Weapon Modifications
Small and Heavy Weapons: Beam weapons may be developed into small and heavy versions. Each version must be researched separately after the base system is developed. Small weapons are -1 hull space, cost +20% normal, otherwise they are identical to the base system. Heavy weapons are +2 hull spaces, damage +100%(FRD), +3 to range at damage 1, cost x2 normal). Only L, F, Gr, HET, and E beam weapons may be made heavy. HET, L, F, Gr, and E weapons may be made small. Sg, P, Pg, and N weapons cannot be made small.
Spinal Mount Weapons: I believe Spinal Mount weapons make devastating anti-SS/BS/AF weapons. You must 'cross their T' to be hit, and few ships(I believe) will want to do this very often, hehehehe). SpM are restricted in the follow way:
CL and below none
CA-BB one
DN-MN two
MN+ three
Carriers none
Freighters none
All must fire at the same target(really one BIG weapon). Spinal Mount weapons(SpM) must be designed into a ship when first laid down. cannot be refitted or modified once built. Designations are F-SpM, Fc-SpM, etc. SpM weapons are +1 to hit at ranges 20-24 and +2 to hit from 25+. Only beam weapons can be made Spinal Mounts(no plasma guns or primary beams). One of the most important aspects of the Spinal Mount Weaponry is the phenominal damage it does(x2 regular weapons). Spinal Mount Weapons also have a very limited firing arc(that of a fighter).
Flight Deck Errata
Michael Sauer came up with some interesting info about some of our new tech systems and I think we will go with it!
*Primary beams should ignore SB unless there are ships docked their. If ships are docked, apply the P damage to one of the docked ships.
*E should ignore SB and all ships docked their. The energy flows around the big open space.
*I imagine FD as a cleared area of the deck where fighters are kept and launched from, so:
P-if the number rolled indicated FD hit and that space has one or more fighters, one fighter is destroyed AND the die is rolled once again and the P damage is applied normally to that system. Skip all remaining FD systems(ie treat FD as armor). The FD system itself cannot be damaged by P. Imagine punching a 5cm hole in an aircraft carrier deck, easily avoided or fixed, but the fighter that got in the way is toast.
Here I see the P punching through the unlucky fighter, penetrating the FD(like armor, without really damaging it) and then destroying the other system.
E-should work the same way, but that might be too effective. E damage would ignore empty FD, but would burn out(destroy) any fighters parked their and since fighters are small it might make sense that the damage be doubled(sort of like collapsing V in standard SF).
Ie a carrier with SSSAAA(FD6)Mg...with the FD half full, gets hit with 7 points of E damage. The first three knock out the shields. The first three spaces of the FD(empty) are ignored(treat like A). There are 3 full FD spaces, the next point destroys 2 HS worth of fighters(4), the following point would do the same, but there is only 1 HS of FD left, so the ‘extra’ is lost. A total of 5 points of the E damage has now been applied. The last 2 are applied according to normal rules. I think this is consistent for how I see E and FD/fighters, but it might give E a big advantage vs FD races, however Vb is available one TL before E. It makes it a good idea to invest in the new tech.
The rest are much easier!
*Vl and Va should always be affected by both P and E.
*Vh should be treated like FD, can’t destroy the system, but you can kill the contents.
*Vb could go either way, I’d say it would be affected, but no extra damage, collapse, or second role.
*Vm ignored by both, but treat carried fighters like on FD.