Re: Distributed Fire Control

In a message dated 03/02/97  17:41:34, you write:

<< System: Distributed Fire Control
 Mass: 3
 Cost: 30
 
   The distributed fire control enhances the standard fire control
 system by giving the ship the ability to transmit and receive fire
 control telemetry.  A DFC may be used as though it were a normal fire
 control system.  If desired, any ship with a working DFC system may
 choose to use it to receive fire control telemetry from any DFC on any
 other friendly ship that has not yet been used.  The DFC receiving the
 telemetry cannot itself target any ships that turn.  Any DFC's that
 provide telemetry to a ship cannot later be used to provide telemetry
 to another ship or to the ship's own weapons.	Needle beams cannot be
 guided by remote DFC telemetry.
  >>

I don't see any benifit in this under the rules in FT or MT why would
you
want to effectively disable one of your own firecons in order to
download
information from another ship when it will not alter your firing
solution. If
it allowed you to increase your chance to hit or to increase the
effective
range of weaponry I could see a use for it or are you requiring ships to
develop a firm loc on the target opposed by EW before firing on it?

Another use would be if it could transmit directly to suitably equipped
weapons
DFC receiver
Mass 1
Cost 5?

A DFC receiver is linked to one weapon at time of construction and
allows
that weapon (and that weapon only) to receive targetting telemetry from
a DFC
eqipped ship instead of a local firecon. This will allow a vessel to
target
more ships than otherwise and to be able to fire even after losing all
on
board firecons but all range bands will be regarded as 6 " shorter for
each
12" telemetry transmission range i.e. C Batts range 0-6"; B Batts
0-6/6-18; A
Batts 0-6/6-18/18-30 if the DFC equipped ship is within 12" or C Batt
0-0; B
Batt 0-0; A Batt 0-12 if the DFC ship is 48-60" away

Craig Mitchell