Travellers Needed - Missiles (check our numbers)

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Very happy to hear that! I was honestly a bit worried that they’d end up different enough to more or less require the new books in order to keep up with future releases, glad that’s not gonna happen.

Will there be any form of get-you-by update for the old versions, like tables with changes to weapons, stats and stuff?

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Can you let me know where this comes from? Point defense is one of my main concerns, ...

The point defense reaction is not an attack roll, and the laser to hit-bonus and fire control software specifically adds to attack rolls.

Exactly.

An attack is defined on p156:

When a ship attacks another [ship], it declares it is going to attack and selects a target.

This is just an extension of the ground combat rules on p71:

Attack
The most common Significant Action used in combat is to attack. An attack is an attempt to damage or injure an enemy with either a melee or ranged weapon, such as a knife or a rifle.

The Traveller declares he is going to attack and selects a target. The target may then choose a Reaction. The Traveller then makes an appropriate skill check and, as normal for any Average skill check, if he scores 8+, the attack is successful and damage is dealt to the target (see Damage on page 73).

The PD reaction is explicitly not an attack (p160):

REACTIONS
...
Point Defence (Gunner)
Using a turret-mounted laser (beam or pulse), a gunner can destroy incoming missiles. Note that a weapon used for point defence cannot be used to make attacks in the same combat round, and vice versa.

The DM+4 for beam lasers comes from a table labeled (p156):

Common Modifiers to Spacecraft Attacks
The following modifiers are commonly used to influence Gunner checks when attacking.

They are not used for other checks or rolls.


Fire Control software gives bonuses to attacks, and only attacks (p151):

Alternatively, it can give a positive DM to an attack equal to the listed number,

So, it does not apply to reactions, neither PD nor Disperse Sand.


Both Attacks and PD Reactions are resolved using skill checks with the Gunnery skill, so anything applying to Gunnery or checks in general would apply to both, such as anything boosting Gunnery skill or the chosen characteristic DM.

As always, AnotherDilbert explained it better

Another, related discussion might be if some form of fire control software *should* be able to contribute to point defense work. Perhaps not the regular program, but a specialized intercept software?

The obvious danger with such software is of course the issue of balance. Doesn’t quite feel right if a single laser turret can defend against a bay’s worth of missiles, after all.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Will there be any form of get-you-by update for the old versions, like tables with changes to weapons, stats and stuff?

Likely not - we have taken pains to ensure the current Core Rulebook remains completely useable.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Another, related discussion might be if some form of fire control software *should* be able to contribute to point defense work. Perhaps not the regular program, but a specialized intercept software?

The obvious danger with such software is of course the issue of balance. Doesn’t quite feel right if a single laser turret can defend against a bay’s worth of missiles, after all.

I don't think that is much of a problem. Missiles are very strong, possibly the best weapon in the game. PD isn't overly strong, rather too weak.

I don't see much problem with some sort of Advanced Point Defence software giving a DM of +1-+3 to PD. We can't run all the software we want in combat anyway, since we can only have one computer system active.

That would push for dedicated escort craft doing PD for the regular battle squadrons, which is already supported by canon.

 

[Condottiere]

Missiles are versatile, and I would assume would balance off with the power requirement by energy weapon systems.

I recall commenting that previous editions were vastly undercosted.

 

[Old School]

As always, AnotherDilbert explained it better

Another, related discussion might be if some form of fire control software *should* be able to contribute to point defense work. Perhaps not the regular program, but a specialized intercept software?

The obvious danger with such software is of course the issue of balance. Doesn’t quite feel right if a single laser turret can defend against a bay’s worth of missiles, after all.

This whole process defies logic. Either beam lasers are more accurate, or they're not. Either fire control increases accuracy, or it doesn't. So we give beam lasers, or any laser equipped with Fire Control, a bonus when shooting at a ship but not when shooting at a missile? Despite an attack and a PD reaction being the exact same skill check? You say this is RAW, I say reductio ad absurdum.

In MTU, missiles are treated as harder to hit than ships, in that beam lasers get a +2, pulse lasers get no DM, and other weapons have no PD option, although a strong argument could be made that other beam weapons should have a PD option at -2 DM. This has the added benefit of keeping beam lasers relevant in the game. Otherwise the advantages of pulse lasers are simply too great.

The RAW is never going to get you all the way there. Mongoose has explicitly stated they'd rather give you 90% of the explanation over using more words to get you 100%. The other 10% is up to you as referee.