Re: OUDF - Railguns??

Hello,

I'm one of those grumpy conservatives who tend to have cynical comments
on other peoples' new tech items. Don't take it personally; I'm like
this towards everyone - up to and including Jon T. :-/

Matthew Smith wrote (welcome on board, BTW):

>Railguns come in classes 1-6 like K-Guns, and obey the same rules
>with regard to arcs of fire.
>
>Roll to hit like K-Guns, but the ranges are doubled - 0-12 mu: 2+,
12->24 mu: 3+, etc.
>
>If you hit, roll 1 die per railgun firing, and take the result as the
>damage, BUT you cannot do more damage than the class of the firing
>railgun. For example, if you hit with a class four railgun, you would
do >the damage as on the die, but rolls of 5 or 6 would only inflict 4.
>
>Damge is inflicted as per K-guns with regard to armour / shell.
>Screens / vapour shroud / whatever have no effect.
>
>Class 1 Railgun (all arcs):	     2 MASS
>Class 2 Railgun (one arc):	   3 MASS
>Class 2 Railgun (two arcs):	  4 MASS
>Class 3 Railgun (one arc):	   5 MASS
>Class 4 Railgun (one arc):	   6 MASS
>Class 5 Railgun (one arc):	   7 MASS
>Class 6 Railgun (one arc):	   8 MASS
>
>All Railguns cost 3 x MASS.

OK. Let's look at the average damage inflicted by this Class 6 railgun
and a single-arc Class 4 Beam Battery (which is 8 Mass and costs
3xMass):

Range:		R6:	B4 (vs level-0/1/2 screens)
0-12		2.91	3.2/2.53/1.87
12-24		2.33	2.4/1.9/1.4
24-36		1.75	1.6/1.27/0.93
36-48		1.17	0.8/0.63/0.47
48-60		0.58	0/0/0

The R6 has the same Mass and cost as the Class-4 beam, but outranges it
by 20%. At range 0-24 it inflicts somewhat less damage than the B4 at
unscreened targets, but inflicts more damage if the target has at least
level-1 screens. Beyond range 24, it beats the B4 against *all*
targets, screened or not. 

Looks as if the R6 is a wee bit more powerful than the B4 (and
therefore should cost more), don't you think?

>Tell me what you think.

Vastly underpriced (or vastly overpowered, whichever you prefer - but
it's easier to increase the cost than to change the mechanics to reduce
the power). Given a cost of 3xMass, all the railguns should be 50-100%
bigger (except the R1, which needs to be about the same Mass as a B3 -
3 or 4 Mass for the single-arc version, +1 per extra arc).

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."