Opinion: KISS

[AnotherDilbert]

The current written procedure for missiles seems to be something like:

For each missile:
1. Launch (Roll)
2. Enemy EW (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)
3. Travel
4. Keep track of target movement.
5. If not arrived yet goto 2
6. PD
a: Point Defence Batteries (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)
b: Turret Laser Point Defence (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)
Order of step a and b is undefined...
7. Target evasion (Roll)
8. Attack roll (Roll)
9. Multiple Warhead roll (Roll)
10. Screen (Roll) [Maybe?]
11. Damage (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)

The order of steps 6 to 10 are not explicitly stated, but I am making a simple guess based on earlier editions of Traveller.


Compare with the procedure for a Particle turret:
1. Target Evasion (Roll) [How do you dodge a near light-speed beam?]
2. Attack (Roll)
3. Damage (Roll)

Clear, concise, and simple. Great! It would be even better if the Evasion reaction could be turned into a once per round "Evasive Manoeuvering" action


As a Referee will I ever toss missiles at the players Free Trader/Scout: No, to complicated...
As a Player will I ever equip my Free Trader/Scout with a missile rack: Hell, no.
In a TCS setting will I use missiles: Only if I can clearly work out a statistical resolution to what happens when I toss 1000 missiles at that destroyer.


I am a nerd, I will happily spend a few hours designing a good ship, but I do not want to spend hours of face-to-face game time to resolve a small starship skirmish.


Sorry for the rant, I have tried work out how a reasonable warship would work under the new rules, and mostly failed.

 

[Nerhesi]

1. Target Evasion (Roll) [How do you dodge a near light-speed beam?]

a) There is actually no roll - to speed things up

b) Youre not dodging the beam once fired. You're undertaking evasion techniques during that 6 minute period. This is as likely as having gunnery+dex matter at all in space combat. One cannot assume that gunner skill matters while piloting skill does not. Either they both do, or both do not This has huge implications, not just from a logical consistency perspective, but also from a balance perspective and a player interaction perspective.

For each missile:
1. Launch (Roll)
2. Enemy EW (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)
3. Travel
4. Keep track of target movement.
5. If not arrived yet goto 2
6. PD
a: Point Defence Batteries (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)
b: Turret Laser Point Defence (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)
Order of step a and b is undefined...
7. Target evasion (Roll)
8. Attack roll (Roll)
9. Multiple Warhead roll (Roll)
10. Screen (Roll) [Maybe?]
11. Damage (Roll, possibly multiple Rolls)

To be honest - you're right. I skill the launch roll for the missiles and just generally do the final roll. So really, a missile is just a beam that has more defences against it - but generally comes at you in larger groups.

As a Referee will I ever toss missiles at the players Free Trader/Scout: No, to complicated...
As a Player will I ever equip my Free Trader/Scout with a missile rack: Hell, no.
In a TCS setting will I use missiles: Only if I can clearly work out a statistical resolution to what happens when I toss 1000 missiles at that destroyer.

I am a nerd, I will happily spend a few hours designing a good ship, but I do not want to spend hours of face-to-face game time to resolve a small starship skirmish.

Join the nerd club

However, missiles are now very effective and I would think players will want to use more of them. Despite the PD time required/spent.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

a) There is actually no roll - to speed things up

Great!

b) Youre not dodging the beam once fired. You're undertaking evasion techniques during that 6 minute period. This is as likely as having gunnery+dex matter at all in space combat. One cannot assume that gunner skill matters while piloting skill does not. Either they both do, or both do not This has huge implications, not just from a logical consistency perspective, but also from a balance perspective and a player interaction perspective.

Great!
Core p160 says dodge one attack per thrust, is that changed to all attacks this round?
This is cumulative with Evade software?

However, missiles are now very effective and I would think players will want to use more of them. Despite the PD time required/spent.

In High Guard as written missile defenses seems to be too effective. It will be a challenge to strike the right balance...