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By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Saturday, February 04, 2012 - 11:23 am: Edit

In the Z49.0 notes section there are a few times the module is referred to as E4 (Nick Samaras Feb 4 2012).

Page 8, 2nd last paragraph. "neutron start" should be "neutron star" (Nick Samaras Feb 4, 2011).

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, February 04, 2012 - 01:16 pm: Edit

Looks solid and interesting.

Weirdly, the SSDs seem oddly blurry. This might just be my PDF viewer. Maybe not. Nothing horrible. But something I noticed.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, February 04, 2012 - 11:33 pm: Edit

*(E98.0). Both this weapon system and (EN102.0) from Module E2 are designated as "pulse phasers"; though both systems have distinct abbreviations on their respective SSDs. Should either system be re-named in order to avoid duplication? - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

*(E109.0). Is the neutronium used in this weapon the same material as that found in micro-thin neutronium armour plating as detailed in E2's (DN102.0)? (To put it another way, if the neuronium the Nicozians have access to is supposed to be part of the unique suite of materials their species can manipulate, as suggested in (R107.1B), how do the empires operating neutronium armour out in the Triangulum Galaxy gain access to, or operate, this source material?) - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

*(FD93.361). It's noted that ADDs cannot damage skip-warp missiles. Does (or perhaps should) this also cover Federal Republic SRC (OE20.0) and Mallaran Empire MPDS (EN107.0) fire; or would the increased damage output of either system against SC7 targets allow them to down such missiles if they manage to score a hit? - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

*(FD93.4). What is the skipwarp missile interaction with the Worb SEF (OG14.0) or Bolosco IWT pressure fields (OG18.36)? - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

*(R107.0). It's noted that non-rotating neutron stars are quite rare in the Alpha Octant. would the same be true in the other known regions of the SFU; and is the potential open for a vortex (or transit via the Cosmic Nexus) to facilitate a Nicozian presence in the Omega Octant, Lesser Magellanic Cloud, or Triangulum Galaxy? - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

*(R107.0). Do any of the more exotic known species in the SFU, such as the Organians or Loriyill, have any particular advantages when trying to establish communication with the Nicozians; or would they be as equally stymied? (For that matter, would the kind of super-intelligent computer networks available to the Drex Unity be better able to decode Nicozian transmissions?) - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

*(R107.1C). Given the small size of Nicozian warships, would Helgardian graviton beams firing at them at a true range of two or less gain the small-target bonus noted in (EN101.34); or would only skipwarp missiles be so affected? - Gary Carney 04 February 2012

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 12:32 pm: Edit

(E109.31): There doesn't seem to be a rule that indicates what happens if Subspace Augers and other weapons (phasers, allied weapons) strike a shield in the same impulse; this rule indicates that Subspace Auger damage is treated as a separate volley from all other weapons fire, but does not indicate if the SA volley is applied before other weapons or after (which makes a significant difference--if a ship with 10 shield boxes is hit by 10 points of phaser damage and 10 points of SA damage, if the phasers are applied first, the SA volley does 30 internals; if the SA volley is applied first, the phaser volley does 10 internals).

Other weapons that do damage like this have a order in which they are applied (Alunda Plasma Whips, for example). It seems like Subspace Augers should have an order too.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 01:21 pm: Edit

(SPN4.62) The "Tholian player" should instead refer to the "Nicozian player" (Nick Samaras Feb 5, 2012)

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 01:47 pm: Edit

@Nick - I'm kind of surprised this isn't an E-module or C-module of some kind. Can someone from ADB offer comment on that? (It's hardly a major issue or anything, but my OCD-senses do start tingling when changes are made in naming conventions)

@Gary - presumably, the neutronium in the Triangulum galaxy game from the same place that neutronium for the Nicozians did...neutron stars. Neutronium is also used as the hull for the planet killer (per TOS: "The Doomsday Machine"). So I think we can chuck this in with other "rare enough that almost nobody else uses it or has discovered it, but not 'unique'" things.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 02:15 pm: Edit

I was under the impression that this item is so old that it predates the current convention of naming playtest materials as "E-modules". So it's not a change by calling it "R107", rather, the current standard of naming modules is the "change".

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 06:19 pm: Edit

So, in a duel, a Nicozian CA can generate 6 EW, lend itself another 6 EW, lend an enemy 3 offensive EW, hold subspace augers, and still move skip-16. Close behind 2 turns worth of skip warp missiles, get to range one and fire 8 phaser-3s (plus 8 more if you can get the rear ones in arc). Next impulse fire 4 subspace augers through the now down shield. All the while, the enemy has a minus -3 shift and has any penetrating volleys reduced by the collapsium armor...

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 07:30 pm: Edit

Xander, the point I was gettting at is that for the Triangulum empires, the use of neutronium is not rare; most of the star-faring powers in M33 are reported as using it (as shown on these sample Mallaran Empire SSDs from the things-to-playtest page).

The only current playtest empire which doesn't use micro-thin neutronium armour is the Helgardian Protectorate, and that is because they have their unique rotary shield system to make use of instead. (It could be argued that they are well acquainted with the concept, even if they don't use it for their own ships; since they are the ones who introduced several of the other empires to the galactic community via the various Warp Pacts.)

In this case, there must be some sort of process which enables this system to be so prevalent in M33, if not in the Milky Way or LMC.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 10:28 pm: Edit

Nutron armor in Trianglum is thin layers of neutronium placed over sensitive systems. Collapsium armor is the result of the Nicozians making their hulls out of collapsed matter. They are not the same you cant draw inferences on the two.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, February 05, 2012 - 11:59 pm: Edit

To clarify, I'm not referring to the collapsium part; but to the specific mentions of neutronium (in the firing of subspace augers, and the listing of the material in the restricted technology section of the R-section).

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Monday, February 06, 2012 - 12:25 pm: Edit

(D95.15) Advises only Nicozian bases and FRDs can repair collapsing armor. The Nicozians have neither, so how does a Nicozian ship repair this? (Nick Samaras Feb 6, 2012).

By Stephen Elliott Parrish (Steveparrish) on Monday, February 06, 2012 - 08:56 pm: Edit

The technology looks very interesting. I do have a question on the background. The Nicozians are supposed to be a group mind,with no individuality. Why then do they need to communicate? To do so implies that they do not all have the same mind.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 12:03 pm: Edit

This is Xander's proposed cover for the eventual "real product". We used a simpler version for the PDF because of home printing.



It took me a while to decide that I actually liked this one (and a few tweeks by Xander).

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 12:57 pm: Edit

Trying to imagine what the surface of a neutron star would look like (the only place Nicozian ships can "land") took some thinking. Finally decided on shimmery moon-like surface. But I definitely wanted to show a crashed "something" we intuitively know the scale for (in order to help show the relative size of the Nicozian ships), and that needs land...

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 01:00 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Why then do they need to communicate? To do so implies that they do not all have the same mind.

---

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 02:00 pm: Edit

But wouldn't the Federation shuttle actually be jelly (or metallic paste) by the time it got that close to a neutron star?

And please tell me that is a Nicozian settlement ...

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 02:39 pm: Edit

It's duranium hull (right? That what shuttlecraft use?), it survives a little bit. Besides...it does look somewhat 'flat', doesn't it? (Granted, the crew of said shuttlecraft are paste)

And, yes, that would be a Nicozian settlement.

Or ants.

One of the two.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 02:56 pm: Edit

The gravity on a neutron star is INCREDIBLY intense, sufficiently so as to force electrons to fuse with neutrons (hence the term neutron star). Any normal matter landing on such a star is going to be compressed into neutrons and not have any recognizable structure.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 03:14 pm: Edit

I think you are getting your 'real physics' mixed up with our Star Trek-ian physics. It was on Neutron stars that Nicozians evolved, built their (?its?) civilization and fleet of starships, and have their bases.

So...this must be a neutron star of particularly low density. (And if we can assume that deuterium, phaser crystals, fissile elements, etc exist...which must, given the SFU technologies that rely on them and the Nicozians have...then I think we can assume shuttlecraft duranium hulls could exist, too)

By Mike Kenyon (Mikek) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 03:18 pm: Edit

From a scale perspective, a CA is supposed to be 3M long, that'd be smaller than a drone. May just be perspective, but it appears considerably larger than the shuttle.

To that same point, when dealing with a ship that small and people to max out at about the size of a grain of rice the collapsium armor might be only slightly thicker than neutronium armor in Triangulum, given the difference in scale.

Given that scale difference should there be some (D17.0) differences? Given their relative mass, I can see some of the early categories misrepresented and others accurately portraying information. Fake weapons plates attached to something the size of my car from 10,000k away are probably harder to detect then when the plate itself is larger than my car.

Finally, after reading it, I really do like the ships. I think as Nick points out, they're fairly power rich and system heavy. It makes perfect sense given the backstory, but the scout channels do mean that they'll get the first shot off largely unscathed. As soon as they fire, the channels will be blind, but in a duel that may be all it takes. Given their weaponry, they might not even need to fire heavies to make it a none factor. If you can drop 32 P3s over a 10 impulse period (with some good maneuvering) while holding an unassailable 3 shift for 8 of those impulses while going (effective) speed 32 with a drone shield and one of the best armors in the game seems a little off for a 140 BPV ship to me.

By Mike Kenyon (Mikek) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 04:33 pm: Edit

TYPO: Page 8, Col 1 "... neutron start, ..."


Xander,

It's pointed out that the neutron stars that they're looking for are non-rotating neutron star. Non-rotating stars would have a (slightly) higher effective gravity because there's no centrifugal force counteracting.

Mike

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 06:17 pm: Edit

Xander's art needs a disclaimer:

"Ships not shown actual size".

It also looks rather similar to another piece with the Fed CA's engine on fire in the atmosphere of a planet.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 - 06:22 pm: Edit

(C91.43) This rule says officers have no affect on skip warp. Is that referring to all aspects or simply that nothing new is added? Specifically, would a Legendary Engineer produce four points of power if applied to a warp engine? Would that four warp power then be permitted to be used for skip movement? REPLY: Skip warp is a "movement system." No where in the rule does it say that the warp engines are skip warp engines. The rules require that skip warp be purchased with warp power. Thus a legendary navigator or legendary captain or an outstanding or poor crew has no effect on the ship’s ability to use skip warp movement. Just as obviously a legendary engineer could produce four extra points of warp power and if the ship was damaged to a point where the extra power was needed for skip warp movement it could be used for such. Note, the reference to damage is that normally a ship will need power for non-movement functions and the extra warp power provided by an engineer could have been assumed to have been used for those functions.

(D95.14) This rule advises that only Nicozian bases and FRDs can repair collapsium armor. The Nicozians have neither, so how does a Nicozian ship repair this? REPLY: It was noted in the Nicozian Civil Wars article that bases might be provided by modifying existing bases to Nicozian standards so that Nicozians could fight Nicozians. Outside of that, very clearly the Nicozians had to build their ships in their home system wherever it is, and a Nicozian ship that returned there could be repaired. So in a campaign involving one Nicozian ship wandering as a "monster," it would never be able to repair its armor. In a campaign where it was assumed Nicozian ships could return to their home star, repairs could be made there. And in a campaign where it was assumed the Nicozians had bases (Nicozian civil war or other), the bases provided could do so.

(E98.0) Both this weapon system and (EN102.0) from Module E2 are designated as "pulse phasers"; although both systems have distinct abbreviations on their respective SSDs. Should either system be re-named in order to avoid duplication? REPLY: Obviously should be but I have no idea what to change to what as of this moment.

(E109.0). Is the neutronium used in this weapon the same material as that found in micro-thin neutronium armor plating as detailed in Module E2’s (DN102.0)? (To put it another way: If the neutronium the Nicozians have access to is supposed to be part of the unique suite of materials their species can manipulate, as suggested in (R107.1B), how do the empires operating neutronium armor out in the Triangulum Galaxy gain access to, or operate, this source material?) REPLY: I have no idea and honestly do not see why this matters.

(E109.31) There does not seem to be a rule that indicates what happens if subspace augers and other weapons (phasers, allied weapons) strike a shield in the same impulse. This rule indicates that subspace auger damage is treated as a separate volley from all other weapons fire, but does not indicate if the subspace auger volley is applied before other weapons or after. (Which makes a significant difference--if a ship with 10 shield boxes is hit by 10 points of phaser damage and 10 points of subspace auger damage, if the phasers are applied first, the subspace auger volley does 30 internals; if the subspace auger volley is applied first, the phaser volley does 10 internals.) Other weapons that do damage like this have an order in which they are applied (Alunda Plasma Whips, for example). It seems like subspace augers should have an order too. REPLY: Valid and one of the reasons we have playtest modules. The original authors did not address this, and since I was not able to play them myself it did not dawn on me to resolve this when the original draft was dropped on my desk more than a decade ago. While I tinkered with it from time to time in the interim, this issue just never caught my eye. Therefore: Resolved before all other direct fire weapons in step (6D2), i.e., before the Transporter-Collector Beam Step, Energy Howitzer Step, Hypercannon Implosion Round Step, Plasma-Whip Step, Plasmatic Pulsar Device Step, First Hellbore Firing Option, Positron Lancets in lancet mode, and Vudar Ion Pulse Generators release ionic waves.

(FD93.361) This rule note that ADDs cannot damage skip-warp missiles. Does (or perhaps should) this also cover Federal Republic SRC (OE20.0) and Mallaran Empire MPDS (EN107.0) fire; or would the increased damage output of either system against SC7 targets allow them to down such missiles if they manage to score a hit? REPLY: Federal Republic SRC and Mallaran Empire MPDS also cannot damage skip-warp missiles.

(FD93.4) What is the skipwarp missile interaction with the Worb subspace energy field (OG14.0) or Bolosco integrated warp tractor pressure fields (OG18.36)? REPLY: A Worb subspace energy field scores four points of damage to size class 7 units (OG14.3111). A skip warp missile require five points of damage to be destroyed (FD93.22), if five points of damage is not scored, then no damage is scored on the skip warp missile (FD93.36), so a Worb subspace energy field has, literally, no effect on a skip warp missile. Against a pressure field, a skip warp missile would be held as any other seeking weapon under the provisions of (FD93.49) and (C91.411).

(R107.0) Do any of the more exotic known species in the SFU, such as the Organians or Loriyill, have any particular advantages when trying to establish communication with the Nicozians; or would they be as equally stymied? (For that matter, would the kind of super-intelligent computer networks available to the Drex Unity be better able to decode Nicozian transmissions?) REPLY: Lets just say no one can talk to them because they are crazy and leave it at that.

(R107.0) It is noted that non-rotating neutron stars are quite rare in the Alpha Octant. Would the same be true in the other known regions of the SFU; and is the potential open for a vortex (or transit via the Cosmic Nexus) to facilitate a Nicozian presence in the Omega Octant, Lesser Magellanic Cloud, or Triangulum Galaxy? REPLY: It is not noted that "non-rotating neutron stars are quite rare in the Alpha Octant," it is noted that "non-rotating neutron stars are quite rare." See the difference? As to the rest, lets just say no.

(R107.1C) Given the small size of Nicozian warships, would Helgardian graviton beams firing at them at a true range of two or less gain the small-target bonus noted in (EN101.34); or would only skipwarp missiles be so affected? REPLY: The graviton beam damage bonus is specific to "Size Class" and despite their size Nicozian ships are Size Class 4 and larger, not size class 6 and smaller. Chalk it up to Nicozian hulls being a lot denser than Mallarn fighters.

(SPN4.62) The "Tholian player" should instead refer to the "Nicozian player." REPLY: Noted.

(Z49.0) There are a few times the module is referred to as Module E4 instead of Module R107. REPLY: Noted.

Nick Samaras asked on Sunday, February 05, 2012: So, in a duel, a Nicozian heavy cruiser can generate six points of electronic warfare, lend itself another six points of electronic warfare, lend an enemy three points of offensive electronic warfare, hold subspace augers, and still move skip-16. Close behind two turns’ worth of skip warp missiles, get to Range 1 and fire eight phaser-3s (plus eight more if you can get the rear ones in arc). Next impulse fire four subspace augers through the now down shield. All the while, the enemy has a minus -3 shift and has any penetrating volleys reduced by the collapsium armor... REPLY: So, while you have all these shifts, what are you going to do about my scatter-pack drones? If you fire more than four phaser-3 shots at my six drones you will blind one special sensor. Fire more than five and you blind both special sensors. Same problem with the plasma-S torpedoes that a plasma ship launched. On average six drones will do 52 points of damage (and I can launch more once the scatter-pack drones are gone). Two plasma-S torpedoes will do an average (in your stated electronic warfare environment) of 45 points of damage (add up to another 30 for the plasma-Fs at short range). A wild weasel or some well-placed T-bombs (or a well-timed cloaking) will still eliminate the skip warp missiles. Do you really want to tangle with a bunch of Stinger fighters at point-blank range if I happen to be Hydran? In short, yes, some Empires will have more trouble than others (Lyrans, LDR, and especially Tholians for a few examples), but it is not entirely cut and dried that a Nicozian can win using your attack pattern in a duel against other empires.

Page #8, 2nd last paragraph: "neutron start" should be "neutron star." REPLY: Noted.