I wouldn't mind an LC5.

Flawed ships are fun.

By Guillaume Williams (Uioor1) on Thursday, February 02, 2023 - 11:41 am: Edit

I think I've found that I really like the more silly, flawed, or ridiculous ships that are in the Star Fleet Universe.

Keeping that in mind, I've started to wonder something. What strange ships do you all have a particular fondness for?

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Sunday, February 05, 2023 - 02:51 pm: Edit

Many of the Middle Years ships are flawed.

The Fed lolipop destroyer for example is a fun ship to fly. It can't fully utilize its weapons and fly at combat speeds at the same time.

On the other end of things the old Fed DN has all the power in the world, but is underarmed.

By the time you hit the general war ship designs start to get pretty optimised, but the whole middle years (and earlier) period is just replete with flawed, fun ships.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Sunday, February 05, 2023 - 07:30 pm: Edit

That’s why they retconned the four-photon DD to be a base siege design with only five built to that pattern - the rest being built with the space for the third and fourth tubes left empty for stowage as the DDM (R2.A23).

By Joseph Jackson (Bonneville) on Monday, February 06, 2023 - 07:54 pm: Edit

I don't mean to brag (a lie), but I got my Hydran Stinger fighters and a Fed battlecruiser in the mail today. Very cool! (the truth)
Those stingers are wicked sharp (a fact). I think I drew blood (an exaggeration).
Anyway, don't lose them in the carpet! (free advice)
Cant wait to get them all painted up. I'd send pics, but not that tech savvy. (a sad truth)
Be well! (Sincerely.)

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, February 07, 2023 - 08:32 am: Edit

So far as "unusual" ships are concerned, I'm surprised that no-one has gotten around to mentioning the (in)famous Fralli National Guard cruiser Powerista...

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, February 08, 2023 - 12:39 pm: Edit

Guillaume, if you're looking for oddball, unusual ships, may I recommend getting the Star Fleet Times collections? A number of issues include "April Fools" ships, and those are all REAL oddballs.

IMO, they're some of the most imaginative ships that're NOT in the game universe.

Imagine a Klingon Dreadnought that, in place of its regular boom, has a complete E3 Escort. That's one of the oddballs that's available.

Imagine a Federation POLICE Mauler. That's another. I don't think it'd be worth a bucket of warm spit in a fight, but it sure is imaginative!

Most of the serious ships for SFB that were in Star Fleet Times have been formally presented in other products, but both as a time capsule and as a source for a few of the fun oddballs, I recommend checking one out.

By Guillaume Williams (Uioor1) on Wednesday, February 08, 2023 - 01:27 pm: Edit

While I don't have all of them, I do actually already have several of the SFT collections. One of my favorite silly ships is the Snipe-R that came from SFT 33, just for the sheer amusement of a ship that tiny having a weapon so big it causes the ship to be blown back a hex after firing, alongside rolling for breakdown.

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Wednesday, February 08, 2023 - 02:19 pm: Edit

SFT is something special. I wish we had a modern version of it.

Some other memorable SFT ships are the CAC, a Fed NCL armed with over a dozen phaser-Gs instead of heavy weapons, or the asymmetric Lyran ships with a better turn mode in one direction than the other. Oh, or the saucerless Gorn ships.

I think the Snipe-R, which you've mentioned, is among the most memorable and silly, with its recoil rules and deception structure built into the hull that has to be blown away to fire the torpedo.

I don't know how playtested the SFT ships are (some of the BPVs seem sketchy, like for the aforementioned CAC), but it almost doesn't matter. The whole thing just has a whole "for fun" and experimental atmosphere. I'd roll my eyes at someone trying to fly a Snipe-R in a serious game, but that doesn't mean there isn't a place for it.

By Guillaume Williams (Uioor1) on Saturday, February 11, 2023 - 09:05 pm: Edit

Been playing (SM1.0) The Planet Crusher a few times since I have no IRL opponents to face, and I'm coming to the realization that I'm *really* bad at the whole maneuvering section of the game

By Johnny Casady (Phythalion) on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 - 09:32 am: Edit

For me, beating the planet crusher, with a Fed DD, was all about deciding which shield to take the hit on each turn with frequent plotted midturn speed changes so it wouldn't get two shield destroying attacks in a row. This scenario (SM1.0) is all about learning to maneuver.

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Friday, March 03, 2023 - 06:54 pm: Edit

A couple years ago X2 got some attention and it looked like the ball might be moving down the field on the most anticipated product ever.

I don't follow every bit of ADB news. Do we know if there has been any public communication on the topic since then?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, March 04, 2023 - 12:03 am: Edit

We have more ideas than time to pursue them. X2 will happen, but not in the next three months, and that's not a promise for any particular release date. You guys want our products because we do them right, and they take the time they take.

By John Christiansen (Roscoehatfield) on Saturday, March 11, 2023 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Steve Cole, you need a thumbs up button after that last post. I appreciate products being so well done that they stand the test of time measured in decades.

By Eric Snyder (Esnyder) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 07:14 am: Edit

Hello. Say, I have a couple of Star Fleet Universe type questions that I was hoping someone knows the answers to:

Trying to define "Variant". Changes to a base hull design meant to enable a new role for the ship? Are they new constructions using a modified design of another class's hull, as well as possibly conversions from an existing base hull? Is a variant a sub-class?

Class Names: is a new class named after the first authorized ship, a la USA, or is the naming scheme all over the place like the real world? Is there a list?

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 08:40 am: Edit

Bestxplace to find ship names with class name is the A Call To Arms Lists.

Ship names only, with some of the class leads marked, are the Master Starship Books.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 09:52 am: Edit

>> Best place to find ship names with class name is the A Call To Arms Lists.

Ryan, do you know what product/file these are located in? I am not familiar with this source and would like to take a look.

--Mike

By Eric Snyder (Esnyder) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 03:05 pm: Edit

>> Best place to find ship names with class name is the A Call To Arms Lists.

Well, gee. The product descriptions for the ship rooster packs list about 20 classes each, haha. I had never looked into that game. I think I might give it a try now. Thanks.

By Eric Snyder (Esnyder) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 04:12 pm: Edit

>> do you know what product/file these are located in?

ACTASF_2.2 has the full list as far as I can tell.

Funny though... it names the DNG as Federation class, which I assumed was the class for the DN. The Master Starship book lists the DNG as a new class, consisting of new constructions and upgraded DN's and DN+'s. ACTASF describes the DNG as "The DNG, or improved dreadnaught was a refit of the original, pre-war ships".

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 05:39 pm: Edit

The Franz Joseph technical manual lists the DN as being the Federation-class.

By Eddie E Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 09:43 pm: Edit

Try looking at the star ship registry here on this site.http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents/Starship_Name_Registry.pdf

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 31, 2023 - 11:29 pm: Edit

Try this list as well

http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents/Starship_Name_Index.pdf

By Eric Snyder (Esnyder) on Saturday, April 01, 2023 - 02:11 pm: Edit

Thanks, everyone.

By Jack Bohn (Jackbohn) on Monday, April 03, 2023 - 03:52 pm: Edit

I gather the aspiration was to use the name of the first ship of the class for the class, but complications intrude. By the time the Federation was rebuilt to a DNG dreadnought all others were supposed to be as well, keeping the class together.

Say, one thing I noticed in these lists (if I knew it before, I forgot it) was that the Farragut was renumbered to 1960 when rebuilt as a CVS. Then I remembered, shouldn't it be the Farragut II? I see NCCs 1728-1731, replacement ships for four cruisers lost in the MY, are used for CB heavy command cruisers, under different names. It seems when push came to shove, Star Fleet decided keeping a number range for each type of ship was more important than incrementing for number of ships produced.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - 12:32 pm: Edit

I played a game where I fired 11 p3 at range 15 and did not roll a "1". I thought that must be pretty unlikely so I asked ChatGPT what the odds were of that happening. It said the odds of that happening were about 1 in 10. Not sure I believe that but ok.

So I have Chat roll a set of 11 dice 10 times in row. Here are the results:

[6, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6, 3, 3, 3, 6, 5]
[5, 6, 6, 4, 5, 4, 6, 4, 5, 4, 6]
[2, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 6, 2, 5, 6]
[6, 4, 5, 6, 6, 3, 5, 6, 6, 3, 5]
[3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 6, 2, 5, 6]
[6, 4, 5, 6, 6, 3, 5, 6, 6, 3, 5]
[3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 6, 2, 5, 6]
[5, 6, 6, 4, 5, 4, 6, 4, 5, 4, 6]
[4, 4, 6, 4, 5, 4, 6, 4, 5, 4, 6]
[4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 3, 3, 6, 6, 5, 5]

Notice, no 1's on 110 die rolls. The odds of that happening are about 1 in 25 billion. Purely for your entertainment.