Todd--
>From a design standpoint, Battletech's heat shedding is just a disguised
power system, focused on output rather than input. Going into overheat
would just be "over-running" your powerplant for limited periods of time
at the risk of breaking it. And if you could stand in a pond to mitigate
over-revving your power plant it would work the same.
Nonetheless, your analogy is correct in the way that could work in
Traveller, if you wanted to build your ship that way.
Good luck selling the B5 main gun power-outage to Traveller designers,
though. But it is a little like battleship main gun overpressure lighting
off the float planes and starting fires on the fantail.
Like you, I think it could be fun, for people who enjoy playing that way.
Dave
> If you want to use another game for example, try Battletech. They don't
> have power issues, but do have heat issues.
>
> For the ground vehicles, one popular stunt is referred to as 'weapons
> bracketing'. Essentially you have one group of weapons that you use at
> long range, and a second group that you use at short range. If you try to
> fire both, the Mech overheats, and you are a target until you cool off.
>
> I.e. a Mech armed with PPCs (long range, high heat, 1:1 dmg:heat) and
> medium lasers (short range, 5:3 dmg:heat). It can dump 30 pts of heat per
> turn. That is enough to fire 3 PPCs, or 10 medium lasers (not counting
> heat from movement). If the player tried to put in enough heat sinks to
> fire everything, it would drop the total firepower to 2 PPCs and 6 medium
> lasers. Since you would not be at the right range to fire both weapons at
> the same time, you are effectively losing 1/3 your firepower for no
> reason.
>
> The Traveler example would be a capital ship with anti-shipping weapons,
> anti-fighter defenses, ECM, ECCM, and engine.
>
> If the enemy is trying to hold off and send the fighters after the capital
> ship, it can divert its power to the anti-fighter defenses and
> maneuvering, while keeping enough electronics so the enemy doesn't get a
> good shot off.
>
> When the enemy tries to close, it can divert its reactor to the main gun,
> for ship-killing blows.
>
> The mass that would be taken up by a larger reactor is instead taken up by
> more weaponry, defenses, fuel, etc.
>
> Now in B5:Crusade, where the Capital ship loses all power for a minute
> when firing the main gun, that is when the Captain should be looking for
> anything to increase the power reserves/generation capacity.
>
> It also allows a bit of fun, where the players try to shoot down the last
> enemy fighter so they can Jump before the mothership gets in range and
> kills them.
>
> Todd Kes
>From a design standpoint, Battletech's heat shedding is just a disguised
power system, focused on output rather than input. Going into overheat
would just be "over-running" your powerplant for limited periods of time
at the risk of breaking it. And if you could stand in a pond to mitigate
over-revving your power plant it would work the same.
Nonetheless, your analogy is correct in the way that could work in
Traveller, if you wanted to build your ship that way.
Good luck selling the B5 main gun power-outage to Traveller designers,
though. But it is a little like battleship main gun overpressure lighting
off the float planes and starting fires on the fantail.
Like you, I think it could be fun, for people who enjoy playing that way.
Dave
> If you want to use another game for example, try Battletech. They don't
> have power issues, but do have heat issues.
>
> For the ground vehicles, one popular stunt is referred to as 'weapons
> bracketing'. Essentially you have one group of weapons that you use at
> long range, and a second group that you use at short range. If you try to
> fire both, the Mech overheats, and you are a target until you cool off.
>
> I.e. a Mech armed with PPCs (long range, high heat, 1:1 dmg:heat) and
> medium lasers (short range, 5:3 dmg:heat). It can dump 30 pts of heat per
> turn. That is enough to fire 3 PPCs, or 10 medium lasers (not counting
> heat from movement). If the player tried to put in enough heat sinks to
> fire everything, it would drop the total firepower to 2 PPCs and 6 medium
> lasers. Since you would not be at the right range to fire both weapons at
> the same time, you are effectively losing 1/3 your firepower for no
> reason.
>
> The Traveler example would be a capital ship with anti-shipping weapons,
> anti-fighter defenses, ECM, ECCM, and engine.
>
> If the enemy is trying to hold off and send the fighters after the capital
> ship, it can divert its power to the anti-fighter defenses and
> maneuvering, while keeping enough electronics so the enemy doesn't get a
> good shot off.
>
> When the enemy tries to close, it can divert its reactor to the main gun,
> for ship-killing blows.
>
> The mass that would be taken up by a larger reactor is instead taken up by
> more weaponry, defenses, fuel, etc.
>
> Now in B5:Crusade, where the Capital ship loses all power for a minute
> when firing the main gun, that is when the Captain should be looking for
> anything to increase the power reserves/generation capacity.
>
> It also allows a bit of fun, where the players try to shoot down the last
> enemy fighter so they can Jump before the mothership gets in range and
> kills them.
>
> Todd Kes