Re: Beam Batteries (long)

At 09:01 AM 10/12/96 +0000, you wrote:

>Give me a weapon that does 9d6 out to only 6" any day. Provided the
>carrying vessel is fast enough to get into range, and the beams have
>'arcness'. The maneuver advantage is always with the aggressor. The
>guy with the longer range has two problems. First, he can't hope to
>go 'Knife Fighting' with a ship armed like that. At close ranges,
>the shorter ranged weapons have MUCH more firepower. Second, to gain
>advantage for the longer ranged weapons, you must, on occasion, turn
>away from the aggressor, so you can't fire at him at all for some of
>the time.

	You've got a point. 9d6 out to only 6" would scare the hell out
of
me. On the other hand, I personally would never deploy such a weapon. I
mean
what with wave guns and missiles and fighters and such, I'd be scared of
being cut down before I ever got a chance to fight. But it would still
be a
frightening weapon...

>
>Simply put, I find the ability to roll lots of dice in one burst far
>more advantageous than the ability to plink away at long range. It also
>helps keep a logical progression in die gain over range. eg;
>
>4d6,3d6,2d6,1d6 (my disruptors)
>
>makes more sense than.
>
>3d6,3d6,2d6,1d6 (your disruptors)
>
>So it makes them a little more playable.
>

	You've got a good point here too. I would prefer the 4/3/2/1
progression but it makes the A disruptor more powerful than the 18d6
limit
that the other batteries (mostly) seem in line with. I know its a minor,
little, quibbling, tiny advantage but the players I've got tend to look
for
just such things and then max them out on all their fleets. I wouldn't
need
perfectly mathematically balanced weapons if players around here were
willing to design their fleets with their own personal preferences
towards
combat in mind (you know, treating it like a game) instead of an
exercise in
accounting.

	James
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