FT-Starfire conversions

Having just read the preveiws of the shiva option, a couple of freinds
and
myself are going to attempt to play the battles (well, some of them, the
lot
would take too long) from in death ground. Now, I have most of it worked
out
(the bug SD`s I worked out a while ago, and use them as my standard bad
guys), I just have some questions/ideas to run past everyone (to ensure
they`re not too unbalancing).

Comercial drives (as used in bug SD`s)- I was thinking of 7% mass per
thrust, and a 0.5 cost per mass (yes, a half).

Missiles-SML`s for the bugs at the start, ER SML`s later, and MT
missiles as
SBM`s, using the MT launcher as given in the WDA, with AM missiles
having
double dammage, but will detonate if hit (threshold roll).

Plasma guns-C mode only pulsars (my acid design has about 10 of them,
ouch!)

Force beams-Cl.3 bats (for capts), 2`s for lighter units.

Needle beams-Heavy, long ranged needle beams as given in the WDA, with
multi
arc option, but only 1 critical even at close range.

AFHAWK-Use the version given in the WDA

HET lasers (terran only)-See above

Fighters-Standard fighter rules

Standard datalink-Using ADFC rules

Advanced armour-PH armour rules

There is one or two things that I need help on. These I will list below.

COMMAND DATALINK-I was thinking along the lines as the C3 used in
battletech, with each ship in the group using a slave computer (M=1,
C=6?),
and the mother ship a master computer (M=5, C=30?). Can function as a
ADFC
for the equipted ships in the group (max of 6). Max range from mother
ship
is 6 MU(same as ADFC)

Some of my ideas for this are-

For incoming missiles, you roll the total number of missiles to hit, and
then roll PDS against the missiles, counting the incoming missiles as
one
salvo, so not wasting any rolls. The number of PDS each ship has
allocated
to it out of the group has to be decided before the number of missiles
to
hit is rolled, but after you know how many salvo`s are going to hit
(IE-Allows you to allocate the PDS at the last minute against incoming
fire,
using the groups entire PDS, as long as they`re within 6MU sphere of the
mother ship).

For offensive fire, this is more difficult, due to the differences in
the
PDS of the two games. The offensive advantages work by timing the
salvo`s on
target a the same time from different ships, and overloading the PDS of
the
target, so allowing more missiles to get through. For FT, my idea is
that
for every ship in the group firing on a target, said target has a PDS
reduced in effectiveness to that of a Cl.1 bat in PDS mode. The number
of
PDS effected is equal to the number of ships in the group firing (6
ships, 6
PDS as Cl.1 bats). If firing on a command datalink equipted group, this
advantage is nullified.

I know the above sounds complicated, and will require play testing to
see
how it works, but the defensive systems FEEL OK, just not sure of the
offensive bit (also, will have to get my coppies of starfire out to see
if
you get any advantages for direct fire weapons, don`t think you do, but
this
is from memory only).

Forts-Use ship construction rules, with them having a drive of 2% mass
for
station keeping only (not thrust).

Gunboats-This I am trying to go along the lines of a heavy/interceptor
fighter that can be targetted by ship to ship weapons, but can carry
more
missiles than a fighter (2 fighter missiles, or 1 SML missile each) and
has
no endurance (but is slower, 18 MU per turn ). If rearming, must be
rearmed
by a shutdown ship, and if shutdown ship is hit by weapons fire, takes
doubble dammage. Must be carried on external racks (10 mass for a
squadren),
and if hit by enemy fire while onboard their racks, are considered
destroyed.

If anybody has any ideas, please feel free to comment or pass along to
myself, PLEASE (IE-Am I on the right lines, or not, in other peoples
opinion)