Re: Thoughts on FB .....was Re: Bogey Classes FB

In message <v04003a02b18d01642833@[207.21.142.173]>
	  Sean Bayan Schoonmaker <schoon@aimnet.com> wrote:

> Samuel Penn <sam@bifrost.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> >10% of armour on  the same ship only gives you +10 DPs. Shields would
> >seem to be 3x as effective. Now I know shields don't protect against
> >everything (I presume armour does), but unless I've overlooked
> >something, my gut reaction is that armour isn't good enough.
> 
> I think that this brings armor about where it should be, NOT because
of its
> effectiveness in the above situation...
> 
> >I couldn't see any real difference between 'hull' and 'armour'. Both
> >take one mass and give one damage point. The only difference is that
> >use of armour delays threshold rolls.
> 
> Ah, here's the rub. Delaying a threshold roll can be gold.

I agree with everything you've said about the importance of avoiding
thresholds, but with the added point that shields delay thresholds
as well. Taking my above example, and assuming 4 damage rows, armour
delays the first threshold by 10, while shields delay it by 7 - not
a huge difference. Assuming you then don't loose both your shields,
you still get the bonus from shields until the _next_ threshold
roll, whereas all benefits of armour have now been lost.

A small change which would make armour a bit better, and also a lot
more interesting (IMO) is if the armour value applied to each facing
of the ship individually. So 10 points of armour gives you 10 points
on the fore, 10 points on port etc.

Then you can have all the fun of ships rotating to bring their still
armoured sides to face the enemy.

-- 
Be seeing you,	     http://www.bifrost.demon.co.uk/Gaming/Gaming.html
Sam.		     ----------------------- Roleplaying and Wargaming