Cloaked Ships and Fractions?

[malleman]

Okay, I am sure that this has been hashed out before and I missed it, but do you combine weapons fired in the same impulse and treat it as a single volley, or do you reduce each weapon's damage individually by 50% and round down?

[Kang]

It's the latter - each individual weapon's damage is halved. That said, all the (reduced) damage is still combined into a single volley for other purposes like which shield was hit, reinforcement etc.

[mjwest]

Kang is correct.

[storeylf]

What about Ph-Gs.

I know I asked about PPDs once, and they add up all their pulses and then halve. But Ph-G is a bit different. It does not have to fire all pulses together, and it is described as being 4 Ph-3 shots.

So is a Ph-G halved per ph-3 shot, or do you tot up all the shots you fire at the same time and then halve?

[Kang]

I've always understood a P-G as being a rapid-fire P-3, firing four separate shots. Therefore, to my mind, each shot will be reduced individually.

If we'd been able to fire a P-G as a sort of 'super' P-3, one short range carronade-style shot with quadruple the power but still as a single shot then I would have said yes, tot up all the shots then halve - but it isn't. It's four separate shots as you said, therefore halve them individually.

[storeylf]

Aye -- but a PPD fires 4 individual pulses that in SFB do not even hit at the same time, but you still treat it all as the 'wepaon' add and then halve them. The PH-G is the 'weapon' it would appear on the face of it to be add and then half. Thats how I've done it in the past.

That would be the most consistent way of doing it, rather than introducing exceptions to what 'weapon' means.

Not that I'm bothered, I'd just like it clarified, as I was just checking through the latest online tourney entries and thought about the romulan I might be taking on with my hydrans.

[Kang]

Ah, I see. Good points there. I knew you understood the rules, but was just putting in my interpretation on that particular point

[storeylf]

Of course, Even if you do treat all shots as being the same weapon it is still pretty ineffective - +4 range and half means you need at least 2 rolls of 1-2 at point blank range to score a single point. However, doing it as half each shot means it is not possible to score damage at all. But sometimes that chance of a single damage point is what you are after.