re: Poll: HBs and Armour

> Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 10:07:11 -0800
> From: Sean Bayan Schoonmaker <schoon@aimnet.com>
> Subject: Poll: HBs and Armour
> 
> Though we don't really have agreement from all parties on HB
mechanics, I
> think that we've settled on a playtest-able compromise, and can work
from
> there.
> 
> However, how HBs are affected by armour is another matter. As I see
it,
> there are two options:
> 
> (1) Just like Beams; splitting evenly between armour and hull
> 
> (2) As Noam's suggestion; 1st point of each die on armour, and the
rest
> penetrating
> 
> Option (2) would require a price increase due to increased
effectiveness,
> but I personally like the mechanic.
> 
> Opinions ?

normally, our HBW count 100% armor and hull.  although we are testing
variant HBW (see below).

i like the raking concept that B5Wars introduced with their heavy
beam weapons.  the way it works in B5W is the total damage is divided
into groups of 10.  each group is applied to a random location, 
representing a beam slicing across the ship's hull.  the purpose
of a rake is to damage several systems enough to cause a critical
malfunction. i puzzled for a while how to do this in FT, but i think 
i had an idea last night.

how about this: armor affects a HBW, but damage to hull is applied 
differently.  for each damage point, mark the first hull box 
as destroyed and skip the second one, mark the third, etc. when 
the end of the row is reached, roll a threshold for one random 
system.  goto the beginning of the row and mark the first available
hull.  when the hull row is totally destroyed, make normal threshold
rolls.	this attempts to simulate to behavior above.  some HBW could
be more effective at causing an early threshold by marking the first
hull and skipping 2 hulls, etc.  some HBW may not have this ability
at all. it really depends upon what your universe background dictates.

this IMO raises the cost of the HBW for this "raking" ability.	we are
still testing this one for play balance/mass + cost.

HBW variants
------------
we are also trying out other variants to determine extra mass
and costs.

normal: armor counts 100%, count damage normally.
raking: armor counts 100%, special hull damage & thresholds (above).
	(basic: skip every 2nd hull; advanced: skip every 2nd & 3rd
hull)
piercing: [basic] - ignore 1/2 armor (rd up); [adv] - ignore all armor.
sweeping: hit multiple targets with one beam. targets must be withing 6"
	  of each other.  divide dice between all targets.  penalty =
	  -1 damage/die for each target > 1, but only 1 FC necessary. 
so
	  2 targets = #1 no penalty, #2 -1/die
	  3 targets = #2 -2/die, #3 -2/die
	  this is useful for higher dice HBW where the ship has few
beams,
	  like a Shadow cruiser.
mega beam: combine HBW to form a larger one (Vorlon).  each HBW must be
	   fully charged.  extra! cost and some mass.
anti-ftr/anti-missle: HBW1 already have this.  larger HBW must have 
	  +1 mass, cost.
EMP: extra threshold checks???

comments?

dave