About A Call to Arms

[Garydee]

I've been thinking that if Plasmas can be wiped out by ph-3s, what about increasing the AD of plasmas and taking away the Multi-hit trait. I think it may balance the game better. Instead of a 5 AD plasma, it would become a 10 AD, which would make it harder to be completely taken out by phasers. Also, it would quicken the game by eliminating the extra rolls caused by the multi-hit trait. Just a thought *shrugs*

[Scoutdad]

New revision of the rules just came out.
Tweaks applied to Defensive Fire and to Cloaking Device.

In a nutshell:
All of a ships phasers / drones may be used in defense of itself against incoming seekers.
It does mean you have to track which weapons fire offensively and which defensively as they can only fire once per turn.

Cloaked ships go from Cloaked to uncloaked and back with no Fade in/ Fade out period. Probably appropriate sense the previous method was equivalent to ahving a fade in take 32 impulses in SFB.
Also, seeking wepaons can no longer be targeted on Cloaked vessels.

All in all, it sounds like good changes in the right direction.
We're playing again this wekend, so we'll know more after that.

[Garydee]

New revision of the rules just came out.
Tweaks applied to Defensive Fire and to Cloaking Device.

In a nutshell:
All of a ships phasers / drones may be used in defense of itself against incoming seekers.
It does mean you have to track which weapons fire offensively and which defensively as they can only fire once per turn.

Cloaked ships go from Cloaked to uncloaked and back with no Fade in/ Fade out period. Probably appropriate sense the previous method was equivalent to ahving a fade in take 32 impulses in SFB.
Also, seeking wepaons can no longer be targeted on Cloaked vessels.

All in all, it sounds like good changes in the right direction.
We're playing again this wekend, so we'll know more after that.

Thanks for letting us know Scoutdad. Good news indeed. If you can, can you try a drone race vs. a plasma race? That report you had on the Kzinti and Romulans has me worried

[Nerroth]

Can Plasma-Ds be fired defensively at drones and suicide shuttles?

[Garydee]

Quick question. Can phasers penetrate shields and do damage or do they always mark off shields first then only do damage once all shielding is gone?

[Scoutdad]

@Gary: Not sure. The Plasma-D rules neither condone nor condem that function.
I need to ask Matthew.

@Garydee: Yes. A Phaser hit has a 16.7% chance to penetrate the shields.
After that, they have a 33% chance to score a critical hit and a 67% chance to simply score a point of regular damage.

[Garydee]

@Gary: Not sure. The Plasma-D rules neither condone nor condem that function.
I need to ask Matthew.

@Garydee: Yes. A Phaser hit has a 16.7% chance to penetrate the shields.
After that, they have a 33% chance to score a critical hit and a 67% chance to simply score a point of regular damage.

Good to hear. From what I've been reading in your reports Mongoose has done a great job on making combat in this game unpredictable. I definitely like it.

[Scoutdad]

I'm not sure I'd go with unpredictable.
You match a Dreadnought against a Frigate and hte result is pretty predictable.
You launch a wave of 70 AD of drones at a Klingon Dreadnought, and the result is pretty predictable.


Although, Matthew and crew have done a fairly good job of adapting the existing ACTA system to accurately reflect the way things work in teh SFU.
Is it a perfect match... No. Does it recreate what would typically happen in a SFB battle between the same forces... pretty close.

Is it fun... Yes!
Do things blow us quickly... Yes!!!

[Garydee]

I'm not sure I'd go with unpredictable.
You match a Dreadnought against a Frigate and hte result is pretty predictable.

I guess a small ship can no longer take out a larger ship with a lucky crit roll. You could with B5.

[Scoutdad]

No. The "Golden BB" has gone the way of the dodo bird and the passenger pidgeon.
Criticals still occur, but you have to work your way across the chart from hit #1 (whcih is relatively minor) to hit #6 (which isn't!) at each of the possible locations.

[Nerroth]

One other question (for now, at least); are there any rules covering the use of Orion Pirate option mounts, or are they slimmed down to "default" weapon configurations the way they are in Starmada?

[Scoutdad]

One other question (for now, at least); are there any rules covering the use of Orion Pirate option mounts, or are they slimmed down to "default" weapon configurations the way they are in Starmada?

This from the Orion Light Raider in the latest draft ofhte rules:

* This weapon may be a Photon Torpedo, Disruptor, Drone (with fire arc T), or Phaser-1, as chosen by the player.

So yes, they do allow for option mounts.

And there is the ability to "double you engines", or at least the ACTA equivalent. Although it's quite costly and you aren't going to make a habit of it.

[Nerroth]

Interesting, thanks. (I guess they will expand the options available once more empires get added to the mix.)

How do the Orions and Tholians fly so far?

[Scoutdad]

Have not done anything with Tholians or Orions.
I've been more concerned with balance issues and gettting the big boys right than with the Tholians and Orions.

[Garydee]

I noticed that a couple of distributors have moved the release date from November to October. We might be getting this game sooner that we thought.