Usp

[shadowdragon]

So I got curious, and tooked a looked and lo and behold- as more missiles are added to a missile turret battery, each individual missile becomes less effective. As the USP also increases the chance to hit, this might be a balancing issue. But what I could not figure out is how to logically explain why 30 identical items impacting are less destructive in a battery round than as an individual warheads. 10 triple missile turrets in a battery, USP of 6, meaning 11d6 damage, and +6 to hit. Right? Damage range of 11-66 points, no increased chance of a critical other than 10 or less points of AR wont save you, definite SI damage and therefore critical damage is done. Supposing maximum damage is done, SI is reduced by 66 points (discounting armor) and we have 1 critical hit effect.

ok

so lets look at 10 batteries of 1 triple missile turret firing. USP only a +1, so the chance to hit is significantly less. Armor greater than 5AR will make you immune to the weapons, but if you are not highly armored, potentially 180 - 1080 points of damage are coming your way. By averaging that out we have 630 potential points of SI damage done, and up to 30 separate critical hit effects.

Add to this, the fact that with a 10 turret battery, one to-hit roll and all 30 missiles miss or hit, whereas with 10 batteries, that's ten chances to hit.

We will skip the issues of point-defense.....

Who has a rational explanation for the huge degradation of missile performance (1 missile of USP 1=100%, 30 missiles of USP 6=20%) that does not just amount to "game balance" or "that's how its done in (__insert favorite version here__). Something I can hold in my hand and say- "ok, I can cope with that".

 

[veltyen]

Who has a rational explanation for the huge degradation of missile performance (1 missile of USP 1=100%, 30 missiles of USP 6=20%) that does not just amount to "game balance" or "that's how its done in (__insert favorite version here__). Something I can hold in my hand and say- "ok, I can cope with that".

Gunnery tables. For arrays of weapons you are relying on statistical output, rather then individual effort. For example, a single infantryman firing a rifle at a modern jet fighter is a waste of ammo. A company doing so on the other hand....[1]

A single missile exploding near the target lands some level of shrapnel onto the target. However that missile NEEDS to land on target, otherwise it won't be effective.

A volley of missiles will land more missiles on target much more easily (being easier to hit) but some missiles will be off target - these are lost in the noise, and the damage is reduced.

Yes. If you want to equip your ship with 10 "expert gunners" firing their own personalised triple turret then on a case by case basis you will be regularly doing more damage. On the other hand (due to various issues with overloading the prediction and firecontrol electronics) these gunners will have a very hard time hitting anything at significant range.

If it worries you that much you can always allow
1: Reconfiguration of batteries on the fly
2: Use the USP rule in the combat section (Damage reduces by 1 per range band. Meaning that your USP 7 (10x3 TL13+) weapon has a SIGNIFICANT advantage over your USP 3 (1x3 TL13+) weapon).

Lastly you could crunch the numbers to come out with a solution that you are happy with.

[1] Is also nearly always pointless. But has been known to down fighters.

 

[shadowdragon]

Gunnery tables. For arrays of weapons you are relying on statistical output, rather then individual effort. For example, a single infantryman firing a rifle at a modern jet fighter is a waste of ammo. A company doing so on the other hand....[1]

A single missile exploding near the target lands some level of shrapnel onto the target. However that missile NEEDS to land on target, otherwise it won't be effective.

A volley of missiles will land more missiles on target much more easily (being easier to hit) but some missiles will be off target - these are lost in the noise, and the damage is reduced.

Yes. If you want to equip your ship with 10 "expert gunners" firing their own personalised triple turret then on a case by case basis you will be regularly doing more damage. On the other hand (due to various issues with overloading the prediction and firecontrol electronics) these gunners will have a very hard time hitting anything at significant range.

If it worries you that much you can always allow
1: Reconfiguration of batteries on the fly
2: Use the USP rule in the combat section (Damage reduces by 1 per range band. Meaning that your USP 7 (10x3 TL13+) weapon has a SIGNIFICANT advantage over your USP 3 (1x3 TL13+) weapon).

Lastly you could crunch the numbers to come out with a solution that you are happy with.

[1] Is also nearly always pointless. But has been known to down fighters.

Good Points- missed the reduction by range band thing, suppose i gotta re-read the books to see what else i missed. As far as reconfiguring batteries on the fly- that has to be designed into the ship otherwise they are hard wired (military vs. civilian IMTU). So ok- i can hold that in my hand and say it makes sense.

thanks Veltyen