CT Missile Massacres

[McPerth]

Anti-missile fire got a few, and ECM took out some more, but enough got through that the merc suffered 15D6 damage results. That's a guaranteed kill. :devil:

Using only Book 2 ship rules (and associated house rules) how does a combat vessel survive missile massacres?

Best regards,
Bob W

Don’t panic. 15d6 is an average of 52.5 hits. By rolling average dice that would mean

• 1-2 criticals
• 7 turret hits (probably 2-3 lost due to hitting an already damaged turret)
• 6 computer hits
• 7 hold hits
• 16 hull hits (no effect after the first one)
• 6 fuel hits (so losing 60 dtons of fuel)
• 4 JD hits (reducing it to H)
• 3 MD hits (reducingit to J)
• 1-2 PP hits (reducing it to L or K)

So, if you survive the critical(s) (no explode or computer hits), your ship can still have 2 G acceleration and is capable to jump 2, its computer will function on a 7+ each phase (computer skills applied as + DM), some opperative weaponry and (if it began combat with full tanks) still have over 250 dtons of fuel.

Yes, your spaceship is now a space cheese (emmental kind), but it's not yet a full loss (and maybe able to jump away).

That's what I don't like of CT:LBB2 combat damage system...

 

[whartung]

That's what I don't like of CT:LBB2 combat damage system...

What, that a ship can take a lot of damage?

 

[aramis]

A lot of people took Mayday's lead - 4th hull hit was break the hull. Many others (myself included) looked at the 4 hits as the average for ships in mayday, and realized 1 hull hit per 100 Td (minimum 2) to break the hull was more fun....

Fixing Book 2, for many, is just a matter of figuring out how to do armor and adding a hull hulked level on hull hits.

 

[McPerth]

What, that a ship can take a lot of damage?

That a ship can take so much damage and still have a nice probability to be more or less operational.

 

[kilemall]

A lot of people took Mayday's lead - 4th hull hit was break the hull. Many others (myself included) looked at the 4 hits as the average for ships in mayday, and realized 1 hull hit per 100 Td (minimum 2) to break the hull was more fun....

Fixing Book 2, for many, is just a matter of figuring out how to do armor and adding a hull hulked level on hull hits.

Got ahold of a cheap copy of MgT 1E and finally read the starship section a couple weeks ago- I think the Hull/Structure and armor/damage mechanism is fab, pretty good 'fix' for a CT style resolution table.

Although I'm not keen on the short ranges everything happens at, even if they do make for faster player-action rounds and perhaps more 'realistic' laser and missile ranges.

 

[hdan]

Fixing Book 2, for many, is just a matter of figuring out how to do armor and adding a hull hulked level on hull hits.

I've toyed with the idea of adding Bk2 "armor" as essentially an ablative effect that you can buy for each of the ship's sections (main and engineering). I chose ablation for the RPG aspects - "Captain, one more hit like that, and we'll lose the cargo!".

Here are my notes, in case anyone is interested:

A hull is either armored or unarmored. Each section (main, engineering) is armored separately. Each section's armor covers a certain range of hit locations (see below for details). If a hit hits an armored section, the armor blocks the hit, but is then compromised for that location. For example, if a ship with an armored engineering section takes a hit to the power plant, the hit will be discarded, but future hits to the power plant will be suffered as usual, as the armor there has been compromised.

Armor hits are repaired individually at a cost of 1% of the hull's cost per hit, and must be repaired at a C class or better shipyard. Note that you should never pay more than the armor's original cost to repair a section's armor.

Main Section:
Armor costs 3% of the hull's normal cost, and the armor itself takes up 5% of the section's volume.
The armor covers locations 6, 7, 8 (Hull and hold - the most statistically likely locations. Use the ship's floor plan to decide if the two hull hits should be crew/passenger or some other breakdown).

Engineering Section:
Armor costs 2% of the hull's normal cost, and the armor itself takes up 5% of the section's volume. Note that if the engineering section is larger than the main section, costs will need to be adjusted. Note that the smaller standard hulls generally do not have enough extra tonnage to contain the armor, so to armor the drives of a merchant ship, you would need a custom hull design.
The armor covers locations 2,3,4 (the drives).

Note that to armor the entire ship would cost 5% of the hull's cost, and would take 5% of the total ship's volume, split between the two sections.


I have some notes on higher tech armor materials and such, which amount to higher costs for more "dips", but require a star port with high enough TL to repair.