Re: Missiles and Submunition ideas

 
> Missiles and Submunitions are fun weapons, the problem
> many people have with them is that they are basically
> all or nothing weapons.  Well, here are a few ideas
> for fixing them.
> 
> As I understand the cargo rules, a merchant ship
> can carry 1 missile per Mass unit of cargo space.
> Actually, the cargo rules aren't worked out anywhere
> that I could find, but that seemed about right.
> 
> So why not develop some rules for ships which can
> transfer missiles or submunitions from cargo to
> launcher?
> 
> So for 4 Mass a ship could have 1 missile launcher
> and a total of three missiles for 18 points.
> One provision I'd make is that it takes a full turn
> to reload a missile.
> Missile Phase
> 1)  Fire loaded missile
> 2)  Load missile from cargo
> 3)  Fire 2nd missile.
> 
> For 6 Mass and 6 cost a ship could have an automated
> rearming bay that quickly shifts missiles and 
> submunitions from a central bay. This bay can handle
> 12 Mass of submunitions and missiles, or 6 missiles
> or 12 submunitions or any combination.  The bay can
> be larger than 6 Mass, but each bay is treated as
> a system for purposes of threshold checks.  Instead
> of having to figure out how much cargo is lost due
> to damage treat this special cargo bay as a system.
> 
> Another modification:
> Instead of limiting all missile launchers to firing
> through the 12-arc, when the missile launcher is
> built define its launch arc.	A ship with two launchers
> might have a 10-arc and a 2-arc launch.
> 
> The advantage of having an automated reload bay is
> that you load new armaments during the Write Orders
> phase.  This enables the Captain to select what
> kind of missile he wants to fire.
> 
> Or he can swap the current missiles with missiles in
> the reload bay instead of firing them.
> 
> With a 6 Mass requirement this system is probably
> only going to be used by large Cruisers and Capital
> ships.  It gives a middle ground between the
> endlessly reusable but not too effective Pulse Torpedo
> and the cheap one-shot submunition volley.
> 
> Heavy missile Cruiser:
> 36 Mass  Thrust 4
> 
> 3 Missile Launchers, courses 10, 12, 2
> Initial loads, 2 standard, one needle missile
> 
> Level-2 Shields
> 6 Mass automated reload bay with
> 3 standard missiles
> 2 needle missiles
> 1 EMP missile
> 
> total cost:
> 72 + 36 + 72 + 50 + 18 + 6 + 36 = 290
> 
> 
> Submunition Dreadnought
> Mass 60  Thrust 3
> 
> Level-3 shields
> 6 Submunition packs forward  18
> 6 Mass automated reload bay  42
> 6 2 A Beam PFS	       26
> PDAF x3		       9
> 
> Cost:  120 + 60 + 180 + 75 + 18 + 42 + 21 + 9 = 525
> 
> The submunitions can kill an equal sized ship if
> two of the volleys are within 6" and the other volley
> is within 12".  That is a lot faster than an equal
> weight of Pulse Torpedos!

The weapons were designed to be 1 shot weapons.  They do, after all,
deliver awsome firepower.  I think that it might be better to
introduce new weapons that are not as deadly but have similar
characteristics.



John

Somewhere in the world there is defeat for everyone.  Some are 
destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory.  
Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.
		    John Steinbeck -- The Acts of King Arthur and His
Noble Knights