"They" who?

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 06:50 pm: Edit

Ya know, the people designing the game.

The existence of Commanders Options means that, essentially, all ships in space always carry 10 extra boarding parties, as there is no reason not to. And they are incredibly cheap. And you have a lot of CO points to spend and not much to spend them on. So ships that are designed with 6 or 8 Boarding Parties actually always have 16 or 18. Which isn't a huge deal, but always struck me as kind of silly.

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 06:56 pm: Edit

Everyone check your email- scenario one, Encounter at mining colony QX-57 should be there.

Gentlemen start your engines!

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 08:19 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

all ships in space always carry 10 extra boarding parties, as there is no reason not to.

---

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 09:22 pm: Edit

William wrote:
>>Maxing out commander's options in a scenario can put you in a pretty significant victory points hole,>>

Well, it is safe to assume that most of the time, both players are going to use their commanders option points, so it is a zero sum.

>> and in a buy-your-fleet battle, can cost you enough points to mean the difference between a smaller ship and a larger one, or even allow you to buy a whole other ship.>>

I'm only talking about commander's option points.

>>In later years, drogues effectively eat up the extra points, as in most situations they are substantially more useful than boarding parties, cost plenty, and all races can use them (granted not all races get the same utility).>>

Yeah, there is that, but that only happens post y178, and generally speaking, how many of those are you gonna buy?

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 10:32 pm: Edit

"Convoy- 3 Destroyers, max BPV 325. 2xF-L, 4xF-S. Ships enter from the 01XX hex side, speed max, WS I. All ships must be within three hexes of all other ships."

So if I have four I can only bring three?

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 10:36 pm: Edit

"In that case it will move to the hex of the closest unit at twelve hexes per movement"

Does per movement mean "8/16/24/32" for this or every impulse (i.e. movement phase)?

Rule conflict:

") unless there is a unit using warp energy or powered shields within its detection range of 25 hexes. "

AND

"Units carrying refined material from the colony will be targeted by the monster above all others, even if they are not operating warp engines or shield"

Trying to reconcile those two statements.

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 10:42 pm: Edit

Map Size Question:

Rule Set 2.2, Section 8 -

"8.0 SCENARIO INFORMATION: Player versus player duels will be one duel versus an historical opponent and a second against a random draw of other players. Duels will take place on a fixed map (42x30); any ship leaving the map will disengage. The remaining two scenarios will be drawn from the scenario books, Captain’s Logs, modules, or anywhere else they may be found."

For the QX-57 scenario, what is the map? It wasn't specific in the scenario brief nor in the standard rules (not a duel).

By John M Ledbetter (Daltwisney) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 10:50 pm: Edit

I took that to mean that it will displace/teleport 12 hexes towards the closest valid target on each of its movement impulses.

I would restate the first part of your 'conflict' as ") unless there is a unit using warp energy or powered shields or carrying refined material within it's detection range", and the second part to "If there are units carrying refined material within its detection range, the monster will ignore any targets NOT carrying material from the colony and instead pursue the closest target carrying such material"

It seems clear enough to me, I don't want to get too specific since we still have one player who has not submitted his COs and has thus not seen the scenario yet.

By John M Ledbetter (Daltwisney) on Monday, July 18, 2011 - 10:58 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

For the QX-57 scenario, what is the map? It wasn't specific in the scenario brief nor in the standard rules (not a duel).

---

By Kenneth Jones (Kludge) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 01:02 am: Edit

Not sure what Empires are playing but for goodness sake I think I should probably get tossed to the Plasma side of the Galaxy most likely.

I'd be a baby seal getting clubbed by the Kzinti and on the other hand I'd do the same to a Hellbore Hydran since the enveloping HB would be useless against my VRF (Volley Reduction Factor FYI).

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 01:58 am: Edit

Im ISC Kludge

My squadron is somewhere buried in this thread

DDL
DD
DD

All have F refit.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 02:06 am: Edit

The displacer beast as i understand it jumps from one hex with a ship to another a max of 12 hexes away from its last position. It displaces on imp's 8, 16, 24 and 32 up to but not necessarily 12 hexes.

It displaces to the closest ship except when you have the refined material in a cargo hold of an Freighter. It will pursue the ships with the refined material, but can never jump over 12 hexes.

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 08:33 am: Edit

Peter- sorry you (and anone else with more than three ships) can bring all of your ships.

The monster only moves four times per turn. It will move random direction and distance unless something it wants to eat is within its detection range, at which point direction and distance are no longer random- it will move toward its target at its maximum "Speed" of twelve hexes per movement.

Map size is 42x30.

Regarding freighters with refined materisl being targeted. It is simply a matter of food preference for the monster. It will choose to pursue the refined material over any other food source.

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 08:34 am: Edit

Everyone has submitted COs so feel free to discuss scenario one openly.

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 08:41 am: Edit

Scenario 1 questions:

Q: Will the monster pursue a wild weasel?
A: No.

Q: What happens if the monster is tractoed and drug out of the cloud?
A: An attempt to remove the monster from the cloud will fail and the tractor link will be broke.

Q: Dear GM, what happens if Olivette Roche is on a freighter loaded with refined material. Will it attack the freighter?
A: No. The monster isn't stupid.

By Roger Rardain (Sky_Captain) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 11:27 am: Edit

Yea, I was a bit busy and almost forgot about submitting my COs. But, I remembered at nearly the last minute.

The way I read this, only phasers are effective against this monster?

If so, my squadron will be a LOT faster.

Are everyone's squadrons going to be posted?
Or do we post them here?

By Troy Latta (Saaur) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 12:29 pm: Edit

I posted mine "in character" a while back. 3 Drex BDs, two of which have the CASE refit (not that that makes any difference in this battle, as you noted).
I think the combination of PWs on my base (auto-damage out to r5) and PPs on my ships (big crunch up close) is what will save me here. Should be pretty easy to fill up the monster and keep it off the freighters.
wish I were playing Ryn for this one, though. No shields, no warp, the creature ignores 'em.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 12:40 pm: Edit

Is there any time limit for this monster scenario? I.e. if I want to spend 100 turns on it, can I do that?

By Troy Williams (Jungletoy) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 12:53 pm: Edit

Lyran Squadron-

DWL Kratos
DW Lelanto
DWS Nyx

All refits (Plus, Phaser, Pwr Pck, UIM, Litter box, Scratching post etc) except tractor links.

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 12:54 pm: Edit

Roger:

Read back, I think everybody posted here already.

I'm flying 4x Frax SDD's and the ONLY fight I don't want is the previous post

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 01:09 pm: Edit

Peter- no time limit.

I'll post everyone's squadrons when I put up the player v player matchups in the next day or two. But everyone feel free to post (and boast) about your mighty fleets!

By Mike Johnson (Akira) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 01:18 pm: Edit

More scenario clarifications:

-The monster ignores cloaks

-The monster is not able to pursue any targets that it cannot detect, i.e. if a pursued unit moves more than 25 hexes away or out of the cloud the monster can no longer see it and therefore cannot pursue. It will select another target if one is available or go back to moving randomly until a new target presents itself.

By Peter Thoenen (Eol) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - 07:08 pm: Edit

Crap, I forgot the boasting:

Give us your ponies or die

By Kenneth Jones (Kludge) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 12:21 am: Edit

Quadrupeds UNITE! Ignore the imaginaries (Frax) they are all wet.