So I think I'll use my first post to tackel one of my most nagging question, one which doesn't seem to have come up so far:
1) What makes a Fusion Gun more desirable than a Plasma Gun?
Sure, the fluff mentions how Fusion Guns are more damaging because they can reach greater temperatures, but as far as I can tell the only functional difference between the weapons is that Plasma Guns are cheaper and not affected by Nuclear Dampers.
2) What makes either of these guns more desirable than Lasers?
In most editions the trusty Beam Laser and Pulse Laser are turret-only weapons. But in T5 they can be used with any mount, so they're now also competing with Fusion and Plasma Guns for Barbette real estate.
Now Laser Barbettes seem to have many perks over Fusion/Plasma: They're cheaper, they have inherent effects (Beam being more accurate, Pulse being more damaging), and there are fewer defenses that can stop Lasers (whereas Fusion/Plasma can be stopped by everything that can stop Lasers, plus a few additional systems).
I think maybe I have skipped something regarding a weapon's base TL having some effect that you can't get by just upping the TL of an earlier weapon systen, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
(I'm personally gravitating towards making Fusion/Plasma hits partially penetrating, or just add Hits to keep it simpler.)
1) What makes a Fusion Gun more desirable than a Plasma Gun?
Sure, the fluff mentions how Fusion Guns are more damaging because they can reach greater temperatures, but as far as I can tell the only functional difference between the weapons is that Plasma Guns are cheaper and not affected by Nuclear Dampers.
2) What makes either of these guns more desirable than Lasers?
In most editions the trusty Beam Laser and Pulse Laser are turret-only weapons. But in T5 they can be used with any mount, so they're now also competing with Fusion and Plasma Guns for Barbette real estate.
Now Laser Barbettes seem to have many perks over Fusion/Plasma: They're cheaper, they have inherent effects (Beam being more accurate, Pulse being more damaging), and there are fewer defenses that can stop Lasers (whereas Fusion/Plasma can be stopped by everything that can stop Lasers, plus a few additional systems).
I think maybe I have skipped something regarding a weapon's base TL having some effect that you can't get by just upping the TL of an earlier weapon systen, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
(I'm personally gravitating towards making Fusion/Plasma hits partially penetrating, or just add Hits to keep it simpler.)