RE: Vertical Damage (was: [FT] nasty idea for spinal mounts)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Oerjan Ohlson [SMTP:oerjan.ohlson@telia.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 10:16 PM
> To:	gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> Subject:	Re: [FT] nasty idea for spinal mounts
> 
> McCarthy, Tom wrote:
> 
> >Jim Bell is always quick to come up with a radical idea.  He proposed
> >that spinal mounts might do damage down columns (vertical rather
>than
> horizontal).
> 
> [snip]
> 
> You have pin-pointed most of their drawbacks, yes :-/ 
> 
> One important consideration is this: Do they hit the first *column*,
or
> do they hit the first remaining box in the *uppermost row* and go
> straight down from there?
> 
> If they hit the first *column*, they need to inflict at least 50% more
> damage than a similarly-massed/arced/ranged normal weapon in order to
> compensate for their near inability to inflict threshold checks...
> 
> Oerjan Ohlson
> oerjan.ohlson@telia.com
> 
> "Life is like a sewer.
>   What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
> - Hen3ry
-----End Original Message----

Unless they force a threshold check at the end of the column as well as
the
end of the row. 

I posted something similar a couple of months ago to the list. A cutter
beam
that does damage vertically starting at the first undamaged armor box
and
first undamaged hull box. If the damage penetrated to remove a box in
the
4th row, the ship takes a threshold check at the current level (based on
row*). Any damage beyond what can be marked in a column is wasted. I
think
that I had it be the same mass/cost as a Class-3 Beam (including arcs).
It
rolled 3d6 doing the same damage a a beam weapon, but the damage was
marked
vertically (screens had normal effect on the roll).
* Threshold level was slightly redefined as going up only when all the
hull
boxes for a row were damaged (as opposed to the last box).

Testing Outcome:
1) The Cutter Beam must be used in combination with more standard style
weapons (that damage horizontally) to be truely effective. The reason is
that even with 3 dice of damage, the 4th row is usually not damaged
until
both armor and the 1st row is removed. As the ship looses hull, the
weapon
becomes more and more effective.
2) It is a little of an odds changer for smaller (Cruiser) ships as they
can
force a large ship to threshold checks sooner. And...
3) It has little value against smaller ships (regular Class-3s are more
effective).
4) It is possible (but unlikely) that all DCPs will die before the ship
is
destroyed. To do this you would have to have hit every row that has a
DCP
and have done a complete penetration on the last row (to get the last
DCP).
This would indicate that they had major hull breaches (consistant with a
cutter beam) and that all the extra crew that would be used for DCP has
either dead, disabled, or sealed behind bulkheads unable to help. This
only
occured once in play-test and that was on a Vandenburg (last column was
penetrated) that has all of its DCPs in one column. 

If you go to a spinal mount or 1 arc version, you will want to:
1) Add to the damage. Increase the number of dice or change to type of
dice
from beam to the actual number rolled.
2) Have damage beyond the bottom row continue to the top of the next
column
3) Ignore screens.

-----
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net	  
-----