Re: Graser beam observations

Oerjan wrote:

> The average damages inflicted by one shot of 
> these two weapons (assuming the same number of fire arcs on both, so 
> they're the same Mass and cost) are:

Oerjan, do you have the probability numbers for grasers? I think it
would be instructive to the group at large to see the probabilities at
different ranges.

What I find very interesting about these threads is that I think it's
giving the general list population an idea of what goes into designing
new systems for FT. 

It also shows why we need detailed AARs, if possible. We need to know
how the dice rolled so that we can figure out if the results were due to
lucky or unlucky rolls, or if the results were a problem in the system.
Perception is often different from reality. Someone might play a game
with grasers where their battleship was gutted with a single graser shot
and say, "Grasers are too powerful!" What they failed to note were the
number of times a graser fired and missed. The person also noted the
damage done by that single graser. He may not have noted the damage done
by all weapon systems on the ship, and for what mass and point cost. The
one graser may have gutted a battleship, but the same amount of damage
may have been done in the same number of rounds of combat by a ship
armed with nothing but B2s. That one shot sticks out in your mind, while
the whittling down with B2s doesn't register at all.

Grasers are an all-or-nothing type of weapon. When they hit, they tend
to hit big, but they hit far less often than other weapons. Using them
can be a bit of a gamble. Some players will win big with them,
especially if the graser does lots of damage early in a game. Other
players will lose big with them, especially if the only time they do 36
points of damage in a single roll is against a cruiser with only 4
damage boxes left, late in the game...

--
Allan Goodall		   agoodall@att.net
http://www.hyperbear.com   agoodall@hyperbear.com