONS

In message <380F724C-7ECC-11D6-ADA0-000393071770@jhuapl.edu>
	  Noam Izenberg <noam.izenberg@jhuapl.edu> wrote:

> Re: "ordered scoring of EMP hits"
> 
> From: Sean Bayan Schoonmaker <s_schoon@pacbell.net>
> 
> > Why not just have a standard way to read the SSD (i.e. left to
right, 
> > top to
> > bottom) and roll for the random hit. It would need no addition to 
> > existing
> > material.
> 
> This would be preferable to generating lists or grouping systems. 
> Anything that does not require addition or modification of existing
SSDs 
> is inherently simpler to use. There is possibility for attempts to
abuse 
> the system (whether it would be successful or not) by people
customizing 
> SSD's in very odd ways.
> 
> As for Charles' list, Schoon's revision of Bif's provides a spin on 4)
> 4b) Attacker chooses semi blind.
> and
> 1b) Go through the systems systematically in the above way until N 
> systems have been affected
> 
> I'm not the greatest fan of anything on the list except maybe 1b. I 
> still the straight threshold - rolling allot of dice for a big ship 
> doesn't bother me. I'd rather fiddle with the to-hit mechanics than
the 
> effect mechanics
> 
> As for needles, unless they can have multi arcs and/or a second range 
> band, they are largely useless systems in FB-style games. Limiting
them 
> further by blind targeting goes in the opposite direction.
> 
> Help! I'm an Orange Zebra!  (Noam Raphael Izenberg)
> 
>
Well, getting back to this, here's an idea, could everyone who is
interested look at the following weapons in the WDA:

Ion Cannon (Type 1) - beam-type, has a 'priority list' of systems to be
affected, may ignore screens?

Ion Cannon (Type 2) - beam-type, ignores screens, defender chooses
systems to be affected, number of systems affected is the total number
that must _fail_ their threshold checks.

Ion Pulse Weapon - beam-type, has a different 'priority list', affected
by screens.

Plasma Torpedo - torpedo-type, has a priority list.

and vote for which they prefer, and how they would like these weapon
descriptions to be combined to 1 (or 2) weapons systems.

i.e. I want to reduce the number of weapons in that section :-)

Charles