[TML] X-ray Lasers Per FF&S

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 8/23/07 1:54 AM, "Garry Ward" wrote:

> I doubt anyone would be trying to hit something a light minute away, other
> than the aforementioned planet; in fact, much over a couple of light seconds
> isn't going to be viable. Effectively everything in targetable range will be
> targeted as if at short range.

True once combat has started.  But for that *1st* shot, when the enemy
doesn't know he's a target yet...



On 8/23/07 1:54 AM, "Antony Farrell" wrote:

> The longest ranged beam pointer is 300,000km (10 hexes) giving an absolute
> maximum range of 2,400,000 km (80 hexes)
> So 0-10 hexes is short range, 11-20 medium, 21-40 long, 41-80 extreme.

I have an issue with this...  At TL8 at best, we were bouncing a laser of
the Moon at will.  That's up to 14 hexes, and the target wasn't even a ship,
just a tiny reflector.  Granted, that was with a full-size 60's/70's
telescope as a beam pointer.  Given all the improvement to TL 14, I can't
see this being a rational limit.

Conversely, at those distances, evasion will completely throw your aim off
*if* the target can accelerate further than it's size in the roundtrip light
time.  Leonard discussed this, and at 1 light second the ship can only move
19.6m per G of drive between when the targeting info leaves the target and
when the laser arrives.  Since you typically aim at center-of-mass, few
ships can evade meaningfully.