E2.___.0 PULSE PHASERS
E2.___.01 In Y185 Federation scientists developed a method of firing phasers in a simple single pulse rather than slashing across the target.
The weapon was more devistating as it tended to always inflict the full damage it could generate and yet would miss even at the closest of ranges
Also at close range it has a tendance to punch completely through it's target and thus generate less damage than sweeping over the target.

The advantage came in the narrow salvoe which could be used to inflict very large amounts of damage in those rare cases where it was needed...for very little power cost.

All phaser using races adopted the technology by Y187.


E2.___.1 Opperation
E2.___.11 When the player chooses to fire a weapon that can fire as a pulse phaser he fires it as that type of phaser in a pulsed mode. This attack counts as firing the phaser for the purposes of weapon recycling.
Ph-4s cost 1 point of power from the cap to fire as a pulsed phaser.
Ph-1s and Ph-2s cost 0.5 points of power to fire as a pulsed phaser.
Ph-3s cost 0.25 points of power to fire as a pulse phaser and Ph-Gs fire all shots fired in that impulse as either pulsed or non pulsed and shall pay a cost of 0.125 points of power for each pulsed Ph-3 shot from a Ph-G.

E2.___.12 The phaser is a hit or miss weapon and the following table should be used to determine the damage generated by the phaser pulse.

Range	0	1	2	3	4	5	6-8	9-12	13-15
Ph-4 To Hit	1-5	1-5	1-5	1-4	1-4	1-4	1-3	1-2	1
Ph-4 Damage	20	20	20	20	20	20	15	10	5
Ph-1 To Hit	1-5	1-5	1-5	1-4	1-4	1-3	1-2	1
Ph-1 Damage	5	5	5	5	4	4	3	3
Ph-2 To Hit	1-5	1-5	1-4	1-4	1-3	1-2	1
Ph-2 Damage	5	5	5	5	4	4	3
Ph-3 To Hit	1-5	1-4	1-4	1-2	1	1
Ph-3 Damage	4	4	4	3	2	2

E2.___.2 Installation
E2.___.21 The phaser required to be replaced in a starbase of fleet dock and any ship that upgrades the phasers to pulse phasers will pay a price of 2 BPV per Phaser-1, 1 BPV per Ph-1 or Ph-2 and 0.5 BPV per Ph-3.
All the phasers on a ship must be upgraded or non at all.
A Phaser that was upgraded to be able to fire pulsed phaser attacks is repaired at the same CDR cost as a a phaser of that kind and a phaser can not be repaired in a to a non pulsing state if aboard a vessel that has pulsed phasers.


Basically the Phaser is better because at R0 you fire a Ph-1 for an average of 6.5 and a damage to power ratio of 6.5 but this method allows you to fire that Ph-1 at R0 for an average of 4.166 points of damage at a damage to power ratio of 8.333 so the weapon is better but also worse.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 12:21 pm: Edit

MJC, your numbers seem broken... the max damage of a phaser 1 at zero range is 9 (IIRC) not 5.

so, let me get this straight... you want to convert all of a ships phasers to this "pulsed" viariety that costs half the energy to operate while it (if I understand your intent correctly) inflicts maximum damage?!?!

and you want to change all existing SSD's for all races after year 187 to reflect a (what appears to me) to be a purely arbitrary change?!?!

I think not.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 12:45 pm: Edit

[irony]

It did wonders for battletech.

[/irony]

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 01:00 pm: Edit

Max damage for a Ph-2 is 6 as well.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 01:07 pm: Edit

Even the ones in Battletech weren't that bad. At least they cost more heat to shoot. The P4 in particular looks way broken.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 01:11 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

All phaser using races adopted the technology by Y187.

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By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 01:39 pm: Edit

This seems to borrow from a very early proposal for a planet based Ph-4 I posted. It amounted to a hit of miss or half damage targeting for PLANET BASED Phasers. Ships could not have it.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 02:16 pm: Edit

Another issue is the all or nothing idea of using narrow salvos.

Seems like a cheap way to end games that could otherwise be very entertaining or even challenging.

option#1. Pulse phasers hit target. target blows up. game over.

option#2. pulse phasers miss target. target delivers alpha strike on ship with pulse phasers. Pulse phasered ship crippled. either retreats or destroyed with next alpha strike and still has a meaningful percentage chance of missing next round also. (since it appears that it misses whenever a '6' is rolled... the use of Electronic Warfare ECM and or eratic manuvers and/or scouts would seem to make such a thing impracticable). if every shot has a 1 in 6 chance of missing...and each "column shift" adds another 1 in 6 chance of missing.... the average damage ability of pulsed phasers would seem to be rather less than standard phasers.

I just dont see any redeeming features to this idea.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 02:30 pm: Edit

It turns phasers into Torpedoes. The whole point of a phaser is that it usually hits but varies in damage. Torps are hit/miss weapons and Phasers shouldn't be.

The one exception would be the propsal I made long ago where a planet might only have Ph-4's. At long range a little damage is as good as none so why not find a way to do all or nothing. Since your GBDP-4 is on a super stable plateform it can do such things sas fire at predetermined points.

By Richard Wells (Rwwells) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 05:37 pm: Edit

The microphasers over in Omega do the same thing. It was a remarkably popular idea to adjust phasers in this fashion. MJC's idea of halving energy cost is new but phasers are already a trifle too efficient.

By Joseph R Carlson (Jrc) on Tuesday, June 07, 2005 - 07:00 pm: Edit

Loren,

I don't know if you have Omega One. In that module are the various Omegan phasers. The Throbin use a radiation phaser (requires special shielding for non Throbins who are silicon based). The PR-1 at ranges 0,1,2,3, and 4 does 7,6,5.5,5,and 4 points of damage. No die roll, that is it range and damage.

The quantum phaser has 4 points of ECCM. It is a type of pulsed phaser. The ECCM points "...simulates the multiple small "quantum beams" carpeting an area around a target's location."

I could see some X PH-1 mode that fires twice as a PH-3 with an ECCM benefit for 1.5 points of power. Not more than 2x or as as PH-2, or PH-1. I don't know if this gives any advantage or to much. What would be the different at range 1 firing the 4 FH PH-1 as Is or as 8 PH-3s with an ECCM boost (don't know many points).

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 12:10 am: Edit

JW:
The punch through referance.

Also you arn't forced to fire in pulsed mode, you still get to fire them regularly if you want to...indeed the big advantage is the power savings rather than the damage generated which will tend to actually be less than using the weapon as a regular sweeping phaser.

Also note that I'm not forcing anyone to use pulsed phasers just that the law of big numbers will mean some pulsed phasers will miss if you don't narrow salvoe.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Wednesday, June 08, 2005 - 12:17 am: Edit

J.T.:

Yeah, I have a problem in spotting the differance between insightful observational humour and simple irony too.