House rules for beam-less Centauri?

[Slightly Norse John]

You think b5tech.com is bad, follow the links over to stardestroyer.net; a devastating sequence of cascade failures beginning with the writer's sense of humour.
Not that I'm carping or anything, but- this is an all bread sandwich. Ten pages of construction theory without a set of ship stats to try out :?:
Maybe ion repeaters are a step too far, but a stat line can be played with, tweaked, amended, rewritten, once it gets written to begin with.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

I'll get round to it...

 

[emperorpenguin]

SNJ what was your idea again?

tried looking but can't find it, eyes are too heavy!

 

[Slightly Norse John]

Actually, it's 2AM here, I've forgotten the name of the thread myself...
I ended up with a family of weapons, to go no further than that, which were derived essentially from the other weapons we see in the game, Rutarian ion bolts, ion torpedoes, etc.
Ship- mounted Ion bolt Cannon were range 8 Double Precise, Heavy Ion Bolt Cannon (replaced the Darkner's battle lasers) were 16, AP Double Precise. They were related to the Ion Lances- 18, Super AP Precise, and Heavy Ion Lances- 20, Super AP Triple Precise.
Possibly Lances and Bolt cannon should be heavier and Slow- Loading, trading a bit of extra oomph- Bolt Cannon at short and Lances at long range- for fire delays.
Standard Ion Cannon had ranges from 12 to 18, and generally AP.
Medium Ion Cannon were generally range 24, at least AP and usually Precise,
Heavy Ion Cannon range 24-30, AP Double Precise, sometimes Super AP.
Superheavy Ion Cannon (Octurion, Adira) hit the end cap, really- 36, Super AP Triple Precise.
I was not overly generous to plasma streams, not doing much to their ACtA stats at all, but I did assume that the Vorchan's plasma accelerators should be SAP- there was a tactical aspect to it, the big ion cannon dismember an enemy ship and the plasma and matter cannon equipped ships roll in to finish it with bulk damage.

There were a few Ion Repeaters about the place, which were essentially late development, post EMW weapons, in the light of what the Centaurum saw of Minbari capabilities. They threw ion packets, compressed sequences of pulses, becoming effectively Mini-Beam. This might be a technical step too far.
As far as actual beams went, I was presuming that apart from the plasma stream, most of what beam weapons the Centauri should have are either League- derived (I have wanted to steal the mag gun, which is based on Centauri technology after all, back for some time now) or Shadow and Drakh derived, with range and traits- no 35" molecular slicer beams thank you- close to the original installations.

 

[Ripple]

One question, and it is primarily a fluff one I guess.

if the Battle laser is a 12-18 inch AP Beam Precise, what exactly did the Abbai 'refine' in the weapon? Like I said that one was just fluff one. I understand we are using the precise to balance the precieved loss of firepower in the mid-ranges.

I am not sure what I would replace so I have no constructive suggestion right off. (Things that came to mind were leave the range on the laser and have a single damage AP beam at range, sort of a softening weapon, but that still doesn't make sense from the show fluff. Or leave off precise but raise the AD to give it a similar punch, but not sure that fits the idea of advanced.)

Ripple

 

[Slightly Norse John]

The fluff in the Abbai fleet list talks about "a hail of microwave based Drakh laser fire" from "a small war fleet of drakh battleships and attack frigates", too...
One thing Mongoose need to do is make the stats and the fluff conform to each other. As it stands, I read the descriptions as nothing more than propaganda, or maybe even advertising- they're so often at odds with the actual facts on the table as to be meaningless. Oh well.
Precise is the key to this one, I reckon. In ACtA, which is the game we're talking about writing stats for, most ion weapons do have Precise. I'd sooner see the rule called Piercing myself, but that would raise confusion with SST.
Battle lasers are/were, presumably, about 15-20", AP or Super AP, Beam. I'd not give them Precise; only the Ancients, Old ones and the Minbari have precise beams before about the 2230's. The Abbai managed to make them Precise, something the Centauri probably couldn't have cared less about, if they have ion cannons for that.
The Plasma Stream as 10", Super AP Beam Triple Slow-load, I like the idea in itself, but I don't see what it would be fitted to- it would have a major tactical effect if it did. I have no great objection to plucking ships out of the air, but that stat line screams 'Vorchan variant' to me.
Other interesting things; the energy mine- on the Vorchan, yes, silly, I know- was originally (by SFoS fluff) a species of mass accelerator; the barbarians wound up a stolen Centauri fighter reactor to overload, launched it and hoped it exploded where they wanted it to. Eventually they found out how to launch the plasma loops without the casing, and it matured into today's no.1 fighter obliterator.
'Because they didn't' probably is a good enough reason for not letting the Centauri use something of the sort, but it seems the only one.

 

[captainsmirk]

I suspect the Plasma Stream will be on the Mograth, where it is now...

Nick

 

[Slightly Norse John]

We need a slower, clumsier, more fragile Solarhawk clone? At Hull 5, damage 16 crew 18, the Morgrath is not fit for heavy combat, or as a prime weapons carrier. Arguably, neither is the Solarhawk. I intended to keep the stats the same or increased slightly, for the hull and the plasma stream, and arm it as an attack boat hunter, to chase down ships like the Hermes, G'Karith, Xixx and Xorr- possibly even the Tiraca, Olympus and Ka'Toc on a good day.
A ship to carry a very heavy, short ranged slow firing weapon has to have the agility and speed to get to it's target, shoot, and break off to look for another target. Secondary weapons are the Solarhawk's worst aspect; apart from that the stat package is actually pretty appropriate for it's job. Look how fast it gets blown up, anyway. Doing the same in purple and gold? Call me unconvinced.

 

[emperorpenguin]

.

In ACtA, which is the game we're talking about writing stats for, most ion weapons do have Precise.

that is because ion torps are a missile weapon and most such weapons have precise, it is not due to the "ionic" nature
Ion bolts on the rutarian I've no idea why they are precise
I see ion cannons as a rapid firing volley weapon, as far removed from precise as possible!

The Plasma Stream as 10", Super AP Beam Triple Slow-load, I like the idea in itself, but I don't see what it would be fitted to-.

On the Morgrath! as captainsmirk said

 

[Slightly Norse John]

Ion torpedoes are both; i(r)onically, the Centauri have one of the few missile types that proves there isn't a necessary connection between Precise and missile- what I've been calling the Ballistic Torpedo-D from the Demos.
There aren't that many ion weapons out there- apart from the torps, the Rutarian is pretty much it. Two for two. What to make of the disruptive effect from Ionic Burst E-mines? Give it half credit, two and a half for three?
How rapid is 'rapid'? Inheriting the stats of the current Heavy Array, double damage twin link? Past that through to mini-beam, mini-beam twin, or a continuous rolling volley most easily modelled by the Beam trait?
I like Precise; it's one of the few things that can reproduce the spectacular- kaboom effects as seen on screen. It's a real edge, one that I want for the fleet to maintain it's status as a major race. I play some Narn, some Minbari and a lot of EA, but my other main race is the Dilgar, and I do want to see clear daylight between them.
Precise discrete fire weapons maintain their status as a high level of threat without resorting to throwing high numbers of dice at the problem.

 

[emperorpenguin]

i(r)onically, the Centauri have one of the few missile types that proves there isn't a necessary connection between Precise and missile- what I've been calling the Ballistic Torpedo-D from the Demos.

Bad pun! :lol: Actually that is most likely MY fault :roll: I sent Matt stats for the Demos at the time of playtesting SFOS and I didn't make the ballistic torpedo precise, 95% of my design made it into SFOS

I like Precise; it's one of the few things that can reproduce the spectacular- kaboom effects as seen on screen. It's a real edge, one that I want for the fleet to maintain it's status as a major race.

but Centauri are reckoned as one of the best fleets at present with a real lack of precise weapons. I think precise better fits the lasers than the ion cannons. There was nothing precise about blowing off B5's forward cargo loading prong! Very bad aim!

 

[Lord David the Denied]

At that range they were lucky to hit the station at all!

Yes, still on the range issue!