Technically, even the MDS only boosts the defender dodge, though the fluff says it 'shoots things down'. *shrug* Good times.

MDS boosts the dodge by shooting things down. Things at which others can't even fire.

Presumably. The mechanical effect is increasing dodge, that's all. The fact that this can manifest in-game as slightly mitigating (-net hits) an otherwise fully successful hit proves that. As far as the game is concerned, the missiles and rockets also vanish into thin air, or veer off and kill passing schoolchildren.

Neither can the MDS engage anything *but* missiles and rockets (as you say, not even cruise missiles or Nimrods, probably), even though reality is very different.

I liked the Abrahms better, yes...
But you are also right... I am absolutely positive that the T-72 has gone through a lot of upgrades since I played with one...

Dunno, War states that the cruise missile "fires" itself at the target at some point (i guess that happens once the cruise missile have come within existing missile launcher ranges of its target, and commits to the attack). At that point there is also a dodge test that one can apply the MDS to.

But is it a 'rocket or missile'? The universe may never know.

Because if it's a missile and not a vehicle, then the MDS can dodge against it (possibly meaning 'shoot it down' or 'vaporize', we dunno), but it also has no Condition monitor; if it's a vehicle, then the MDS can't touch it, unless it's somehow both. Alas.

I am now imagining an aircraft carrier dodging.

Sure the carrier can dodge. It can submerge really fast. *whistle*
To actually contribute though, isn't it so that missiles are drones and thus vehicles for all intents and purposes? Or did War change some of that? Haven't actually read it still.

Some Drones are Missiles, but not all Missiles are Drones...

Yeah, seconding that - not all missiles are drones, but all cruise missiles are.

I'm saying that I'm not even sure a cruise missile is a missile. In SR4. Because, if they are, then the MDS is even more arbitrarily weird.

Not sure it really matters, though. You get a reactionary avoidance against either, whether it be from the actual firing of the weapon, or the avoidance of a crash (Missile/Attack and Drone respectively), and teh MDS would apply to both since it bolsters Dodge...

Anyways...

No, that's my point. The MDS would not do anything against a ramming drone. In reality, it *should*, but it should also do so by making damaging attacks against it, not this wonky dodge bonus. That's exactly what I was saying.

This assumes that the SR MDS behaves 100% the same as the real life CIWS, i see no reason for that assumption.

I don't think it assumes that even a little. More like, explicitly acknowledges and points out how they're barely related. Also, lasers.

Yeah, it is not an optimal solution, to say the least... as the MDS should actually Destroy what it defends against, rather than allow total avoidance... It is an issue with Reality clashing with Game Mechanics (Because we all know that a realistic implementation through the game mechanics would be used to shoot Shadowrunners when possible, which should result in dead shadowrunners every time)...

So, k, here's what my new super-boring CIWS version looks like.

Also, tried to breathe some life into cruise missiles here.

Check it out, think that'd work?