Re: [FT] Should all Beams fire at fighters/ordinance?

--- Roger Books <books@mail.state.fl.us> wrote:
...
> I guess what I am really saying is the current
> system
> isn't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed.
> 

I never said it was broken. I think it would open
up some options tactically if other beams COULD
fire because you could use ordinance to cover your
approach (since the enemy would have to divide fire
between you and the missiles) or cover your retreat.
As it stands, since a completely different set of
weapons is used for anti-ordinance fire, this is a
useless tactic. There's no requirement to fix this, 
I was just wondering if it might work even better 
in FBIII if this were allowed.

> Point defenses work on large ships.
> 
> To allow small ships _some_ defense, even if it is
> usually not very affective, allowing 1s to fire as
> substandard PDSs is an elegant solution.
> 

Again there's nothing broken about the current 
system, we're just exploring possible improvements.
In that spirit, consider the targetting problem of
intercepting a MT missile you've known about for
2 turns and which is coming straight for you with
a class 4 beam or a pulse torpedo. Is this really
an intractable problem? Would it be that much 
harder for the humans of 2160 than it is today
for us to intercept missiles with missiles?

I can live with the rules just as they stand, but
by raising the issue now, maybe FBIII's design
can consider the idea of allowing other weapons
to intercept incoming fire (at least of ordinance).
I can envision interceptor missiles, intercepting
missiles with pulse torpedoes and doing the same
thing with beams. This *might* lead to missiles 
feeling like a more integrated member of the 
battlefield.

I know FBIII might do nothing of the kind. That's
ok, I'm just trying to get the subject discussed
so that it gets considered on it's merits (whatever
Jon thinks those merits are).

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