Armor, Anti-armor, and Coatings

[dalthor]

As an ex-Starfleet Battles player, I can see the benefit of detailed combat. As a role-player, I want it to be done quickly, but relatively sanely.

I'm working on a Fast ACS Combat Enhancement (FACE) with the intent of speeding up ACS combat for MTU. These are some of the questions I want to address as I work on my enhancement.

Starting with coatings, I'm thinking that a ship may only have one coating at a time - true or false?

If false, can I have two layers of the same coating?

Now consider this, checking the armor chart in T5.09 on page 391 --

Reflec is AV*100 versus heat.

At TL-12, it gives 1200 points of protection against lasers. My raider, with 4 turrets, all T4, does 4 x 4d6 (16d6) of damage per round. This averages out to 56 points of damage per round of fire if all turrets fire.

After 21 ROUNDS of combat, firing all turrets, assuming a hit every time on the same location, and using the average damage, I have done 1176 points of damage. I still have not destroyed the reflec, and haven't even hit the armor underneath yet! Oh, and at the typical 20 minutes per round, we are about 7 hours into the battle!

Holy flashlights, Coatman!

That makes me wonder...

If a weapon hits, and the coating isn't effective against that type, but hits the actual armor beneath, what effect does it have on the coating as that armor is destroyed?

For example, reflec coating over blast plate, and a missile-5 hits, doing 5d6 pen against the main armor. What happens to the reflec? Is is damaged proportionally to the armor damage on the blast plate? For example, 5d6 average is 18 points of damage, which penetrates AV-12 blast plate. Is the coating gone as well, since the armor beneath it is toast?

Next, Anti-armor -- can the outermost (hull) layer of armor be anti-armor?

For example, I build a TL-12 Beowulf. Hull is normally blast plate. Can I make the hull of anti-blast plate for the extra armor value?

More may follow later...

 

[Reban]

Reflec is Ar x100 vs. Burn not Heat.

Ablat is x100 vs. Heat


The main cause of Heat damage is Atmospheric Friction experienced during liftoff and re-entry. See p. 325


The types of weapons that do Blast, Bang, Flash, EMP, Radiation and Burn are Missile warheads that cause Massive Explosion damage. See p.369

A Hit by a laser represents the laser beam striking the target during many shots fired in the 20 minutes that a combat round represents. So for want of a better way of saying it Lasers (and Plasma and Fusion guns) are pulse weapons not continuous beams, so its not cutting or burning but creating a thermal shock that transfers to the target.

So maybe the fact that a turret laser or beam can't overcome high TL protections reflects this fact?

Thats the RAW.... so you've probably discovered some errata.

 

[Reban]

Oh I've spotted some errata.

The effects of Ablat and Reflec on the chart on p.292 are transposed compared to the text in the rest of the book.

It should be:

Ablat Coat: Heat= TL x100

Reflec Coat: Burn= TL x100

 

[dalthor]

I'm thinking that a ship may only have one coating at a time - true or false?

If false, can I have two layers of the same coating?

If a weapon hits, and the coating isn't effective against that type, but hits the actual armor beneath, what effect does it have on the coating as that armor is destroyed?

Next, Anti-armor -- can the outermost (hull) layer of armor be anti-armor?

I agree that it may be errata issue with reflec versus ablat and so on.

Any answer to these three specific questions quoted above?

Thanks!

 

[Reban]

One coating at a time? True.

Reflec, Ablat and Slick are all applied to the outside of the hull.

The question shifts to being can you have different types of coating on one hull? I'd say you can't, Shiny reflec and dull ablat material don't go together.


If a weapon hits, and the coating isn't effective against that type, but hits the actual armor beneath, what effect does it have on the coating as that armor is destroyed?


On p.278 it says "If a destructive attack is ultimately successful on a hit location which has a coating, the coating effects are eliminated for the remainder of the battle (and until repaired)." Common sense.


Next, Anti-armor -- can the outermost (hull) layer of armor be anti-armor?

What's "Anti-armor"? You mean Anti-layers? to To quote p.278 on Anti-layers: "One or more Layers can be designated [an Anti-layer]. Designating a Layer as an Anti-Layer imposes no additional cost or tonnage.", so if you have only one layer you can still designate it an Anti-layer.