Help me with Firmpoints & smallcraft

[Nerhesi]

A firmpoint will accept ANY mount that is under 1 ton.

a) Lets take a Quad Turret of pulse lasers. I bring them down to distant range (5km). Now they're half a ton. They count as a firm point, correct?

b) Lets take a Fusion or Particle Barbette. Can I drop this at all to mount it on a small craft? Boarding range perhaps? Tech Level increase?

c) And finally... can't I just then go back and using improved TL, bring the range of the firmpoints back up by up to +4 (Ultimate Quality). Therefore I can have fighters armed with Quad pulse lasers firing from Geo (s=5) world range?

Or perhaps fighters armed with missiles firing from S=9 Space Range?

Thanks gents

 

[JFGarber]

I'll look into that. It's an interpretation that I have not used.

 

[Nerhesi]

Thanks - the first point (a) isn't really an interpretation, its actually the basic status quo as to how to mount weapons on smallcraft. Infact:

Page 276, bottom right paragrah, in the T5dot9 states:

"A firm point will accept any mount which is less than one ton (mounts less than one ton are usually created by applying World Range changes)..."

 

[dalthor]

Under the current rules as written (RAW) --

If the mount size, after changes and stage effects, is LESS THAN ONE TON, it may be mounted on a firmpoint.

See T5.09 page 276, the section on hardpoints and firmpoints, the very last paragraph on the page --

A Firmpoint will accept any mount which is less than one ton (mounts less than one ton are usually created by applying World Range changes) and contains a World Range Weapon, Defense, or Sensor.

This is subject to change - waiting on T5.1 to come out, don't know if it will update firmpoints or not. Tech level stage effects may be modified such that they DO NOT apply to weapons/defenses. I seem to recall seeing something to that effect, but cannot recall where I saw/heard it.

Currently, T5.09 page 301 allows stage effects, and states the following:

A ship may have one Hardpoint per 100 tons of hull. Hardpoint Mount must be at least 1 ton; round up if necessary.

A ship may have three Firmpoints per 100 tons (in lieu of one Hardpoint). Firmpoint Mount must be less than 1 ton.

Note that the weapons table for stage effects DOES NOT HAVE a tonnage modifier column - this implies size isn't modified by stage effects. Same thing applies on defenses and sensors.

And yet, there is a burden modifier...hmmmm.

 

[Nerhesi]

If I understand what you're getting at Dathor, it is to indicate that Tech Level effects may not be modifying weapon ranges. If that is the case, then that would address the unhittable smallcraft issue (Where their size band is less than range band, so the to-hit task always fails, yet they can easily hit because they have advanced weapons allowing them to hit from that far out...)

It would also address the top firmpoints issue in that you couldnt make a weapon "firmpoint mountable" then use TL improvement to increase it's range back up...

Correct?