Re: Graser beam observations

Glen wrote:

>> Like all full thrust weapons, no matter how powerful, if you get
>> your move wrong, and your opponent gets his right, you
>> are toast no matter what he's firing at you!

>But that is player tactics.  The game system should have everything
>balanced and let the players make their own blunders.

Well, yes, which was kind of my point, the idea being that if your
opponents
screwed up their entire tactical approach to the battle and let your
strike
boats within range of the dreadnought then it was dead no matter what!
That
isn't the fault of the grasers, or yours, it is their's. In my opinion
grasers are balanced, but is is difficult to judge the balance of any
weapon
system if the enemy will present themselves as a sitting duck.

>> Take the example cited of 33 graser armed gunboats decking an SDN.
>>Was this
>> because they were armed with grasers specifically? I think not. Arm
>>all
>> those gunboats with submunissions packs, pulse torps or whatever and
>>after
>> 33 have let rip I would think most SDN's would be glowing red and
>>covered in
>> holes!

>No way does beam damage compare to "pulse torpedo" damage
>using the same "to hit" system.  And when you have a weapon (Graser-1)
>that has 1d6 damage massing the same as those that do 1 damage then
>there is a problem.  Rerolls just compound the problem.  A 1-arc
>Graser-1
>masses 2.  So do 2 submunitions pack that fire ONCE, doing 1 damage
>per hit and not 1d6 damage per hit.  So does 1 3-arc class-2 Beam,
>doing 1 damage per hit.  The damage ratio is 1:3.5 for the same mass
>(or 1.5:3.5 for the sub.muns. or at-close-range class-2 Beam).
>I've played a ship with lots of class-2 Beams, and we've outlawed such
>designs, but it has never equalled the performance of those
>strikeboats.

Of course the "damage" generated by grasers compares to all other
weapons.
You had 33 of these strike boats. If they were armed with pulse torps,
sMP's
or class 1 beams even, you are still generating a huge volume of fire
that
will obliterate the target! The destruction of the dreadnought was not a
function of the graser but of the volume of fire power you were using.
As
Oerjan pointed out the strike boats massed almost twice that of their
target! The dreadnought was dead whatever was fired at it!

>> I'm a graser fan. I like them, and I use them responsibly. But if
>>people
>> think they are too powerful then I'am afraid I will have to demand
>>K-guns
>> get the axe as well ;-), after all K-guns cut through armour, ignore
>>screens
>> and have a 5/6 chance on k-5 or bigger of ruining any ships day with
>>a
>> single hit. Graser's make me afraid, but K-guns TERRIFY me...
>> but I wouldn't want them changed, they keep me on my toes!

>I don't find K-guns to be overpowered.  They are terrifying, but the
>large ones have a single arc.	In cinematic this is huge!

Nor do I find K-guns overpowered (just terrifying;-), but my point here
was
that grasers are no worse then K-guns. Both are equally as deadly.
Grasrs
may have fire arcs going for them, but K-guns have the whole "armour and
screens don't stop me" going for them. Different weapons, different
abilities, both scary, but both equal to each other over all, from what
I
have seen in action.

Regards,

Matt Tope