Re: Classed Weapons was Re: Technology levels

Correct, these are affected.  Basically, for all other weapons except 
beams, the only factor modified (in the end) is increasing the damage 
done by the weapon when it is increased in size.  For beams, not only 
is the potential damage done increase, but also the range at which it 
can do damage.	(I realize this has been said several times before)  If 
beams only increased in damage, their cost to balance would likely be 
more linear like other weapons are.  For all weapons that increase only 
their damage potential, costs run similar (not the same) as adding 
another weapon of the same type that has the same damage potential 
(there are some differences of course - noteable K guns for the way 
they compute damage with the possible doubling).

Example:  PBs increase at a cost similar to adding another PB of the 
appropriate dice cost - A PBL of size 2 is 10 mass, while a PBL of size 
4 is 20 mass.  Choosing which to purchase for a ship is mainly a matter 
of design and combat philosophies since both do about the same amount 
of damage.

Beams could be as simple to balance, however the range issue messes 
things up.  Currently 4x Beam2 are the same price as 1x Beam4 IIRC.  
The Beam2 group always has the damage potential at the ranges they can 
shoot (especially at 0-12 MUs where their damage potential is twice the 
Beam4.	But with twice the range, the Beam4s are much more likely to 
get some fire in on the Beam2s at times when the Beam2s don't get to 
fire at all.

I realize that everyone probably realizes this already.  But for the 
sake of the discussion, I wanted to make sure this base is covered.

In a number of online and TT battles, especially with floating tables, 
the range of the weapon has been critical.  Even battles where the 
fleets make shooting passes, long ranged weapons are highly useful for 
hurting escorts and cripples.  In some battles, long ranged weapons 
accompanied by the threat of deploying area effect weapons which can 
cause the enemy to come in less than direct angles, have a more telling 
effect.

Kevin Walker

On Wednesday, September 3, 2003, at 10:43 PM, Jared Hilal wrote:

> But it does affect other things, like the persistence of the PB, for 
> such purposes as AF and AM uses
>
> J