Editing Terajoule (section)

==Gameplay Questions==
Q:Lasers hit anything in a hex they pass through* - does this destroy missiles in the firing hex?
Q:Citation needed - DO lasers hit anything they pass through, or is it only the target at the end?  And do lasers also hit friendly targets?
A:Lasers only deal hits to their targeted hex, and only to intended targets. My assumption in this regard is that hexes are much (MUCH) larger than the width of the laser beam, and that the laser beam can be aimed fairly accurately, so it is unlikely to hit anything it didn't intend to. Space is large, and light is precise. The actual rule should be that the hits dealt by the laser are divided among any number of targets in the last hex - targeting a hex with 50 missiles in it doesn't allow you to deal 50 times as much damage. Likewise, lasers can be used against missiles in the firing hex - laser damage is intentionally dealt before terminal guidance damage so that lasers can be used as "point defense on steroids" if needed.

Q:If two missiles inflict hits on a ship with Armor and the Armor rolls three sixes, does it lose two points of armor or three?
A:The intended rule is that all damage is dealt separately, so there's no such thing as "two missiles" inflicting hits - just one missile inflicting a hit, followed by another missile inflicting a hit. Armor would be rolled for each missile separately as well. Somebody (wisely?) reworded the Armor section such that only 1 six is needed, and all damage inflicted is allocated to armor. My original rule would have had those 6s wasted - this was intentional, as I don't think armor in space will be particularly effective. That might be more a matter of taste than of science, though.

Q:If a laser hits something in the first hex, does it deal less damage to the hexes beyond the first due to chaff?  This could make defensive missiles very useful even at short range against a Hoplite-class ship.
A:See above - lasers don't hit things in more than one hex. What is this idea of defensive missiles, though? Sounds interesting.

Q:How do you 'randomly pick' a mass unit to write off when damage is inflicted?  Do you roll 1d100 against the table, with one digit being columns and the other rows?  That's a lot of work,  but rolling by system is hardly fair as it gives an equal chance of hitting your 30 units of fuel and your nuke.
A:My intention was the former: d% by row/column, or some other purely-random arrangement.

Q:When fired, a railgun can launch up to its rating in mass.  Does this mean a rating-4 railgun can launch four mass-1 missiles per turn?  Can they be on separate headings?  If it can fire several missiles at once, does that mean it gains heat for each missile?
A:RAW, I'd have to say no, because it specifies "_a_ missile, torpedo, or nuke." My mental image was that four small railguns are not equivalent to a single large railgun. However, maybe clever engineering can make this work as you would intend? I can at least kind of imagine set-ups that would allow multiple launches, so it seems silly to rule that they wouldn't work. If you decide to go with this, the railgun does not gain heat from each missile - it gains it when fired, and the single firing launches all 4 (or however many) missiles at once.