T20 Starship combat

[mike wightman]

I'd treat the radiation as a separate attack and so reduce the rad damage by 3 points for the armour.
I would apply rad damage to the SI of the ship, and roll once on the rad damage chart.

I would also apply the 8 points of damage to the SI and roll on the internal damage table.

 

[endersg]

Getting closer... everyone agree on reducing the radition damage roll (the 1d12) by AR?

 

[veltyen]

Yep. For attacks that don't ignore armor (mesons).

Most types of radiation do get blocked by matter. Some particles can be stopped by thin paper.

 

[BetterThanLife]

OK First, if the weapon is factor 1. Then it would be 1D6+5D6 Normal +1D12 Radiation.

SO you need one more D6 roll. If it was a factor 2 missile (TL13 Triple Missile rack) Then it would be 2D6+5D6 + 2D12 Radiation Damage.

Using the Factor 1 Missile, and the roll coming up 5, 5, 6, 1, 3, 4, and 6 (for the D12) with an AR of 3, the Missile will do 16 points of SI damage from the normal part ( lose the lowest 3 dice) of the attack and 3 points from the radiation portion of the attack (Subtract 3 points from the one die). (If you subtract radiation damage from the SI in your interpretation.) Now you also get one roll on the "Radiation Weapopns Internal Damage" table and one on the "All Weapons Internal Damage Table".

Against lightly armored craft Nukes will kill you or at least mission kill you quickly.

Against an Atlantic (AR10, Nulear Damper 6) That same attack will do 0 Damage normal damage and 0 damage Radiation damage. Subtract 5 dice, then subtract the remaining 5 points of Armor from the highest die (6-5=1) then subtract 6 points for the Nuclear Damper (1-6=-5), Radiation damage is 6-16=-10. SInce neither of the damage rolls do any damage there are no internal damage rolls.

Against a Perrisher Drednaught (AR0, Nuclear Damper 6), this helps demonstrate the problems with this design, The Same attack will do 5 points of SI damage and 0 points of Radiation damage. (though an average roll will do .5 points of radiation damage.) Garnering an Internal damage roll. (If you rolled a 7+ on the D12 then you also get a roll on the Radiation damage roll.) Against a Perisher a Factor 1 HE missile rolling a 4 on the D6 will do 4 points of SI damage and get an Internal Hit roll.

(The Perisher can defend itself, and will shoot down 50 incoming missiles, but anything above that will hurt. So, for example, if the fighters from an AHL (80 fighters) were all equipped with a Factor 1 Missile launcher, they would have a decent chance of rendering a Perisher Combat ineffective with one volley. (If the Perisher was busy with the AHL's Missile Bays at the same time, then they have a very definite chance of rendering the Perisher Dead in Space with one volley.) BTW a Tigress, Kokkirak or a Plankwell all laugh at Factor 1 missiles that aren't crits.

 

[BetterThanLife]

One other point. In most cases, especially with the larger ships it isn't the SI points that kill you it is the internal damage rolls. Meson weapons being the exception with the larger ships and Fusion Guns have a similar effect, though not as pronounced, against smaller ships. When receiving Meson Fire, especially Spinal Meson fire there is rarely anything left to roll Internal damage on.

 

[aramis]

Not an official answer, but at least one from a lead playtester...

Radiation damage: yes, it's extra damage. It's affected by dampers. Yes, it does SI; this represents systems being blown and welds weakened by induced currents, secondary radiations, etc.

Not having the extra SI is not a big deal. It will make the survivability of larger ships in major combat higher, but one crit can often terminate even the largest cap-ships; most of the playtest was sub 10KTd. We (my group) didn't apply armor vs Radiation; dampers were used instead, not in addition.

A nuke missile doing 5d6 + 1d12 successfully attacks a ship with AR 3.

The rolls are: 5,5,6,1,3 + rad(iation) 6.

SI damage =11 normal + 6 radiation as I understqand the rules. Two internal damage rolls: one normal, one radiation.

Why Radiation? Since heavy armored vessels can often survive big hits, but often have no radiation protection to speak of... and so radiation hits can whack even them. Or, for the purists, it's a hold over from High Guard.

Why no Rads? It was discussed, but we didn't have time nor agreement on how to do it; Hunnter, I think, decided to leave it for later supplements.

x1 Crit: No extra damage, save that armor does not apply. (Nor screens, etc.) Armor and screens not applying is plenty extra damage, though.

Batteries: Yes, one to hit roll per battery to get full damage and bonus. The tighter grouping increases penetration versus armor, improves to hits, and against poorly armored targets, can result in much more damage. For multiple internals, howerver, lower battery values are not a "bad thing" per se. Pirates will want to use the minimum UCP to get past armor; knocking out systems is more important than killing the structure.

 

[endersg]

Alright. I feel better now. IMTU, AR will apply against extra Radiation damage with any damage getting through causing a roll on the radiation internal damage chart.

Thanks!

 

[MrMorden]

I like nukes.

 

[princelian]

Unless I'm missing something, sandcasters aren't completely useless, especially in small ship battles, where the USPs are likely to be small. If you're playing a tramp merchant - slash - adventurer campaign, they might just save your ship.

That being said, they're not as good as a laser mount. It's far better (assuming you have competent gunners) to knock out the enemy's laser emplacements than to try to make him miss. (After all, he might be a good shot, but that won't matter if his laser is rapidly expanding metal and ceramic vapors, now will it?)

I used to allow softpoint-mounting of sandcasters (and after I take a longer look at starship combat, I still might) so you could avoid taking up valuable hardpoint space for them...

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by princelian:
Unless I'm missing something, sandcasters aren't completely useless, especially in small ship battles, where the USPs are likely to be small. If you're playing a tramp merchant - slash - adventurer campaign, they might just save your ship.

That being said, they're not as good as a laser mount. It's far better (assuming you have competent gunners) to knock out the enemy's laser emplacements than to try to make him miss. (After all, he might be a good shot, but that won't matter if his laser is rapidly expanding metal and ceramic vapors, now will it?)

I used to allow softpoint-mounting of sandcasters (and after I take a longer look at starship combat, I still might) so you could avoid taking up valuable hardpoint space for them...

Actually with all the potential modifiers to hit, when receiving fire from a tramp merchant then the sand has potential to cause a miss. Against a Military craft, even a small one, they are pretty much useless. (My 4 seat fighters render sand virtually useless with a commander, offensive EW, Pilot and gunner being the crew to maximize hits.) A Merchant can get the same type of mods by the simple expedient of not having the pilot also being the commander and having the engineer or some other individual not otherwise engaged, running your EW/sensors. Basically in T20 you want a command crew of 3-4 to maximize your chances to hit and to minimize your chances of being hit. (These positions are not also gunners, pilots or otherwise occupied.) Most ships have, especially in a small ship arena, an AC of less than 15. And Merchies generally have an AC of 10. (Fighters being an exception.)With a reasonable gunnery skill, or IMTU BAB, you are looking at a roll of about 3 or 4 to hit. Adding 2-4 points to AC isn't going to help that much.

 

[Valarian]

Originally posted by BetterThanLife:
My 4 seat fighters render sand virtually useless with a commander, offensive EW, Pilot and gunner being the crew to maximize hits.

How big is this fighter? It sounds more like a gunboat than a fighter.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

4 crew is way too much to sacrifice per unit in combat for a fighter. One fighter downed is four flight officers smoked...

 

[archhealer]

Better four flight officers than enough computers to compensate. Computers are expensive.