[DS2] Air superiority revisited

Hi,

The recent talks about air superiority (or the lack of it) in 
Dirtside inspired me to try my hand at representing fighters 
opposing enemy ground attack missions. These are rough draft 
rules only, and I won't get a chance to playtest until after 
Xmas. I'm posting them so that I can get some input from the list 
while I revise them. Please keep in mind that these are still 
very abstract, and are not intended to be a detailed air combat 
simulator (after all, there is always Air Superiority...). 
The concept of maneouvrability has been ruthlessly lifted from 
the ideas of 'Ndege "vectored thrust" Diamond'. ;-)

Any criticism (good or bad) is appreciated, so long as you remain 
civil...

Air Superiority in Dirtside II
==============================

Dirtside II has no rules for air-to-air combat. This implies that 
at the time of the battle, one side has already obtained air
superiority. 
On the modern (and presumably the future) battlefield, sometimes it 
is necessary to attempt air mission even when there are enemy 
fighters in the vicinity. These rules add another level on top of the 
existing aerospace operations rules.

Several factors will affect the effectiveness of air-to-air combat. 
In Dirtside terms, we will simplify all of these factors into four. 
These are: pilot quality/training, electronics suite quality, 
aircraft maneouvrability, and weapons quality.

In order to execute air superiority missions, the player must 
specifically task one or more of his/her aerospace fighters with 
an air superiority mission. The player does this when activating the 
craft.

Conducting Air Superiority Missions
===================================

For game purposes, air superiority missions are divided into three 
distinct stages: spotting, interception and engagement. After declaring 
an air superiority mission, the player may attempt to spot unengaged 
targets. For each of the enemy's unspotted aerospace units, an 
opposed roll is made. The spotting player rolls a die based on his 
command chit: D6 for GREEN, D8 for REG, D10 for VET, shifted up 
for a grade 1 pilot and down for a grade 3 pilot. In addition, he 
rolls a secondary die for his electronics suite: D6 for
NONE(rudimentary), 
D8 for BASIC, D10 for ENH and d12 for SUP. The aerospace unit being 
spotted rolls its signature die. If either of the spotter's dice 
beats the unit being spotted's die, then that unit has been spotted. 
The spotting player may then choose to "lock-on" to _one_ of 
the spotted units. Units locked onto the previous turn do not 
need to be spotted again, and the player may choose to ignore the 
spotting stage if he has a unit locked-on from the previous turn.

Once a unit has been locked-on, the spotter may attempt to 
intercept the unit that it has locked-on. At this point, the target 
may attempt to disengage. An opposed die roll is made, with the 
attacker rolling his quality die, shifted up or down for pilot quality 
as above. The defender wishing to disengage has a primary die 
figured exactly as for the attacker, as well as a secondary die 
based on his aerospace vehicle's maneouvrability rating. If the 
defender's roll is higher, then he has successfully disengaged, and 
both aerospace fighters are considered activated for the turn. 
Otherwise, the defender is considered to have been successfully 
intercepted.

Once the target has been successfully intercepted, the two 
aircraft are considered to be within GMS range. At this point, 
the intercepting aerospace craft may fire any air-to-air 
GMS that he has. This is resolved exactly as for ground-to-ground 
or air-to-ground GMS fire except the target gets a secondary die 
based on its maneouvrability rating, provided that the target elects 
to perform evasive maneouvres. If the target does not elect to perform 
evasive maneouvres, then it may attempt to return fire with its own 
air-to-air missles.

Instead of (after?) firing missles, the attacking fighter may elect to 
engage his target. This represents the pilot engaging the enemy with 
cannons and other direct fire weapons, i.e. dogfighting. At these 
ranges, pilot quality plays a critical role in success. An opposed roll 
is made to determine which of the two pilots managed to maneouvre his 
aircraft into position for the critical shot. Both pilots roll their 
quality die, shifted up or down for pilot quality as above. In addition,

the die type is also shifted for maneouvrability ratings. SUP 
maneouvrability shifts the die up by one, BASIC maneouvrability shifts 
the die type down by one. These shifts are _open_ shifts, so 
a VET 1 pilot in an aircraft with SUP maneourvability will get a 
D12, but his opponent will also have his die type shifted down by 
one. The winner of this roll gets an automatic hit against the loser 
with one of his weapon systems. The hit counts as close range for chit 
validities.

Weapon/Systems Costs
====================

Maneouvrability
---------------
Maneouvrability is simply another gradation of mobility type. 
BASIC maneouvrability costs 1000% of the BVP; ENH maneouvrability 
costs 1500% of the BVP; SUP maneouvrability cost 2000% of the BVP.

Electronics Suite
-----------------
A BASIC electronics suite costs 30 points; an ENH suite costs 60 points;

a SUP suite cost 90 points.

Air-to-air Missles
------------------
Air-to-air missles are identical in cost to their air-to-ground 
and ground-to-ground counterparts, except that they cannot be used 
against ground targets. Similarly, air-to-ground and ground-to-ground 
missles cannot be used against aerospace vehicles.

       Tony Christney
       tchristney@questercorp.com

  "If the end user has to worry about how the program was 
   written then there is something wrong with that program"
				  -Bjarne Stroustrup