From:	mbroadwa@*******.glenayre.com (Mike Broadwater)
Subject:	Re: A new thread; combat at sea ... sink me
Date:	Tue, 28 May 1996 11:03:29 -0500

> A group of runners are trying to take out the bad guys big boat. One
>of the runners shoots an assault cannon at the big boat's waterline.
>Conceptually (gratned SRII's vehicle combat rules kinda stink) If the
>cannon round punctures the hull there is a chance that the boat will take
>on water and sink. How do other people handle boat battles.

Well, that depends on the size of the boat. If it's double hulled, then the
boat has no problems. If the boat has remedial compartmentalizations,
there's no problem, cause only a small section of the boat would take on
water. A big boat (and I mean _big_) wouldn't have a problem if the runners
were lucky enough to puncture their outer hull. Damage control would kick
in. On the other hand, if it was a pleasure craft like a small to medium
sized yacht or a sail boat, it could sink pretty fast.

Here is a real quick, right off the top of my head formula for sink times

60 minutes - powerlevel of attack that caused hole in the boat + body

I'm not a boat expert, 60 minutes just seemed like a good amount of time. I
figured the powerlevel of the attack would help determine size of the hole,
and the body of the boat as a measure of how much water it could take on.

IMHO, unless you plan on doing this often, just go with what feels right.
If you think the boat should sink in 5 minutes, go for it. Same with if you
think the boat should flounder around and slowly succumb to the murky depths
over a period of several hours.

Mike Broadwater
"An object at rest cannot be stopped! Yeah, baby, yeah!" - The Evil
Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight
http://www.olemiss.edu/~neon