SSADDS

Special Sabotted Anti-Drone Drone

The SSADDs system was developed the Klingon not long after the introduction of the ADD rack on their D7s.

The Klingons knew that there would someday be a war between the Romulans and the Klingons and at that time the ADD rack would be used only for damaging shuttle craft. They needed to find a way that the ADD could be used to harm shipping.

In Y178 they developed an Anti-drone drone that rather than firing several score of superluminal micro projectiles would instead fire a single sabot of depleted uranium.


Opperation.
The SSADDs can be used by any fighter rail or drone rack that can launch an ADD.

The SSADDs cost 0.25 BPV more than ADD rounds and are unrestricted.


Firing.
SSADDs do not gain a shotgun benefit unlike ADDs and thus fire at range 1 with a to hit of 1 or lower on a six sided die and 1-2 at ranged 2 & 3 and are influenced in all other ways ( with respect to die roll modifiers ) as though the weapon were an ADD launcher.


Damage.
If the Sabot of the SSADD strikes a target then the following damage will be produced depending on the size of the target.

Drones 1D6.
Shuttles 1D6.
PFs 1D2
Ships 1 point.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 11:48 am: Edit

An ADD that trades NOT auto-killing a drone for a nominal ability to damaging PF and ships...

Pass.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 03:02 pm: Edit

John,
I think you miss the point. On the Romulan front, the Klinks won't have to worry about drones. Klinks on the romulan front would carry this type of armament instead of normal ADDs.
Not sure if it'll fly, but the premise behind it is good.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 03:08 pm: Edit

Ya know, there is something like this already. It is called a Type VI drone fired from the ADD rack.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 04:26 pm: Edit

Ah, but it doesn't have the direct fire affect.
I'm not a drone fan so I kinda like it. Makes ADDs against non-drone using races useful, at least to a small degree.

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 05:34 pm: Edit

Minor quibble about what you call an ADD. It is not a "shotgun round" of superluminal micro projectiles, but a single hyper-velocity missile.

By R. Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 06:42 pm: Edit

A "silver bullet" as it were.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 09:01 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Ya know, there is something like this already. It is called a Type VI drone fired from the ADD rack.

---

---

Quote:

Minor quibble about what you call an ADD. It is not a "shotgun round" of superluminal micro projectiles, but a single hyper-velocity missile.

---

By David Kass (Dkass) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 09:16 pm: Edit

If this is going to be balanced, it does too much damage against drones. Against many opponents (especially Feds), I'd just take these--why bother with ADD rounds. Sure my pure drone defense is a bit weaker, but I gain much flexibility.

If the intended opponent is the Romulans then the type VI is still the better choice due to being a warp seeking weapon.

So the overall analysis is that as is its the worst choice against the intended opponent, but better against most others.

I've found my ADD racks quite useful against Romulans. I usually load them 4 to 6 type-VI and the rest ADD (the number of type-VI depends on the ADD size to some extent). Knocking out shuttles, especially WW, is a useful function. I'm not likely to launch more than 6 drones from the rack, nor will I need more than a few ADD. The drones are also useful in building waves to force lab use (and load in SP). Of course, against the Romulans, there is the difficult to arrange, but always satisfying simultaneous impact trick...

---

Quote:

One Type VIF launched each turn might inflict 2 points of damage on a target vessel.

If you got all 12 ADD shots to be fired at a ship over a period ( say 12 impulses ) and got 4 R1, 4 R2 and 4 R3 shots, the damage done to the ship in a single turn would be expected to produce 3.33 points of damage.

---

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 09:40 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

So over two turns of launches, the type VI is already the better weapon.

---

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 05:39 am: Edit

If the truth be told I would have considered it balanced if the weapon still autokilled drones and hit on 1-2 from R1-3 as the loss of the high end to hit ability is a huge loss for the gain of inflicting a single point of damage to ships.
The one shot per impulse thing about ADDs also makes it better than ( if used properly ) but also weaker than type VIF drones which have amuch large reach ( 12 hexes instead of 3 ).

By David Kass (Dkass) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 01:52 pm: Edit

The problem with the reduced hit but auto-kill is that ADD aren't guaranteed kills anyways so unless desparate, a player will always plan for them to fail (eg not fire the phasers at the enemy ship until after the drones have been killed).

Against a Kzinti fleet, the lower to-hit might be enough (since the player is likely to empty their ADD racks over the course of the battle, the loss in drone stopping is a real issue). Likewise against a pure carrier Fed fleet.

But in many other situations (non-carrier Fed fleet, Orions, Frax...), the need to use extra ADD rounds is not necessarily a big deal (maybe I'll end up emptying the entire rack instead of half of it, but this isn't a VP cost). Sure there are some cases where I'll need to maneuver a bit more.

Worse, are loads like 4-6 ADD + 6-8 SSADD. I now have the best of both worlds. All the ADD rounds I'll probably need for the battle and the ability to inflict ship damage whenever I get a chance. And furthermore, the two won't interfere with each other.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 08:55 pm: Edit

Yes, the Mix of ADDs and SSADDs means you can ADD away the Drone of a + refit Fed and then hammer his ship with SSADDs but the 0.25 BPV cost should handle that increase in ability.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 09:46 am: Edit

Actually doing 1D6+1 damage against drones isn't so bad because then you only have ONE chance in six of killing a type VI drone with the SSADD hit and that seems beleivable to me.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 09:51 am: Edit

SVC:

Where do you stand on an ADD round that trades in accurracy and BPV and the autokill on drones ability of the ADD for the ability to inflict a single point of damage on a ship?


I though you might like it because you liked the suckerfish drones.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 10:18 am: Edit

There is already an Anti-Ship Missle on the list of proposals that SVC had me write up ages ago. It fires like an ADD from an ADD rack, IIRC.

By Jeff Laikind (J_Laikind) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 05:24 pm: Edit

mjc,
How does this compare with the Short Range Cannon that the Fed Republic has in the Omega sector?

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 07:25 pm: Edit

L.K.:

Okay.


J.L.:

I didn't know such a thing existed, not everybody owns Omega.

By Steve Cain (Stevecain) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 04:15 am: Edit

And they didn't have a sabot for direct fire capability in the B rack because???
Adds and drones don't do that bolting thing.
Yawns and walks away.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 07:13 am: Edit

I supose you could fire a SSADD from a Stingray module...need to check starfish later...thus a B-rack could fire these things, but why do one point of damage when a regular full space explosive module will inflict 12.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 09:10 pm: Edit

Firing all 5 SSADDs from a Type IV Starfish drone would work ( when all are fired at the primary target ) but would only generate 1.66 points of damage at R3 instead of the 3.5 points of damage you could generate at that range from a Ph-2 swordfish drone.

Even with a swordfish type I drone the SSADDs from a Type I Starfish would inflict 1.0 and 1.0 points of damage respectively, but the Ph-3 swordfish will get better at closer ranges and the SSADD-Starfish will not, so this is pretty much an ADD and dogfight drone lauch rail proposition.

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 12:10 pm: Edit

MJC, how can a weapon do 0.66 points of damage? Or even 0.5 points of damage?

By Steve Cain (Stevecain) on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 03:11 am: Edit

Robert-
He is averaging the probability to hit and damage together.
MJC- you missed my point. Drones and adds function in err, well a certain manner. It seems that someone is just looking for a way for the add to have a function as a bolted plasma... gapper zapper style.
Every race has their strong point and weak points. Frankly, I know someone who welcomes klingon skips to a match; D-___ hull v. orion light raider. His only catch... 3 plasma Fs with swivles!

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:12 am: Edit

Well maybe the Klingons should have the ADD as just a free drone hit when fighting the Romulans but I think that it's a fairly balanced trade off that aids Klingon vessels on a particular boarder.

Trading in accuracy and auto drone kill and BPV for the ability to inflict ONE point of damage on enemy ships isn't exactly a game breaker so making a useless weapon functional might be a good idea.

By Christopher E. Fant (Cfant) on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:15 am: Edit

I still say the Type VI covers this area.