(spaceships) SM based Hull dST/HP

Rupert · 05-20-2022, 10:52 PM

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.

05-20-2022, 10:52 PM	#12
Rupert Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Wellington, NZ	Re: (spaceships) SM based Hull dST/HP 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. __________________ Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history."