Missile damage

[mike wightman]

Comparing the damaging effects of missiles from the CT rules (Mayday, Book2, Missiles [Special Supplement3] and High Guard) I don't think the PC scale damage of T20 missiles is high enough.
As an aside I don't think HG makes missiles as effective as they are in the other CT rules and that this has carried forward into MT and now T20.

In Mayday, one missile can inflict two or three hits depending on if its proximity or contact. Four hits in a round kills a ship, as does nine hits over three rounds.

In Book2 each missile inflicts 1d6 hits.

In SS3 the number of hits varies based on warhead type and size, relative vector length, and type of detonation (proximity or contact). That's anything from 2 - 12 hits plus vector effect for an HE warhead and 4-24 for a focused force HE warhead.

I am going to use the T20 nuclear missile damage rules for HE missiles and for nukes up the damage die to a d20. This is all for PC scale combat only.

Any thoughts?

 

[Richard Saunders]

Hello Siggy.
Dont forget to add the auto +10 dice of damage, +5 for ship v vehicle and the other +5 for vehicle v person.
I dont think you need to upgrade the damage for missiles vers people.
If you get near missed your dead from a nuc, I realy wouldn't want to be to near even a laser hit (think of the blast from the vaporization of the ground), even a kinetic round is going to make a nice crater.
Bye.

 

[mike wightman]

Hi Lionel,
I doubt if you'd even need to arm the starship missile if fired at a person, just let kinetic energy do its job

 

[Richard Saunders]

Hello Siggy.
Yes but think of the look on there face, and besides if you arm it you dont have to get that near a miss to still kill (fire and forget).
Besides terror is a weapon (you mean he took out several city blocks just to get the man for not paying his bar bill).
Bye.

 

[mike wightman]

Thanks to a different thread, I'm now considering building missiles using SS3 as the basis and converting the waheads to T20 damage.
I'm also thinking though some smarter guidance systems and stealth/evasion systems for the missiles so they stand a chance of getting to the target.
Some very high G weapons may be on the cards as well.

 

[justacaveman]

Don't forget, personal scale armor provides no protection vs ship scale weapons in T20.

A single TL13 missle will do 12d6 damage (that's 12d6 Stamina damage, and 12d6 Lifeblood damage) in a 10 meter radius, and may do 6d6 to personnel out to a 20 meter radius.

There is virtually no chance of your typical 6th level Imperial Marine dressed in TL14 Combat Armor (see page 424) of surviving this blast.

 

[justacaveman]

Sorry, The correct blast radius is 20 meters primary, and 40 meters secondary.

And, "virtully no chance" should really be "little chance".

And a nuke would do 17d6 in a 200 meter radius, and may do 8d6 out to a 400 meter radius.

 

[Richard Saunders]

Hello Siggy.
Have a look in missile velocities for my version of missiles. Bottom of page 3.
To lazy to retype it.
And note the change in topic from missile speeds to armour.
Bye.

 

[someoneelsehasmyname]

There is still a problum with the damage that would only be 12d6 vs someone in battledress and with a AR of 10 that is only 3d6 damage and 2 internal crits the suit may survive. Even a standard ground car has a small chance of surviving a nuke at gound zero.
That is inless you say that against none starship scale targets the nukes due max damage making that 72 points of damage to vehicle scale and 102 points of damage to personal scale killing any living creature in the area

 

[mike wightman]

Nukes should have the maximum damage die, d20, IMHO and a greater critical threat range.
How come a fusion gun does more damage etc than a fusion bomb?

 

[justacaveman]

When a nuke is fired at a target in an atmosphere, I would increase the damage die to a d20 and double the critical threat range.

In a vacuum, I would keep the damage values as is. This is because most of a nuke's damage is caused by the shockewave of the initial blast, and no atmosphere means no shockwave. You would still have thermal pulse, radiation, and EMP effects etc..

 

[lightsenshi]

Pardon me, but isn't missile damage 5d6 + USP?

 

[mike wightman]

Nuclear missiles are 5d6 + 1d6 per USP factor, normal missiles are 1d6 per USP factor. Not a lot compared to the damage a fusion gun inflicts.
One TL13+ nuke will do 7d6 damage, with a critical threat on a 17 for 2x damage. One TL14+ fusion gun does 5d20 damage, and threatens critical on a 16 for 5x damage.
In answer to LordRhys, what about nukes which detonate on contact?
As the example shows a fusion gun is more effective than a nuclear warhead. Doesn't seem right to me.

 

[justacaveman]

My standard rule with missles is that a normal hit is a proximity explosion, and a critical hit indicates a contact/near contact hit.

In my game I only halve AR on a Critical rather than ignore it. So a critcal hit from a single TL13+ nuke would do 21d6 damage + an internal damage roll. And against an AR10 ship, it would still do 15d6 + an internal damage roll.

The way I read the chart on page 270, the critical damage is in addition to normal damage. But, I could be wrong about this.

 

[mike wightman]

Thanks for the explanation, LordRhys. A sensible way to handle proximity versus contact hits.
Why didn't I think of doing it like that???
Minor nit-pic, I don't think you add the critical damage on top of normal damage. If you do then That could explain the weapons with a critical threat but no damage multipier.

 

[notagoodusername]

Weapons with no listed critical multiplier always default to x2.

Shane

 

[mike wightman]

Thanks Shane.

Why then do some ship weapons have critical damage multipiers of x1? Is this so they ignore armour but don't do extra damage?

 

[notagoodusername]

Um, good question. I hadn't really noticed that (not had a T20 ship combat yet). I guess that could be the case. Or it could just be a wierd way of writing critical damages (x1 is x1 extra damage).

Hmm.

Shane

 

[Richard Saunders]

Hello.
Has anyone seen a design for a missile.
How much of the missile is warhead and how much is engine, comms, sensors??????.
Bye.

 

[mike wightman]

Hello Lionel.
There are several systems that can be used for missile design.
Mayday, each missile consists of a guidance system, a propulsion system, fuel, and a detonation system. You only pay for the components, no masses or volumes are given.
Missiles: Special Supplement 3, builds on tthe Mayday system. It keeps the same components as above and adds different warheads to the mix. It also gives a mass for each component. Turret mounted missiles are limited to 50kg in size, bay missiles can be any size.
Then there is FF&S, but that's a bit more complicated