G5.___.0 Reactor Probes
G5.___.01 Preamble In Y155, Federation scientists looking for a method of increasing the battle speed of their CAs ( latter working in comptetion with the research into the refitting the Fed CA into CARs;- the Federation Admirals wanted the rear defense of the CAR design whilst the government want to increase the "deliverability" of the Photons the CA already had ), and looked to reverse engineering the well studied antimatter bomb for guidance.
..... The research took four long and arduous years to develop the system and was given funding much earlier than the R refit which many historians say only got funding because the probe based energy return system was taking such a long time to reach fruition and was beginng to seem unobtainable. The final system was however quite spectacular for the Federation who could indeed acheive a marked increase in the CA's and DD's battle speed by "refinancing" their energy demands.
..... By developing a miniturised matter/anti-matter reactor inside the "husk" of a probe; a system of energy storage was developed. First matter and antimatter are feed into the storage cells similar to the preparation of an antimatter bomb but then when slowly released over about a minute the reacting matter and antimatter releases a flood of energy that can be directed from the probe launcher to the rest of the ship.


G5.___.1 PROBE TYPE
G5.___.11 Only the probe husk and antimatter & matter storage cells of the probe are the same as the regular probe with the remainder being the reactor chamber and energy collectors and so the probes are bought before the scenario begins at a price of 2 BPV each. They are loaded into the probe launcher rack in place of existing probes and so the ship has fewer regular probes rather than the regular number of probes plus some special extra ones.

G5.___.2 ARMING
G5.___.21 The reactor probe is armed by placing between 1.0 and 2.0 points of warp power into the reactor probe over the two turns of arming. It is not possible to hold a reactor probe that has had one turn of arming and must be jetisoned. It is possible to hold an armed reactor probe by placing one point of power ( any soarse ) into holding the reactor probe for each turn that it is to be held.
..... The power to arm a reactor probe is applied via the probe launcher rather than the probe launcher's storage rack and thus only one reactor probe at a time ( per probe launcher ) may be armed as a reactor probe and arming such a reactor probe will mean that that probe launcher is unavaible to arm an antimatter bomb or scientific probe. The probe launcher is unavailibe for other activitites on the turns of arming, all turns of holding and the turn of release. The release energy of the reactor probe is determined by the two turns of arming and can not be increased whilst holding although the reactor probe could be jetisoned and the process started again next turn.

G5.___.3 RELEASE
G5.___.31 On the turn that the energy is released during the energy allocation stage of the turn, no holding cost is appled and the reactor probe releasing the energy that was storged in it ( in the form of AWR power ) into the systems of the rest of the ship. That is to say that on the turn no holding power is appled to the reator probe (usually the turn directly after arming is complete) the vessel is considered to have between two and four more points of AWR power depending on how much arming power was applied to the reactor probe.
..... The miniturisation process that allows the reactor probe to function as a matter/anti-matter reactor has a very low factor of safty built into the power collection systems and thus the reactor probe burns out during release and is jetisoned at the end of the turn on which it was used.

G5.___.4 RESTRICTIONS
G5.___.41 The Reactor Probe can not be armed before a scenario begins but if a Reactor Probe is aboard the vessel ( and loaded in the probe launcher rack ) then it may begin arming at the start of the scenario; No W.S., crippled ship, Legendary Captain/Engineer or outstanding crew needed.

G5.___.5 HISTORY
G5.___.51 In Y161 klingon spies copied the blueprints from a Federation Probe factory (although they probably bought a copy from the Orion commercial espionage agency) and by Y165 all races that used probes used reactor probes as well.
..... Having a pseudo-battery that could deliver 2 to 4 points of AWR power on the turn of the battle pass greatly aided all races but the Federation most of all.

G5.___.X Designers notes
I had written this idea in the SOMETHING ELSE FOR THE PROBE TO DO THREAD but some of the posts already in that thread as well as some misunderstandings needed to be cleared up and so I placed the idea here in it's own thread.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Sunday, July 25, 2004 - 04:22 pm: Edit

Probably easier to replace the labs with APR. Less rules, less fuss. Less rules slosh too.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Sunday, July 25, 2004 - 08:28 pm: Edit

Perhaps so but the ability to ID drones with a probe ain't so crash hot when dealing with 4 LABs.

If a ship doesn't want the 2-4 points of power on the turn of attack for some reason ( probably because the 1-2 points of power from two turns creates a powercurve with an uncomfortable wave length ) then it simply leaves the probe unpowered: want to swap out; four AWRs for four LABs during the middle of a battle and you're screwed.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 01:26 pm: Edit

I can't see a launching system designed to throw out scientific probes suddenly being converted into power producers MJC.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 09:24 pm: Edit

You've got to be able to shunt matter & anti-matter in to build an anti-matter bomb and power in to arm a regular probe so it's fesible that you can shunt some kind of power out...to me anyway.

By Ryan Peck (Trex) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 10:16 pm: Edit

"so it's fesible that you can shunt some kind of power out...to me anyway. "

So because I pour OJ into an empty glass, I should be able to squeeze OJ out of an empty glass?

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 11:24 pm: Edit

Yes perticularly since I modified the glass to be a plastic sweeze bottle instead of a glass.

By Les LeBlanc (Lessss) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 11:58 pm: Edit

Sure you can, Detonate the antimatter destroying your probe launcher and allocate 8 internal damage to your ship and produce 1 point of warp power to be allocated immediately.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 06:10 am: Edit

You know there is a difference between releasing the reactants over a minute and over 0.6 milliseconds. I did say the reactants mixed slowly in the text.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 12:48 pm: Edit

Its called energy allocation. Instead of allocating power to the probe, you allocated it elsewhere.

By Ryan Peck (Trex) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 12:53 pm: Edit

"Yes perticularly since I modified the glass to be a plastic sweeze bottle instead of a glass."

Sorry I misunderstood.

Given: I have an empty squeeze bottle which I can then fill it with juice.

Therefore I can take an empty squeeze bottle and squeeze juice out of it.

Much clearer now, thanks.

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 02:45 pm: Edit

Can't say I really see the point in this one. Your basically looking at a one-shot battery that A) doesn't begin the game charged, B) costs BPV to use and C) doesn't provide enough power to be worth it. I just don't see it being used very much, if at all, by anyone playing using the rule.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 07:25 pm: Edit

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Can't say I really see the point in this one. Your basically looking at a one-shot battery that A) doesn't begin the game charged, B) costs BPV to use and C) doesn't provide enough power to be worth it. I just don't see it being used very much, if at all, by anyone playing using the rule.

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By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 07:49 pm: Edit

But you have to fill them first; you really are just spending the power one turn, then using it to take you above your normal max on another. It's just like a one-shot battery, hidden by making it part of the probe. Don't get me wrong; it's creative, and probably not a game breaker. I just don't see that it would get used, and I sure as hell wouldn't spend any BPV on it.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 08:18 pm: Edit

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But you have to fill them first; you really are just spending the power one turn, then using it to take you above your normal max on another. It's just like a one-shot battery, hidden by making it part of the probe. Don't get me wrong; it's creative, and probably not a game breaker. I just don't see that it would get used, and I sure as hell wouldn't spend any BPV on it.

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By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 08:33 pm: Edit

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Are you seriously saying that at WS-0 the BPV of an XP ship should be the same before the XP refit because the X-BTTYs will need to be filled before they can be used!?!

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By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 08:47 pm: Edit

It's the same concept, the ability to change the rate of occilation of the power curve is benefitial in combat. Therefore worthy of BPV even if the overall power is not increased.


Four points of power under a bunch of restrictions on the turn you want it, is a lot like 3 points of power on the turn your want it...so it's a lot like giving every ship a single uncharged X1 BTTY except for that extra point of on top thus the reactor probe needs to pay a holding cost ( if any turns exist between arming and use ), the reactor probe is one use only, the reactor probe has arming restrictions ( between 1.0 and 2.0 per turn of warp power for two consecutive turns ) and it's limited to the number of probe launchers you have.
..... Give or take a few differnces it's a lot like having one uncharged X1 BTTY mounted on the ship.

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 09:31 pm: Edit

So, you want to give ships an X battery nearly twenty years before X ships come out?

I have never liked the "it's handy in combat" exucse for adding things onto ships. After looking through ships posted online and seeing nearly everyone having a phaser-G or special sensor added on with the excuse that "it's useful", I've decided that that doesn't cut it.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 09:54 pm: Edit

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So, you want to give ships an X battery nearly twenty years before X ships come out?

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By David Slatter (Davidas) on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 05:09 am: Edit

This is a sort-of X-battery. The main things are that it is
1) Less flexible - can only be used in EA, and can only be used every 3 turns.
2) More granular - must release all of its power in one go.

It certainly *is* worth BPV. Any ship with WS III will come in with these things loaded up, and 4 extra power on the first or second turn of a scenario is extremely useful - especially for the Feds, who need ECCM *and* speed to get their photons to hit.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 05:29 am: Edit

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It certainly *is* worth BPV. Any ship with WS III will come in with these things loaded up, and 4 extra power on the first or second turn of a scenario is extremely useful - especially for the Feds, who need ECCM *and* speed to get their photons to hit.

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By David Slatter (Davidas) on Wednesday, July 28, 2004 - 05:37 am: Edit

Still useful - in many open-map scenarios, you can delay enagaing until turn 3, and you can certainly delay if you are assaulting a base (but I guess the enemy coudl do the same)

By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 07:41 pm: Edit

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Maybe there shouldn't be anything added to the game bar errata. But I think "it'ld be handy in combat" and "doesn't break the game" is probably okay, especially since almost every race will be able to capitalise on system.

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By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 11:27 pm: Edit

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But adding in more and more systems to already established ships "because it's handy in combat" I am not for. Eventually the level of munchkin-ness would continue to escalate, since everyone can run around and have tons of power to spare for fighting.

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By Robert Snook (Verdick) on Friday, July 30, 2004 - 12:02 pm: Edit

Or he could have the exact same system you have, making the game a high powered game.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Friday, July 30, 2004 - 08:29 pm: Edit

Yeah...a traditional Gorn Vs Federation battle in Y165 would mean both ships are probably carrying the reactor probe and the Gorn will probably get slight more advantage out of it...so what.

It's not like the four points of power on the turn of attack wasn't paid for over previous turns ( T-bombs layed by BTTY power to the transporters do damage for free from WS-I onwards ) and it's not like 4 points of power on the turn of attack is such a huge jump 34 => 38 on a Fed CA isn't a huge leap so it's not likely to be a gamebreaking increase in ability.

To some extent if people absolutly want to play totally watered down vessels then they should play with Y ships.

If the value of the system is balanced by BPV why should the two players be forbidden to consent to it just because it gives them both the ability to occilate their power curves for the turn they need extra power!?!

By David Slatter (Davidas) on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 06:03 am: Edit

A jump from 16->20 power is pretty nifty for a frigate.

By michael john campbell (Michaelcampbell) on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 06:33 am: Edit

Yeah but finding two & two warp on previous turns becomes more difficult in direct inverse proportion to the niftyiness!