RE: Fire Control lock-on (was: Re: [FT] squadron suggestions)

I'm delurking for a while to comment on this.  Right now I am just 
sticking to the original idea, not the commentsback on it.

I don't think a lock on roll is a good mechanic.

1	FT already takes Fire COntrol into account by requiring you to 
dedicate fire control to fire.
2.	Its NOT FUN.  honestly, this is the biggest point.  I have
played 
games with a Fire Control roll.  NOthing ruins your enjoyment of a game 
like having played really well, and then not being able to do anything 
because of a single eff-ing die roll.  Absolutely not fun.  That kind of

super random only the luckiest player can win should be left to GW.
3.	As I said before, its too random.  We already have a fair amount

of uncertainty in the attack rolls.  Do we need to have a "all or
nothing" 
roll to be able to attack as well?  I don't think so.  I have always 
thought of the GZG games to be games of strategy and tactics, not random

rolling.

Instead of a roll to determine lock on, how about making it more FC 
dependant.  Each level of ECM/Stealth requires an additional FC to be 
dedicated to be able to target and fire.  ECCM could them be modeled as 
something similiar to a FC that is dedicated to a single target to
counter 
its ECM, high power sensors to counter stealth.  This will foster more 
strategy adn tactics, instead of "roll and don't get a one".

As for evasion, aren't ships assumed to be evading anyway?  FT is a game

of abstractions, and I always got the impression that ships were using 
their manuvering thrusters to provide as much randomness as possiblie - 
thus the 50%+ miss rates on shooting anyway.  Plus, Evasion will add
more 
book keeping, which is always, IMO, something to avoid.  Every ship on
the 
table could potentially need to yet another marker or comment to keep 
track of.

In addition, the evasion bonus is way, way too high, if we are going
with 
it (which we shouldn't).  It is possible to have escorts sitting in the 
middle of the enemy fleet and being untargetable due to evasion, size
and 
fire control.  And do we really want to see what the Kra'vaak can do
with 
these evasion rules?

-- 
Peter Engebos				T'sarith Degaalth
tsarith@io.com				http://www.io.com/~tsarith

   "Here at Ortillery Command we have at our diposal hundred megawatt
laser
beams, mach 20 titanium rods and guided thermonuclear bombs. Some people
say
  we think that we're God. We're not God. We just borrowed his SMITE
button
			 for our fire control system"