Re: FT-EMP/NEEDLE WEAPONS

Good idea.
The problem with most EMP/Needle mechanics is that there is often too
many 
systems to justify rolling for each one when the ship is hit by an EMP 
blast.
Also the choosing of systems for Needle shots takes away the lack of 
knowledge of enemy ships.

>We could have at the bottom of the SSD a text list of all the 
> >weapons/systems aboard the ship (using a standard notation), and have

> >these weapons hit one at random (IE-The attacker says the needle beam

> >will hit the 3rd system, although he doesn`t know what it is).

How about:
Group all of the ship's systems into 6 groups
Assign each of these groups a number 1-6
This means that the attacker can choose a group or can roll a D6 to see 
which group of systems gets hit.

Because the designer of the ships chooses the groupings, these groups
can be 
balanced as desired. All eggs can be put into one basket or systems can
be 
spread nicely with redundancies in Firecon & Shielding	for instance.

On the minus side - a Needle shot would take out 1/6 of a ship's systems
- 
but if you PSB a Needle Beam as being a targeted EMP blast then you
could 
attempt to get systems back on line, which might balance things out.
Of course Needle Beams at the moment are only useful when lots are
taken, 
and this approach might give them more impact...maybe too much?

Bottom line being that this approach takes away the drudgery of rolling
19 
times for EMP blasts at Battleships and adds in a bit of uncertainty

Donogh

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