Re: Kinetic Shields

David Griffin wrote:

> > You have to increase the cost of *all
> > screen-degraded weapons* in
> > proportion to their normal degrading by screens for
> > this to work... which
> > means that ithe basic FT screens become unbalanced
> > instead :-/
> >
>I don't see this. After all the cost of beams
>don't change when someone selects level 1 or level
>2 screens. Some kind of kinetic screen which
>stops projectiles or some universal shield has
>some mass/point cost (I don't know exactly
>what cost) which would make it expensive enough
>to balance the advantage of taking less damage
>from projectiles (or pulse torpedoes whatever
>those are).

If the shield degrades beams more than it degrades screen-skippers (as 
pointed out by Brian and Roger), you can balance it against the existing

weapon types. If it doesn't - ie., if it degrades beams and
screen-skippers 
*by the same percentage*, or, worse still, *by the same amount*, then
you 
screw the screen-skippers - just as you screw the screen-skippers if
none 
of your ships use screens (or, in the K-gun case, armour), and as you
screw 
beams if all of your ships use level-2 screens.

>The idea of stopping a projectile is included
>in the Earthforce Alliance sourcebook I think
>(written by Jon).

The EFSB system has no points or ship construction system, and there was
no 
attempt made to make the ships in EFSB "balanced" against one another.

>I seem to recall they cost about the same as screens.

I very much doubt that you recall correctly, since there aren't any cost

given for any ship system in EFSB :-7

>Remember, even if you have a screen that stops
>say 4 points of damage (which in the mass
>energy screen costs a lot) I routinely get
>hit by 10 point hits from Kra'vak and that
>4 points of protection will be so expensive
>that my firepower will be sharply reduced.

Sure. But 4 points out of a 10-point K-gun hit is a larger proportion
than 
4 points out of the ~13 points of damage the beams you can buy for the
cost 
of that K-gun routinely inflict on *his* ship in the same time. If both
of 
you use the shield, you go from an advantage of about 30% (~13 pts vs
10) 
to one of about 50% (~9 pts vs 6). Had he used P-torps instead, he
wouldn't 
have suffered as badly since the P-torp is cheaper than the K-gun for
about 
the same damage/mass (ie., you wouldn't've had as many beams to fire at 
him), but your beams would still outgun his P-torps.

In other words, you can either balance the shield for a ship which is
armed 
with beams, *or* for one armed with screen-skippers, but not both at the

same time.

(Also, in the above example the K-gun loses a large part of its one big 
advantage - the armour penetration, which is the sole reason why it
costs 
almost 20% more than the P-torp in spite of the fact that the P-torp 
inflicts more damage per Mass than the K4 and up, and very nearly as
much 
as the K2 and K3 :-/ )

Regards,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry