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Yes Sheild/No Armor Weapons; Kinetic sheilds; Weapon Archive

From: "Izenberg, Noam" <Noam.Izenberg@j...>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 10:09:07 -0500
Subject: Yes Sheild/No Armor Weapons; Kinetic sheilds; Weapon Archive

Karl Heinz wrote

>Not a specific comment about your suggestion, but ...
>I get the impression that a lot of the new weapons suggested or
ofiicially
>introduced over the years ignore shields, slowly making shields
useless.
How
>about some weapons that are affected by shields, but do ignore armor or
>other protection ?

Some stuff Dean Gundberg and I talksd about quite a while ago might fit
this
bill:

Graviton Beams - Each point of energy used gives 1 d6 to roll (like EFSB

HBW) with a -1 modifier per each portion of 8" range (0-8" -1, 8-16" -2,
16-24" -3, 24-32" -4, 32-40" -5), 6's get a re-roll.  Each level of
screens
on the target ship is a -1 modifer on damage roll (no modifier for
screens
on re-rolls).  Grav beam penetrates armor after one armor box is hit
(like
K-guns). PSB is the Grav Beam damages the whole ship by molecular shear.
Mass 3 +1/arc (max 3 arcs), Cost 3pts/mass 

Other grave wepons would use the same armor-skipping PSB of a "ship
shaking"
type attack (like the (shudder) SFB Andromedan T/R beam)

Another idea is similar to Brendan's Mind Control Lasers - but I thought
of
it as a telepathic attack, either from a PSI-corps type setup or a
telepathic race. Different dynamic but similar concept. Sheilds disrupt
the
attack, armor is ignored. Attacks differ from telepathic control of crew
(for "boarding action" combat) to telekenetic control (or disruption of
control) of the ship.

Schoon said:
> I don't care for the idea of "improved shields" against everything as 
> you described, but I do like the idea of a "kinetic" style shield 
> that protects against the stuff that "beam-style" shields don't. 
> Maybe not everything, but definitely K-guns, submunitions, etc.

I felt the same way. Here's what I came up with at the Skunkworks:
1. (maybe poorly balanced) Gravitic Shields - Same function as normal
screens, but works against particle, torp, or mass (i.e. RG)
     weapons/missiles/torpedoes only. Ship with gravitic shields cannot
fire
particle
     weapons/missiles/torpedoes on turns the shields are active.
Fighters
treat shields as screens of same
     level. Cost/mass/levels are  the same as screens. Missiles, SLMs,
Torps, receive -2 per die of damage
     per shield level (max level is 2). Energy weapons (or other 
weapons
affected by screens)  are not affected
     by Gravitic Shields. Alternate effect (cinematic only): Instead of
restrictions on firing weapons, ship with
     active Gravitic Shields has thrust reduced by 50%. 

Plus two "all-purpose shield systems - I won't vouch for their level of
balance without having tested them:
   1.Mass/Energy Shields (ME shield) - Trek type shield. System has
emitters
and  generators  generator
     costs 5% ship mass/level. Emitters: 360 degree coverage  = 3 mass,
180
= 2 mass,  60 = 1 mass. Acts as
     screen against beam weapons. Reduces other damage by shield level.
If a
shield facing receives more
     damage than its level from a single source (weapon, not ship), the
emitter facing that direction makes a
     threshold check at current level. 
   2.Damage Shield - Generic damage absorption shield. Mass is 2% ship
mass
per shield point (1 mass per
     point minimum), cost is 3 points per Mass. Each shield point has
its
own box on the SSD + 1 box for the
     generator. When damage is taken from any source over one turn, it
is
applied to the damage shield first,
     until the shield has absorbed as many points as it has boxes. Each
box
that absorbs damage rolls a
     threshold at the current level, and burns out if it fails (i.e.
that
box cannot absorb damage on subsequent
     turns until/unless repaired). If the Shield is overwhelmed (damge
received is greater than number of 
     functioning shield boxes), then the generator also takes a
threshold
check. When a normal threshold due to
     damage is called for, each shield box _and_ the generator take
another
threshold roll.  SSD Symbols:
     Each shield point is an open diamond, forming a row above Armor.
The
Shield Generator is an open
     octagon at the end of the shield row. 

And finally:

Beth Fulton  Said:

>The recent exchange of weapon ideas reminded me to ask whether or not
some 
>one has been dutifully collecting and collating them over the years
(i.e. 
>heavy beam, long range needles, recent stuff etc etc). If worse comes
to 
>worst I'll eventually get round to going through the archives and
digging 
>them out for myself, but if some wonderful individual can save this
lazy 
>bod I'd be damn appreciative!

My skunkworks page has ideas by other people as will as my own, but it's
not
comprensive.
It is something, however, I think I wouldn't mind undertaking. I think
I'm
going to start looking around and collecting.

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