Star Ship Weaponry

[Magic Soap]

Also I like Natalya's system of weapon customization. I find it pretty balanced and makes for quick carnage. One Eye's is also pretty nice.

[Natalya]

@ Strana:
I guess that makes sense then. A lot of people like the 2001 rules for weapons since they are more varied, but the 2005 it what I was basing mine off of for simplicity. However they have the problem of putting size in inches above everything else, which does not bode well if you don't want ridiculously gun barrels on your ships. I think this is an area of conflict between simplicity and customization, Rayhawk chose simplicity to avoid problems. But then there are people like me who will build something with an idea of how it should be related to something else where the rules don't necessarily agree so it becomes a point of contention.

I'm not quite convinced that my bore² idea is a good way for measuring gun size though because there are 2 situations where it will not make sense. One is if you have a gun that is like 2 x 3 or something, then it's not a ². The other is for round weapons, if you get a 4 x 4 circular bore, it's really probably only covering like 12 studs, not all 16 since the corners will get cut off. There would have to be a way of resolving these problems.

[Theblackdog]

In my minifig space rules, I just grouped ships into classes based on stud length and gave each class a different targeting modifier.

[Natalya]

That obviously is not sufficient for this application.

[Strana]

for targetting i use the nig, the nig is a very rough estimation of area by comparing a facing or something to the same area that a minifig covers, off of that you get your nig measurements wich then resolve into your to hit modifiers.

[Theblackdog]

What's the UR on the big main gun? That, at least, should have some chance at missing lighter warships.

[Strana]

it does most starfighters have a frontal facing of between 2-5 nig.

[Natalya]

How do nigs work? And what does it mean?

[Strana]

the nig is basically somewhere in the realm of 1.5 sq in. in otherwords the are of a lego man, its basically the inverse measurment for the modifier to the use rating, ie. one of my starfighters has a forward facing nig of 2 or -2 to use, when targeting it, on either side, this measurement is changed to 6 nig or -6, basically if you have record sheets, for your forces, you can record the 2 values, as this will be your usemodifiers, for F/Rr L/R. so you don't constantly have to mucle arounf with it. Its basically a more accurateway to epict targeting modifiers, and sctually favors a more equalized construction.

[Natalya]

Maybe what would really be needed there would be some kind of angular target measurement, dependent upon how big the target is in the field of view of whoever is shooting at it.

[Strana]

basically its just easier to work that out if at least one rough value is known, then its easier to add or subtract due to angle

[Natalya]

I'm thinking that when Rayhawk invented the game he didn't envision massive battles between huge fleets being played out with its rules. But like for targeting stuff, it shouldn't be complicated to find the skill roll required. Taking a protractor to a BrikWars game shouldn't be required.

But like, here's the thing. I don't think aiming at something is where we should be getting hung up. Star ships will have computers and targeting systems and stuff so they can fire their guns at other big ships with reasonable accuracy. Smaller ships like fighters can dodge and stuff. Maybe foreward-mounted guns like my ship's Turbo Phase Cannon can't be turned to aim at a starfighter off the port bow. But Frigates and everything on up shouldn't be that difficult to hit. So, you just give your giant guns huge UR's like they're supposed to have, but give the ship a targeting system for however many D6 you think you need. Maybe say it gets another +1 D6 bonus if it's being manually controlled by a minifig at a gun station inside the ship. And voila, you can go from there. Let's use my Turbo Phase Cannon vs Rhett Butler's Revenge again...

RBR has Size 22 so my UR is -11. Let's say I go with weapon size 20 for the TPC... (Still haven't figured it out yet. More on that later.) So I need a 9 to hit the thing. I would just say like okay the ship gets a Class 3 Targeting Computer. (A targeting computer will count as a Submissive mind. It won't do anything on it's own unless a minifig operates it somehow. And each class level is how many D6 skill it gets. And you'd make it cost as many CP as it's class level since that's how you figure the cost of a creature's mind. But IMO it should be more expensive otherwise for only 10CP you would have an unbeatable computer. Maybe class level² is good.) So when firing you use the targeting computer's 3D6 + the skill of the minifig who is at the controls, usually +1D6 so like 4D6 total.

This leads to:
UR 20 with size bonus 11 = UR 9
So you'd end up hitting the target more often than not if it was big like the RBR. But like firing at a small ship such as a size 6 Czech MiG II...

UR 20 with size bonus 3 = UR 17
The max you can get on 4D6 is 24, so here you'd need a pretty good roll to hit such a small target. (This all provided it was in the field of view of the gun in the first place.)

And vs a minifig...
UR 20 with no size bonus = UR 20
You would need all 5's or better to hit the target. If one of your dice rolled a 1 you would automatically miss.

But yea as you can see the smaller a target and the bigger the gun it will end up working out logically even without some crazy special rules.

[Cpt. Zipps]

Any tips on making cool looking ship cannons? all of mine suck.

[Natalya]

Copy ones you think look cool.

[muffinman42]

first build the body of the gun (make sure theres somewhere to attach a barrel), then make a barrel you like (2x2 rounds are good) and yay.

my larger guns tend to look like tank turrets, my smaller ones look like oversized minifig guns on mounts