Editing Terajoule (section)

==Optional Rules==
These are some leftover ideas that haven't been fully developed, but that some people might want to play with. No idea what effect they'd have on balance or gameplay. Use at your own discretion.

Nuclear Shaped
Laser Dwell
Laser Precision

Compartmentalization - By default, systems are compartmentalized, such that a single hit to a heat sink, for instance, will not destroy ALL the heat sinks, but simply that individual bank of sinks. Depending on how lethal you want damage to be, you can add a few different rules here. For a more lethal game, establish a 'minimum bank size' - the smallest number of squares that can be compartmentalized. My default rules assume this size is 1 (a point of damage to a capacitor only takes 1 point of capacitors offline), basically assuming that compartmentalization is fairly easy. Setting minimum size at 5 (a point of damage to capacitors etc. would take 5 points worth offline) quickly increases how quickly ships fall apart.
      
Catastrophic Failures - By default, a system taking damage just means it can't be used anymore. You could decide that certain systems are prone to catastrophic failures: if they suffer a point of damage, they might inflict some additional consequence. (as an example, a damaged power supply might explode violently)

Undermass Railgun Loads - Increasing the power of a Railgun simply means that it's able to impart more energy to a projectile. This could be used to either fire a larger projectile at the same velocity or fire the same projectile at a much higher velocity. For every additional projectile of that mass the Railgun could theoretically launch during that turn, the velocity change delivered to the projectile may be increased by 10.

Close range kinetics - When a kinetic weapon is shot at utterly ludicrous speeds, this tends to make it a less effective weapon as you can't get the hexes the two objects are in to connect, and if you're using a string you simply can't change the launch angle fast enough. In real life, that ship simply wouldn't have had TIME to get out of the way, and the kinetic would have hit. When this rule is in play, if the projectile (via string) traveled through the hex the target would have been in had they not accelerated, and the distance between the projectile's starting point and the target been 20% or less of the distance the projectile traveled during that turn, the projectile may make a terminal guidance attack.
(Note: this rule isn't perfectly scientifically accurate, but it's good enough for gameplay purposes)

Relativistic weapons - Any missile or torpedo moving at 25,000 hexes a round or more relative to its target counts as relativistic. A relativistic projectile is completely immune to ECM or point defense for the simple reason that in universe by the time the target realizes they're about to die, the shot has already hit.

Ablative armor - If you're tired of nukes being 1 hit kills, then make each point of mass a nuke has simply add 15 hits at hex zero, with each hex of distance from the center of the blast making the damage recieved 15 hits less powerful.
(They're still powerful, just not 'vaporise the entire death star instantly' powerful.)