Do Meson Weapons have Limitations?

jason taylor · 04-24-2019, 05:18 PM

They seem to a point like a super wave motion gun. Yet almost everyone continues to field particle beams, fusion and plasma weapons, lasers and missiles long after they have the capacity for them, even in capital ships. What is the point?

If the missiles on the Tigress are a counterinsurgency module shouldn't they be deployable battledrones or sensors or "warsats" to coin an interesting phrase? If they are only shipkillers shouldn't it be an all big gun load out? If they are defense, does a Tigress really need defense missiles (lasers, whatevers) and will it get to a range where that is relevant?

Or do they try to maximize the killing capacity by using missiles and lasers as a shield of an attack and Meson guns as a foundation of something rather like a diekplous or periplous?

This has bothered me for some time and it makes it look like the whole concept of Meson weapons is overthrowing the system.

*Combat satellites

Anthony · 04-24-2019, 05:41 PM

They have limitations, but what those limitations are depends on your edition of the game. In practice, the reason to want a mix of weapons is to force ship designers to invest in both armor and meson screens.

jason taylor · 04-24-2019, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony

They have limitations, but what those limitations are depends on your edition of the game. In practice, the reason to want a mix of weapons is to force ship designers to invest in both armor and meson screens.

Can you give an idea?

jason taylor · 04-24-2019, 08:13 PM

Looking it up in Starships, it appears that Meson Screens will neutralize Mesons but not other forms of attack.

hal · 04-24-2019, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Looking it up in Starships, it appears that Meson Screens will neutralize Mesons but not other forms of attack.

Meson Screens in GURPS TRAVELLER are laughable when compared against their CT counterparts.

A long time back, I created my own versions for the Meson Gun analogs from CT's HIGH GUARD. It was based on the following:

1) use the rules as given in converting GURPS VEHICLES rules for use with weapons in Traveller

2) Volumes given in CT for each type of Spinal Mount

3) the rules given in Mayday

4) The premise that just as Meson Spinal mounts do MULTIPLES of damage depending on the hull size vs the Weapon classification (ie the higher the letter value of the spinal mount, the more critical hits and actual hits it secured against the target ship.

All of those factors hinted at the idea that the Spinal mounts, like lasers, had a high rate of fire that permitted them multiple hits.

If you look at the original CT rules, Meson Screens could protect in TOTAL against incoming hits. GURPS TRAVELLER rules make it such that you can't protect in total, against any meson shot.

The reason my work was "disallowed" was that it didn't meet the criteria of needing a minimum energy input at the "higher" Tech levels. I largely accepted that until I realized that I had missed one minor detail...

"Meson Bay Weapons"

By definition - those weapons are smaller than spinal mounts, and in CT, used far less energy than did the spinals. However, it wasn't worth the time to argue.

If you want to try your hand at having more "CT like" Meson weapons, and having Meson screens that were on par with that in CT - I would suggest doing what I did...

1) determine the volumes the weapons actually used in CT
2) Use the RoF rules to get the odds of securing a hit in the same ball park as their CT counterparts (ie the 2d6 odds of getting a hit in CT)

I doubt that the work I posted survived (I think it was posted back in the day of the Pyramid boards rather then here at the Forums).

Anthony · 04-24-2019, 11:12 PM

In CT, meson screens were more like a defense bonus than damage resistance; you rolled a check against the screen, if it failed the attack failed, if it succeeded the attack did full damage. By comparison, armor didn't make weapons miss, it caused them to do less damage.

Other than that, PA weapons in CT were way more accurate than meson. A PA weapon could manage a base to-hit of 0+ (which became 6+ against an agility 6 target). Best base to-hit for a meson weapon was 4+.

04-24-2019, 05:18 PM	#1
jason taylor Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Portland, Oregon	Do Meson Weapons have Limitations? They seem to a point like a super wave motion gun. Yet almost everyone continues to field particle beams, fusion and plasma weapons, lasers and missiles long after they have the capacity for them, even in capital ships. What is the point? If the missiles on the Tigress are a counterinsurgency module shouldn't they be deployable battledrones or sensors or "warsats" to coin an interesting phrase? If they are only shipkillers shouldn't it be an all big gun load out? If they are defense, does a Tigress really need defense missiles (lasers, whatevers) and will it get to a range where that is relevant? Or do they try to maximize the killing capacity by using missiles and lasers as a shield of an attack and Meson guns as a foundation of something rather like a diekplous or periplous? This has bothered me for some time and it makes it look like the whole concept of Meson weapons is overthrowing the system. Combat satellites __________________ "The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 04-24-2019 at 06:04 PM.*

04-24-2019, 05:41 PM	#2
Anthony Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Berkeley, CA	Re: Do Meson Weapons have Limitations? They have limitations, but what those limitations are depends on your edition of the game. In practice, the reason to want a mix of weapons is to force ship designers to invest in both armor and meson screens. __________________ My GURPS site and Blog.

04-24-2019, 08:13 PM	#4
jason taylor Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Portland, Oregon	Re: Do Meson Weapons have Limitations? Looking it up in Starships, it appears that Meson Screens will neutralize Mesons but not other forms of attack. __________________ "The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison

04-24-2019, 11:12 PM	#6
Anthony Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Berkeley, CA	Re: Do Meson Weapons have Limitations? In CT, meson screens were more like a defense bonus than damage resistance; you rolled a check against the screen, if it failed the attack failed, if it succeeded the attack did full damage. By comparison, armor didn't make weapons miss, it caused them to do less damage. Other than that, PA weapons in CT were way more accurate than meson. A PA weapon could manage a base to-hit of 0+ (which became 6+ against an agility 6 target). Best base to-hit for a meson weapon was 4+. __________________ My GURPS site and Blog.