Energy Armour

[Sigtrygg]

And I really did try and delete my first snarky post, I thought it inappropriate - but then again so is referring to someone as 'dear'.

Ah. I can deduce that you never watched any episodes of the TV series Firefly, because the "Dear" line came straight out of that show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gazACJ0R1Hc[/quote]Lol - ok you earned a keyboard kill.

And yes - I did watch Firefly (or Traveller as I like to call it).

 

[alex_greene]

just overwhelming it with damage until the capacitors explode (plus it's not as if it can stop absorbing energy so an explosion is inevitable pretty quickly).

Just like a Black Globe.

 

[fusor]

Just like a Black Globe.

You can turn a Black Globe off, or flicker it. This armour just absorbs energy til it explodes. Just concentrate energy weapons and meson guns on it til it can't take anymore.

 

[wbnc]

And I really did try and delete my first snarky post, I thought it inappropriate - but then again so is referring to someone as 'dear'.

Ah. I can deduce that you never watched any episodes of the TV series Firefly, because the "Dear" line came straight out of that show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gazACJ0R1Hc

Lol - ok you earned a keyboard kill.

And yes - I did watch Firefly (or Traveller as I like to call it).[/quote]

I routinely tell anyone who is interested in Traveller to watch Firefly.

 

[alex_greene]

Just like a Black Globe.

You can turn a Black Globe off, or flicker it. This armour just absorbs energy til it explodes. Just concentrate energy weapons and meson guns on it til it can't take anymore.

There you go. The trick is to overwhelm it by pouring in more power than it can shed. And the only way to do that is the hard way - to hit it with everything you've got.

 

[fusor]

There you go. The trick is to overwhelm it by pouring in more power than it can shed. And the only way to do that is the hard way - to hit it with everything you've got.

So the ship basically becomes a deathtrap? Sorry, but no. This is a really impractical concept.

Plus a black globe is better in every way, so it's redundant too.

 

[alex_greene]

There you go. The trick is to overwhelm it by pouring in more power than it can shed. And the only way to do that is the hard way - to hit it with everything you've got.

So the ship basically becomes a deathtrap? Sorry, but no. This is a really impractical concept.

Plus a black globe is better in every way, so it's redundant too.

Just because they have obscene levels of technology, doesn't mean that their technological progression went down that road toward Black Globes. Or Black Globes and White Globes might even be incompatible technology with the bioskin energy damping armour.

 

[alex_greene]

So the ship basically becomes a deathtrap? Sorry, but no. This is a really impractical concept.

It's a game breaker when you're trying to kill it from the outside, and now you're imagining you're inside the ship and it's a deathtrap. You were trying to kill the thing. I'm just making sure that nothing you do will make it easy to kill it. Just following the old forum tradition of taking away your fun, and if a Traveller gets too powerful somebody has to nerf their power.

I'm just nerfing the weapons damage. Well, not so much nerfing as Worfing in this case. "Firing!" *whoosh* "Damage is negligible."

 

[fusor]

If this is just something you've come up with for your own games then good luck with it.

If it's in HG 2e then I'm filing this under "playtest fail".

 

[alex_greene]

If this is just something you've come up with for your own games then good luck with it.

If it's in HG 2e then I'm filing this under "playtest fail".

You weren't invited to the playtest. And since this isn't in High Guard 2e, you've not read the book, have you?

 

[fusor]

You weren't invited to the playtest. And since this isn't in High Guard 2e, you've not read the book, have you?

No, because I'm not paying $40 to playtest a book. If people post excerpts on here then I'll critique and comment on it, but I have no intention of spending money on an unfinished product. (and don't try to claim that it isn't. Matt himself has admitted that the PDF release is to find and fix errors for the print version).

I get that you're sore about having holes poked in your ideas, but the proper response is to fix the flaws and try again, not get uppity at people who point them out.

 

[alex_greene]

... the proper response is to fix the flaws and try again

I'm sure I'll find the errors and fix them. With other people playtesting the ideas.

You've not read the book, have you?

No ... I have no intention of spending money

Obviously, since you don't have High Guard you can't really talk with authority on any of the issues in the book, can you?

 

[fusor]

No ... I have no intention of spending money

Obviously, since you don't have High Guard you can't really talk with authority on any of the issues in the book, can you?

Obviously, if someone posts a rules excerpt from the book (which has been done elsewhere here) then I can talk with the same authority as anyone else reading that post about the issues being quoted. If I don't know about something then I'll ask. That should be good enough for anyone.

Since this isn't from the book, I don't care. Do what you please in your own games.

 

[rust2]

So what's the counter? Leaving aside the bad design elements, at TL16+ there should be a way to bypass this armour and counter it. Probably by either firing lots of kinetic weapons at it ...

This was my first thought when reading the armour's description, a very real science based railgun.

 

[alex_greene]

So what's the counter? Leaving aside the bad design elements, at TL16+ there should be a way to bypass this armour and counter it. Probably by either firing lots of kinetic weapons at it ...

This was my first thought when reading the armour's description, a very real science based railgun.

Don't they build them in spinal mount size these days?

Just saying that you might find asteroids out there with high sodium chloride content, load them in your ships, and drive away the high tech fleet with the equivalent of a big shotgun loaded with rock salt.

 

[wbnc]

So what's the counter? Leaving aside the bad design elements, at TL16+ there should be a way to bypass this armour and counter it. Probably by either firing lots of kinetic weapons at it ...

This was my first thought when reading the armour's description, a very real science based railgun.

Don't they build them in spinal mount size these days?

Just saying that you might find asteroids out there with high sodium chloride content, load them in your ships, and drive away the high tech fleet with the equivalent of a big shotgun loaded with rock salt.

Go on, get outta here! ya pesky aliens...I done told yall to stay out of my asteroid mines fer da Last time...ya'll come back I'll pepper yer backsides with rocksalt!"

Diplomatic communication, Admiral Coot commander third Confederation Fleet

looking over the specs it has some potential for use in an aggressor/intruder type vessel. It would forces which are heavily reliant on energy weapons to radically rethink their engagement strategies/weaponry.

A force of smaller "intruders" shows up and makes a nuisance of themselves, a squadron is deployed to run them off...and gets it's chronometers thoroughly serviced when their weapons have remarkably reduced effect on the intruders. then he race is on to figure out why the ships are able to resist most known energy weapons, and how to get around that advantage.

maybe some small private teams sent to try and recover wreckage from an infested area, or steal samples of the tech from local illegal salvagers...

 

[alex_greene]

And there lies adventure.

 

[wbnc]

And there lies adventure.

And that's the name of the game.

Even "broken" toys can be used to great effect with a little creativity.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Once you get to tech levels high enough there is the danger/risk of creating a ship that no longer needs anything. Make a self healing ship that skims fuel and is armed with lasers or beam weapons and your warfleet raiding ship does not need to get a supply chain. Add in Collectors and it can jump without fuel needs. A small tank of fuel can last for a year of stealthy activity before it needs more fuel.
Add in virtual crew and you have a drone raider that can savage a system years after the war is over and the survivors want/need to get off the planet to get more raw materials to grow the population.

There is a nice Hard Times or Virus adventure waiting to be written up, even a Fifth Frontier war could have an early Black War raiding ship designed to harass and cause rear area damage to draw away resources.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-plastic-heals-itself-180956495/?no-ist

 

[alex_greene]

Once you get to tech levels high enough there is the danger/risk of creating a ship that no longer needs anything

Yup.

Admiral Bancla: "Haven't we got anything that can stop that thing?"
Sensors: "Sir, detecting a large contingent of vessels that just dropped out of Jump right in front of that thing." *scans* "Sir, it's the Seventh Fleet."
XO: "Well, I just hope that it does better than the first six."