Point Defense Batteries

[Sir Rath]

Here are the mechanics of Point Defense Batteries so far:
"A point defense battery intercepts an attack on a 2D roll equal to or more than its Intercept score, as shown on the Point Defense table. A cumulative DM-1 is applied to this roll for every additional attacker defended against in the same round."

Just for clarification, by "additional attacker" do they mean other ships firing at you in the same combat round, or is that a typo for volley?

For instance, let's say a single ship fires a missile volley from 3 medium bays each? Is there a -1DM for defending against the latter two volleys? Or would the -DM only apply when 3 separate ships fire one volley each?

Also, shouldn't it be harder to defend against larger bay attacks? Shouldn't a volley of 120 missiles from a large bay be harder for the P.D. battery to counter than a volley of 12 missiles from a small bay?

 

[Nerhesi]

Here are the mechanics of Point Defense Batteries so far:
"A point defense battery intercepts an attack on a 2D roll equal to or more than its Intercept score, as shown on the Point Defense table. A cumulative DM-1 is applied to this roll for every additional attacker defended against in the same round."

Just for clarification, by "additional attacker" do they mean other ships firing at you in the same combat round, or is that a typo for volley?

For instance, let's say a single ship fires a missile volley from 3 medium bays each? Is there a -1DM for defending against the latter two volleys? Or would the -DM only apply when 3 separate ships fire one volley each?

Also, shouldn't it be harder to defend against larger bay attacks? Shouldn't a volley of 120 missiles from a large bay be harder for the P.D. battery to counter than a volley of 12 missiles from a small bay?

Was counting it as per single missile/torpedo.

I dont think we need special rules for volleys - Until we have overarching special rules for large combats. The second we start dealing with above 12 missiles, is the second we need to have rules for 1200 missiles.

Similar to DD, there should be a quick way method to identify missiles shot down in orders of magnitude... Maybe its as simple as a -2 to a point defense roll to see if should down groups of 10 missiles or perhaps it's make a roll, compare results to a table that has # of point defense batteries and lasers used defensively vs incoming missiles this turn, resulting in % shot down ( I think this would work better)

 

[phavoc]

Here are the mechanics of Point Defense Batteries so far:
"A point defense battery intercepts an attack on a 2D roll equal to or more than its Intercept score, as shown on the Point Defense table. A cumulative DM-1 is applied to this roll for every additional attacker defended against in the same round."

Just for clarification, by "additional attacker" do they mean other ships firing at you in the same combat round, or is that a typo for volley?

For instance, let's say a single ship fires a missile volley from 3 medium bays each? Is there a -1DM for defending against the latter two volleys? Or would the -DM only apply when 3 separate ships fire one volley each?

Also, shouldn't it be harder to defend against larger bay attacks? Shouldn't a volley of 120 missiles from a large bay be harder for the P.D. battery to counter than a volley of 12 missiles from a small bay?

It really shouldn't matter. Missiles fired by the enemy arrive in one phase of combat. Traveller starship combat rules don't support concepts such as firing arcs, or englobement or anything else. It would be a mistake to try and shoehorn these ideas into combat now without totally reworking everything.

So as a defender you have X number of missiles arriving this turn and you attempt to shoot them down during the point defense phase. That should be the end of things. Any DM's should be somewhat restricted, as pretty much everything is going to be computer controlled in both the attack and defense. When you get to barrages it comes down to the penetration capabilities of the missile vs. the defensive algorithms of your targeting sensors. And let lady luck smile on your dice rolls.