Has anyone suggested anything along the lines of support units for the Omega Sector?
Bases, tugs, survey ships, etc. would be really nice to have.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - 02:56 pm: Edit

I've argued it for years. Alpha sells so it gets the most attention. Although I believe it is a catch 22. Non Alpha doesn't sell as it is not as fleshed out. They don't have enough ships so they can't participate in a campaign. So the campaign players don't like them. No Tournament ships, not even playtest ship so the Tournament players don't like them. They are only okay in duels, and they don't match up against GW ships. No X-Ships to speak of. Mostly no Fighters and no PFs so weak in Fleet Battles. Not enough cards and rules for FC players so not popular with them either. Finally their history is too wishy washy and no Orders of Battle or SITs so can't be used in F&E either.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - 09:37 pm: Edit

Part of the issue was that, when the first Omega module for SFB was being developed, it perhaps tried to cover too many empires all at once, and thus spread the focus too thinly. (In fairness, this is not a new observation: it was acknowledged in the designer's notes in Module Omega #2.)

By contrast, Module C5 was more successful at establishing a "campaign compatible" setting over in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, albeit one which is much smaller in size and scope than the Omega Octant. I'd certainly look forward to a would-be "Module C5R", but it would have to wait until after Module X2 was published in order to more fully account for the post-Unity era in the LMC.


Still, it's not all doom and gloom for the Omega setting by any means. Recent issues of Captain's Log have provided new SSDs, new "update" files, and even a couple of "Omega's Lost Futures": the playtest Zosman Marauder ships in CL50 and CL52, plus the first look at the Omega-Paravians in CL54. There has also been a large number of Omega miniatures posted to the Shapeways storefront.


In terms of trying to get at least some of the Omega empires up to "campaign compatible" status, I'd argue that the Module C5 (or Module C6) approach would be best going forward. As in, rather than continuing to offer only a handful of new ships for a large number of Omega empires at once, as was done with the "volatile warp" gunboats in Module Omega #5, it might be better to build up a smaller number of empires at a time and work out from there.

Personally, I'd pair the Mæsrons and FRA into a single "OR-module", perhaps together with one or more of the surrounding Superpowers (Trobrin, Probr, Koligahr, and/or Vari). Other, more distant empires could be similarly grouped together: Drex/Ymatrian/Worb, Hiver/Alunda/Branthodon, etc.

I'd also like to see more playtest material for the "Omega's Lost Futures" empires. Perhaps in ePack form, focused on such empire at a time (such as the Zosmans). But then, the approach could vary from one empire to another; I could see the Vulpa being expanded upon as part of an FRA and Mæsron OR-module, as they are an offshoot of the Mæsron Alliance.

So, on second thought, one OR-module could be Mæsron/FRA/Vulpa; the next could cover all four Superpowers at once; and so on and so forth.

But of course, your parsec-age may vary, in terms of where you might like to see the Omega project in SFB, in FC, or indeed on Shapeways, go to next.

By Richard Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - 10:53 pm: Edit

I think whatever the next Omega thing is, it should have large bases, repair docks, smaller orbital units and ground bases, including phasers suitable for those units (ie Omegan equivalents to PH-4s).