Nice to see you on the thread barnest. I'll be interested in your thoughts on the vessel chassis I'll be putting up (hopefully over the weekend, almost there).
Edit: hmmm... the missile drones will still have problems dealing with higher tech heavy fighters like the automated assault craft I think. Which is good.
Ah, good, I'd half suspected as much. Regards sandcasters I think the premise of them in the tactical balance at mid-Tech levels works, when armor values are not so high, and/or you're trying to cost save, that extra DM really counts vs. barrages if you've got mid-range armor. And the balance is right where they are now becoming obsolete as armor has developed. Heck they should be history at TL15.For TCS, the inclusion of sandcasters was... fluff, honestly. Traveller ships use them, therefore it only makes sense 'in universe' for their cap ships to have a few batteries of them. Personally, I would have stuck to PD lasers, but it made sense for the fluffy side of things.Chas wrote:
Yeah, the spinal mounts and armor are a no-brainer, but I notice that none of the big vessels in Fightships or the Trillion Credit squadron in any way down play or sideline sandcasters and I was curious about the tactical balance here. I'm also not sure how the -2DM for pulse lasers for point defense pans out in the wash, I'm still working on that...
Yes, at the end of the day, fleets need something to keep the opposition honest and when I saw the missile pack I thought it would be good for that. To stop masses of low cost lightly armored tenders providing a cheap spinal mount chassis in fleet combat. Part of what the fleet fighter screen role is for presumably. This concept might take the reverse route, where missile drones demolish fighter screens clearing the path for lighter tenders to close with the enemy line of battle. You could have a supercarrier with massed missile drones and say 4 mid-armored spinal weapon tenders as a very effective fleet component.I love this, because it wasn't my intention at all at the time of writing and I am overjoyed to see what has come from it. My original idea was basically cheap mass launchers for merchants, and also to fight that niggling irritation at the use of tube launchers instead of proper VLS cellsGaladrion wrote:
And a swarm of carried drones each equipped with a missile pack, all tied to the carrier through a fire control grid, appears to be bringing the universe of Honor Harrington into Traveller...
I will argue that introducing Harrington to Trav is no bad thing
Edit: hmmm... the missile drones will still have problems dealing with higher tech heavy fighters like the automated assault craft I think. Which is good.