So, advice.
Book-2 and Book-5 handle unarmored hulls very differently. Book 2 laser and missile hits can damage the power plant, jump drive, computer, can injure crew, or can even cause the ship to be destroyed on a critical, and missiles can inflict multiple hits. Book 5 unarmored hulls only take such damage from nuclear missiles or spinal-mount weapons; other weapons can only damage the maneuver drive, weapons, or fuel. Book 5 lasers and non-nuclear missiles seem to be unable to completely penetrate the hull.
Book 5 unarmored hulls have a Striker rating of 40, equivalent to 33.6 cm steel; by way of comparison, the battleship New Jersey carried 28.7 cm belt armor. MegaTraveller says this is necessary to protect space travelers from radiation hazards; MT's Hard Times, in "One Small Step", has individuals taking radiation damage in "disposable hulls," which they define as an armor rating of 8 or more (and presumably less than 40) but they are vague as to the radiation sources, mentioning only "astrographic realities".
Apollo did not reach the moon in battleship armor, and we've no plans to head to Mars in battleship-armored spacecraft. The current solution seems to be a thick layer of polyethylene or some similar substance sandwiched between two metal plates of some sort, possibly doped with other materials that are better at absorbing gamma. This would behave much like a Book-2 hull: it would protect from solar wind and cosmic radiation, but it could conceivably be penetrated by shrapnel from a sufficiently powerful missile and from the ship-mounted lasers described in MT/Striker.
Book 5 produces very similar damage results to Book 2 if secondary weapons do not receive the +6 penalty, but Book 2 was a fairly dangerous combat environment. Take away the +6 penalty and Book 5 fleet actions become brutal for anything but a well-armored warship, and even those are losing weapons pretty consistently.
I'm also exploring some sort of rule to account for smaller craft having thinner armor for the same percentage spent on armor as bigger craft: fighters would end up carrying only a quarter of the armor rating the normal rules would suggest. Large warcraft would be much easier to armor, but I'm not certain if I want to keep the TL armor limit or raise that to let them armor up more to resist the secondary weapons better. I'm inclined to keep the limit; I've never been much on invulnerable (to anything but mesons) warships.
So, what do you think about dropping the +6 penalty (and presumably giving a -6 bonus to spinal particle weapons) so the Book 5 combat has a more Book 2 feel to it?
Book-2 and Book-5 handle unarmored hulls very differently. Book 2 laser and missile hits can damage the power plant, jump drive, computer, can injure crew, or can even cause the ship to be destroyed on a critical, and missiles can inflict multiple hits. Book 5 unarmored hulls only take such damage from nuclear missiles or spinal-mount weapons; other weapons can only damage the maneuver drive, weapons, or fuel. Book 5 lasers and non-nuclear missiles seem to be unable to completely penetrate the hull.
Book 5 unarmored hulls have a Striker rating of 40, equivalent to 33.6 cm steel; by way of comparison, the battleship New Jersey carried 28.7 cm belt armor. MegaTraveller says this is necessary to protect space travelers from radiation hazards; MT's Hard Times, in "One Small Step", has individuals taking radiation damage in "disposable hulls," which they define as an armor rating of 8 or more (and presumably less than 40) but they are vague as to the radiation sources, mentioning only "astrographic realities".
Apollo did not reach the moon in battleship armor, and we've no plans to head to Mars in battleship-armored spacecraft. The current solution seems to be a thick layer of polyethylene or some similar substance sandwiched between two metal plates of some sort, possibly doped with other materials that are better at absorbing gamma. This would behave much like a Book-2 hull: it would protect from solar wind and cosmic radiation, but it could conceivably be penetrated by shrapnel from a sufficiently powerful missile and from the ship-mounted lasers described in MT/Striker.
Book 5 produces very similar damage results to Book 2 if secondary weapons do not receive the +6 penalty, but Book 2 was a fairly dangerous combat environment. Take away the +6 penalty and Book 5 fleet actions become brutal for anything but a well-armored warship, and even those are losing weapons pretty consistently.
I'm also exploring some sort of rule to account for smaller craft having thinner armor for the same percentage spent on armor as bigger craft: fighters would end up carrying only a quarter of the armor rating the normal rules would suggest. Large warcraft would be much easier to armor, but I'm not certain if I want to keep the TL armor limit or raise that to let them armor up more to resist the secondary weapons better. I'm inclined to keep the limit; I've never been much on invulnerable (to anything but mesons) warships.
So, what do you think about dropping the +6 penalty (and presumably giving a -6 bonus to spinal particle weapons) so the Book 5 combat has a more Book 2 feel to it?