I was going to allow light cruisers and cruisers to fire some of their side mounted weaponry into the fore arc (see previous thread). Instead of doing this, here's my new idea:

A Light Cruiser or Cruiser can replace a single pair of side mounts (1 Port and 1 Starboard) with 1 Dorsal mount at a cost of 2 SP.

Seems simple enough. Any thoughts?

Here's my idea as a Component:

Dorsal Mount (Power 0, Space 3, SP 2)

The Dorsal Mount increases Dorsal Weapon Capacity by 1 but reduces both Port Weapon Capacity by 1 and Starboard Weapon Capacity by 1. This component may not be selected more than once per vessel. This component is only appropriate for Light Crusers, Cruisers, and larger vessels.

In Edge of The Abyss there's a chaos cruiser that has managed to rework its prow lance mount to permit it to fire as a dorsal mount. Though this cost it some of its damage and a small power usage increase.

I personally am just going to use one of the heavy cruisers designs (From Dark Reign), or one port and starboard mount for a dorsal mount on a regurlar cruiser, and call it a day.

I'm not to worried about them having a bigger ship, as its in horrible condition and thus is as much the springboard for their endeavours and other misadventures as it is their new toy. Though obviously if this is a starting vessel I'd go with the modified cruiser option instead of handing out something much larger.

HappyDaze said:

Ah very reasonable solution.

Keep in mind that having a Dorsal mount greatly increases the firepower of the ship. This is especially true vs smaller frigates and raiders, who are already outgunned and need to use excellent maneuvering to avoid to worst of a cruiser's attack. I'd be cautious of making dorsal mounts on cruisers too common or easy.

dvang said:

Not really. It merely increases the firepower in the fore arc up to the level of an escort - hardly game breaking.

HappyDaze said:

It does a bit more then that – it allows you to more easily focus your firepower and gives a reduction in space,sp and power consumption for that firepower.

If you imagine the ship wanting to take two Ryza Plasma Battery you give them the option of paying. 7 power, 7 space, 4 SP for a gun that can fire to 3 / 4 directions – instead of having to pay 14 power, 8 space, 4 sp for two guns that each can fire 1 / 4 directions (and never at the same target). The reduction in cost will easily enable you to get better/bigger guns on your (new) dorsal slot then you would have had on both the starboard and port slots. It gets offset a bit by not having access to broadsides though.

I would increase the power, space and sp cost associated with the weapon so that it cost about as much as having two of said weapons – since you really get MORE then the benefit of having two of the weapons each limited to a 1/ 4 ^th arch.

Personally I would not go for it though. I find that the price you pay for having a huge ship is its low manoeuvrability and the fact that it needs to position itself well before it can blow the enemy out of the sky. I feel it is a nice throwback to the “age of sail” combats and is quite dramatic especially between small fast raiders and bigger ships. Big ships should not automatically be all around better then smaller ones – it should be preference of speed, firepower and manoeuvrability. And establishing more of a “they can fire wherever they want without having to manoeuvre as much” seems to me to be dumbing it down and reducing some of the fun – but your milage might vary.

No disagreement that it is more efficient to have a dorsal mount, but my my point was that it does not "greatly increase firepower" over what the cruiser would normally have.