DIRECT FIRE
Different weapons use different dice.
You can initiate firing at any point during your activation & movement - you can fire from further out or wait until your movement takes you as close to your target as possible. When you fire, measure the range from your firing point to target.
You must equal or beat the range in order to score a hit. A natural "1" is always a miss.
Example: I.e. the range is 5". You must roll a 5 or better to score a hit---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firing Modifiers
Different modifiers can increase or decrease the effective range of the weapon.
A negative modifier adds +1" to the range (so treat 4" range as 5")
A positive modifier reduces the range by 1" (treat 4" range as 3")
Example: A ship is firing at a rapidly closing target at 5" range. Because it has a +2 penalty, the range is treated as 7", and thus a 7+ is needed to hitReaction Modifier. -1 each round of reaction fire after the first (cumulative, so the 3rd reaction is -2)
CQ modifier: +1" range each level that target is better than firer; -1" to range each level firer is better than target <---ditch this to cut down on modifiers
Size modifiers: Small target +1" range; Large target -1" range
Stationary Target: If a target is stationary or drifting, unpowered, at a predictable velocity, halve all ranges
Evasive Action: Each thrust spent on evasive action adds +1 to all enemy fire aimed at the shipVelocity Modifiers: The relative velocity of ships compared to each other modifies fire (see separate section) <---this could complicate things excessively and have to be replaced by a simpler system
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Firing Priority
Active ships usually fire on any enemy that comes into effective range (half the normal range - say 5" on a d10 weapon). To ignore this rule and reserve fire for a juicier target, pass a CQ test. Ships can ignore smaller ships than itself with no test required.
Are the short ranges of the weapons just to keep things simple?
ReplyDeleteI like the D10 >= range to hit, but could there be a way to increase the range much higher, like double or triple? If the lethality is adjusted, then this would allow more maneuver at a distance instead of encouraging ships to cluster together.
It would also allow greater differentiation of weapon types; beam weapons would have greater range and accuracy but kinetic weapons would have closer range and greater effectiveness.
"It would also allow greater differentiation of weapon types; beam weapons would have greater range and accuracy but kinetic weapons would have closer range and greater effectiveness."
ReplyDeleteKinetics measured ranges from drift marker to drift marker/ship; lasers from ship to ship; that made a huge difference....