Re: [FT] various subsystems (alien)

Bell, Brian K wrote:

>>>The Plasma Shield acts as if it 
>>>has a number of hull boxes equal to its class. 
>>>It is not subject to PDS fire. But is vulnerable to fighter
>>>and normal weapons fire. Each Plasma Shield must
>>>be targeted separately.
>>
>>If it is so "solid" that PDS can't damage it except in anti-ship
>>mode and interceptor fighters can't damage it at all, why doesn't it
>>inflict more damage?
> 
>>Turns the PBLs from decent but risky point defence weapons to good
>>and almost riskfree point defence weapons. Was that intentional?
> 
>[Bri] It generates enough random EM from the plasma that
>FCS cannot "see" through it. Thus, a ship behind it cannot
>be targeted until the plasma bubble is "popped".  
>I did not think about PDS in anti-ship mode (good catch),
>but my reasoning is that PDS fire would be insufficient to
>disrupt the plasma bubble. 
>Fighters CAN attack it (reread post).

You are of course aware that I was talking about *interceptor* fighters
(if not, re-read quote above), thus you deliberately include
interceptor fighters as well as other types in your above statement.

Now, interceptors are completely unable to damage starships, which
implies that you intend them to use either their anti-fighter or their
anti-missile rolls. 

Unfortunately this leads to an inconsistency: PDS fire which is
(barely) powerful enough to damage ships is unable to harm the plasma
shield, but interceptor fire - which is even weaker - is either fairly
good, or else *extremely* good, at destroying the plasma shields. 

>I had thought to making them 1 point to destroy, but this 
>would lead to arguments over which weapon fires first as
>the firing player would fire the smaller damage potential
>weapons first.

Won't cause any arguments unless you also change the rules for weapon
allocation.

According to the published rules (FT2 p.4) you allocate all direct-fire
attacks from a single ship before resolving any of them. No conditional
fire orders are allowed, so if there's a plasma shield in the way when
the ship declares fire it can't fire at anything behind that shield. 

Regards,

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