Stacy, the older edition rules/notes said speed 20 was light speed.

Also I'm not sure how much "agreement" there is on 500km, not that we have any authority to establish an "official" scale, but for purposes of our discussion 500km is what we've been considering. I don't have a problem with 500km per se, I'm just running options through my head and I wonder if it is the best scale to use. Maybe it is, but we should consider alternatives in case something else might work better (in playability terms).

(If you take a standard 10,000km hex and divide by 20 you end up with 500km Q-hex. That assumes a Q-turn spans the same amount of time as a "mod era" turn.)

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:14 pm: Edit

Imagine the range of a plasma torp...and speed.

On this scale, it's practically a DF weapon.

Slow drones become hyperdrones.

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:16 pm: Edit

That assumes there would be warp-speed weapons. Were there warp speed weapons in the sublight era?

By John Trauger (Vorlonagent) on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:31 pm: Edit

When were drones and plasmas introduced? Line that up with when EY starts. I THINK you'll find warp-speed drones and plasma in the sublight era.

Granted there will be a long period where they aren't there, but there may well be some time where even a not-Module-Q would have to cope with them.

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:37 pm: Edit

There was a period of time I believe when there were phasers but no tactical warp yet. Which would call for some interesting range adjustments on the direct fire charts. Or maybe not - the fire control may have advanced at the same pace as development of tactical warp.
regards
Stacy

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 10:37 pm: Edit

Ah, okay. According to the handy timeline Jean posted:

---

Quote:

Y65 Drones are first used in combat. Klingons and Kzintis deploy these new weapons simultaneously in an outgrowth of Tactical Warp technology. For a brief period, both races are deploying Non-Tactical Warp ships (which fight at sublight) armed with warp-speed weapons.

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By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 12:06 am: Edit

Does anybody have or remember Starfire??? aren't those ships sublight? Are their any rules or concepts in Starfire that could be used for this?

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 12:14 am: Edit

Yes. And Yes. And the guy who designed the original version of Starfire happened to have the initials "SVC".
regards
Stacy

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 08:00 pm: Edit

I am aware of that, but having never played it but seeing on the back cover it says sublight....

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 08:38 pm: Edit

Yup they jump from system to system via warp points
regards
Stacy

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 09:30 pm: Edit

My non-publishable Mod Q proposal has the scale at 1000km/hex, and one turn in Sublight Battles is *mumblemumblemumblewaveshands* one turn in SFB. Or not. Look, nekkid Orion slave girls!!

Some more stuff.

After thinking about it, I've decided sublight lasers, unlike warp-targeted lasers, only cost .5 energy to arm. Laser capacitor size is reduced accordingly.

Atomic Missiles: As per Y1, with changes..

Speed 30, damage 8, 2 hit points, endurance 1 turn.
LAUNCHER guided. Missile racks have to keep the target in their tracking arc at all times. If not, the missile loses guidance and self-destructs.

Working on the Nuclear Torpedoe rules. They..are gonna be NASTY.

By Jonathan Jordan (Arcturusv) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 10:58 pm: Edit

One in six chance that they circle back and slam into the side of your ship?

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 11:20 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Look, nekkid Orion slave girls!!

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By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 07:49 am: Edit

* Gives the girls some clothes *

Evil Mike, if there is drool on the BBS, you are responsible for cleaning it up. Brodie can show you the cleaning supplies.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 08:46 am: Edit

Jean,

Don't worry. There weren't actually any nekkid Orions. It was merely an exclamation to get the audience to look away while he moved pieces on his "display" around. A misdirection.

So, the only reaction that would be elicited is disappointment, not drool ...

By Mike Strain (Evilmike) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 08:59 am: Edit

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 10:15 am: Edit

Well, that explains why no one ever took the clothes!

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 02:08 pm: Edit

I don't believe Orion women would want the clothes, I think nekkid is just another tool in their manipulative and distractive powers over men.

Stacy, is a "jump from system" similar to non tactical warp?

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 02:48 pm: Edit

Shawn
Effectively similar but functionally different. Non tactical warp means they actually travel the distance. Jump points means they blink out at point A and reappear at point B.
regards
Stacy

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Are there any weapons systems that could be ported into the SFB sublight ships to add to the variety?

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Shawn
While SVC created Starfire he no longer "owns" it. While inspiration can be gained from it we probably can't port directly from it. Unless some sort financial arrangement were made.
regards
Stacy

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 05:48 pm: Edit

darn

By Jim Davies (Mudfoot) on Friday, October 30, 2009 - 09:05 pm: Edit

There's nothing very applicable in Starfire that isn't in SFB. It's not vector movement; there's no relativity; movement is impulse-based. About the only thing you might try is ramming, and that's probably DOA.

Not that I've played it for 20 years, so I might be forgetting something.

By Brodie Nyboer (Radiocyborg) on Sunday, November 01, 2009 - 02:28 pm: Edit

But we could introduce inertial movement into this game. I think the scale might be small enough to emulate it. We just wouldn't want to go overboard on the mechanics. Simple is fun in this case.

Inertial movement allows a ship to move in one direction and change facing, but can't overcome gravitational effects. Impulse movement allows a ship to change direction of movement but not facing, and overcome gravitational effects. The specific application of Impulse Power (or rocket power?) would make the difference.

I'm not expressly arguing for inertial movement; I just think it could be done. Doing so allows us to introduce planetary gravity effects, etc.

Just a thought.

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Sunday, November 01, 2009 - 02:56 pm: Edit

I think inertial movement as an OPTIONAL rule might be interesting. But in truth I think it simply to assume there's reactionless drive with no inertia.

Bear in mind the ENERGY involved with getting up to significant fractions of c is HUMONGOUS. The kinetic energy of a starship hitting a planet would probably split it in two. Tossing a load of sand in front of a starship would rip it to shreds I think maybe we'd just be better not opening that can of worms. I mean if you REALLY wanted to get realistic you'd have to calculation time-dilation into it. Ships moving faster have a slower reaction time because time is moving slower. And ships moving SLOWER have a faster reaction time. Again this would be interesting but would be HIDEOUSLY complicated.

regards
Stacy