Parasite Racks, External Mounts and Reactive Armour (Was Re: SPOILER ALERT/PARASITE FIGHTER RACKS)

At 02:46 PM 3/10/97 -0500, Mark Kochte wrote:

>Thinking about it more I would say that the piggyback/parasite system
is
>a one-shot deal, to give non-carriers limited ability to carry
fighters,
>but only over short distances (ie, not over a period of days, or the
>inherent life support duration of the fighter(s) in question). Also,
>Hooking back up should be more of a pain (this is something that could
>easily be done with base facilities).

I agree. There have to be some restrictions on the use of these racks.
First, I'd make the fighters vulnerable to damage when the mothership is
hit
if they haven't been launched. Maybe make a threshold check for the
fighters
whenever the ship takes ANY damage. For instance, assume the parasite
rack
is mounted on a ship with damage boxes of 4/4/4.  The ship takes 3
points of
damage, leaving one point before the first threshold check is made.
However,
the parasite racks (with fighters) have to make a threshold check (roll
less
than 6 to save) IMMEDIATELY since they are vulnerable. Second turn, the
ship
takes 1 more point of damage. This forces normal threshold checks (the
parasite rack makes one check, not two, this turn). Turn 3 the ship
takes
one more point of damage and the parasite rack takes another threshold
check
(rolling 1 to 4 in order to save it). Turn 4 the ship takes 4 points of
damage, leaving 3 points left. The second threshold was passed. The
parasite
racks only make one roll, but because the second threshold point was
EXCEEDED, they are saved only on a roll of 1, 2, or 3. 

Second, I'd make the fighters impossible to reload during combat. 
Assume
that the loading process is lengthy compared to combat (or even
impossible
without some sort of tender nearby).

Third, these racks should cost NO mass (or a nominal mass of 1 due to
placement restrictions). 

So: PARASITE RACK - Mass 1 or 0, Cost ?
- can be mounted on any cruiser size ship and up
- fighters are vulnerable and can't be picked up
- fighters launch as per usual

Any comments? Any ideas on point costs?

This suggests some interesting systems. How about external missile
racks, or
external pulse torpedo mounts? Again, they would have negligible mass,
but
would have limited shots and might be damaged when ANY damage is done.
EXTERNAL MOUNTS could be interesting systems.

This idea of a system taking damage along with the hull makes me think
of:

REACTIVE ARMOUR  - Mass 0, Cost?
- works like Kra'vak armour, but only against non-beam weapons
- any non-beam damage causes an automatic threshold check (the armour is
damaged as it deflects incoming damage)
- it takes normal threshold checks like any other system
- level 2 reactive armour drops by one level when a threshold check is
made
(similar to the ship's drive taking damage and dropping by half thrust)

These ideas are just off the top of my head. Any/all criticism is
welcomed.

Allan Goodall:	agoodall@sympatico.ca 
"You'll want to hear about my new obsession.
 I'm riding high upon a deep depression. 
 I'm only happy when it rains."    - Garbage