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Re: [FT] WotW 2: EMP Weapons

From: Charles Taylor <charles.taylor@c...>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 21:47:52 GMT
Subject: Re: [FT] WotW 2: EMP Weapons

Some general thoughts on 'EMP' class weapons.

In general, these appear to fall into two main groups:

Those that cause blanket threshold checks (like the More Thrust EMP
missile),

and,

Those that cause a limited number of threshold checks (like the Ion
Cannon and the Scrambler Pulse).

The 'problem' with the first group is that they are difficult to
balance, consider, a typical EMP attack will have, on average, similar
effects on both a corvette and a battleship (ok, this is not totally
true, the MT EMP missile is affected by screens, which on average means
that it has less effect on the larger vessels that tend to carry
screens).

<Aside>
Which reminds me, if we descide that, in general, screens protect
against EMP weapons we must be careful not to upset the screen/armour
balance, as armour does _not_ protect against EMP.
</Aside>

So this makes this class of EMP weapon hard to balance.

The second type are easier to balance, but require some mechanic to
determine which systems are affected, I've seen a number of ideas;
'Priority Lists' of affected systems (Ion Cannon), Systems to be checked
for chosen by firer (Powerleech Missiles), or System Determined by
Random (none of the systems under discussion - but I've seen it
_somewhere_), you could also have a 'target chooses' option. I'm not
totally happy with the 'priority list' approach, largely because the
list adds more info that needs to be recorded, and I've yet to see a
totally satisfactory method of randomly selecting systems.

However, if we can decide upon a reasonable system for selecting the
systems to be affected, then I believe the second option will be a lot
easier to balance.

However, I have a third option:

If you assume that the additional mass of a larger ship will give its
components _some_ protection, but that an EMP pulse will have a chance
of affecting _all_ of a ships systems, then how about the following
method:

The EMP weapon generates 'damage' as a standard weapon system,

This 'virtual damage' is counted of _but_not_marked_off_ as usual, and
effectively exists only to determine if threshold checks should occur.
The threshold level remains unaltered for any further checks due either
to damage or further EMP attacks.

EMP attacjs are non-cumulative unless they are part of the same attack
sequence (ie. a number of EMP-Salvos, several EMP beam attacks from the
same ship).

Note that damaged ships are more vulnerable - I don't think this is a
problem.

These should be easier to balance, as a rule of thumb, an EMP weapon
should cost less than a 'normal' weapon with the same damage and other
characteristics.

Example Weapons:

EMP Missile: Does 4d6 EMP damage (say)
EMP Salvo Missile: Does 2d6 each
Ion Cannon: Mass/Cost: As Beam of 1 less class (ie. Class 4 is MASS 4
+1/extra arc). EMP Damage is 1 beam die per class - 1 per full 12 mu of
range.

Well, what do you think - workable or not?

I've considered a similar mechanism for 'crew killing' weapons as well.

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