A question about starship meson weapons

hiya,

A friend and myself were talking about traveller (what else is
there to talk about?) and an interesting (?) point was raised:

	Starship meson weapons should not be subject to damage on the
	external damage table.

Since mesons are supposed to pass through matter without effect, why should
ships be designed with external meson mounts?  The MT rules do mention the
concept of a deep meson gun site for planetary defence and these guns are
not subject to damage.  It seems reasonable that starship weapons should
be likewise.  Spinal mounts would not need anything external to the ship
as they are not required to move (did anybody every notice the art-work
in some of the traveller books that show large starships with things
sticking out of them that are supposed to be meson guns???).  Bays would
probably have some kind of external opening (since they're sort of
changable) and turrets wouldn't need any (another interesting question
would be how many internal hardpoints would a ship get?).

Along the same line is the question of meson batteries bearing:  since they
can shoot through the ship itself, they should ALL be able to bear on an
enemy ship.

One objection to this concept is that firing through your own hull is
very dangerous and is not considered a safe practice.
(to me this seems pretty weak especially when the distances involved in
starship combat are considered.)




							Pauli
seeya

Paul Dale               | Internet/CSnet:            [email removed]
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