New radiation ship hit effects

[kilemall]

While we’ve been talking Rob’s BCS game, I posted about my CT/HG game and how it differs from published or preferred dev Traveller ship games. It occurred to me that one aspect I had not mentioned before could be of general interest- new types of hits for radiation weapons.

In addition to crew effects, weapon and non-hardened/fib computers, I have two effects not defined before to my knowledge- hull and fuel.

I track on hull hits as tonnage like the rest of my hit system. So if 10 tons go to hull, that’s counted. Hulls are normally rated by their tonnage 1:1, so free traders have 200 hull points.

Thats with a full set of hardpoints- if a ship is specced with less hardpoints, it gets more hull points. Thats because I see hardpoints as taking up space in between outer hull and inner volume and if they aren’t there that leaves more room for structural strength improvements, more backup power/fuel/network/life support lines thus making the ship more redundant.

Hull hit effects degrade my sensor ability for the hull mounted VLA long range systems, causes streamlining to drop to close structure and then open structure cannot land, and ultimately causes crits as cables get cut and redundant connections break. At the highest damage level they restrict acceleration.

If hull hits exceed hull points, the ship breaks apart.

The idea behind radiation hits affecting hulls is neutron embrittlement. If the ship is being hit hard enough for particle damage, then that’s enough for embrittlement and affecting underlying systems.

The other hit, fuel, doesn’t destroy the tankage or content. My view is that part of the design and use of fuel is wrapping most of the hull with at least part of the tankage precisely as part of radiation mitigation. That’s its designed double duty function.

Instead, radiation fuel hits turn refined fuel into unrefined fuel. The ship has to run the fuel through the refiner to be able to safely jump.

 

[ady]

While we’ve been talking Rob’s BCS game, I posted about my CT/HG game and how it differs from published or preferred dev Traveller ship games. It occurred to me that one aspect I had not mentioned before could be of general interest- new types of hits for radiation weapons.

In addition to crew effects, weapon and non-hardened/fib computers, I have two effects not defined before to my knowledge- hull and fuel.

I track on hull hits as tonnage like the rest of my hit system. So if 10 tons go to hull, that’s counted. Hulls are normally rated by their tonnage 1:1, so free traders have 200 hull points.

Thats with a full set of hardpoints- if a ship is specced with less hardpoints, it gets more hull points. Thats because I see hardpoints as taking up space in between outer hull and inner volume and if they aren’t there that leaves more room for structural strength improvements, more backup power/fuel/network/life support lines thus making the ship more redundant.

Hull hit effects degrade my sensor ability for the hull mounted VLA long range systems, causes streamlining to drop to close structure and then open structure cannot land, and ultimately causes crits as cables get cut and redundant connections break. At the highest damage level they restrict acceleration.

If hull hits exceed hull points, the ship breaks apart.

The idea behind radiation hits affecting hulls is neutron embrittlement. If the ship is being hit hard enough for particle damage, then that’s enough for embrittlement and affecting underlying systems.

The other hit, fuel, doesn’t destroy the tankage or content. My view is that part of the design and use of fuel is wrapping most of the hull with at least part of the tankage precisely as part of radiation mitigation. That’s its designed double duty function.

Instead, radiation fuel hits turn refined fuel into unrefined fuel. The ship has to run the fuel through the refiner to be able to safely jump.

Nice ideas, especially the fuel hits. Another thing to consider is that radiation is persistent. Irradiated things (armoured hulls, equipment, fuel, etc) can stay irradiated for a time, possible causing further damaging effects to crew and electronics long after the nuke, Particle or Meson beam hit the ship - rolling for extra damage each turn perhaps? Irradiated ships might need to be abandoned if the crew want to avoid further damage and irradiated wrecks might need to be decontaminated before being reboarded and remanned.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Irradiated things (armoured hulls, equipment, fuel, etc) can stay irradiated for a time, possible causing further damaging effects to crew

I think you meant "superpower mutations in" ...

 

[ady]

I think you meant "superpower mutations in" ...

Maybe cause rerolls on the psionic powers table!

 

[bookwyrm]

Maybe cause rerolls on the psionic powers table!

Or a save to not lose any/all psionic powers.

 

[Enoki]

Nice ideas, especially the fuel hits. Another thing to consider is that radiation is persistent. Irradiated things (armoured hulls, equipment, fuel, etc) can stay irradiated for a time, possible causing further damaging effects to crew and electronics long after the nuke, Particle or Meson beam hit the ship - rolling for extra damage each turn perhaps? Irradiated ships might need to be abandoned if the crew want to avoid further damage and irradiated wrecks might need to be decontaminated before being reboarded and remanned.

There are four types of radiation (at least in reality)

Alpha: A helium nucleus without electrons. Has little penetration and is only a health hazard if you ingest it.
Beta: A free electron. Similar to an alpha particle.
Gamma: This is a packet of energy so-to-speak. At the low end they're called X-rays. High energy ones are hard to stop.
Neutron: This one only occurs (normally) when you have a nuclear reaction going on. This one is the wrecking ball of the four. It can only be stopped (no don't get all esoteric here) by slowing it through collisions with other atomic particles and then absorbing it into some atomic particle. It's the one that can make you glow in the dark by changing isotopes and atoms into stuff that is radioactive from stuff that isn't radioactive.

So, unless the bad guys are hitting you with neutrons, stuff won't get "irradiated." Particle weapons using a neutron stream would be a means. Meson weapons might if they created neutrons from those mesons. And, of course, we have the ever-popular neutron bomb...

 

[ady]

So, unless the bad guys are hitting you with neutrons, stuff won't get "irradiated." Particle weapons using a neutron stream would be a means. Meson weapons might if they created neutrons from those mesons. And, of course, we have the ever-popular neutron bomb...

Yes, that's what I assume, neutrons being the most common and used for effect in mostly high end space weapons - PAs, Mesons and nukes (and possibly fusion guns?). Apart from Nuclear Dampers, the only defence from a radiation hit is to either distance yourself from the beam/blast area, or have some dense material to absorb it. Trouble is, by absorbing , the material itself (armour, rock or lead shielding, your vacc suit helmet) becomes radioactive in turn and emits damaging radiation itself. At Chernobyll, the russians had to bury all the vehicles they used in lead and concrete because the metal was irradiated. Some poor people even ended up with radiation poisoning from irradiated water radiators when thieves looted them from the nearby abandoned tower blocks and sold them on (so always run a rad counter over any 'war surplus' bargains!). I imagine that a PA spinal mount would make a target ship a very radioactive hazard for years to come. Striker did allow nuclear dampers to be used to remove the radiactivity from contaminated areas, but for low tech worlds, or damaged ships with no damper, it could be a nasty hazard.

 

[Enoki]

Yes, that's what I assume, neutrons being the most common and used for effect in mostly high end space weapons - PAs, Mesons and nukes (and possibly fusion guns?). Apart from Nuclear Dampers, the only defence from a radiation hit is to either distance yourself from the beam/blast area, or have some dense material to absorb it. Trouble is, by absorbing , the material itself (armour, rock or lead shielding, your vacc suit helmet) becomes radioactive in turn and emits damaging radiation itself. At Chernobyll, the russians had to bury all the vehicles they used in lead and concrete because the metal was irradiated. Some poor people even ended up with radiation poisoning from irradiated water radiators when thieves looted them from the nearby abandoned tower blocks and sold them on (so always run a rad counter over any 'war surplus' bargains!). I imagine that a PA spinal mount would make a target ship a very radioactive hazard for years to come. Striker did allow nuclear dampers to be used to remove the radiactivity from contaminated areas, but for low tech worlds, or damaged ships with no damper, it could be a nasty hazard.

That would be contaminated. Heavily contaminated stuff has lots of radioactive particles on or in it. For example, if you had radioactive isotopes of oxygen present, these could bond to iron in a vehicle body forming iron oxides (aka rust) and the vehicle would be radioactive as a result. It wasn't "irradiated" but rather, contaminated.

At Chernobyl, a very common contaminant was, is, carbon-based molecules. You had tons and tons of highly radioactive graphite that made up most of the reactor. This exploded and burned, not necessarily in that order but this happening is really, REALLY, bad. All that carbon turned into things like CO2, CO, etc., and then reacted with other stuff. Plants absorbed some of it. You had ash and other stuff with glow in the dark carbon in it.