 May 16, 2013 - 6:19pm | My idea for this is to merge all three energy types to only have Disruptor Batteries and Cannons in the game. It never made sense to me that Electron and Proton Batteries are basically the same type of weapon, but with a slightly better range (and bulk) for one of them. As noted in the rules, Disruptor beams alternates between positive and negative particles, and this would be the default setting. The gunner may adjust the weapon to fire just positive (proton) or just negative (electron) particles. Range (lets say, 10 for all) and damage (for the most part) stays the same, but the chance to hit may alter when used against differing screen types. The same thing can apply to energy screens: Stasis by default, but can be adjusted to positive or negative fields. As usual, a ship may only have one active screen at a time. To make this work, color-coded counters maybe used to note the ship's screen setting. The screen counter would be wider then the ship's counter and placed under it so only the margin of the screen counter shows - like it is is being surrounded by a colorful fence. Red can be used to show protons, blue for electrons, and white (or yellow) for Stasis. No counter means no screen. For shooting, the attacking player can just announce what mode of attack is being used, with "Disruptor" being default, if no mode is declared. So what do you guys think? |
 May 16, 2013 - 7:55pm | From a game standpoint I think that would work fairly well. The only issue being that it seems the gunner would always be able to pick the best setting based on the screen, maybe build in a limit that the weapon and screen settings can only be changed every other round. From a physics standpoint, the weapons being different makes much more sense than them being the same. Protons are nearly 2000 times more massive than electrons and it takes a lot more energy/space to get them accelerated up to speeds to do the same amount of damage. But that's a minor detail. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 May 16, 2013 - 8:20pm | The same weapon could be engineered to produce both proton and electron beams. The difference would be the amount of energy required to make equivalent damage beams for the reasons Terl mentions above. I would say that the game should account for this difference in SEU usage. Make a table of damage settings with different amounts of SEU requirements for proton and electron beams. Thus a gunner would conserve his proton beam use for when his SEU budget is high. -iggy |
 May 17, 2013 - 4:47am | If you do away with proton and electron screens and stick solely with stasis screens, I se no imbalance issues. |
 May 17, 2013 - 6:30pm | If you do away with proton and electron screens and stick solely with stasis screens, I se no imbalance issues.
i agree with this |
May 17, 2013 - 8:52pm | If you do away with proton and electron screens and stick solely with stasis screens, I se no imbalance issues.
i agree with this Same here!  |
 July 4, 2013 - 11:04pm | I dont like like the electron and proton beams anyway. The bombing starts in five minutes. |
July 6, 2013 - 5:08am | I dont like like the electron and proton beams anyway.
With a better chance to hit against the standard fare energy gun defenses (RH and MS) and their longer ranges, I loved them! My problem was the MHS requirements typically prevented my characters from having them, but if the ship was HS:6 or larger then it had an EB on it. It was the first modification my group performed on the Gullwind following the repair scenario in Dramune Run...we sold the rocket battery from the hold and the LB that was already in place and made the swap with that cash. |
