You would think the meson screen aspect would have been mentioned before, since you would have to declare it with black globes.
Maybe the writer was thinking of Star Trek.
Entirely Possible.
See, here's what goes through my mind regards to the Meson Screen...
The description of the Meson Gun is that it goes through a planned decay. It also sticks in my mind, that it required TWO beams to collide at the point of impact (Maybe I'm mis-remembering, so RESEARCH it to confirm or deny!!!). IF it s two beams colliding at the same point, then the decay from the collision is what produces the energetic damage and radiation at the point of impact. If it is only ONE beam decaying as planned, the end result is the same: the end point experiences the nasty effects.
So how does the Meson Screen handle all of this? Can a meson screen for example, block ALL meson communications? If it is two beams that impact, then it would seem that any screen on your end, should be able to do the same thing at your end, that a protective screen at the target's end. Correct? But what if, the incipient decay of a single beam is what the Meson Screen is deflecting so it doesn't cause the damage? Does it make the entire beam deflect harmlessly (ie no decay with no concentrated explosion) or does it deflect it so that it explodes harmlessly somewhere else?
The "details" if you will, don't seem to have been fleshed out. With the black globe, things are a little more tricky. It brings to mind the propeller interrupter gear used in World War I. The timing mechanism blocks the weapon so it can't fire through the propeller, but otherwise lets the machine gun fire when the propeller won't be in the way. Firing OUT of a black globe set to flicker works in that fashion. The trick for the enemy fleet is to fire at you when the globe isn't blocking - which is why (presumably) the authors of the rules did what they did.
Implications thought of after the fact tend to try to rationalize things that look to be a problem. Sometimes the rationalizations are valid, sometimes they're a HUGE request to hit the "I BELIEVE" button that all of these over the top movies ask the audience to press so that their critical thinking doesn't get in the way of a good action adventure thrilling sequence. Me? I prefer less pushing of the I believe button and let the STORY move me along, but I'm reaching the understanding that my tastes are not those of the audience. In about another 20 years or so (or sooner, who knows!) I will be laid to rest forever, and my tastes (possibly that of a generation?) will die with me. Point is, I like my Sci-Fi to be reasonably plausible. Artificial gravity plates are a "nice" thing to have instead of realistic scenes for a sci-fi setting. Here's a really NASTY trick you can use aboard a ship for your campaigns if you ever decide to try it...
Imagine having gravity plates set in your ship in deep space, and you have computers controlling "zones" for the defenders. On the wall, mount 3 G plates, and on the floor, mount your normal plates. If someone aims a ballistic weapon at you (such as a gun), and the computer defense system determines that you're in danger - imagine how a lateral 3G field will help deflect a bullet's path aimed at say, your center of mass? Can a 10 foot long gravity field set to 3 G made sufficient a difference as to cause the bullet to miss its intended target point sufficiently to save a character's life? Implications. If Traveller Technology were real, man's inventiveness and capacity for both war and defense from war, would take technology and pervert it extensively beyond its original intended application. Being able to separate out component parts based on density (centifuges anyone?) could also have an interesting effect with variable gravity gradients. Having control of positive/negative ions AND gravity could also have interesting chemical ramifications.
In the end? We're given the basic underlying premise of how space battles go with HIGH GUARD and take it from there. Then we had BATTLE LANCES that had its own presumptions thrown in the mix. Then we had the original CT combat rules (and it required Mayday to bring both High Guard and the classic rules together). Then we had the abstractions introduced with Range bands, then T4's rules, T5's rules, T20's rules, GURPS TRAVELLER rules (which made Missile combat deadly until someone said "that's not classic Traveller in flavor" and nerfed the max damage that a kinetic kill missile can achieve at high velocities). I've not looked too closely at Mongoose Traveller (no insults intended!), but in the end - the story is the thing, and people look at the rules as closely (or not) as needed.
So, if you want to use the Star Trek mode of "Shields", go for it.
I just have one minor question to ask...
If nuclear dampner technology works on Nuclear weapons, why doesn't it work on the radiation aspect of a Meson weapon? Does a Gamma Ray laser suffer any impediments when going up against a Nuclear Dampner field?
Sometimes, it just isn't worth trying to work out all of the ramifications! Especially when my own ignorance will cause me to make the same level of mistakes that perhaps the game designers had for their own, when they first made up the rules back in the day.
Thought for the day as anyone ponders these questions/thoughts...
Do you know why I sometimes hate watching movies these days? Cell phones. In the past, before the cell phone invention, you could watch a movie made in the 60's and watch it in the 70's or 80's and it wouldn't be jarringly different than today. Now, if you watch a movie before a certain brand of smart phones hit the market, or before flip cell phones were so passé, you know the movie has already "dated" itself with that one MINOR inconsistency. So it is and will be, with any Sci-Fi game or anything that attempted to predict a future of 30 years from now (let alone the CENTURIES that Traveller postulates) without something going haywire. Even something as simple as "Anagathics" is starting to take a hit now because of modern technology. Even something like being able to create surrogate egg cells from living skin tissue means a whole heck of a lot of social changes just waiting to hit our descendents into the future not far from now, let alone in the age of the Second Imperium! Can you imagine a life with artificial wombs where men no longer need women to bring in the next generation, or women needing men to keep the species alive?
THAT is what weapon technology of the future and space battles of the future will have in store for us. Things that we can't even imagine, nor see the ramifications. So - use the game as you see fit. It is a shared reality from the Author(s)' fertile minds for us to use in our games. Use it or not as you see fit.
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