Is spaceship armor useless?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

...well, of course those two states cover most of the space of possibility. The question was always which of those two outcomes is going to happen, not whether either of them will.

And which of those two outcomes is going to happen is very much the case of 'whoever has more pewpew, wins'.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

What settings have kinetic-kill missiles but no fragmentation?

Lots of settings don't have kinetic-kill missiles, of course. Often found together with lack of point defense and completely unrealistic maneuvering physics. But if you've got no KK missiles you're way, way off the baseline for Spaceships.

That's actually an important consideration:
G:SS seems largely obsessed with KK missiles (nukes come a close second, while conventional explosive missiles are not talked about much, if at all).
IIRC EvE has thermal, kinetic and explosive warheads.
Star Wars seems to have explosive and/or kinetic missiles and thermal/explosive torpedoes, as well as conventional bombs, plus some exotics like droid-dropper missiles.
Star Trek has photon torpedoes at least.
Yes, all of those use weird non-Newtonian drives, but GURPS Spaceships do support non-Newtonian drives (including hyperdynamic ones); and yet its pseudovelocity missiles seem to behave much like KK ones.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

16 cm missiles are clearly supported. The only thing in the book suggesting otherwise is the faulty "Guns and Launchers Table".

Yeah, that was why I started doubting their legitness.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

And that +7 to hit can't be taken on its own. The missile has +(TL-8) for accuracy, +target SM and +4 for proximity fusing. Assuming you're engaging on the last possible 20 second turn, the missile is at -4 or so relative to the beam for range modifier versus speed modifier regardless of what the speed is. The beam takes -1 for the missile's SM. Overall modifier difference...about TL+tSM-14 in favor of the missile. You could credit the beam another +1 for being an Easy skill and +2 for using a fixed mount.

....But I realize that comparison doesn't matter because we, again, are not talking about Wait (Point Defense) but about shooting down the missile before it makes its own attack at all. The missile's attack roll only matters if the beam doesn't kill it first. One for one, the beam will be rolling with a total +6 or better modifier and is almost certain to make the kill. Any missiles that aren't killed will be at a sufficiently large bonus that they ware very unlikely to miss or be dodged (and of course enough damage to ruin the recipient's day).

Oh, the just-Attack-them-along-the-way vs. Wait (PD) dances. I need to get my head around those numbers . . .

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I am quite certain that the answer for salvos is simply one missile per salvo. I can't think of any downsides at all...

The -4 per multitasking, mostly. Or the need to have more operators, which, again, is a non-issue with AIs for both sides.
Also, with smaller salvoes, it becomes actually possible to dodge at least some of those that get past the beam screen and/or beam PD, since you no longer need huge MoSes to dodge the whole salvo. Which is of no use if there's a dozen or more (chance to dodge is likely too low to dodge them all), of course.

BTW, something I've seen people consider: using small missiles against enemy missiles; not sure how viable that is.