Plasma torpedoes

[Steve Walmsley]

If you haven't played SFB (and I know I haven't), they work like this:
They're fairly similar to normal shields, but with several huge advantages: They power up instantly, have much better strength per hull space, and much faster regeneration. I think they also have different EM signature characteristics when damaged, but I'm not sure about that. They also have one minor disadvantage and one potentially serious one: small amounts of damage will leak through, even on the first hit (I'm not sure how much), and if they get beaten down and then destroyed by internal damage, they cause massive secondary explosions. Also, I think each component is 10 HS instead of 1.

They absorb damage and then slowly release it, rather than being reduced in strength, which is why you can't tell how damaged they are. The chance of leak damage increases if the absorption shields are holding more energy. Size is one of the parameters in their design so they can be of varying sizes but I think you can only have one per ship.

Steve

[Girlinhat]

This is all a rather poor job of explaining how the two techs work.

[Erik L]

Both techs are based on Star Fleet Battles weapon systems.

From section FP1.0 of the Captain's edition of SFB, 1990.

A plasma torpedo is a ball of matter on the brink of being converted totally to energy. The weapon is extremely powerful. It is used by the Romulans and Gorns as well as the Orion pirates and (in Module C2) by the Interstellar Concordium. There are several different types of this weapon, each with different warhead strengths and energy costs.

Basically the plasma torp is a multi-turn charging seeking weapon. It can be disrupted by defensive fire, reducing the warhead strength.

From section D10.0 of the Captain's Module C2, 1991.

The Andromedans do not use shields. Instead they use power absorber (PA) panels. These absorb the energy of enemy weapons (up to a limit) and prevent it from damaging the ship. This stored energy can then be channeled into the ship's batteries. A given ship cannot have both shields and PA panels; the two systems are mutually exclusive and cannot work together.

As the quote says, they absorb incoming damage and allow it to be used by the mounting ship. They can be overloaded, taking more damage than they can absorb. This gets applied as damage normally.

Now the Aurora systems work somewhat similarly to these.

And yes, I have SFB within arms reach of my computer desk

[Mormota (OP)]

So, what if I don't put reactors on a beam ship, just absorption shields? Will the enemy shots charge my weapons? If I do put some reactors, but due to my capacitor charge rate the rate of fire is still 20 seconds, can incoming fire charge my weapons faster?

[TheDeadlyShoe]

That's the SFB system, not Aurora.

Check steve's post.  When damage hits the absorption shields, they um...absorb it, then slowly radiate it back out into space (similar to normal shield recharging).   The catch is that the more energy the absorption shields are holding (not radiated yet) the more chance damage will leak through to the ship instead of hitting the shields.

(I haven't actually used these shields yet but this is my understanding ^^)

[Steve Walmsley]

This is all a rather poor job of explaining how the two techs work.

These are not player race techs. To explain how every NPR tech functions and how every special NPR behaves would take a lot of the fun out of encountering them. Once you learn that information, you can't unlearn it. Instead of strange aliens with unknown tech you have to learn about the hard way, they will just be a known quantity with familar weapons and defences. That doesn't provide the same degree of suspense and uncertainty.

Steve

[MrAnderson]

Let's compare Absorption shields to car engines. Whenever a car engine does a combustion cycle, it generates heat, that is then slowly radiated out through the radiator. If it can not radiate this heat fast enough, it will start to damage the engine. Each time a absorption shield is hit, it generates energy, that is then slowly discharged into space. If it is hit faster than it can discharge the energy, the ship will start to take damage from the hits.

[Stephan]

does anyone know if plasma torpedoes work in a nebula???

[ExChairman]

Thank God they dont have Tractor Repulsor beams...

[welchbloke]

Thank God they dont have Tractor Repulsor beams...

Now don't go giving Steve ideas 
Plasmatic Pulsars Devices (PPDs) are something I'd like to avoid 

[Erik L]

Now don't go giving Steve ideas 
Plasmatic Pulsars Devices (PPDs) are something I'd like to avoid 

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought "Mmmmmm PPDs" with that post.

[welchbloke]

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought "Mmmmmm PPDs" with that post.

Steve can give the NPRs PPDs as long as I can develop Displacement Devices to disrupt the Echelon