Thoughts on Book 2 Combat

Maneuver/Evade, Auto/Evade, Maneuver:

My Question: A/E is described as working at a lower level than M/E. Yet at –2, and taking up only 1 slot of CPU, it is a more effective evasion program than almost all of the M/E programs. At the same time, it is much cheaper than the weakest of these! What’s missing?

My answer: I follow MAYDAY’s lead in interpreting these programs:
Maneuver allows the unrestricted use of the ship’s maneuver drive.

Maneuver/Evade allows use of the maneuver drive while inserting evasive maneuvers to defeat laser fire. In order to do so, the ship must sacrifice forward acceleration: A ship running M/E operates at 1G less than the ship’s potential acceleration. A 4G ship can maneuver at 3G while evading: a 1G ship cannot maneuver while evading.

Auto/Evade allows evasive action, but does NOT allow maneuvering.

Mayday does not allow A/E to be operated simultaneously with maneuver.

I actually came up with a houserule close to this on my own, years before I read MAYDAY.

Pulse Lasers:

My question: LBB2 (2nd ed) says Pulse lasers are better at causing damage than beam lasers, but that beam lasers are better at scoring hits than pulse lasers -but there's no mechanic stated. What's up with that?

My answer: Pulse lasers are -1 to hit, but get 2 damage rolls per hit. (as per LBB2 first edition.)

My question: What about when pulse lasers are used in conjunction with the "select" program?
My answer: Only one of the two hits gets the selection roll: the other is assigned normally. Pulse lasers are hamfisted weapons.


Missiles:
My questions: Do missiles actually move? How far? Where to?

My answers: Aside from missiles of an Unusual military sort, I'm assuming missiles to behave this way:

Commercial:
cr.5000 50kg, 1D hits; 6G with fuel for 3 full burns (18 at 1G) Can home passively or actively. Subject to ECM.

Military:
Conventional: cr 20,000 where available, 50kg. 1D hits. 6G with fuel for 6 full burns (36 at 1G) Can home passively or actively. Not subject to ECM.
Fusion missiles:
1 Mcr where available. 50kg. 10D hits. 6G with fuel for 2 full burns. Can home passively or actively. Not subject to ECM.

Homing:
Passive: Missile must move at full available acceleration to the target's present position. Launching ship does not transmit and remains silent.
Active: Missile may move at any or no acceleration, to whatever position the launching player wishes. Launching ship transmits signal, and breaks silence.

Sand:
My questions: How big a cloud of sand does a sandcaster round make? Does it last? Do they stack?

My answers:
Sand creates a 25mm radius cloud. It keeps the vector it was launched at, persists, and is cumulative.
lasers fired through sand fire at -3 per 25mm. Missiles can be damaged by sand: for each 25mm of sand a missile passes through, roll 2D. On a 12+, the missile is incapacitated. (So sand provides some missile protection, but not enough.)

I assume anti-missile fire to take place at extremely short range, so one's own sand does not interfere with one's anti-missile fire, but it does interfere with any outgoing fire.

In range band combat, I would say that sand only persists as long as the ship that launched it keeps the same vector: if it maneuvers, it's leaving the sandcastle.