Drop the phaser-G firing rate to once per impulse and allow each fighter to only fire one phaser per impulse.

The phaser-2 would then make sense for Hydran ships while the phaser-G would be most useful as a point defense weapon rather than a mini-mauler.

To balance up the Hydrans just drop the hold cost on the fusion beam so they can drop the anchor on the klinks.

-HJC

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:27 pm: Edit

Henry: You're asking to change one of the core weapons of the game thats been apart of it for 22+years, mostly unchanged. Many, many things are balanced around it and I have to say you are the first to suggest (that I've heard)making a change.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:33 pm: Edit

Good suggestion. Won't happen, but I wouldn't mind seeing similar alternative rules in a SSJ.

By Ken Burnside (Ken_Burnside) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 02:35 am: Edit

Henry, you've been proposing this change since at least 10 years now.

It ain't gonna happen.

I (broadly) agree with you that it'd be interesting, but it's not going to happen. Too many things are built off of the 4-pulse-gat threat.

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 09:09 am: Edit

Hey! Leave my phaser-Gs alone! :P

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 09:42 am: Edit

Seriously though, by modifying the phaser-G and the fusion beams the way you suggest just changes the balance of the Hydrans another way. Removing the holding cost on the fusion beams would definitely make people scream foul.

Not to mention you would also be changing the Orions, Wyn and LDR by messing with the phaser-G.

What is your reasoning for wanting to change the phaser-G?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:29 am: Edit

This way lies madness. I'm not going.

By Henry J Cobb (Hcobb) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:31 am: Edit

Because of what didn't happen.

Why didn't the Freds apply Phaser-G tech to all of their ships and why didn't everybody else and why did the Hydrans continue to build Futile beams?

The full change to the Fusion beams are: No hold cost and no cool down when not overloaded.

The result is that Fred and Hydran escorts are used for escort duties rather than ship attacks, the LDR are more of a defensive force and the Onions and Wyners go back to using Klink Attention Deficit Devices.

You could get rid of the ADD drone too because drones would now work against Hydran fighters or at least cause them to break off their attack for a few impulses.

A modified form of this rule is that fighters and Phaser-Gs fire one pulse per fire step and the reflexes of average pilots count the same as limited Aegis. (Ace pilots have full Aegis and can smell the type of a drone from thousands of miles away.)

Aegis escorts are unharmed by this change (for defense anyway) and fighter phasers shift slightly from offensive (anti-ship) to defensive (anti-drone and other fighters) weapons without losing anything.

-HJC

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:36 am: Edit

---

Quote:

Why didn't the Freds apply Phaser-G tech to all of their ships and why didn't everybody else and why did the Hydrans continue to build Futile beams?

---

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:40 am: Edit

Henry. The Fusion Beam is a fine weapon. Have you seen what a squadron of ST-2 fighters can do at range 10? A Fusion Beam can do more damage at range 10 than a Disruptor and as much as a prox photon. ...and that's not even talking about its close range power-to-damage ratio.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:54 am: Edit

This way lies madness. I'm not going.

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 10:58 am: Edit

Because of what didn't happen? Why didn't the other races get phaser-Gs? That will start a circular argument. Why didn't the Klingon's use photons or plasmas? Or the Gorn's use Disruptors? Or the ICS use drones? Hell, why wouldn't the galactic races just go with option boxes, and slap on whichever weapon was most useful/cheapest/easiest to get at the time?

The phaser-G, as someone has mentioned above, was a limited production tech.

Removing the holding cost, and the cooling down period, would make the fusion beams (futile as you call them) massively over powered, especially if overloaded.

And you didn't really offer up why you suggested changing phaser-Gs.

By Frank Di Vincenzo (Lordsnotrag) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 11:01 am: Edit

"This way lies madness. I'm not going."

Madness is based on perspective. Although, in this case, I share your perspective.

But don't let that stop you from going. Madness makes for really fun parties.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 11:29 am: Edit

Henry, long time, no see, man!!

When SVC says "This way lies madness", that's code for "it's never going to happen, so just forget about even thinking of continueing to ask".


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 11:58 am: Edit

This way lies madness. I'm not going.

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Especially when he gets repetitive.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 12:22 pm: Edit

And SVC knows where madness lies ... he's been there before!!


Garth L. Getgen

By Jeff Laikind (J_Laikind) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 12:55 pm: Edit

Something else that would be affected is dogfighting, a rule that probably is not seen very often.

In a dogfight, a fighter can fire its phasers in "low powered mode" and get 4 shots out of each phaser, one shot per DFR. If a P-3 or P-2 fires this way, it cannot fire normally and vice versa.
OTOH, a Ph-G gets 4 shots each DFR, which only count as one pulse of its normal firing. This makes gatling armed fighters really dangerous in dogfighting: they get four shots at an enemy fighter and still have three left to shoot at an enemy ship.

How would one pulse per impulse affect the dogfight mode?

By Richard K. Glover (Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 12:56 pm: Edit

Madness takes it's toll.


Please have exact change.

By Frank Di Vincenzo (Lordsnotrag) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 01:07 pm: Edit

I got a pocket full of quarters. Let's all go!


Somebody knock Steve out so we can drag him along. He'll thank us later. I hope...

By Richard Sherman (Rich) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 01:24 pm: Edit

What SVC doesn't realize is...

...he's already there...

...and he's leading US to him...

[insert SVC's best eveele laugh as faint background noise here, followed by SPP's best hysterically insane laugh]

We can actually all thank Tos for for getting SVC and SPP there.

By Peter David Boddy (Pdboddy) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 02:07 pm: Edit

Heh, where are we going, and what are we doing in this handbasket?

By Don MacPhail (Dontz125) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 02:27 pm: Edit

Jeff L - Unless I am misremembering (no rules to hand) a phaser fires in low-power OR high-power for the whole turn. So a P-G armed fighter can either fire 4x range-0 shots, perhaps at a fighter it's dog-fighting or at other fighters, drones, ships, small animals, OR it can fire up to 16x range-2 shots at dog-fighting oppponents ONLY.

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 02:39 pm: Edit

Rule (J7.524) covers using a gatling phaser in both a dogfight and regular use during the same turn.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 03:42 pm: Edit

The fusion advantages are in the game already.

Check out X-fusion beams.