Re: [FT] Coilguns

>
> John C wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>> The bad news is that hitting one piece of metal--even one the size of
>a 
>> Carrier--with another piece of metal at the distances and velocities 
>> common to Full Thrust is not easy.  It's not impossible, but as a 
>> general rule it is a lot easier to hit a close target than it is to
>hit 
>> a distant one (although Coilgun ranges are, theoretically,
>unlimited).
>>
>> MECHANICS:
>> 
>> The firer must roll higher than the range to the target on 4d6, 
>> rerolling all sixes. 
>
>This gives a higher hit probability for the coilgun than for the
>"shotgun-style" KV railguns or Human pulse torps out to range 16, and
>at range 19. At range 17-18 and 20-30 the railgun hit ratio is better.

I was hoping that the really limited arcs (and the requirment of 
dedicated Firecons) would help offset this.  Alternatively, dropping the

range dice to 3 would lower the effective range by a bit.  When this was

discussed earlier, most people seemed to feel that the resulting range 
would be much too low--my experience with FT involves a lot of combat at

short range, though, so I didn't see this as a problem.  For my part, 
I'd prefer short range--it would even things out a bit for the humans.

>>    Weapon			   Mass 	     Point Cost   
>> Class I Coilgun:		   3			     10 	
>	  
>> Class II Coilgun:		   6			     15
>> Class III Coilgun:		   9			     25
>> Class IV Coilgun:		   12			     40
>
>Hm. Why are Classes II and III so much less expensive per Mass (and per
>damage) than Classes I and IV?

My mathematical skills are largely limited to the Dewey Decimal system 
at this point; the above point/mass costs just seemed to fit.  I wanted 
to keep the Class I small enough that an escort sized ship could manage 
to mount one or two, and the progressive steps kinda fell into place.  

>> I am not sure about the Mass or Point costs yet.
>
>Too low IMO - both of them. As written here, the Coilguns out-damage
>Pulse Torpedoes (on a per-Mass basis) by at least 45-75% at ranges of
>15 or less; the only ranges where the Pulse Torpedoes are actually
>better are ranges 23-24 and 27-30. 

Yeah, that's what I thought.  The simple, dirty truth of the matter is 
this: I like the mechanic, and I wanted to find some way to use it.  
And, for some reason, my vision of the Kra'Vak includes weapons that do 
a LOT of damage.  You can probably blame the "Aliens Colonial Marines 
Technical Manual" for that--it makes Railgun hits sound REALLY nasty, as

well as astronomically unlikely.

>They also out-damage Class-2 beam batteries out to range 20 and Class-3
>beam batteries out to range 22 and then again at range 25-26... and
>this is against *unscreened* targets. 
>
>I can post a table with the average damage per Class at each range (up
>'til 42) tomorrow if you like. I only included 3 re-rolls in the
>calculation, but any extras add at best 0.0001% to the hit numbers :-/

I'd deeply appreciate that.  I know that the average damage for the beam

batteries was posted not too long ago--could someone send me that data 
too, so I have a basis for comparison?

Thanks,
John Crimmins
john1x@hotmail.com
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