Askhati
04/14/07 03:30 PM
196.208.94.65
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The Thrack Burst Targetting Pod, aka Thrack pod, was an early attempt by the Marian Hegemony to find an alternative to the technologically advanced and extremely costly targetting computers developed and used by the Great Houses. Designed by Wilhelm Thrack, an exiled Lyran scientist (the Hegemony had not been too worried about his past once they learned that he was a weapons system engineer), the pod works on a slightly different principle that standard targetting computers. Unlike normal targetting computers that give improve accuracy against the target using advanced algorithms and high-powered processors, the Thrack pod instead creates an targetting bracket around the target (akin to a statistical confidence interval), and then spreads the fire of the weapons linked to it uniformly over this area. Although the Hegemony commanders were slightly disappointed when the learned that the Thrack pod could not duplicate the exact function of the Great House computers, they were suitably impressed once the gear was put into action on an captured and slightly modified Capellan Catapult. Swopping dual LRM15 racks for six smaller LRM5 racks, the refitted Catapult displayed remarkable accuracy at all ranges, especially the longer ranges where most designs had serious problems reaching and still maintaining any form of fire coherence. Rushed into service as quickly as possible, the Thrack pod has been seen regularly since 3061, and can be expected to remain in Hegemony service for several years to come (at least until they get access to conventional targetting gear).
RULES:
Thrack Pod
Weight: 1.5 tons
Crits: 2
Ammo: 5 shots per ton
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Conditions:
- cannot be used along with any other targetting gear like VRT, TC, etc
- all weapons firing in the burst have to be firing in the same range bracket (short/medium/long)
- all weapons must have the same BTH values; cannot combine pulse lasers (-2 BTH) with heavy lasers (+1 BTH) for example
- can only be used once per round, with a maximum of six linked weapons per burst
- weapon types can be mixed (eg lasers, missiles, autocannons) as long as they obey the above conditions
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Process:
- declare which weapons will be using the Thrack pod in any give turn (if any)
- for any weapons in the burst, add -1 BTH after the first, up to a maximum of six linked weapons (ie 2 weapons = -1 BTH, 6 weapons = -5 BTH)
- determine the toHit value normally, using the BTH modifier from the Thrack pod, and roll to determine whether the linked burst hits
- if the burst hits, rolled on the appropriately-sized Missile Table to determine how mnay of the weapons in the burst hit
- next, dtermine which weapons out of the burst hit:
: Order the weapons from (1) to (n), where (n) is the total number of weapons in the burst
: for burst of 2 - flip a coin, or roll 1d6, with even = weapon 1, odd = weapon 2
: for burst of 3 - divide 1d6 into three groups: (1 & 4), (2 & 5), (3 &6)
* 1/3 hit: roll 1d6 and consult above groups to determine hit
* 2/3 hit: roll 1d6 and consult above groups to determine miss
: for burst of 4 - divide 1d20 into 4 brackets: (1-5), (6-10), (11-15), (16-20)
* 1/4 hit: roll 1d20 and consult above brackets to determine hit
* 2/4 hit: roll 2d20 and consult above brackets to determine hits
* 3/4 hit: roll 1d20 and consult above brackets to determine miss
: for burst of 5 - divide 1d20 into 5 brackets: (1-4), (5-8), (9-12), (13-16), (17-20)
* 1/5 hit: roll 1d20 and consult above brackets to determine hit
* 2/5 hit: roll 2d20 and consult above brackets to determine hits
* 3/5 hit: roll 2d20 and consult above brackets to determine misses
* 4/5 hit: roll 1d20 and consult above brackets to determine miss
: for burst of 6 - use simple 1d6
* 1/6 hit: roll 1d6 to determine hit
* 2/6 hit: roll 2d6 to determine hits
* 3/6 hit: roll 3d6 to determine hits
* 4/6 hit: roll 2d6 to determine misses
* 5/6 hit: roll 1d6 to determine miss
- for weapons that hit, resolve the rest of the attack normally (heat generated, ammo used, location struck)
- attacks that miss still generate heat and use ammo as normal
- the Thrack pod itself uses 1 point of ammo per burst fired, regardless of burst size
- the Thrack pod generates heat based on the burst size:
* 2-3 weapons: 2 points heat
* 4-5 weapons: 3 points heat
* 6 weapons: 4 points heat
- when a location containing a Thrack pod ammo bin is struck, the unused ammo will explode and deal 1 point damage per round.
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That is about the short and sweet of it, do not have enough time to elaborate fruther. Comments would be appreciated, please.
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Askhati
04/15/07 11:41 AM
196.208.94.101
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Note on the Thrack pod's operation.
The Thrack pod is basically a passive system, waiting only to recieve the targetting data from the group of weapons that link to it. Once this data is received, it uses a removeable processing unit to rapidly burn through the calculations and present a firing solution. However, because of the stress placed on it by these calculations, the processor needs to be overclocked horribly (think a 1G AMD going up to 4.5G), resulting in a burn-out once the calculations are complete. After firing the burst, the old processing unit is dumped, and a new one cycled up from the ammo bin. This allows the Thrack pod to come up with firing solutions as long as the supply of processing units remain constant.
Evolve or DIE!
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sdog
04/16/07 07:39 AM
139.174.165.124
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that's hardcore overclocking, you got to design such a processor chain gun device for some gamers. that really beats lame SLI graphiccards.
I realised soon that the fun part of playing a military game is that we have lots of lifes and in the end knowone dies, ...
- Skaven, ArmA modding community
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Askhati
04/16/07 03:32 PM
196.208.92.225
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It is still a bit theoretical at this stage...
Evolve or DIE!
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