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Re: Re: Re: [GZG] Revised Salvo Missiles Update

From: Doug Evans <devans@n...>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:01:27 -0500
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [GZG] Revised Salvo Missiles Update



Chris wrote on 06/21/2006 08:29:01 AM:

> >From: john tailby
> >The rules for the weapon system is very complicated [snip] >
> >However the effect of this weapon system is so powerful
>
> Okay, that makes more sense.

I figured you understood the first time; I know I did, and you can sound
a
bit sarcastic, even unintentionally. Not that you're the king... ;->=

> >If you want to make the missiles more seeking then why
> not let them burn some endurance after the ships move.
> Gives them a bigger engagement envelope for people that can't guess.
>
> Why bother? Is there a reason for them not to be direct fire?

I thought the whole idea was something other than direct fire, but that
is
tricky when detaching from the movement system.

> >If you play with ships moving slowly say 6mu / turn in
> cinematic then missiles do a pretty good job of seeking.
>
> Well, yeah, if the target is that slow the missiles will
> hit 100% of the time.
>
> >If...[snip] you have to guess the course of the enemy ship.
>
> But in cinematic, ship courses can vary wildly,
> particularly if you're using reasonably high thrust ships
> and high speeds.

Showing it getting tricky. 'Reasonably' is in the eye of the beholder. 6
MU
speeds cause me to spit my coffee out at first reading, but 24-32 MU
will
cause me to do the same. Remember, the original movement examples were
10-12. That said, I did notice the FB description of Vector includes one
example of 6 MU. ;->=

What were the velocities in the playtesting you did?

> >Its also how homing torpedos work.  You have to get your torpedo
> >into an engagement range before the enemy realises it
> otherwise they can react and evade.
>
> Which is exactly how salvo missiles DON'T work at present.
> No matter how close you are, you have to guess right; if
> you do, you hit, if not, you miss, and the enemy has to
> chance to evade unless he guesses when you're going to
> launch. With the revised version, if you get close, you
> can hit; if you launch from farther away, he has a chance to evade.

Have to give this point to John; how you place the SM marker is 'getting
it
into engagement range'. Not getting your SHIP into engagement range,
which
is important as well, but only in staging to the former. Ok, not exactly
like homing torpedoes, but similar to other deployable submunitions.

> >If your PSB has missiles achieving relativistic speeds or
> their own hyper drives then they might act like the rules
> proposed. In which case the defence would by FTL inhibitor
> fields. But neither of those technologies are consistent
> with the published background.
>
> Neither of these are necessary.

More to the point, this is the tail waging the dog; plenty of rules
don't
fit with the published background. If necessary, we adjust the
background,
or drop the whole thing, when we play.

Your reasons of playability, fun, balance, variety ALWAYS trump.

The_Beast

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