This is an idea I've had for a few years. It's incomplete, but I think I can convey the gist.

A bounce bolt is a heavy DF hit or miss weapon which upon hitting its target does damage and bounces. If it strikes a shield, it does its strength of damage to the shield without causing any internal damage, even if the bolt strength is greater than the shield strength, and bounces into space and is no longer in play. There could be no shield leaking even if using leaky shield rules.

However, if it hits the target through a down shield, it does its strength of damage as internals, reduces its strength by 1, bounces toward the next existing shield (weakest/strongest, I haven't determined these details), damages this shield from the inside, reduces its strength by 1, bounces toward the target again from the new shield arc, does more internals from the new shield arc, reduces its strength by 1 then bounces toward the next shield in the direction away from the downed shield it through which it entered, and repeats until its strength is zero or the bounce goes through another down shield in which it has no shield off of which to bounce and escapes harmlessly into space. (How's that for a run on sentence?) I know the "inside the shield" references are irrelevant to the shields. I just said this to make the mental visualization easier.

The bolts would have the same sequencing ability as Hellbores (E10.44). A standard bolt would be strength 6 at best, decreasing with distance. This would have a maximum potential of 9 shield damage points and 12 internals under perfect conditions, and require 4+4 points of energy to load over 2 turns. An overloaded bolt would have strength 9 maximum, doing potentially 25 points of internal damage and 20 points of damage to shields, and cost 4+8 points of energy to arm.

The weapon would be large, excluding any unit size class 4 and smaller from wielding one, SC-3 units could have 1, SC-2 units could have 2, and SC-1 units could have 6.

As the idea is incomplete, some of the details such as arming energy could be changed. It would be an expensive weapon for battering down shields, but extremely effective if shot through a target's only down shield.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 - 07:32 pm: Edit

Breakout Bolts (ala Atari / Activision)

I can almost hear the sound effects of the bouncing.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - 11:09 am: Edit

I like the idea, but given the disparity between the damage done against an up shield and the damage done when it hits a downed one, I can't help but think of how this might integrate with a secondary heavy weapon, kind of like the Boson Drill and Positron Lancet combo used by the Uthiki.

Given the history of primary and secondary heavy weapons in the SFU (Disruptors paired with Drones, Webs, or ESGs), there is precedent.

John, what do you think of this weapon paired with the Chlorophon Energy Howitzer?

By Kenneth Humpherys (Pmthecat) on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - 11:09 am: Edit

Big Question: Would the internals be combined (as w/ Helbores) or be separate volleys?

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - 01:31 pm: Edit

Question #1: How does this interact with Shield reinforcement?, General and Specific?

Question #2 (related): Reserve power can be applied in "mid-impulse" as a reaction to damage, can it be applied in reaction to a "bounce" from one shield to another shield?

Question #3: Can I approach your ship with only my facing shield raised so that it will automatically bounce into space after hitting my shield and downing it?

Question #4: What effect if it is fired at a monster with no shields?

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Friday, April 28, 2023 - 05:50 pm: Edit

Steve,

Q #1, any reinforcement bounces it away if it's outside the shields. If it struck the target, any reinforcement bounces it back toward the target. Specific or general is irrelevant.

Q #2, yes, but that would prevent its escaping back to space if the reserve power raises a downed shield arc.

Q #3, yes, one single box would do it for a single bolt. If multiple bolts strike, each would do shield damage before the next until the shield was downed. In each case as there are no adjacent shields up, the bolts would then bounce away.

Q #4, it would do bolt strength and bounce away, unless the monster is energy or gas in which case it would pass through harmlessly.


Kenneth, each bounce of a bolt is a separate volley from separate shield arcs utilizing (D4.321). Each bolt produces its own volleys.


Jeff, I don't have an answer for you. My Omega stuff is in storage.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Sunday, April 30, 2023 - 01:30 pm: Edit

Steve, I just reinterpreted your first question thinking about shields instead of bounce bolts.

Assuming that the bolt entered through a downed shield and then both specific and general shield reinforcements were applied, neither (D3.341) nor (D3.3411) are affected.

General reinforcement works from "any direction" including inside. Specific reinforcement adds boxes to a shield. The bolt would apply its strength to the shield from the inside first to general reinforcement, then to specific reinforcement, then to SSD shield boxes, just as it would if it had struck the shield from the outside.

I'm working from memory from this point on in this post.

IIRC, the Sigvirons and the LMC empires employ separate layers of shields. In the case of separate, discrete layers of shields, a BB which entered a down shield would bounce between the inner and outer shield layers until it exited a downed shield or the inner shield was eliminated, then it would bounce between the shields and the target.

I think the LMC shields have 2 outer shields over 6 inner ones. If this is the case, if the forward outer shield were down and the bolt hit on the #1 shield, it would bounce away. If it hit #2 or #6 shield, it would bounce toward the still up rear arc shield and bounce back and forth around the rear of the target.