tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
The dna is not releasing energy so it is not measurable and it is inside something. Would aslan even have DNA?
Detecting Weapons' Fire
- Thread starter MasterGwydion
- Start date
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
No worries. I don't always know when people are being snarky and when they are not.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
In theory, rate of fire is once every six minutes.
Lasers, and mesons, require power points that are accumulated, and then let loose.
And, of course, detecting target acquisitioning.
Lasers, and mesons, require power points that are accumulated, and then let loose.
And, of course, detecting target acquisitioning.
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
All matter vibrates so all matter is releasing energy. The only matter that doesn't release energy is at absolute zero.
According to Traveller, all life has DNA. Not all life uses the double helix though.
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Yeah. I never figured out how they realized they were target locked. Obviously, it has to be some sort of active sensor otherwise it would not be detectable.
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
Does it now? Well that seems silly. What happens if you aren’t carbon based. DNA is just the type of compound isn’t it.
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
I think as I said the sensors in this instance , optimised for speed would be simply looking at vector and magnitude of signal. They would need to be able to respond very quickly, as these particles and explosions etc are resolving over very small amounts of time. Maybe you could have sensors that are optimised for other priorities. DNA is scannable but you compromise elswhere, distance is small and it takes along time?
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Why do you have to be carbon-based for DNA? Aren't other elements capable of it as well? Perhaps using different proteins?
What will really bake your brain is trying to figure out how artificial lifeforms such as sentient robots have DNA. lol. The Virus has "DNA". When two of a specific type of Virus reproduce, it mixes the code of both parents to create something unique.
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
I think mesons need to be once every 6 minutes. Otherwise mesons are too powerful. Even on the traveller (not starship) level.
I think they need to be compromised by very slow rate of fire and the direction of fire is actually quite straight forward to calculate after the firing has started. So a battery can fire off a few salvos and then they must move. As the enemy look to act against them.
I think what is often forgotten on these forums is that this is all just a game and we need to have rules that make it appealing for the travellers and provide nuance. If your campaign is invading a planet and it comes down to the other side had more mesons therefore you lose, where is the nuance and fun in that?
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
NAS sensor detects individual brain activity 1km or less away according to the sensor rules. Level of brain activity at 1-10km and the presence or absence of activity at 10-1,250km. Detecting brain activity at over 1,000km away. That seems pretty sensitive to me.
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
I don’t know enough about virus to have an opinion, other than I think that mega traveller kind of broke what was the main appeal for most about traveller?
I think when DNA is used what people actually mean is genetic material and that could transferred in all sorts of ways, perhaps. Except it’s just that we have only seen 1.5 ways. (1.5 ways as RNA works but it is not as common. But as it is completely interlinked with DNA).
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Traveller space combat rules are screwed up, so it's more about accommodating likely and desired outcomes.
If you aren't worried about overheating, move to close range, and change the rate of fire to once every six seconds.
If you aren't worried about overheating, move to close range, and change the rate of fire to once every six seconds.
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Get more meson screens. Easy. If they have meson weapons and you don't have meson screens, you lose. Plain and simple. What people often forget is to not lose touch with reality in the name of making the game "more appealing". Sure, we generalize a lot of things and simplify even more things, but balance is not a thing in real life. If you try and catch a falling 50-ton starship with your bare hands, you are dead. Doesn't matter that this ends your game and is therefore not fun. Stupidity should be penalized in game as in real life.
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
Granted. Poor decisions should lead to poor outcomes. But what I personally would like to avoid is that there is a hierarchy of decisions. Some individuals have been hammering the old ‘Orbital
dominance trumps all’ card. But I think
looking at what is commonly accepted as canon, invading a planet is deemed to be the best decision on many occasions and seemingly that has happened without the prerequisite of removing all meson batteries. This can even be simulated (Invasion Earth) so mesons are clearly great but if there are firing every 6 seconds I do not see how 2 million would have landed on Earth let alone captured it.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
I thought they were gonna all die on the way down? Haha. I like how even though they start in space, going slowly they are already descending in flaming glory.
MasterGwydion
Emperor Mongoose
Meson weapons have some serious negatives targeting small objects such as drop pods.
Orbital dominance does trump everything if the enemy cannot respond to the attack. If they can respond to the attack, it just puts them at a disadvantage instead of definitely signifying their destruction.
Seems like common sense to me. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
tomfreshwater
Banded Mongoose
I imagine that a lot of contesting the orbital
Space of a world and landing troops is the attacker knocking out the sensors for the meson gun emplacements and the defender erecting new ones all over.
Space of a world and landing troops is the attacker knocking out the sensors for the meson gun emplacements and the defender erecting new ones all over.
The rules don't say we can detect a miss or anything specific, it just has a throw away comment about sensor operators being able to detect enemy fire.
"Cautious use of available sensors can be played out as a game of ‘cat and mouse’ where powered-down ships skulk about, virtually undetected until they reveal themselves with a tell-tale sign: use of active sensors, transponder, manoeuvre drives or firing a weapon, just to name a few."
The table on HG2022 p77 lists enemy fire (Laser turrets or other weapons) as giving +2 to detection of a stealthed ship. The table on HG2022 p76 for initial detection of a ship however does not list weapon fire as a DM.
Lots of things on that table trouble me though. Why does a running powerplant make you more visible to all sensors. I think a ship moving toward you would mask its own M-Drive "wake" (whatever the heck that is). We are not talking a rocket ejecting hot gas.
Even the very best stealth ship on silent running is detectable on a base 14+. That sounds a lot but all it takes is some slightly better than basic sensors and a reasonable sensor op and you start to move the probability to the point where detection becomes entirely possible or even reasonably likely.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Might depend on how leaky the fusion reactor is.
You could coast and manoeuvre the spacecraft on batteries.
You could coast and manoeuvre the spacecraft on batteries.
