Federation Commander

[The_Rock]

[Rules violation. Abusive personal attack. Deleted.]

[The_Rock]

[Rules violation. Abusive personal attack. Deleted.]

[storeylf]

[Continuation of flamewar. Administrative deletion with no censure to the poster.]

[silent bob]

using plasma I rarely launch it. normally either carronade (which are awesome) or bolt it as opponents tend to run speed 24 with spare energy just in case. i will launch plasma if my opponent makes a mistake and goes slow as then its far better than the previous options.

[The_Rock]

[Rules violation. Abusive personal attack. Deleted.]

[storeylf]

[Continuation of flamewar. Administrative deletion without censure to the poster.]

[storeylf]

Had to leave before I finished last post.

Going back to the battle cruisers noted earlier. The Fed has 6 photons which generally seem to be considered effective from range 4, when they hit on a 1-4. That would make expected damage 64pts for full overloads. The similar gorn ship (heavy battlecruiser) can do the same or greater damage as long as the plasmas hits within 4 impulses or gets phasered for less than 132 damage, or some combination of the 2. The Fed only needs 2 turns compared to 3, but the Gorn only needs 31 power to 48 (and that is 48 crammed over 2 turns). In fact it can do that whilst holding onto the F's, which (more than) equalises out with the Feds drones I suppose.

[The_Rock]

[Rules violation. Abusive personal attack. Deleted.]

[ShockRocket]

[junior]

[storeylf]

[storeylf]

[The_Rock]

[Rules violation. Abusive personal attack. Deleted.]

[ShockRocket]

I mean, I kind of see where the ruling is coming from. In general, FC seems to try to avoid the idea of "inadvertent preemption"--basically, the Me-Too rule. With EM taking effect before Offensive Fire, there was no way to say "oh well if he's going to EM, then I'll fire now, because I probably won't get a better shot than I've got right now."

My problem with this ruling is that I always considered EM to be a reaction--as in "whoops I messed up and the Fed got to Range 4 before I fired, I better go EM and try to re-do my attack run". This won't be possible any more.

Another problem is that this ruling makes EM something you have to plan out in advance--and I got the impression that this was something else that FC was trying to avoid, the SFB method of "plan all thirty-two impulses during EA". Players will now be required to make a decision about EM before they know whether or not they'll actually need it--and by the time they do know, it's too late to turn it on.

To tell the truth, I don't really see a problem. Races that use multi-turn-arming direct-fire weapons have always had a problem with EM. The solution is to get close, stay close, use your secondaries (seekers or ESG) and wait for him to drop EM. He has to do it if he wants to shoot at you--and that's your opportunity to blast him. Indeed, a Federation Captain who doesn't expect a close-range enemy to go EM should turn in his suit.

[defurusu]

You know, the more I think about this change, the more I like it.

It shifts the burden of planning onto the player who wishes to truly benefit from using EM, where previously the mere threat of EM was enough to place this burden (which is a problem of anticipation really) on the opposing player.

I can't help but see this as a good thing.

But that's from the perspective of not yet having played under the new rule, so I may yet decide otherwise...