(spaceships) SM based Hull dST/HP

[maximara]

Originally Posted by seasalt

Which it doesn't do a great job of. The basics of the combat and construction systems in Spaceships are pretty good, but they need massive alteration to deal with spaceships having the durability of soap bubbles relative to how much damage weapons do.

I think that is the by product of GURPS trying to be "realistic" it is a lot easier to do damage than to protect from it. As Issac Arthur likes to say "there is no such thing as an unarmed spaceship". F = ma rules supreme and you can really wreck someone's day with projectile weapons.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by maximara

I think that is the by product of GURPS trying to be "realistic" it is a lot easier to do damage than to protect from it. As Issac Arthur likes to say "there is no such thing as an unarmed spaceship". F = ma rules supreme and you can really wreck someone's day with projectile weapons.

All true.

In one of the playtests I completely destroyed a SM+14 Gibralter Battlestation and all it took was a 16cm missile launched from a platform going 70 miles per second. I didn't launch just one missile of course but it only took one hit.

My ideas for dealing with this centered around improved anti-missile defenses possibly including layers of anti-missile drones. Fiddling with armor values is probably only nibbling around the edges.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

My ideas for dealing with this centered around improved anti-missile defenses possibly including layers of anti-missile drones. Fiddling with armor values is probably only nibbling around the edges.

The anti missile missile is a workable idea.

Of course, you could then go the full Rocky and Bullwinkle route and introduce the anti anti missile missile missile.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

All true.

In one of the playtests I completely destroyed a SM+14 Gibralter Battlestation and all it took was a 16cm missile launched from a platform going 70 miles per second. I didn't launch just one missile of course but it only took one hit.

My ideas for dealing with this centered around improved anti-missile defenses possibly including layers of anti-missile drones. Fiddling with armor values is probably only nibbling around the edges.

It looks like it gets better at TL10+ when improved lasers come on line, but you still need boatloads of dedicated AMS lasers to handle it, but my playtesting is limited.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

It looks like it gets better at TL10+ when improved lasers come on line, but you still need boatloads of dedicated AMS lasers to handle it, but my playtesting is limited.

Oh, this was at TL10 and during the test for the mapped system so all the station's weapons opened up at maximum range. Main Batteries, missiles, everything and not just the Tertiary Battery.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Oh, this was at TL10 and during the test for the mapped system so all the station's weapons opened up at maximum range. Main Batteries, missiles, everything and not just the Tertiary Battery.

By mapped, do you mean with the tactical rules of SS3? I haven't tried those.

Our best playtesting so far has been TL8.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

By mapped, do you mean with the tactical rules of SS3?

.

Those are the ones.

[Rupert]

I assume you had VRF batteries as the tertiary point-defence systems? Not that it probably makes that much difference - it comes out to an extra +2 RoF bonus to hit generally.

My thinking is that if you want survivable ships without doing too much hacking, you start with TL11^ force screens (depending on how one interprets the semi-ablative nature, they might need changes to how they function), and then start looking at rules like "Missile Shield" (SS:7, p.35), which will encourage the use of bomb-pumped laser warheads and proximity nukes (which if too strong can be countered by making nuclear dampers (SS:1, p.32) available which can be tiny systems and still kill off nukes as an option).

Making ships very fast with pseudo-velocity drives can help too - to catch them the missiles will also need pseudo-velocity drives, and if you 'design' the drives right that means they won't have much (or even any) closing velocity.

I do wish the series had included material on this sort of tweaking for more or less 'realism' and lethality, but at least it starts fairly grounded and well down one end of that spectrum, and is fairly easy to modify as required.