Topic: Slow Ballistics

I had an idea... ran it past my other players, but none of us could come up with a point value for this. We basically created a weapon ability called slow ballistics. It immediately changes the range to 36, but the weapon moves a number of hexes per turn equal to the original range. This represents a torpedo class weapon, similar to drones in that it homes in on one target. Once fired it proceeds against the chosen target, and flies until it hits, or until it moves 36 hexes, at which point it explodes. The target is chosen at the time of fire, and cannot change, and rate of fire is the number of lock on systems within the torpedo itself. All damage is handled as per a normal weapon. The weakness with the weapon is that it can be shot down via fighters or ship weapons (capital ships fire on it as though it were a fighter wing... but with an additional -1 due to it's very small size), and if a ship can get out of range before it hits... then it reaches maximum range and explodes. Although you can make a the weapon cheaply (make a range 3 weapon, 3+ to hit, and 3/3/3...), it would be slow enough for most capital ships to outrun. Range is always counted as medium range for targeting numbers.

We had wanted to have a torpedo class weapon for use in battles based on the Freespace and Starlancer computer games. Unfortunately, drones were too small to simulate the torpedoes seen in the game, and making them normal weapons made them no different than any other laser or cannon in game.

I was wondering if anyone else here has any thoughts on this?

John

Re: Slow Ballistics

I think it would be cool to add to the rules as well. I would use it to simulate plasma torpedoes from SFB. Currently we are using slow drones with increased PEN/DMG in our campaign to simulate such. We are modifying the ORat approriately but leaving the DRat the same. It would be awesome to be able to design Fighters, Drones, Battlesats, Marine Boarding Pods, Mines, etc. with as much detail as you can design ships.

Re: Slow Ballistics

Nahuris wrote:

I had an idea... ran it past my other players, but none of us could come up with a point value for this. We basically created a weapon ability called slow ballistics. It immediately changes the range to 36, but the weapon moves a number of hexes per turn equal to the original range. This represents a torpedo class weapon, similar to drones in that it homes in on one target. Once fired it proceeds against the chosen target, and flies until it hits, or until it moves 36 hexes, at which point it explodes. The target is chosen at the time of fire, and cannot change, and rate of fire is the number of lock on systems within the torpedo itself. All damage is handled as per a normal weapon. The weakness with the weapon is that it can be shot down via fighters or ship weapons (capital ships fire on it as though it were a fighter wing... but with an additional -1 due to it's very small size), and if a ship can get out of range before it hits... then it reaches maximum range and explodes. Although you can make a the weapon cheaply (make a range 3 weapon, 3+ to hit, and 3/3/3...), it would be slow enough for most capital ships to outrun. Range is always counted as medium range for targeting numbers.

We had wanted to have a torpedo class weapon for use in battles based on the Freespace and Starlancer computer games. Unfortunately, drones were too small to simulate the torpedoes seen in the game, and making them normal weapons made them no different than any other laser or cannon in game.

I was wondering if anyone else here has any thoughts on this?

John

Come up with a way of tracking them without dozens of counters on the board....if you have cats or small dogs (or rugrats) you can immediately see this as a problem.
big_smile

Not unworkable, just unwieldy. I'm a big fan of drones and plasma torps in SFB myself.

Re: Slow Ballistics

japridemor wrote:

I think it would be cool to add to the rules as well. I would use it to simulate plasma torpedoes from SFB. Currently we are using slow drones with increased PEN/DMG in our campaign to simulate such. We are modifying the ORat approriately but leaving the DRat the same. It would be awesome to be able to design Fighters, Drones, Battlesats, Marine Boarding Pods, Mines, etc. with as much detail as you can design ships.

Yeah, that would be pretty cool....
:roll:

Re: Slow Ballistics

We have been experimenting with this.... and yes, I see the issue with counters, but since I use specific "torpedo ships".... with the rest of the fleet being more standard, it does seem to be working so far.


John