RE: Vertical Damage

I think the only place were vertical damage is real is against armor. I
love
the KV vs PH interaction.  An interesting Idea might be a EMP penatrator
it
goes 2 levels down through hull or armor and causes a theshold at the
leval
of penatration.  That would be a level 2 on an unarmored ship, a level 1
on
a armored ship and only the loss of 2 armor boxes on ship with PH type
armor
layers.
Andy A

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of agoodall@canada.com
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 9:55 AM
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: Vertical Damage

On Wed, 02 August 2000, Beth Fulton wrote:

> I don't mind the concept, but they'd have to be mighty RARE weapons,
I'd
> REALLY hate to have to roll location dice for more than a couple of
hits
> per turn.

I've been following the vertical damage discussion. The problem I have
with
it is that it seems like a game mechanic in search of a justification.
The
hull damage tracks in the latest version of FT go left to right, up then
down, simply because that's how they represent the strength of a ship's
hull
and it's innate protective capacity. It doesn't represent Renegade
Legion
style armour, with it's "drill down" effect.

I guess what I'm saying is that a "verticle damage" weapon to simulate a
large spinal mount, drill-through-the-ship-with-one-big-hole weapon
might
work with the old FT system of many different rows of hull boxes, but I
think it goes outside the scope of the Fleet Book rules when trying to
apply
to ships with only 4 rows, maximum.

If you REALLY want to simulate weapons that punch deep holes without
doing
THAT much hull damage, you have to go back and re-think the weapon
system.
What is it, and what does it do? Is it a B5 Shadow-style huge cutting
beam?
Is it a big rock fired at hyper velocity? Is it a big pulse of energy
fired
from a HUGE spinal mount weapon? Consider what it's supposed to be, and
what
the damage is supposed to do. Small hole that goes all the way through
the
ship? BIG hole that goes all the way through the ship? What does it do
to
the hull and what does it do to the systems in front of it?

One option: a needle beam like weapon that can target a specific ship
system
for a threshold check, but also does hull damage on the way through.

Another option: a system that does a fair bit of damage, but due to it
being
localized maybe on the first 1D6 systems check for thresholds if a
threshold
check is called for.

A third option: come up with a weapon that does HORRIBLE amounts of
damage,
like perhaps a class 6 beam weapon, but requires a certain recharge
level.
Or fires a big rock that could be avoided.

But personally, I think "vertical damage" goes against the design of the
game system.

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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