Sensors/ECM (bit long, sorry)

I was thinking on how to make sensors and ECM a tactical rather than
just a 
strategic equipment (which I feel it is now, after all, how many ships
in 
the FTSR have enhanced sensors and or ECM?). It came to me that sensors 
COULD make a difference in the actual battles (just look how the german
high 
seas fleet at jutland in WW1, with the superior optics). Feel free to 
critisize this, after all, this is just a VERY rough draft/idea in 
development (and likely to be altered when some proper sensor/ECM rules
are 
developed/published).

Please note that sensors are assumed to be operating all the time
(unless 
damaged through thresshold checks, in which case the ship would fall
back 
onto the standard sensors built into the hull under the standard cost),
but 
the ECM can be turned on or off (when turned off or dammaged, the ship 
reverts to normal ECM/stealth built into the hull). All the effects
listed 
below are cumalative (so a superior sensor equipt ship against a
freighter 
would have a big range bonus).

SENSORS

These will be very important to any warship, because the ability to hit
you 
enemy is determined by predicting WHERE he will be when you shot reaches

him. Upgrading the sensors from the standard ones used on every warsip
will 
allow a ship more chace to hit by providing more data for the firecoms
to 
process, allowing a better chance to predict WHERE he will be. In game 
terms, this can be represented for superior sensors by allowing a extra
1MU 
on the range bands (or just a extra 1MU on the longest range band, IE-a
Cl3 
beam will go to 37MU instead of 36MU). For enhanced, this would be 2MU
(my 
thinking being that in game terms this is a nice easy system to
impliment, 
and will require no extra die rolling).

Ships in navies further from the "state of the art", and/or civilian
ships, 
will have less capable sensors, and this can be represented by a 1MU 
reduction in range bands or just the longest range band (so a Cl 1 bat
would 
only fire 11MU). Of course, the second line navy could devote some mass 
aboard it ships to sensors to offset it`s disadvantage.

These sensors would have no effect on the abilities of missiles (SM and
MT) 
and fighters, because these are relying on their own on board systems to

lock on target/plot a course nd the transmission time lag would make the

data useless.

ECM

This would be a system in addition to the inbuilt stealth/ECM systems
that 
every navy would build into their ships (and update/overhall/refurbish
from 
time to time). A active ECM system would confuse the sensors and/or
allow 
the enemy sensors less data for the firecon computers less chance to
predict 
where the ship would be when the shot reaches it. This could be
represented 
by a 1MU reductionin range bands/maximum range. For navies further from
the 
"state of the art", the inbuild stealth/ECM built into the hull at time
of 
construction (or for old ships brought out of mothballs and not 
refurbished), the effect would be a 1MU increase on range bands from 
incoming enemy fire. For civilian ships, stealth/ECM would be a very
distant 
thought when building the ship, so these would have NO stealth/ECM,m and

everybody would get a 2MU increase against these ships (which would
require 
a alteration to the already published rules. If you assume that the 
stealth?ecm is built into the basic hull cost, civilian ships would cost

less to build than a warship, and the cost of the basic hull per the
FTFB1 
rules would be less. Instead of the basic hull costing the same as the
mass 
of the ship, instead have the basic hull only cost 2/3rds or 1/2 the
cost. 
All this would require is a simple and quick recosting of already
published 
ship designs. Of course, the navies own support ship would be built with

stealth/ECM installed, because these ships would be expected to go where
it 
is dangerous, and people shoot at you).

For missiles, ECM would be a lot more effective, due to the lack of
human 
decision making and less capable sensors/computers involved. This would
be 
easly represented by having a 1MU reduction in attack range (2MU instead
of 
3MU for SM`s). For MT missiles, you could have the reduction in attack
range 
and/or the ablity to select a target removed and instead they will only 
attack the nearest target (making ECM and banzai decoy mandatory against
MT 
armed opponents).

SENSORS Vs ECM (no numbers thought out for this bit)

You would still have a point in the game where the enemy ships would
only be 
bogies/unidentified, and your ships would have the chance to escape
without 
engaging the enemy. The sensors enhacements/improvements would increase
the 
range at which the enemy would be able to be identified, but the ECM
would 
decrease the range (both these would be outside normal weapon ranges
anyway, 
except maybe SV cheese designs with all power generators and 1 gun).
Having 
the ECM active would make a silent approch imposible, because the ECM
would 
be making noise/static/jamming/false signitures all the time, so you
would 
know SOME thing was comming, even if you couldn`t tell what it was.

Just a rough idea I`ve been thinking about, put up for people to comment
on 
(or critisize <G>). If the above idea was implimented, the one thing I 
haven`t considered is the mass cost ratio/benefit and game balance (not
that 
good a number crucher <G>).

BIF

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