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

--- Roger Books <books@mail.state.fl.us> wrote:
...
> Actually, "my" fighters auto-jink _all_ of the time.
>  If I'm using
> missiles they are held on with heavy duty magnetic
> grapples once
> I start jinking.  When I turn off the grapples they
> fly away.
> My beam weapons know what the jink is so they
> compensate.  As far
> as whisker communications, all that info stays in
> the data stream
> and the jink sequence uses chaotic formulas so you
> have to not
> only know the formula you have to know initial
> settings and exactly
> where in the progression you are right now.  Since
> all my fighters
> know they can keep that whisker beam tight on
> target.
> 

Assuming you could get this to work and maintain
communications and actually release weapons on
target, that much radical maneuvering would still
be hard on the equipment. Surely, the parts of
high energy lasers are delicate enough so that
continual jinking would at minimum shorten the
design life of the parts.

Of course this is all *under the skin* as it were
and as long as they operate like normal fighters
you're entitled to envision them any way you want.
If you start asking for die roll penalties to hit
I might object. Of course you could always just
buy them as heavy fighters and say their jinking
makes them harder to hit rather than armor or
shielding.

I envision my corvettes as manned by very few
people, maybe only 1 and this too isn't well
supported by FT lore. However, since it doesn't
affect the operation of the corvette, it's kind
of my choice. If we ever started playing the
boarding party rules, I'd have to voluntarily
limit myself in crew effectiveness. Since they
only have 1 crew unit anyway, it doesn't affect
the action otherwise. The point is don't worry
if other people think your idea is plausible or
not, as long as you enjoy playing it.

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