No takers on my battery thing from a couple of days ago? I shamlessly lifted it right out of SVC's X2 article in P6 where he mentions Gary Forbis' idea of a "warp capacitor."

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 07:01 pm: Edit

I have a few ideas about the warp capacitor thingy; just posted some parts of it in the X2 speed limit thread. More to come, but I need to work with it some more.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 07:14 pm: Edit

With X2 ships having equal or more warp than X1 storing warp in bats doesn't have much affect. I doubt anyone but the Feds would even notice.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 07:16 pm: Edit

That's if they do have that much warp. The ones I'm doing now do not. The XCM, for example, has only 36 warp.

By Jeff Tonglet (Blackbeard) on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 07:34 pm: Edit

An X2 battery that holds reserve warp to the next turn, not just power?

Interesting idea, simple to implement. Certainly worth adding to the package to playtest.

By Orman J. Hoffman II (Ojh2) on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 09:47 pm: Edit

Make it simpler, X2 batteries keep the energy type of power that has been placed in them for the standard amount of time (i.e. 25 turns) or until used. On the other hand, I think Tos is right.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 10:56 pm: Edit

Actually every race could use reserve warp that lasted multiple turns. (Not saying they should but if they could they would.)

Other than photons what good it reserve warp in batteries?

Suppose on turn A I move 16 and fill the batteries (let’s say 18) with reserves warp. Next turn I'm rocking along at speed 30. Though I could HET or EM easy enough with those warp reserves what I really do is dive head long into the enemy an Alpha strike him. That big wave of drones doesn't bother me because I'll just E-Decel and drop a WW.

Ah, now I've lost initiative, right? Not really, I've got 18 reserve warp to pump into an unscheduled Mid-Turn Speed change.

Yes, that's a lot of power but next turn I'm up to high speed again and rockin'.

This is basically why I don't want to see batteries hold Type for multiple turns. Besides, it's so counter to what a battery is. If there is to be a way to reserve Type it should be a different system. Mikes system is such a thing.

Batteries hold electricity. Warp is not electricity so something special needs to hold and maintain the plasma energy in its own way.

IMHO

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 03:13 pm: Edit

The XP threads got me thinking about another approach to X2 batteries. I've been a proponant of 4 point batteries. But here is something different based on the XP idea of limited draw/charge idea. There was some talk of a self charging battery too. With this in mind heres the proposal.

First the type of ship: X2 ships have only slightly more power generation than X1 (20 point warp).

X2 Battery.

Holds more power than ever before but to gain such levels the system can only discharge a limited amount of power at a time and recharges even slower.

CAPACITY: Each X2 Battery holds up to 6 points of energy. (please read the limits below before judging this is too much)

DISCHARGE RATE: Each X2 Battery can discharge up to 2 points of energy per turn.

RECHARGE RATE: Each X2 Battery can be allocated only 1 Energy Point per turn.

=======================================

This is just a thought to toss out on the crowd. There could be any number of variations.

Could hold 4 points and discharge/charge just two points.

It is interesting to observe the dynamic this would have on the ship. It would provide extra power for longer but overall reserve power available at any one time would be less than X1 and the ability to use reserve warp would be reduced to equal the number of batteries since you can only recharge by one point.

Anyway, it's different.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 06:43 pm: Edit

I was thinking about the idea that X2 shuttles could be armed simaltainiously as an SP & SS.

This unfortunately gives nothing to the Grons.


Try this for an idea.
X2 shuttles can be armed as an SS but then during E.A. told to become a WW and the shuttle then uses the energy in it to become a WW.
This means that I can armed an SS and if I realise I'm going to need it as a WW; I can either finish it as a WW ( if it had just one turn of arming ) or hold it as a WW ( if it had two or more turns of arming ).

Now if we say that the drone launch calibration systems that guide the SP whilst it's launching the drones causes a computer incompatability witht he WW systems then we can say that one can not mount drones on a shuttle that has any chance of being used as an SP.
Thus whilst you can arm an SS and use it as a WW, if you armed the SP & SS simaltainiously then you opt out of being able to use the shuttle as a WW.

This gives all the plasma races a much more equal footing than if we just has being able to load as SS and SP simaltainiously.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 08:07 pm: Edit

You could allow X2-Admin shuttles to function as a seeking weapon drogue, giving the plasma races a true scatter pack.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 06:55 pm: Edit

I don't have the rules to cover drogues but if you think it's a good idea then I like it.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 07:19 pm: Edit

Rules allowing any SP to launch drones one at a time as adrogue might be interesting.

Remember plasma shuttles don't get to load a SP with D-torps, they just launch what they have.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 05:55 pm: Edit

The tractor net sends the tractor beam through a multiplexing dynamic liquid crystal that allows it to lock on to multiple drone size targets in a 10,000 KM diameter. The cost of the net is 0.25 power / hex / drone / impulse. A ship can continue to catch drones in the net as long as it likes, but since it pays a per impulse cost for this it can will get expensive quickly. Once the threat has passed the ship can close the net. This is done by rotating all the captured drones into a tight grouping that can be locked onto by a normal mono-focus tractor. The cost of closing the net is 1 power / turn. Both the tractor net and closing the tractor net uses a single tractor beam.

By R. Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 07:35 pm: Edit

Thank you for not writing "interplexing."

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 09:22 pm: Edit

Tos,

An idea I played with a while back that is similar would be a tractor that only grabs SC6 and smaller (no PFs). The ship spends 1 power and the tractor is simply reusable after something like a 4-impulse delay.

I originally thought it would be a cute X-minesweeper system then thought about what it would do to drones and/or shuttles.

For 1 point it would be limited to range-1, but normal trac rules would allow it to grab objects at range 2 or 3.

By Aaron M. Staley (Aaron_Staley) on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 03:36 pm: Edit

I'm not sure if anything has been done with Transporters yet. I'm kind of jumping into the middle of this.

Ideas:
X2 transporters can operate through the owning ship's shields (but other ships would have to have a downed shield for H&R activity).

They are a bit larger and can accomodate twice the cargo/troops transported.

By R. Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 05:17 pm: Edit

Aaron, I've been thinking along similar lines though I'm not sure about the beaming through shields part. The way I'm looking at them is they're not necessarily larger (but there might be "combat transporters" for ships with barracks) but they can be networked and "overloaded" (use extra power, etc.), maybe longer range for standard usage, some kind of intelligence function, minesweeping, etc. Those last two are just sketched ideas and not very well developed.

By Aaron M. Staley (Aaron_Staley) on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 06:24 pm: Edit

I'm not entirely uncertain that it would be a game breaker to be able to beam through your own shield. I would think 5 hexes would be the maximum range it could get. Not sure much else could be done with them.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 08:44 pm: Edit

Boarding a ship is risky because you expose yourself as well. Beaming through shilds elimiates this risk entirely. I do think it's a game breaker.

However, reducing the number of impulses that a shield must be down when dropped could work. Say 4 or 6 impulses instead of 8.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Tuesday, October 04, 2005 - 02:38 pm: Edit

Nobody's posted anything X-like for too long.

Proposal: The Teather Beam

Service Date: Y195

An outgrowth of tractor-teather technology, the Teather Beam is more generally usable than a tractor-teather but not as long-ranged as a tractor beam.

The Teather Beam as laid out here is actually a X1 system.

Power: 1 unit of power will operate a Teather Beam for a full turn. The Teather cannot use more than 1 point of power for any reason.

Power allocated to a given teather beam operates that teather beam only. It may NOT be used to operate a different teather beam.

The teather beam cannot conduct any form of tractor auction. If the target generates negative tractor energy or is tractored by another unit the teather is immidiately broken. (no current SC6 or smaller unit generates negative tractor but one may exist sometime in the future)

A teather beam cannot under any circumstances be used to break a another teather. Nor can a teather beam be used to break a tractor-teather. A tractor beam CAN break a teather link.

Range: The Teather beam can only be used at a range of 0 or 1.

Target limits: The teather beam is limited to holding objects that are SC6 or smaller. It may not be used on any unit SC5 or larger.

Recycle time: After realeasing a target, a teather beam may be used again in 6 impulses whether within the same turn or between turns. Within these limits, a given teather beam may be used any number of times within the same turn.

Rotations: A teather beam may perform rotations as a tractor beam.

Conversion: A tractor beam ona X1 ship may be converted to a teather beam no BPV cost. Converting a tractor to a teather on a XP ship costs 1/2 point per tractor.
If a ship has 1 or 2 tractor beams on it, it can convert 1 trac to teather.
If a ship has 3+ tractors on it, it can convert up to 2 tracs to teathers.


Teather Beams first found use on minesweepers because they allowed for much more rapid sweeping of minefields. They also proved useful for drone defense and fighter recovery.


X2 Teather beams

In Y210, a more refined teather beam was available for X2 units.

Extended Range: The X2 teather beam has a maximum range of 2.

Power: A second point of power may be allocated to extend the teather beam's range to 2 hexes. The strength of a teather beam at range-0 or 1 remains 1 regardless of the amount of power allocated to the teather beam.

X2 teather beams reamin similar to their X1 counterparts in that they cannot auction.

X2 teather beams cannot break other teather beams (X1 or X2) any better than their X1 counterparts. Even if the second point of power is allocated to an X2 teather beam, it cannot break another teather beam (or tractor-teather).

Target Limit: A X2 teather beam may be used on SC5 objects. Any negative tractor generated by the target unit will break the teather beam.

Recycle time: X2 teather beams recycle in 4 impulses.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 09:37 am: Edit

So basically for a point of power a CX can hold back some five drones at R1 ( at varrious times in the one turn ) so that rapid pulsing can be even more fun and an XCA can hold 8 drones at R2 for 2 power making ADD-12s...errr GX-racks even more powerful?

The question for me is not; "is it too powerful" but rather; "is it needed considering that X ships already have X-Aegis and Rapid Pulsing!?!"
Also what effect does it have for the Plasma boys? And if the answer is "none", should that be the case to retain balance?

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 10:51 am: Edit

I like the concept, sort of an outgrowth of the multi-use per turn Drogue tether beam. There are some things I would change. I'd prefer that all X2 Tractors have tractor tether functionality built in. The player chooses which mode, tractor or tether, the beam is used in upon first use. As a drone defense device I'd make it cycle faster than you have proposed. I'm not sure that it is necessary to allow the beam to reach out to range 2, that capability might take away some of its flavorful limitations.

One of the Achilles heels of X2 is being vulnerable to large drone swarms. This is less an issue for plasma as you simply cannot mass plasma in the same quantities in which you mass drones. Allowing an extra drone defense device seems justified. I don’t see a plasma defense device being required. The tractor tether can’t do anything that a tractor beam can’t do already, it just cycles more quickly. I like it. We will of course also need a one-space one-point negative tractor module for drones 

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 11:36 am: Edit

Perhaps my proposal ( a while ago in a non X2 thread ) of having half point cost for a tractor to tractor SC 6&7 units seems too familiar to this and in a lot of ways just letting X2 tractors tractor SC 6&7 units for 0.5 power is a nice little jump without giving the practically drone proof CXs more drone stopping power.
Don't get me wrong, I'ld like to boost tractors in some way (I'm sure R5 tractors have been bandied about before) but it seems like a heavily anti-drone weapon to me and I don't think X2 vessels need that...playtest be the judge (especial if the numbers of phasers are reduced on X2 ships).

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 12:26 pm: Edit

MJC,

Generally when you're down to your tractors for defense, the drone's going to hang around in the tractor beam for a while because the ship usually didn't have the weapons to get to it.

The teather is not defending the ship against 5 drones so much as aiding in optimizing defense against them.

You might see ships with teather beams taking a few less range-2 shots counting on the teather to grab the seeking weapon.

...Which paves the way for a "negative tractor" drone module. One was proposed here 3 or so years ago.

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 12:39 pm: Edit

Tos,

I think the recycle period is essential to keeping the system balanced. Allowing unrestricted use is just begging for an exploit.

The worst exploit I can think of is drone defense. As you know, drones are often parceled in small groups to minimize the effectiveness of T-bombs. That plays straight into an every-impulse teather beam. A ship with a few every-impulse teathers simply grabs the drones then carefully dismantles them with X-Aegis-guided efficiency. Rinse and repeat. Seems to me it takes a lot of guesswork out of drone defense. I wanted to put a small dent in drone effectiveness with teather reusability but that strikes me as too much of a dent.

I'm sure someone who thinks better along those lines than me can think of a worse exploit.

Moreover, I considered a recycle time to be one of the prices of scaling tractor-teather technology up to general usage.


OTOH, the more I think of adding teather ability to an X2 tractor beam, the more I like it. It's very much in the character of X-tech.

Going that route, it'd be like most other dual-use SFB systems (ADD, D-rack, AFD), it works in one mode or the other for the entire turn. You use it as a tractor, you can't turn around and use it as a teather later. If a X2 tractor beam has multiple points of power in it and is used as a teather, the extra points of power are lost.

I am not particularly tied to extending the range to 2. I think integrating the X1 teather into the tractor would provide all the value-added we'd need to eliminate that advantage.

We might want to retain the 4-impulse recycle or the ability to teather a SC5 unit, but that'd be it.