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mj12games.com/forum → Starmada → Spinal Mounts
In v2.0 of the rules under C.27 it says Spinal Mounts cannot be damaged by WEAPON hits and it is weakened by hull hits. But, on the special equipment chart under A.1.5 it has a yes for Hit?. Does this mean that it can be destroyed by a Q hit but not a weapon hit? The cheat sheet in the files section says it cannot be destroyed by a Q hit. Help.
The cheat sheet also says the Spinal Mount has an AB arc but the rules give it a more restricted arc. I assume that the rules are correct and the cheat sheet isn't.
FYI: The cheat sheet was put together as a quick reference guide during play to avoid have to constantly pull out the rule book. As to the AB firing arc this was based off of the diagram on the bottom left of page 31 section C.27 which diagrams an AB firing arc for a standard spinal mount. The illustration on the right is slightly different because of alterations under Anime-Style Spinal Mounts section C.27.1.
Abraham E. Frank :?
I am also confused here. When I created the cheat sheet I was reading the page 31 (section C.27) which states specifically that spinal mount effectiveness is only effected by Hull hits. However, looking at the chart you are correct that Spinal Mounts add to hits for figuring out how many Q hits go on the damage chart. A little assistance and clarification would be nice right about now. I have no problem reworking the cheat sheet once we have an answer.
Abraham E. Frank :?
The wording in C.27 is a bit misleading, I admit. It should read as follows:
"A spinal mount cannot be destroyed as a result of a weapon hit; however, its effectiveness is weakened as the ship takes hull damage."
A spinal mount can be destroyed by a "Q" hit.
Thank you for the information Mr. Kast. Just so everyone knows I have made a change to the cheat sheet showing that a Q hit CAN destroy a spinal mount and replaced the file with the corrected version. 
So I was thinking about the concept of customizable spinal mounts and came to the following conclusion. Hasn't Dan already provided most of the mathematical tools to mod the spinal mounts? We already know how to calculate the SU and ORat of weapons based on their Range, To-Hit, ROF, PEN and DMG. Can't we just apply those to the spinal mount calculations to derive say a spinal mount that hits on a 4+ and has a PEN of 2?
The basic spinal mounts assume a range based on the size of the mounting hull. Can't we really change it to any range, as long as we modify the SU and ORat by a similar amount? The same with To-hit, ROF, PEN and DMG.
For example: To get a spinal mount that hits on a 4+ just divide the stock spinal mount SU by 0.67 and multiply it by 0.5 then divide the stock ORat by the old SU and multiply it by the new SU. Voila, a spinal that hits on a 4+
PEN and DMG are even easier because the stock spinal assumes that they are 1 (well, DMG is 1x HS). So to get higher PEN and DMG simply multiply the stock SU by the new PEN and/or DMG and as above divide the stock ORat by the old SU and multiply it by the new SU. Keep in mind that a HS 10 ship with a DMG 2 spinal mount would actually be doing 20 points of damage, at least until it took some internals.
ROF is trickier because all other weapons use ROF+1 in their calculations. So for a spinal mount to have a ROF of say 2, divide the stock SU by 2 and multiply it by ( new ROF+1 ). Again as above, divide the stock ORat by the old SU and multiply it by the new SU.
About Range though, I am not sure what to do. Range is already factored into the stock spinal mount's ORat but not the SU. Anyone have any ideas?
Does anyone see any glaring mathematic or balance issues with any of this?
About Range though, I am not sure what to do. Range is already factored into the stock spinal mount's ORat but not the SU. Anyone have any ideas?
Actually, it is sorta included in the SU, as the size of the spinal mount is based on overal ship size, as is range. But you're right, there's not an easy 1:1 correlation...
At the same time, the ORat is the balancing factor, not SU cost... so you could just assume a linear progression. If you want a spinal mount that fires 50% further than a normal one, just increase SU cost by 50%, and so on.
Does anyone see any glaring mathematic or balance issues with any of this?
Not at first, no.
I've been doing something similar with my light spinal mounts.... I've taken a hull 4 ship and equipped it with a spinal mount... range based on the hull size, but then I have it listed twice as a "light spinal mount" having an extra Q hit when figuring into the hit location table. Each one does only 2 damage..... and I envision them as the fixed lasers...ala Babylon 5.
In a lot of ways, this gives you the equivelent of a 4th weapon battery, with a fixed arc.... with the least changes to the basic system.... so you don't have to worry too much about creating an error and it unbalancing things....
John
Did someone say Banked Spinal Mounts?
<duck>
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