Re: Fire Control lock-on (was: Re: [FT] squadron suggestions)

>>Seeing as this subject has come up in the last few days'
>>discussions, I thought I'd take the opportunity to canvass some
>>opinions from all of you out there in gzg-list-land..... this is
>>something that's been discussed at some length in the past within
>>the playtest group, but sometimes it's both interesting and
>>valuable to get some feedback from a much larger group of players.
>>
>>The idea of a lock-on roll for a ship's fire control system(s) to
>>acquire a target is one that we've played around with (at least in
>>theory) for some time; the exact mechanisms are not important at
>>this stage, but the general principle of the idea is that when it
>>is a particular ship's turn to fire, the player nominates the
>>intended target(s) and makes a roll for each to see if the firing
>>ship's FCs can acquire that target with sufficient precision to
>>perform direct fire against it. If the roll succeeds, then play
>>proceeds to fire resolution exactly as normal FT rules; if it
>>fails, then the firing ship has not been able to lock-on to the
>>target and may not perform any direct fire against it that turn.
>>Multiple firecons (if the ship has them) may be dedicated to a
>>single target to improve success chances, but this must be decided
>>before any lock-on rolls are made.

I wouldn't mind, or would even approve, of lock-on rolls as
long as under "normal" circumstances success is automatic,
so you don't actually have to roll. What is normal? Well,
that's where it gets more interesting.

My suggestion is that lock-on rolls be used to encourage
certain styles of play, or perhaps shift imbalances. For
instance, I offer these wild and untested ideas:

* A ship has to make a lock-on roll to fire on any other
ship half it's own mass or less. Very simple brute force
rule to encourage superdreadnaughts to have destroyer
escorts to deal with the enemy destroyers.

* A ship has to make a lock-on roll to fire on any ship
that has already been fired on this turn. This is purely
and simply because I like old-style capital ship actions
where ships ended up fighting one on one against a similar
enemy, rather than FT style "everybody shoot the biggest
guy first." PSB reason is interference from friendly radar,
lidar, or whatever.

	cheers,
	Hugh