E3.____.0 PHOTON SMOKE GENERATION
E3.___.01 After the Klingon developed the ECM drone in the Year 150, they felt that there was a possibility that the Federation might developed their own protective device.

The Klingon felt that the most likely protective divice would be some form of modified mode of function for the photon torpedo, not realising that the Y175 would give most Federation vessels G-racks and thus the ability to utilise ECM drones.

From the Year 154, the Klingon simulators at their Academy could be set to give the simulated Federation vessels the ability to protect themselves through the use of a Photon altered mode.

The basic principle of the system was to let the photon torpedo slowly leak it's antimatter and matter through it's journey to create a zone that is filled with highly charged electmagnetic pulses and subatomica particals. This feild makes targeting very difficult for the enemy who have to try to ignor the subatomic mailstrom.

The following rules explain how this mode would influence play.

E3___.1 ENERGISATION
E3___.11 The Photon can be set to the Protective mode during the Energy allocation of the final turn of arming.


E3___.2 FIRE
E3___.21 The Weapon may be fired in one of three arcs. The Left Probe Launch Arc, The Right Probe Launch arc and the Forward probe launch arc.
As per G5.332.

E3.___.22 The Weapon will be fired using the standard Photon to hit numbers out to any hex in arc.

E3___.23 If a successful roll is made then two Upsidedown point of turn markers are placed in the hex of the ship and the target hex.

E3___.24 If unsucessful then both upsidedown Point of turn marker are placed in the target Hex.

E3___.25 The Mode has a maximum range of 6 hexes.


E3___.3 EFFECT
E3___.31 The Photon topedo shall fill all the hexes between the two markers with gases and energy. All the hexes filled can be determined by examining the charts in G5.332.

E3___.32 FIRE INTO A SMOKE HEX.
E3___.321 If a vessel is in a smoke hex then it shall be protected by 4 points of ECM.

E3___.322 If two ( or more ) vessels are in a smoke hex and one ship is fired on ( successfully ) by photon torpedos ( from inside or outside of the smoke ) then the non target ship(s) shall take feedback damage requaredless of range.

E3___.33 FIRE THROUGH A SMOKE HEX
E3___.331 When fire is fried through the a hex of Smoke then the closer to the smoke the defending vessel is the more protective the smoke is.
Thus subtract one from the ECM generated by the smoke for each hex away from the smoke hex that the target is.
E.g. A vessel is 3 hexes behind a smoke hex, the ECM benefit it shall gain is 1 ( 4 - 3 ) ECM point.

E3___.34 FIRE OUT OF A SMOKE HEX
E3___.341 If a vessel is in a smoke hex and Fired out of that smoke hex, the target shall be protected by 2 points of ECM.

E3___.35 NUETRALITY.
E3___.351 All vessels requaredless of whose side they are on may benefit from the effects of the Smoke Generated.

E3___.4 DURATION
E3___.41 The "smoke" shall disapate after a period of time. This period of time is a number of impulses after firing equal to the amount of energy placed into the photon torpedo rounded off.
E.g. if 7.5 points of power were put into a Smoke Photon then the Duration of smoke cloud generated would be 8 impulses.

E3___.5 LIMITATIONS.
E3___.51 The smoke Photon can not be fired in Proximity Mode.
E3___.52 The smoke photon can not be fired at a range longer than 6 hexes.
E3___.53 At least 2 points of power over two turns of arming must be placed into the smoke photon.

E3___.6 Klingon Trainee Comments.
The Klingons felt it strange that the Federation would enage in the use of their heavy weapon in a protective divice that is less effective then Erratic manouvers. Which might explain why the Federation eventually favoured the ECM drone.

E3___.Y Designers Comments.
Most Photon design alteration try to offset the protective bonus of the ECM drone with an increased chance of hitting.
Perhaps the best way to offset the protective bonus is to creat your own protective bonus.

By Piotr Orbis Proszynski (Orbis) on Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 10:38 pm: Edit

That's the Funniest Topic Name ever! What have you been smoking, MJC?

PHOTON MIRROR GENERATION.

To go with the Smoke, Federation Scientists also developed a Mirror module, which allows them to instantenously cloak for #of imps = photon warhead. However, the mode has a 1 in 6 chance of breakdown, and if this occurs, the ship will have 7 years of bad luck, which can only be counteracted by throwing salt over the left nacelle.

(Sorry, I have no actual criticism of the proposal )

By Tony Zbaraschuk (Manyarrows) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 04:22 pm: Edit

Can you hold a smoke torpedo?

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 04:48 pm: Edit

Yeah, but you get a buzz doing so unless you remember to not inhale....

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 04:58 pm: Edit

HEHE............Gods. I love it when you come up with something new MJC.......I get no end of amusement.

The Smoke and Mirrors project LOL.......

Does the smoke torp generate a green haze about the ship?

By Mark Kuyper (Mark_K) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 05:37 pm: Edit

Christopher
I'll have to defer to the late, great, Jimmi Hendrix for the answer. Its Purple.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 06:14 pm: Edit

Hehe.......can't argue with THE MAN.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 07:06 pm: Edit

Excuss me, while I kiss the sky.

By Richard Wells (Rwwells) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 11:07 pm: Edit

Some comments on the actual rule:

.11 So a held torpedo can not be converted to smoke.

.21 What about units with non-FA weapons? (Bases and battleships are some examples.) Those RA photons on a BB suddenly become quite potent creating smoke in front. Bases will only be attacked from the rear to prevent smoke from disrupting things.

.322 Yowcheee. Ok, I realize this is intended to be a drawback but it may have some unintended side effects. Consider a vessel (say Orion) firing at a slow moving target (base or convoy) stacked in a hex with many smaller units. Cover the target in smoke, hit with other photons, badly damage target and vaporise any drones or shuttles in the hex plus damage freighters and PFs. Very potent effects.

General comments: Do smoke effects stack? If the ship is in smoke and fires through smoke at another unit near smoke, what is the total modifer?

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 11:57 pm: Edit

.11 No. It couldn't as such.
But on the next turn durinhg EA you could add 2 point of warp power and Name it as a smoke photon.

.21 I have thought about the smoke of the BB RA arc and I actually like it...sort of like car wars.

RF and LF should be obvious...I don't want to write too many rules on day one.

Other arcs of 120 degrees could just be found and used as though the ship were facinging a different direction.

.332 I guess I'll have to make some sort of statement that to be in a smoke hex, you have to choose to be in the smoke hex.
I'll also have to say that when a smoke photon is fired at a vessel ( even if it would "HIT" it ) the vessel gets to choose if it is in or not in the smoke hex.

General responce...I knew there was something I had forgotten.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Friday, March 15, 2002 - 03:20 am: Edit

E3___.54 NUMERIC LIMIT
E3___.541 Only one Hex of smoke hex may be counted to protect a vessel.

E3___.542 If a vessel is inside a smoke hex then the vessel will be protected by that hex of smoke and only that hex of smoke.

E3___.543 If a direct line of fire exist from and attacking vessel to a defending vessel through more than one smoke hex then the closest smoke hex to the defendingvessel shall be the one and only smoke hex used to protect the defendinbg vessel.


E3___.7 CHOICE
E3___.71 The smoke is only a few scorew kilometres in diametre therefore a vessel must choose to accept to be protected by a smoke hex between it'self and another vessel or if in the same hex as smoke must choose to be in or out of the smoke.

E3___.72 This selction follows the rules that a vessel may choose to be in a collum following a friendly unit through an asteroid hex.

E3___.73 Each impluse each vessel may choose to be hiding behind a smoke hex between themselves and an opponent or may choose not to be hinding behind the smoke. This is simply done by the vessel moving several kilometres or several hundred kilometres in the "Z axis".

E3___.74 When a smoke hex materialises any unit in that hex is free to choose to be inside that smoke feild or not. The selection is made imediately after the smoke materialises and is choosen before any other resolution of fire is made.

E3___.75 Even if a unit would have been "hit" by the smoke photon, the target vessel is still free to choose to be or not be, in the smoke feild.


E3___.8 FORCING OUT INTO THE OPEN
E3___.81 It is possible to force a vessel out from behind the protection of a smoke hex that it is not in, simply by moving at an extreme rate in the "Z axis" in order to gain a clear line of sight to fire at the enemy.
However it is assumed that any vessel that chooses to hide behind the smoke will try to manouver in the opposite direction in the "Z axis" inorder to remain hidden. Therefore the following rules will be followed.

E3___.82 A vessel may choose to attempt to move the enemy vessel out into the open through the use of it's own three dimensional movement.
If a vessel declairs it is attempting to do this, then it must choose to not gain from the protection offered by the smoke hex and anounce that it is attempting to move in such a manner that the vessel is attempting to put the target vessel out into the open. A vessel attempting to do this is called the searching vessel.

E3___.83 The searching vessel must then roll 1 six sided die against a target number that is determined the following way.

Multiple the range between the defending hiding vessel and the smoke hex and then divide it by the range from the searching vessel to the smoke hex ( rounding off )

Add the Modifiers in the table below to the target number.

Roll the die and roll lower than or equal to the generated number.

Effect	Modifier
Searching vessel has	+ to target number
Hiding vessel has	- to target number
Poor crew	-4
Outstanding crew	1
Legendary Captain	2
Legendary navigator	1
Nimble status	1
Super Inteligent battle computer	3
Legendary Science Officer	1 ( not applicable to hiding vessel )

E3___.84 If the die roll was a failure then the hidding vessel shall be still considered hiding ( though the searching vessel will be considered not hiding and thus not protected by the effects of the smoke.

If the roll was a success then on that impulse the searching vessel will have a smoke free line of sight to the defending vessel.

E3___.85 A vessel that is in smoke can not be moved out into the open by the manouver of the searching vessel.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 08:10 pm: Edit

I've been thinking of a house rule that may come to be and thought that the rest of you might like it.

E3___.0 VACINITY FUSE PHOTON TORPEDOES
E3___.01 The Federation designed their Proximity Fuse Photon Torpedoes in responce to the Klingon development of Defrac but they needed something more able to deal with the Klingon Development of U.I.M. and thus looked at the Vacinity Fuse Photon Torpedo.

E3___.1 OPERATION
E3___.11 The Vacinity Fuse Photon Torpedo in always operates a Proximity Fuse Torpedo excet that a V and not a P is marked in the Energy Allocation for and the rules listed below.

E3___.2 TABLE
The table below is used to make attacks.

Range	8 - 12	13 - 30
To Hit	1-3	1-2
Damage	6	6

.


E3___.Z DESIGNERS NOTES
To truely take advantage of the Vacinity Fuse's ability to do damage like the U.I.M. the table should be as follows.

Range	5-8	9-12	13-30
To Hit	1-4	1-3	1-2
Damage	Na	6	6
Overload Damage	O.L./2	Na	Na

By Jonathan Biggar (Jonb) on Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 11:36 pm: Edit

Spelled vicinity...

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 12:26 am: Edit

HHhhhhhhmmmmmm....


Constructive critiscism.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 01:09 am: Edit

MJC, you have corrected my spelling so many times, it should really not bother you when someone else does it.

I think that all these ideas for the photon upgrade are kinda nuts.....just improve the To-Hit of what we already have, that should be enough for everyone...

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 02:21 am: Edit

The Photon is fine the way it is. Every one has their good and their bad. I've kicked ass with photons. The FED TC has won at Origins. Tactics are the key to photons as with all of SFB.

By Piotr Orbis Proszynski (Orbis) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 06:15 am: Edit

Loren, many people don't like the dynamics of the photon especially in small engagements, where the effects of bad rolls are not evened out by many ships firing. Sure, over-all it's just another "you win some, you lose some" ship, and it kicks butt in fleet play, but in tourney "winning some" just isn't gravy. So, I actually kinda like this idea, even if it's only destined to be a house rule... Some ideas, mjc: Klinks have a weakness in that many of their ships cannot fire all the way out to 30. Also, since Feds are already strong in Fleets, I worry about the effect of 1000 BPV worth of ships all having this available to them.

I suggest this: Augumented Proximity Module (APM)

Range	0-1	2	3-4	5-8	9-12	13-30
To Hit	-	-	-	1-4	1-3	1-2
Damage	-	-	-	6	6	6

Can only be fired out to range 15. Can only be mounted on vessels SC 3-1. The performance of the targetting array degrades if interfered with by other APMs; practically, only 3 ships/turn can use the module. (I'll admit it, I mostly want one on my Fed TCC. Also trying to prevent munchkin Fed fleets of 8 DDs doing salvos at r15 then running off, (a la munchkin Klink D5 fleets ) thus the SC and #/turn limit).

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 07:47 am: Edit

C.E.F.:


The spelling thing doesn't bug me in the least.

But I always add to the body of the concept on those posts where I correct spelling.

I was implying that the real reason one should post was to progress the body of the post. Not to jump on someone elses back.

If one both corrects spelling and imputs to the body then he can do both because by posting to the body he prooves that he is trying to help rather than just looking for a weak excuss to DIS some brothah.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 07:58 am: Edit

"DIS some brothah"

Is that English?

By Piotr Orbis Proszynski (Orbis) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 08:27 am: Edit

It's Rap Video Englidh. Aks yo'suf donchoo no whudiz all aboud? (btw, I think you managed to miss all that stuff before the last three words )

next, in the Federation Arsenal: the Unabridged Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 20,433rd Edition... Kept on the ship's Una-Bridge, this massive tome can be used to confuse enemy captains with questions about the acceptable pronunciation and etymology of the words "espresso", "etceterae", "et cetera", etc.... And you thought the Federation Rules Lawyer was bad!! Muahahahaha...

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 10:02 am: Edit

I think the Vicinity Fuse Photon is an interesting idea and I'm not typically an advocate for changing the way a photon works. It trades damage for accuracy in a way that I think is pretty reasonable.

Looking at average damage (hits rounded to the nearest whole number, which I know is not perfect), a 4 photon salvo can expect:

Range-->	2	3-4	5-8	9-12	13-30
Normal (4-8pt warheads)	24	24*	16	8	0
Prox (4-4pt warheads)	NA	NA	NA	12*	8
Vicinity (4-6pt warheads)	24	18	18*	12	6

* I rounded the average up in this case, all others are even or rounded down.

The "sweet spot" for the Vicinity Torp looks like the 9-12 bracket. The chance of scoring two hits at range 13-30 is fairly low, and it is slightly more effective than standards at 5-8, but I think there is going to be a natural tendancy for overloads inside range 8. If I were using such a system, I would only use it in the 9-12 bracket and would use the other fuses elsewhere. Maybe the Vicinity Torp could be limited to ranges 5-12?

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 09:02 pm: Edit

J.G.:


I have two lines of thought in this.

1) If was a 9 to 30 weapon as Proxies are now, then the weapon would be following all the rules of the Proxi except the; EA denotation as V and the use of the Vicinity table.

2) If it can fire in the 5 to 8 range ( possibly as an overloaded vacinity warhead or maybe it MUST be an overloaded vacintiy warhead ) and in the 9 to 30 as a standard vacintiy warhead such that it more accuratly mirrors the Disruptor's UIM.

I am not sure which is a better idea from the point of playability:- Fewer rules changes or closer mirroring.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 09:52 pm: Edit

Either way would work, but an improved overload at 5-8 is pretty impressive. I assume warheads would be reduced by 25 percent (from a "normal" overload). So a max vicinity overload from a typical cruiser at range 8 would be 4 12 pt photons with a 1-4 chance of hit. Ouch. Would be great for fighting plasma boats.

With no overload function, I think the Vicinity Torp would get used most often at 9-12 in any case, where it really shines compared to the other modes. But I can understand mirroring another rule for the sake of simplicity.

So of your choices, I think 1 is easier to sell (it doesn't have a overload effect), but 2 is just cool (at least from a Fed perspective ).

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 10:17 pm: Edit

Yeah...the 25% resduction would be the intention.


Having O.L. Vicinity yeilding a 4/6 chance to hit which is the normal chance to hit at R4 which is the Effective Range of the Photorp make R8 effective range using vacinity.
Which is a very good responce to the O.L.U.I.M.!

Is it a real killer over the plasma bolt.
I didn't think anyone bolted at R8 with Plasma at a ship that faces you. But maybe thy do.

By Piotr Orbis Proszynski (Orbis) on Monday, April 08, 2002 - 11:23 pm: Edit

ehh... did anyone like MY chart and restrictions? You can't just slavishly follow UIM brackets and OL-shot ability because Klinks don't all have ships that shoot out to 30, and because OL photons carry a lot more crunch. So I don't think this should be an option for OLs.