Re: Starship! and FT, from the author

In message 39b6d3ac.36a7.0@dynamite.com.au
	  aebrain@dynamite.com.au wrote:

[snip]
> 
> From e-mail from him, he's provided a weapon design system, much as FT
has a
> ship design system. Essentially, he has provided detailed meta-rules
on how
> to generate rules, within limits.
> 
> This is a really difficult thing to do successfully. I congratulate
him on the
> attempt, and will be willing to part with $$ to see how well it works.
While
> not expecting it to be terribly successfull. But it would be nice to
be wrong,
> and such a thing is not unknbown.
> 
>
Hmm... gets me thinking - has anyone considered doing something like
this for FT (I think I need a :-) here :-)

On a related note - has anyone any ideas about the effect on mass/cost
of varying the size of a weapon's range bands:

For Example:

I am considering the difference between neutral and charged particle
beams - assume the beams in FT are neutral. Charged particles repel each
other, so a charged particle beam disperses, and thus has a reduced
range.

Assume that the Charged Particle Beam (CPB) has half the range of a
normal beam (so each band is 6 mu, rather than 12).

I've done some maths that imply that such a CPB is half as effective
(and hence, for balance reasons, should be half mass & cost) as a normal
beam - but I don't think I took everything into account (guess I'll
have to play test it then - when I get time!).

So a Class-2 CPB is MASS 1 Cost 3, for 3 arcs, MASS 2 Cost 6 for 6 arcs
a Class-3 CPB is MASS 2, +1 per 2 extra arcs, COST = MASS x3, etc.

Has anyone else played about with ranges like this.

Also, has anyone any ideas on the cost breaks / penalties of 'combined'
systems - such as:

Multiple Class-1's combined to give a weapon that has a range of 12 mu,
and does multiple beam dice - and probably looses the PDS capability.

Weapon + dediced FireCon - doesn't need a firecon - it has it built in.

In both cases, the combined system counts as one system on the SSD - It
makes 1 threshold check for the whole system, and 1 needle hit will kill
it.

Charles

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