How is fire control and gunners calculated for aerospace warships?

Pages: 1
the_tick_rules
05/12/15 01:20 AM
68.62.55.57

Edit Reply Quote Quick Reply
I couldn't find the formula in any book for how these are calculated. I used to think it was just based of tonnage of weapons, it's not. I could provide specific examples of things I tried that resulted in massive swings in the fire control tonnage and gunners if anyone wants them but I've figured out it that at least some other factors like number of guns, heat, etc. have to be involved in some way.
CrayModerator
05/12/15 06:35 PM
67.8.171.23

Edit Reply Quote Quick Reply
The formula for large spacecraft fire control is in AT2, AT2R, and Strategic Operations (p. 155). It was added in response to deficiencies in the BattleSpace construction rules, which allowed (for example) WarShips to easily carry tens of thousands of small weapons.

Fire control is related to the tonnage of weapons, but with some caveats.

First, fire control tonnage is determined for individual firing arcs. You might have firing control for the nose arc but not the broadsides.

Second, fire control tonnage is applied when the number of weapons in a firing arc exceeds a certain number. That number is 12 for JumpShips, and 20 for Space Stations and WarShips). For this discussion, let's call that "the weapon limit."

Fire control tonnage is in multiples of 10% of the tonnage of weapons (not ammo and other equipment) in a firing arc. Anti-missile systems count, active probes don't.

The fire control formula is applied to each arc like this:

1) [(Number of weapons in an arc) / (weapon limit) - 1]
2) round up to the nearest whole number
3) Multiply by the tonnage of weapons in the arc
4) Minimum 0.

Examples:

1) Your WarShip has 15 NAC/40s in the nose arc. The fire control tonnage is (15 weapons / 20 limit) - 1 = -0.25, rounds up to 0. You need no fire control tonnage for the nose arc.

2) You add 5 Heavy Naval Gauss Rifles to the nose arc. The fire control tonnage is now: (20 weapons / 20 limit) - 1 = 0. You need no fire control tonnage for the nose arc.

3) You add a small laser to the nose of a WarShip, giving it 15 NAC/40s, 5 HNGRs, and 1 small laser. The fire control tonnage is: (21 / 20 limit) - 1 = 0.05, rounds up to 1. Multiply by 10%: you need 10% of the tonnage of all those weapons as fire control tonnage because you just HAD to have that small laser.

4) Because you like to see the world burn, you add 40 more small lasers to the nose of your WarShip, giving it 61 nose-mounted weapons. The fire control tonnage for the nose is: (61 / 20) - 1 = 2.05, rounds up to 3. The nose needs 30% of the tonnage of the nose weapons as fire control tonnage.

5) You suddenly remember the rear arc of your WarShip and decide to mount 220 medium lasers back there to scare off fighters. You need: (220 / 20) - 1 = 10, 10 x 10% = 100% of the tonnage of rear arc weapons as rear arc fire control. This in no way changes the fire control tonnage of the nose arc.

Clear as mud?
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
the_tick_rules
05/13/15 12:31 AM
68.62.55.57

Edit Reply Quote Quick Reply
Actually that thing about it increasing per 20 weapons clears up a whole lot. I was wondering why replacing 2 heavy naval gauss with 4 heavy naval ppc's caused my fire control to weigh several thousand tons more when 4 heavy naval ppc's weigh less. It's because it took the nose into a new bracket of 20 guns.
Pages: 1
Extra information
0 registered and 19 anonymous users are browsing this forum.

Moderator:  Nic Jansma, Cray, Frabby, BobTheZombie 

Print Topic

Forum Permissions
      You cannot start new topics
      You cannot reply to topics
      HTML is disabled
      UBBCode is enabled

Topic views: 3695


Contact Admins Sarna.net