(no subject)

[email removed] (Burton Choinski.) writes:
> From: Adrian Hurt [email removed]
> [] So having two ships in the same hex may result in a collision?  Good.
> [] If two ships manage to get that close to one another, some roll should be
> [] made to see if they collide, especially if one is trying to ram the other.
>
> This is what I feel too.  Having two large ships of the line circling in the
> same hex should be asking for a hull-scraping.

Not just large ships.  The probability of collision would depend on the size
of the ships, the size of the hex, and whether or not one of them was trying
to ram.  In no case would the probability of collision be zero, though.  (But
dealing with it via the task system might be a neat trick.)

> []> >Armor should be used similar to the 2300ad way -- shots that do not
> []> >penetrate can cause surface hits.  This will most likely damage sensors,
> []> >exposed comminications gear,turrets,and perhaps the maneuver drive ...
> []
> [] Why aren't turrets armoured?
>
> Well, turrets are armored, but probably not as much as the main hull.

Again, why not?  Since the ultimate objective is to make rules which
work for space vehicles as well as for air/ground vehicles, note that
tank turrets are often as well armoured as the hulls.

> Perhaps a surface hit welds the turret in one place, or (as I stated for
> lasers) blows away the reflective surface of a vane.

Does such damage occur with tanks?  As for the reflective vanes, what happens
if I cover my ship with the same material as the vanes?  (In personal combat,
this is what reflec armour does.)

> (btw, is there any reason WHY only one spinal mount is allowed?  If the ship
> is large enough, could it not have 2 parrallel, or 3 triaxial mounts?

This is something that I've wondered, too.  (And on this mailing list on a
few occasions.  :-)  What about catamaran designs?  Take two 30,000 ton
cruisers and join them together with a big lump of metal.  You now have one
70,000 ton cruiser with two meson guns.  (I said it was a big lump, 10,000
tons!  :-)

- --
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   [email removed]

[email removed] writes:
>
> If u are going to put in black globes into the picture then the whole
> situation changes a bit. Your target vessels also get protected against
> the factor T by the black globe.

Am I the only one who felt that this is silly?  Black globes can "flicker",
i.e. switch on and off in order to let weapons and drives work.  Why not
synchronise the weapons (or at least, the spinal mount) with the globe -
for a while, the globe switches off, and the weapon fires unimpeded.  Of
course, if an enemy weapon hits at the same time, it is also unaffected.
But for an enemy ship to arrange for his fire to arrive at my ship at the
exact time that the black globe switches off while I fire is a pretty neat
trick.

Also, how come missiles treat black globes as armour?  I'd think that either
the missile gets through, and does its full damage, or it doesn't get through,
and does nothing except give the black globe some energy.  There's also the
matter of what happens to solid matter in general when it hits a black globe.

Anyway, when I used black globes in High Guard, I disregarded the bit about
a black globe protecting both the user and the enemy; and when missiles hit,
I rolled a D10 to see if they got through.  (If 1D10 was greater than the
ship's USP black globe code, the missile got through, and was unaffected by
the black globe, otherwise the missile hit the globe.)

One article later, [email removed] also writes:
>
> Planetary Bombardment:
>
> Scott kellogg and Rob Dean pursued the rocks as bombs theory to
> great lengths whereas it was proven that a small lead bullett could
> be used to "crack" an entire world ( given enough initial velocity).
> It is virtually indetectible and a Type S could do it.

Here we go again.  Summary of arguments about this idea:
..Anyone caught doing it would be lynched by everyone.  The Imperial and
Zhodani navies would probably co-operate for the first time in their lives
to catch the culprit.

..The type S would have to accelerate to a tremendous velocity to do this.
Physics experts here doubted that the ship could get enough kinetic energy
from the ship's drives.

..The ship which tried this would itself be vapourised by the first dust
particle it hit.  The only pilot you would get for such a mission would
be a mad Vargr intent on getting the title "fastest sentient being alive",
shortly before he got the title "fastest cloud of gas", and with a big
question being raised about the inclusion of the word "sentient" in the
former title.


- --
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   [email removed]