Pinpoint targetting for starship combat

[Fireflame]

Has anyone revisited the pinpoint rules for space comabt in MGT? Reviewing what I can in the various other editions and the available MGT books, I find very little. In MT, when a ship is in visual range (<50Km), then if exceptional success is achieved the attacker may select it's target.

How does this translate into MGT?

If this has been covered already, can someone point me in the right direction please.

 

[MrUkpyr]

Has anyone revisited the pinpoint rules for space comabt in MGT? Reviewing what I can in the various other editions and the available MGT books, I find very little. In MT, when a ship is in visual range (<50Km), then if exceptional success is achieved the attacker may select it's target.

How does this translate into MGT?

I handle this by increasing the difficulty modifiers based on what the gunner is trying to do. I also make it so *only* a live person can do it.

 

[Golan2072]

Are you speaking about selecting a specific subsystem on the target ship? In CT you did this with the Select program; you could either convert Select to the MGT computer rules or add its function to the existing Fire Control software.

 

[alex_greene]

I handle this by increasing the difficulty modifiers based on what the gunner is trying to do. I also make it so *only* a live person can do it.

LOL I'm coming down on the Devil's Advocate's bench here.

A computer - directed fire control system is capable of much more accuracy than any live sophont can ever be capable of, all the myths about sharp shooters in fiction notwithstanding.

The only action a live character can make is to act or not to act: to fire, or not to fire. Beyond the pressing of a button, that's all that he can do that a computer cannot do better.

 

[lastbesthope]

A computer - directed fire control system is capable of much more accuracy than any live sophont can ever be capable of, all the myths about sharp shooters in fiction notwithstanding.

Have to argue with you there, a computer and a person are both capable of the perfect shot, but a computer will be more consistent than a human, or at least is likely to be.

i.e. the distribution of the miss distance from the perfect shot will be better defined and likely narrower for a computer than a 'human/sentient being'

LBH

 

[Sevya]

It should probably be software driven. A computer may be more precise in its shot placement, but that will still be driven by software parameters. If you just tell the computer to target a given ship, the computer will consider any hit on the target ship to be sufficient. It will need further direction to target weapons, in which case its success will depend mostly on how well it can identify weapons based on sensor feeds and its own program.

I like the idea of having modifiers based on the size of the target you are trying to hit. It seems reasonable to be harder to hit a specific turret than to hit the engineering section. Perhaps reducing these penalties if the firer is a computer would work, too.

Sevya