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WIP: House Rules Starship Missiles
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Dr. Bidlo
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 1:01 am    Post subject: WIP: House Rules Starship Missiles Reply with quote

Here is my current work in progress house rules for missiles, torpedoes, and bombs that I developed several months ago. I know CRMcNeill is working on some rules as well, so I am curious to see what he is cooking up.

Missiles and Torpedoes

Missiles, bombs and proton torpedoes are physical weapons which deliver awesome firepower. However, they are difficult to target. Their difficulty numbers are modified by how fast the target is moving:

Increase to Difficulty:
Space 3 (100-150 Atmosphere): +5
Space 4 (Atmosphere 151-200):+10
Space 5 (Atmosphere 201-250):+15
Space 6 (Atmosphere 251-300):+20
Space 7 (Atmosphere 301-350):+25
Space 8+ (Atmosphere 351+):+30

Missiles, bombs and proton torpedoes and powerful weapons, but they have their limitations, especially when fired at moving targets and from long-range. Most missiles and torpedoes have sophisticated targeting computers that allow the missile to track the target until it is destroyed, or it runs out of fuel. On the turn a missile is launched, it will travel at cruising speed beyond the ship that fired it toward the target. The missile will increase speed by one level each turn up to all-out speed until it runs out of fuel, hits its target, or is otherwise destroyed.

All missiles have targeting computers that help them track their locked target. If a missile does not reach its target the turn it is launched, the missile will attempt to hit the target with its own homing skill, which is the combined targeting and maneuverability of the missile used to hit the target that functions both as a piloting and gunnery skill. If an automated missile with a homing skill missed its target, it will slow one level and attempt to maneuver back toward the target. These are typical examples, but missiles may have different homing and Fuel values.

Weapon, Space, Homing, Fuel, Damage, Fire Rate
Concussion missile (starfighter): Space 8, piloting 8D, 3 rounds, 7D - 8D damage, Fire Rate 1/2
Proton torpedo (starfighter): Space 6, piloting 5D, 3 rounds, 8D - 9D damage, Fire Rate 1/4
Bomb (starfighter): Space 2, piloting 2D, 1 round, 10D+ damage, Fire Rate 1/6
Concussion missile (capital): Space 6, piloting 7D, 5 rounds, 8D - 9D damage, Fire Rate 1/4
Proton torpedo (capital): Space 4, piloting 6D, 6 rounds, 9D - 10D damage, Fire Rate 1/8
Bomb (capital): Space 1, piloting 2D, 3 rounds, 10D+ damage, Fire Rate 1/12

Locking on
A gunner must perform a sensor Focus in order to ‘lock on’ with a missile weapon. After achieving the lock, the gunner may roll to hit as normal using the missile's Fire Control. A gunner may shoot a missile weapon as normal without locking on the target, but the shot had 0D Fire Control.

If a missile that has locked on does not hit its target the turn it is launched, the missile will attempt to hit the target with its own piloting skill. If an automated missile with a piloting skill missed its target, it will slow one level and attempt to maneuver back toward the target.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 2:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

RAW already has it, that shooting torps/missiles, has a mod for how fast the target is going. BUT i like the target lock function.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 12:00 pm    Post subject: Re: WIP: House Rules Starship Missiles Reply with quote

Dr. Bidlo wrote:
Missiles, bombs and proton torpedoes are physical weapons which deliver awesome firepower. However, they are difficult to target.

This rule makes it almost impossible for missiles to be used against starfighters. It made sense in a setting where missiles and torps were slow, plodding things designed to deliver massive damage to slow/stationary targets, but if you're trying to introduce missiles and torpedoes into starfighter combat, it just doesn't fit any more.

Quote:
Fire Rate

Rate of Fire is going to be less a factor of the missile/torpedo than it is of the launcher. A single-tube, magazine-fed internal launcher ala the ones found on X-Wings and Y-Wings will only be able to fire once before reloading, so a Rate of Fire cap would be appropriate. If you're talking about a cluster-launcher, with a bunch of tubes that fire one missile apiece, then it's possible to spam fire them at a much higher rate, simply because the individual tubes don't have to be reloaded.
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Dr. Bidlo
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 2:11 pm    Post subject: Re: WIP: House Rules Starship Missiles Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
Dr. Bidlo wrote:
Missiles, bombs and proton torpedoes are physical weapons which deliver awesome firepower. However, they are difficult to target.

This rule makes it almost impossible for missiles to be used against starfighters. It made sense in a setting where missiles and torps were slow, plodding things designed to deliver massive damage to slow/stationary targets, but if you're trying to introduce missiles and torpedoes into starfighter combat, it just doesn't fit any more.

Quote:
Fire Rate

Rate of Fire is going to be less a factor of the missile/torpedo than it is of the launcher. A single-tube, magazine-fed internal launcher ala the ones found on X-Wings and Y-Wings will only be able to fire once before reloading, so a Rate of Fire cap would be appropriate. If you're talking about a cluster-launcher, with a bunch of tubes that fire one missile apiece, then it's possible to spam fire them at a much higher rate, simply because the individual tubes don't have to be reloaded.


Full disclosure, I made a last minute change as I was posting this. My original gave a bonus equal to the Focus dice value for locking on AND the homing ability if it does not initially hot or was launched beyond the travel distance of the missile for the first round.

I am not fully in love with these rules, so that is why I am interested in your most recent missile rules update.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 12:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Something I did previously (then deleted, but am thinking strongly about reintroducing for all guided missiles) is having missiles take a full round to hit at Long Range when fired with a Lock-On.

My reasoning is that the base, unguided (i.e. not locked on) range represents, IMO, the weapon's effective range, as in what it can reasonably hit in the space of a round. However, I double the range of guided weapons with a Lock-On. So the premise would be that, when a Guided Weapon is fired at a target that is Locked, the weapon spends the remainder of that round in flight, and doesn't actually attack the target until the beginning of the next round. This means that the pilot has to maintain his Sensor Lock for the rest of that round, which in turn gives the target ship an opportunity to evade, maneuver to break the lock or fire his own missile in return. The vagaries of missile ranges may actually allow a counter-fired missile to hit before the original missile hits its target.

As an aside, it is actually possible to both evade an enemy's lock-on/missile while maintaining your own lock-on, via a process known as Notching (essentially, maneuvering in a way that costs the missile energy to match while still keeping your enemy in your FC radar's cone).
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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Dr. Bidlo
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 12:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
Something I did previously (then deleted, but am thinking strongly about reintroducing for all guided missiles) is having missiles take a full round to hit at Long Range when fired with a Lock-On.

My reasoning is that the base, unguided (i.e. not locked on) range represents, IMO, the weapon's effective range, as in what it can reasonably hit in the space of a round. However, I double the range of guided weapons with a Lock-On. So the premise would be that, when a Guided Weapon is fired at a target that is Locked, the weapon spends the remainder of that round in flight, and doesn't actually attack the target until the beginning of the next round. This means that the pilot has to maintain his Sensor Lock for the rest of that round, which in turn gives the target ship an opportunity to evade, maneuver to break the lock or fire his own missile in return. The vagaries of missile ranges may actually allow a counter-fired missile to hit before the original missile hits its target.

As an aside, it is actually possible to both evade an enemy's lock-on/missile while maintaining your own lock-on, via a process known as Notching (essentially, maneuvering in a way that costs the missile energy to match while still keeping your enemy in your FC radar's cone).


I would be interested to see your rules for this if you still have it.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dr. Bidlo wrote:
I would be interested to see your rules for this if you still have it.

The old version of my Missile / Torpedo system is in the Recycle Bin post at the bottom of my Index topic. Having a weapon take one round to reach the target was something specific to proton torpedoes, and wasn't really fleshed out beyond a notation in the stats.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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Dr. Bidlo
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll check it out.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
As an aside, it is actually possible to both evade an enemy's lock-on/missile while maintaining your own lock-on, via a process known as Notching (essentially, maneuvering in a way that costs the missile energy to match while still keeping your enemy in your FC radar's cone).

I actually got this wrong. What I described here is actually called Cranking. Notching is a more defensive oriented method that involves maneuvering to keep an enemy missile / fire control radar in your beam (in game terms, left or right fire arc).
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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