I think this would be a huge mistake and have serious problems with balance against ships that do not have weak weapons. Not to mention after you playtest it for 6 months or so, the outrage about this will be so huge, it will be changed back to the way it currently is. See the threads about e-mines.
Dave
E-mines are too different to 'weak' weapons in my opinion; you can hit multiple targets at the full AD of the energy mines being used, but you have to split fire and lose AD with 'weak' arrays etc. I agree making E-Mines weak to was a bad Idea seeing as they could not critical - but this only suppourts that -1 to hit and no criticals is too much of a penalty.
Can someone try some of the systems presented so far and tell us what they find? I can't game until after new years so some feedback before the new years first gaming hall session would be wonderful.
Looking at the proposed systems we have;
1. Weak as -1 to hit
2. Weak as -1 to hit, cant critical
3. Weak as -1 to hit, critical as usual but with -1 Damage
4. Weak as -1 Damage, Bulkheads 1-2, cant Critical
5. Weak as -1 Damage, Bulkheads 1-2, can Critical as normal
6. Weak as -1 Damage, Bulkheads 1-2 can Critical but with -1 Damage
7. Weak as -1 to Hit, -1 Damage (Bulkheads 1-2, cant Critical)
8. Weak as -1 to Hit, -1 Damage (Bulkheads 1-2, can Critical as usual)
9. Weak as -1 to hit, -1 Damage, (Bulkheads 1-2 can Critical on a 6
but with -1 Damage)
I currently play with options 1 and 6 depending on the group, 1 i find does not represent weak as i feel it should and option 6 can sometimes feel draconian but tolerable.