In light of Captain's Log #48's publication, it may be interesting to see how the playtest Paravian ships and rules line up against the current Omega playtest opposition.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the Paravian ships or technologies of the Omega Octant would look anything like those in CL48 (or in Module C6), even before stopping to consider the Nucian and Ymatrian technology they go on to "acquire" later in the Omega timeline. But since it might be a while before the tools are set in place for the Omega-Paravians in SFB (let alone in FC), these sample ships are as close as we can get for the time being.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, May 12, 2014 - 08:59 pm: Edit

As noted elsewhere, the version 3 file includes a "bonus" Ship Card.

But there is one minor detail that is on there which I hadn't thought of when doing the main v3 file itself (to which the bonus card was added later on).

If you look at the Weapons Used track for the bonus ship, you'll see that the TM launchers are added in (they are absent from the equivalent tracks on the Mæsron ships in the file proper, due to an oversight on my part), and that I've grouped them into a single box, like this:

Y Z

The reason why I did this was to show that the racks are paired, and that you can only launch from one rack per pair in a given turn. (I got the idea from how the rear-firing Plasma-Fs are shown on ISC Ship Cards, as shown here.)

Any future ships with an odd number of TM launchers would still list the "spare" rack separately, though it would still only be able to launch once every second turn.

So, were there to be a Ship Card for the Mæsron CAF, the TM portion of its Weapons Used track might look something like this:

X Y

Z

Does that look like it might work?

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - 01:25 am: Edit

Gary, yes I think that would work. Thank you for your hard work on Omega & the other one.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, July 11, 2014 - 12:53 pm: Edit

Last night, part of the Talkshoe discussion went into what new options might be worth pursuing for FC: gunboats, carriers, X-ships, and whatnot.

In each case, there may be a certain degree of overlap here, in terms of how any ground work done for Alpha Octant technologies may allow for equivalent technologies elsewhere to be featured in FC terms.

In the case of fighters, all five of the current crop of playtest Omega factions operate carriers. Unlike in the Alpha Octant, the squadron sizes vary from one empire to the next. In addition, the number of seeking weapons in play remains quite low. (The Mæsrons operate squadrons of 14 fighters, but only two of those are armed with tachyon missiles; Trobrin squadrons have eleven fighters, but only two per squadron carry implosion torpedoes; the Probr go 12 fighters per squadron, but only operate their HEAT-armed fighters from ground bases; the Iridani have 12-strong squadrons, but no direct-fire weapons; while the FRA also use squadrons of 12, but only experimented with missile fighter use on a relatively minor scale.) One would have less trouble flying most Omega fighter squadrons than many of their Alpha Octant counterparts.

For PFs, things could get quite interesting. As with Omega fighter squadrons, Omega flotillas come in different shapes and sizes. Unlike Alpha "hot warp" technology, the "volatile warp" engines used for Omega PFs offer a very different dynamic, not least due to the afterburner functionality. (The Mæsrons, Trobrin, Probr, and Iridani each operate four-boat flotillas, while the conjectural FRA boats come six to a flotilla.) Once the "hot warp" rules governing Alpha PF engines are in place, it shouldn't be too difficult to reverse-engineer them in order to handle "volatile warp" technology.

No Omega X-ships are in print just yet, but they are known to exist in-universe. As with "volatile warp" gunboat engines, Omega X-tech was developed independently from what is seen in the Alpha Octant. (The Mæsrons pioneered Omega X-tech in 2598, which they sent along with samples of "volatile warp" technology to many of their former neighbours in a bid to stem the tide of Andromedan invasion. This would permit the Trobrin, Probr, Iridani, FRA, and others to each adopt their own X-ships. Some of the more exotic cases in the region, like Alunda "Sig-Tech", were developed independently; but they can be left to one side for the time being.) Still, it could be that some of the rules needed to handle Alpha X-tech may cross over, or at least offer a template for reverse-engineering. Plus we'd have the opportunity to see how the Sakharov fared during the Omega leg of its pioneering voyage in the Y210s.

So two of the three choices would have immediate benefits for the FC Omega project, while the third would set a number of tools in place that could be reached for once we have a better sense of how first-generation advanced technology works in the Omega Octant.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, June 23, 2019 - 11:40 am: Edit

Jean, are there enough omega packs sold four me to start doing packs adding one empire at a time?

What empire do you guys want first?

By Gary Downing (Garydee) on Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - 06:18 pm: Edit

Maesron

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, November 03, 2020 - 01:59 pm: Edit

Over in Star Fleet Battles, the "volatile warp" gunboats in the Omega Octant function quite differently to the "hot warp" fast patrol ships in the Alpha Octant and in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud. Were these units to one day be considered for the FC Omega project, the Gunboats Attack material previewed in Captain's Log #54 would in turn require a more detailed set of adjustments when compared to, say, the Baduvai INTs and PFs over in the LMC.


Firstly, the "standard" deployment limits in (5W2a) would be adjusted from one Omega empire to the next. Of the empires currently part of the FC Omega project, the Mæsrons, Trobrin, Probr, and Iridani would deploy no more than four boats in Squadron Scale (or two in Fleet Scale). Whereas the (conjectural) Federal Republic of Aurora PFs would use the regular six-boat limit in Squadron Scale (or three in Fleet Scale).

More importantly would be how the "volatile warp" engines themselves are handled. In SFB, Omega PFs have larger engines than seen on Alpha or LMC gunboats, but take double damage. Plus, when they run their "afterburners" (which works somewhat akin to Orion engine doubling), each engine produces a bonus 50% output for that turn; however, they then take triple damage while doing so, and must take a "cool-down" turn after each turn running the afterburners. And also, Omega PFs in SFB cannot repair their own engines.

In FC terms, a Move Cost of 1/8 might leave these "volatile warp" gunboats with perhaps too much discretionary power relative to their Alpha or LMC counterparts. I'm not sure if the increased engine vulnerability would be enough to balance this, or if it would be better to adjust the Move Cost of "volatile warp" PFs to 1/4 instead.


On a side note, a handful of Omega Interceptor types are noted to historically exist, though most empires skipped them outright. Should any of those be offered in SFB, perhaps they could then be considered here also. (Depending on how large even an INT's "volatile warp" might be, perhaps they in turn might need to have their Move Costs adjusted to 1/8?)

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 - 06:12 pm: Edit

As an example of how differently "volatile warp" gunboats function relative to "hot warp" gunboats seen elsewhere, a good example is the Mæsron fast patrol ship (OR2.PF2); which, as it happens, is currently available on Shapeways.

The Mæsron PF is one of the larger gunboat types to exist in the Omega Octant; as noted in the previous post, they deploy no more than four to a flotilla. It's also one of the most expensive, with a combat BPV of 70.

The Mæsron PF has a Move Cost of 1/5 and a Turn Mode of A (not AA, as is the standard in the Alpha Octant). In terms of power, it has two 6-box "volatile warp" engines, two impulse, 2 APR, and 2 battery boxes. It's armed with two wide-angle phaser-1s, two wide-angle phaser-3s, a pair of tachyon guns, and a type-A tachyon missile rack.

When the PF runs its afterburners, both the L and R warp engines have to do this at once. However, the 50% bonus (rounding down) is calculated per engine. So, with an undamaged pair of engines, it can produce 18 (6+3+6+3) points of warp engine power on the turn the afterburners are on. But, say if the L warp engine had been reduced to 4 boxes by the end of the previous turn, that would be reduced to 15 (4+2+6+3) points instead. And as also noted above, the PF in SFB cannot repair its own engines, putting a premium on repair-capable fast patrol ship tenders - which won't be an option any time soon (if ever) here in FC.

In any case, given how much more generated power the Mæsron PF has when compared to an Alpha Octant gunboat minus its warp booster packs (particularly once the afterburners are activated), I would lean more strongly towards setting it and other "volatile warp" PFs to a Turn Mode of 1/4 here in FC. While I would suggest keeping the double damage to warp engines (or triple damage while running afterburners), I wonder if it wouldn't be a deal-breaker to allow Omega gunboats to repair their own engines in FC. And, of course, I would want to keep the afterburner function here, so as to retain the "see-saw" aspect of Omega gunboat tactics over in SFB.

However, if there are better ways to deal with any or all of the above concepts as and when the time is ripe, well and good.


Oh, and before I forget: since each Alpha Octant empire is set to get only one gunboat type, it might be worth considering whether the Trobrin should "default" to either their bolt or torpedo PF here. I'd suggest sticking with the bolt PF, though there is nothing to prevent choosing the torpedo PF instead. (Historically-speaking, the Trobrin mixed and matched their bolt and torpedo PFs regularly, as they did with their full-sized starships.)

Fortunately, the Trobrin have distinct bolt and torpedo PF sprues on Shapeways, so either option can be readily supported in miniature terms.