Federation Commander

Magnum357 · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 223

I hope I don't regrate asking this, but will we ever see an E2 section to Federation Commander? It seems the SFB website has expanded even beyond E2. Shocked

mjwest · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:02 pm Post subject:

Ships from E3 (Borak) and E4 (Peladine) most likely "skipped" E2 (Triangulum) for a few reasons:
1) More players are familiar with the Borak and Peladine than the Triangulum.
2) The Borak and Peladine are from "our" galaxy, which means they are made to interact with all of the ships already in Federation Commander. The Triangulum is a self-contained set of empires that only interact with each other.
3) The Borak and Peladine only had one empire each, with good in-game and meta-game history around them. The Triangulum presents multiple empires no one is familiar with.

Those are guesses, not knowledge, so I could be wrong. But those would seem to me to be some major reasons why E2 has never been moved into Federation Commander. Not to say it can't change, but then I haven't seen anyone else (except for maybe Gary) ever ask for Triangulum in Federation Commander.

EDIT: Geez, I completely missed one other critical reason:
4) There were no required new rules for the Peladine, and the new rules required for the Borak weren't that difficult. All of the weapons for the Triangulum, plus other stuff, are all new rules that have to be developed and tested to find how it works.
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Itharus · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 9:12 pm Post subject:

MOAR BORAK!

Seriously, I love those guys. Pity their empire was fake Sad

I'd love to write some stories that made their empire an actual entity.

Nerroth · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 1:24 pm Post subject:

I'd be very keen to see a Triangulum playtest pack for FC, akin to those currently available for Omega and the LMC. However, there are a handful of issues from the SFB side of things which, in my view, may need to be resolved before such a pack would be viable.

There are four Triangulum Galaxy empires currently in playtest over in Star Fleet Battles: the Helgardian Protectorate, the Arachnid Worlds of Union, and the Mallaran Empire are previewed in Module E2 proper, while the Imperium (to include its array of semi-autonomous provinces) has a set of four playtest ships in Captain's Log #23. (There is a significant errata file dated to the 6th of December 2011 covering both documents, as well as a set of sample counters printed on Special Countersheet #1.)

Choosing which ships to preview would be the easy part. I'd simply go with a CA and DD for each of the four current playtest empires, incorporating the Y120 and Y154 refits marked on their SSDs. (In the case of the Imperium, I'd probably skip the optional Y49 refit.)

While it has yet to be confirmed whether or not the Andromedans - or other extra-galactic trouble-makers, such as the Juggernauts - ever launched an invasion of M33, I'd encourage any would-be playtesters to try out such encounters nonetheless.

Rules-wise, however, things are less clear-cut.

As both the Helgardians and Imperium are primarily direct-fire fleets (not counting the medium mine racks the optional Y49 refit provides for the Imperium in SFB, which I would consider a poor fit for FC), converting the rules needed to fly those two factions need not be a problem. (The Helgardians have an optional battle armour upgrade available to their boarding parties in SFB, but those could be side-stepped in FC if necessary.)

The Mallarans, however, pose greater challenges. The biggest question for them would be how to convert their Ram torpedoes from one game system to another; their movement is tied to the number of SFB impulses they are on the board for, which might make things awkward in terms of adapting it to fit in with FC movement sub-pulses. Plus, there would be a need to adapt their energy absorber and MPDS rules, and to work out which class of Viper fighter to port over.

The Arachnids have even bigger problems. The 2011 errata file severely limits their ability to arm their plasma-esque Hellfire and Hellblazer torpedoes, by cutting the warhead yields to 25% of the "final" result. Even if this was not the case, the arming rules for hellfires and hellblazers in SFB would need to be significantly trimmed down in order to work in FC terms. Plus, there is the matter of how, or even if, one ought to convert the Arachnid assimilation rules over to this game system, or if it would be better to abstract out the concept entirely.

In the long run, I wonder if there might be a need to formally publish the four current Triangulum playtest empires in SFB proper, before it would be safe to start working on an FC conversion project for them. That said, I am a big fan of the work which Francois Angers has done in making M33 a compelling setting in the Star Fleet Universe; I hope that, in the fullness of time, there may be an opportunity to see the Triangulum Galaxy more fully fleshed out in print for both game systems.
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Scharwenka · Lieutenant SG Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 141

Don't forget the Atrean Directorate!
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Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

I think that Triangulum is around #127 on my top 10 list for FC. Seriously, not a place I have any interest in going, and I don't think it would sell enough copies to be worth having someone else do it.

That said....

1. I didn't say never

2. Even #127 just might float into the top 10 after 118 other things get done.

3. I'm 65 and will eventually be dead and my successor will make his own decisions.

4. The market situation might change.

5. Somebody might do it and send it to me and maybe if I wasn't busy I'd spend a day checking it and put it up for download.
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Itharus · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 11:53 pm Post subject:

65 isn't THAT old... come now.

reborn · Ensign Joined: 22 Jun 2017 Posts: 3

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

Older than that now.

You're as old as you feel so I'm 93.
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Magnum357 · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Posts: 223

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

I don't remember that Atrean is.

Cardassians and Kim Kardashian are not covered by our license so we won't be doing those. I am sure someone did them somewhere but we're not allowed to promote or link to anyone who did.
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Sgt_G · Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:48 pm Post subject:

Atrean is from the TNG episode in which Data found his "mom".
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Master Sgt, US Air Force, Retired -- 1981-2007 -- 1W091A

Steve Cole · Site Admin Joined: 11 Oct 2006 Posts: 3828

Atrean is, then, not within our license.
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Scharwenka · Lieutenant SG Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 141

mjwest · Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 6:45 pm Post subject:

Finally found E2 and found the map within it. Holy crap! There are an absolute *ton* of empires in this thing. And the "Atrean Directorate" is one of them.

The currently published empires are:
- Helgardian Stronghold (E2)
- Mallaram Empire (E2)
- Worlds of Unions (aka Arachnids) (E2)
- Imperium (CL??)

In addition, there are fifteen other (i.e. additional) major empires, six more minor empires, and about a dozen named sub-groups.
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