Needles for everyone

Well, the recent(ish) postings on needle pods got me thinking - the
other alien races don't have a needle beam equivalent either - so - what
are your thoughts on the following:

Kra'Vak
Sniper Gun
This is a hyper-velocity light K-gun with a very accurate targetting
system, designed to target individual systems on enemy ships.

System Symbol:
Either
A filled black hexagon with a line protruding at 90 degrees from the
center of one face, representing the firing arc. (c.f. needle beam
symbol)
_or_
A 1-arc K-gun symbol, with a letter 'N' in place of a class number.

Effects:
Roll a single die, effect as follows:
Range		Roll to cause damage	Roll to destroy target system
0-6 mu		3-4			5+
7-12 mu 	4-5			6
13-18 mu	5+			not possible
19-24 mu	6

Damage causes 1 point of damage, while destroying the target system also
does 1 point of damage - unlike needle beams, armour is NOT ignored.
Optionally, when attacking Phalon ships, subtract the number of
surviving rows of armour after the first from the dice roll.

It has a MASS of 4, and a COST of 16.
Its more dangerous than a needle beam, but requires twice the mass and
over 2.5 times the cost.

Alternatively
Just use the same statistics as a human needle beam, but change the PSB
:-)

Phalons
Needle Pulsar

Well, you _could_ just rule that standard pulsars (maybe limited to the
1-arc version) can be configured to 'Needle' (N) mode before battle, and
that pulsars so configured function as Needle beams in all respects.

I'm not sure I like this idea - makes Pulsars _even_ more versitile!
And I think 'needle' weapons should have special, highly accurate
targeting gear. Hmm.. I seem to remember a 'Needle FireCon' somewhere in
the archives - maybe they should get one of those?

Alternatively treat Needle Pulsars as Needle Beams in all respect, but
use a 1-arc Pulsar symbol with an 'N' in it as the system symbol.
Boring I know :-)

your thoughts?

Charles
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