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Stars Without Number: Known issues?

Started by Shipyard Locked, January 30, 2014, 10:22:18 AM

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Meat

I actualy have a little question about the fight system involving airship weapons.
Is it normal that a multifocal laser that cost 100k credits is supposed to deal just 1d4 against any type or enemies? even humans?
I mean: what if, for example, a cargo ship is going to take off and some enemies are shooting at it.
If one of the crew's members is gonna shoot at them to defend the ship is still supposed to do 1d4 damage (lessere than a pistol) with a BFG lik a Multifocal laser with 20 ap?
To me this sound pretty strange, ther's any additional rule when you shoot to standard targets with an airship weapons?
Thx for your attention and don't blame me to much for my poor english ^^

Premier

Meat, I asked Kevin the same question about two years ago, you can read his answer here.
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

Meat

Thank you a lot :)
Still his answer doesn't completely slove my problem ^^
I was thinking at a smart solution, i thought that couse of the immense power of airship guns it could be a good idea to add the power needed to make them work as a bonus damage against human targets (or ground targets).
For example a Multifocal laser needs 5 power to work and deal 1d4, maybe against a standard man or alien the damage could be 1d4 +5, to me make a lot of sense, we can figure it out that a guns that need so much power can easily split in half any "flesh and meat" target :)
What do you think about it?

Premier

Quote from: Meat;788878Thank you a lot :)
Still his answer doesn't completely slove my problem ^^

I'm not sure what your problem is. You said spaceship weapons are too weak against individual characters. I linked you the designer's answer that spaceship weapons instantly and automatically kill individual characters on a hit. How does that not solve your problem? Do you want something MORE powerful than "instant kill"?
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

SineNomine

Quote from: Meat;788878Thank you a lot :)
Still his answer doesn't completely slove my problem ^^
I was thinking at a smart solution, i thought that couse of the immense power of airship guns it could be a good idea to add the power needed to make them work as a bonus damage against human targets (or ground targets).
For example a Multifocal laser needs 5 power to work and deal 1d4, maybe against a standard man or alien the damage could be 1d4 +5, to me make a lot of sense, we can figure it out that a guns that need so much power can easily split in half any "flesh and meat" target :)
What do you think about it?
Yeah, a starship weapon that hits a vehicle or individual is just plain going to erase them. Maybe if it's a gravtank being targeted by a very small gun it might not be totally reduced to a cloud of metal vapor, but under all reasonable circumstances a PC hit by a ship weapon in the atmosphere is just gone. A Warrior might be able to play their Veteran's Luck ability to have it hit something else nearby, but other characters are pretty much smoking boots at that stage.
Other Dust, a standalone post-apocalyptic companion game to Stars Without Number.
Stars Without Number, a free retro-inspired sci-fi game of interstellar adventure.
Red Tide, a Labyrinth Lord-compatible sandbox toolkit and campaign setting

Meat

Yeah sorry, i don't want something more powerful, i just tought that could be better to don't just say: if you shoot him with this, is dead, i mean: this sound a bit too drastic, it could pretty bad also if a character is going to insta die even if he's high level against the less powerful weapon mounted on an airship.
Actually i was looking for something that stand between an Insta kill & lesser damage than a gun.
:)  
Aniway thx a lot for your answers and your didposability :)

Premier

You have to keep in mind that we're talking about spaceships. (Not airships.) In this game, many (possibly most) of them can't even enter a planet's atmosphere (the ship needs to have atmospheric fitting), so a spaceship vs. human situation would hardly ever arise - perhaps if one of the atmosphere-capable spaceships were attacked by a weapon emplacement during landing or takeoff. And if you pick a fight with a spaceship in a case like that, well... you were asking for it.

Also, even though an atmosphere capable spaceship COULD be used to deliberately attack humans and vehicles, it would be a very rare occasion, because if you look at the price lists, you'll see that even relatively simple spaceships are INCREDIBLY expensive compared to aircraft and other vehicles, and in fact most interplanetary powers can only afford to keep a small number of ships in service - and those would be used for more important things. If someone wants to bring some heavy firepower into an air- or surface fight, they'll be using cheaper vehicles.

The one exception is the players' party - if they have a ship and can afford to keep it running, they can, of course, use it to destroy enemy vehicles and troops. Just be aware that the firepower of a ship is so massive that they'll be destroying everything, which is a pretty big problem if their mission involves capturing a place, person or artifact intact.
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

Meat

Thx a lot for your asnwer :)
I think now my problem is solved :D