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Varyon · 10-17-2013, 08:31 AM

After sleeping on it, I'm fairly confident the low sAcc of guns and missiles is meant to represent the fact that, while GURPS Homing/Guided assumes infinite* delta-V, the "bullets" and missiles have far less than this. Applying GURPS Homing/Guided as-is would give guns and missiles sAcc that was much higher than that of lasers, which is rather nonsensical.

What might make some sense would be to still apply range penalties for guns, and halve them for missiles. This is consistent with Warp Missiles getting around +15 (assuming base TL 10) for instant travel to the target. So, a 20 cm conventional gun (sAcc -8) would get +20 (end modifier +12) at Zero range, +0 at Point Blank, -4 at Close. A TL 10 20 cm missile (sAcc +12) would get +10 at Zero, +0 at Point Blank, -2 at Close, -4 at Short, -6 at Long. In this case, the Range penalty isn't because it's difficult to line up the attack, but because it's hard to stay on-target when said target is accelerating. It may be appropriate to treat drifting targets as being 2 yards away (giving +30 for guns, +15 for missiles), regardless of their range.

*Infinite in terms of "delta-V is high enough that it doesn't limit maneuvering."

10-17-2013, 08:31 AM	#10
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: SpaceShips missiles attack rules After sleeping on it, I'm fairly confident the low sAcc of guns and missiles is meant to represent the fact that, while GURPS Homing/Guided assumes infinite* delta-V, the "bullets" and missiles have far less than this. Applying GURPS Homing/Guided as-is would give guns and missiles sAcc that was much higher than that of lasers, which is rather nonsensical. What might make some sense would be to still apply range penalties for guns, and halve them for missiles. This is consistent with Warp Missiles getting around +15 (assuming base TL 10) for instant travel to the target. So, a 20 cm conventional gun (sAcc -8) would get +20 (end modifier +12) at Zero range, +0 at Point Blank, -4 at Close. A TL 10 20 cm missile (sAcc +12) would get +10 at Zero, +0 at Point Blank, -2 at Close, -4 at Short, -6 at Long. In this case, the Range penalty isn't because it's difficult to line up the attack, but because it's hard to stay on-target when said target is accelerating. It may be appropriate to treat drifting targets as being 2 yards away (giving +30 for guns, +15 for missiles), regardless of their range. *Infinite in terms of "delta-V is high enough that it doesn't limit maneuvering."