Chance of Normal Space Drive survival

From: Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 11:57
Subject: Nathan's FB3 comments, was Re: [FT] OU & IC & FB3

> The ORC ships (ORC is Jon's own abbreviation, not mine)
> are supposed to come from the Outrim Coalition. I strongly
> suspect that the 2193 entry in the FB2 timeline gives a hint
> of the origins of the ORC <g>

Following up that hint I came across the MT pg 7 illustration
that would appear to suggest that the ORC are not adverse to
boarding.

Now boarding chances seem to be few and far between in
the games I run or participate in, so I endeavoured to work
out the chance of a normal space drive surviving assuming
that all three threshold checks have been taken.

Fully effective:   28%
Reduced to half:   47%
Disabled:   25%

Naturally things like needle weapons will alter these chances.
Do we think these figures are too generous, too mean, or
just plain wrong?

Now this risks relaunching the great MT missile barrage of
last April, but...

If needle weapons are the only way to go if you want to
capture a ship, how about an MT chaser missile that has
a terminal thrust equal to one fighter CEF and PSB that
allows it to always attack through the rear quadrant,
regardless of approach. It would attack as a needle
missile but would have a reduced chance of being shot
down by its target and could only select normal space
drives to hit.

Needle weapons can have a disproportionate effect on
large ships, but these are more likely to have ADFC or a
fighter screen and could easily deal with such missiles.

Nathan