RE: RE: [FT] Updated MT Missiles question

In message
<E83E983C3EC9DD45A40B24C4BA3A60756AEA16@col1smx01.USE.AD.DLA.MIL>
	  "Bell, Brian K (Contractor)" <Brian.Bell@dscc.dla.mil> wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: laserlight@quixnet.net [mailto:laserlight@quixnet.net]
> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 11:26
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: RE: RE: [FT] Updated MT Missiles question
> 
> 
> >From: Bell, Brian K (Contractor)
> >Here is the version I like:
> >3) Limited life of 6 game turns.
> 
> Quite a long time.
> 
> [Bri] In MT, missiles had an endurance of 3, and so did fighters.
Since
> fighters were extended, missiles should be also.

Umm... not really... MT Missiles had a _lifespan_ of 3 turns, after
which they were removed from play.
MT Fighters had 3 Combat Endurance, that was spent on making attacks
only.
The concept of 'Secondary Movement' was introduced in Fleet Book 1, so
fighters were given extra CEF to use for this purpose.

Ok, to basics, the argument is "should missiles be faster than
fighters?" I personally cannot decide, but my own tendency would be to
give missiles a standard speed of 24mu, the same as fighters. (no real
reason other than simplicity).
> 
> 
> >7) Each MT missile that causes damage is treated as a PDS attack
against
> all
> other MT missiles that are attacking the same ship this turn due to
> fratricide. (This is to reduce swarm attacks with MT missiles.)
> 
> doesn't make sense that MTM suffer this but SMR don't.  And I'd say
you're
> somewhat less likely to overload defenses with MTM than with
SMR--defender
> only has to get one kill/salvo instead of up to six.
> 
> [Bri] You are _more_ likely to be overwhelmed by MTM. This is due to:
> 1. You can fire all of them at once.
Only if using the rack-mounted version :-)

> 2. Each _missile_ is targeted by PDS seperatly.
> This was one of the reasons MTM were overpowered in MT. You could get
dozens
> of small ships and fire MTM at long range then scoot. The dozens of
MTM
> would far outnumber the number of PDS available to the target ship(s).
Thus
> something needs to be done to reduce the number of effective missiles
or the
> problem will repeat. SMLs & SMRs are limiting by the increased mass to
> damage ratio.
>
In MT, MT missiles were only killed by PDAFs/ADAFs (or C-batteries) on
rolls of 6, the updated MTMs are killed by PDS on rolls of 4+, and
B-1s/K-1s on rolls of 5+ (and I've just asked about scatterguns and
interceptor pods), making PDS about 3x as effective against them.

> 
> >8) MT Missiles always are fired out of the Forward arc.
> 
> Unneccesary restriction.  I can see "must specify firing arcs when
> purchased" and limiting it to 120 or 180 degrees, but there's no
reason it
> has to be F arc only, is there?
> 
> [Bri] No. Skip this.
>
I'd make it 180 degrees, like SML/Rs (again, largely for simplicity).

Charles