Using Directed Targeting with Burnthrough
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 5:27 pm
It is generally accepted practice to declare targeted damage for most volleys, especially when there is a chance of a burnthrough point. The idea is that when using targeted damage, you have a 50% chance of your burnthrough point hitting an ‘important’ system of your choice: weapons or power – which are generally regarded as ‘important’ systems. Because of this it is usually considered preferable to include no overloaded weapons in a volley where you expect burnthrough, in order to allow targeted damage. However, there is more to it than that. Please allow me to explain.
If you declare ‘targeting power’, there is actually a 67% chance of your burnthrough point hitting something important, just so long as you don’t mind whether it’s weapons or power. If you roll a ‘1’, a ‘5’ or a ‘6’, you will get a power hit as usual – fair enough. However if you roll a ‘2’ you will get a phaser hit – still an important system and much better than Lab or Transporter. However, if you target weapons, there’s still only the standard 50% chance that you will get an important hit.
And there’s more. Because you can hit a Phaser on a ‘2’ or a ‘6’, and Warp on a ‘1’, there is still a 50% chance of your burnthrough hit hitting something important even without using targeted damage, just not something that is necessarily your choice.
This means that a burnthrough damage point always has at least a 50% chance of scoring an important hit, whether it’s targeted or not. Therefore, if the odds are not good that you will score a burnthrough point this impulse without using overloads, you should actually go ahead and use overloaded weapons, having the same chance – 50% - of scoring an important system hit with your burnthrough point as you would if it were targeted. You should therefore feel free to use overloads if by doing so you will get a burnthrough, even though you can’t target that burnthrough point. The odds are pretty similar - and pretty good - whichever way you do it. Also this allows you to overload, say, your one disruptor rather than use two, allowing you to use your unfired weapon later.
[Submitted to SPP for a Command Note]
If you declare ‘targeting power’, there is actually a 67% chance of your burnthrough point hitting something important, just so long as you don’t mind whether it’s weapons or power. If you roll a ‘1’, a ‘5’ or a ‘6’, you will get a power hit as usual – fair enough. However if you roll a ‘2’ you will get a phaser hit – still an important system and much better than Lab or Transporter. However, if you target weapons, there’s still only the standard 50% chance that you will get an important hit.
And there’s more. Because you can hit a Phaser on a ‘2’ or a ‘6’, and Warp on a ‘1’, there is still a 50% chance of your burnthrough hit hitting something important even without using targeted damage, just not something that is necessarily your choice.
This means that a burnthrough damage point always has at least a 50% chance of scoring an important hit, whether it’s targeted or not. Therefore, if the odds are not good that you will score a burnthrough point this impulse without using overloads, you should actually go ahead and use overloaded weapons, having the same chance – 50% - of scoring an important system hit with your burnthrough point as you would if it were targeted. You should therefore feel free to use overloads if by doing so you will get a burnthrough, even though you can’t target that burnthrough point. The odds are pretty similar - and pretty good - whichever way you do it. Also this allows you to overload, say, your one disruptor rather than use two, allowing you to use your unfired weapon later.
[Submitted to SPP for a Command Note]
