51 Reply by mundungus

(6 replies, posted in Starmada)

underling wrote:

I've been looking for a source for differently shaped cubes, blocks, and disks, and in an assortment of colors.
Are the ones you're using from another game, or did you find those separately online somewhere?

Somebody on BoardGameGeek ordered many cubes (and later discs) in bulk, then sold them off in lots of 100 pieces x 12 colors:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/3406660

If you get an account on BGG and GeekMail him, he may have some left or be able to tell you where he got them.

There are also places like these:

http://www.meeplepeople.com/products.php?cat=44
http://www.spielmaterial.de/english/

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52 Topic by mundungus

(6 replies, posted in Starmada)

I've been playing with Orders of Magnitude, which is a relative of the Sovereign Stars rules found in (among other places) the Rules Annex.

Here's a photo of a mockup:

https://webdisk.lclark.edu/drake/oom/oom-mockup.JPG

Other files are here:

https://webdisk.lclark.edu/drake/oom/oom-22oct2009.pdf
https://webdisk.lclark.edu/drake/oom/tiles.pdf
https://webdisk.lclark.edu/drake/oom/tech-tree.pdf

Comments are most appreciated. If anyone wants to print out the tiles and test it on humans, so much the better!

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53 Topic by mundungus

(2 replies, posted in Starmada)

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/455220

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54 Topic by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

I made these:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/312184

They work, but the Sharpie ink eventually smears. (Why would they make blank dice that don't accept ink?!?)

There exist places like this:

http://www.customdice.com/

If MJ12 were to make up a big batch of these, I would buy a dozen or two.

I'm just sayin'.

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55 Reply by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

They're working on a new version of VBAM. Perhaps all'y'all can work together on making sure it meshes with Starmada AE.

(Heck, I might even want in on such a project.)

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56 Topic by mundungus

(1 replies, posted in Starmada)

We've started using the "Simplest Campaign System" on p. 37 of the Rules Annex. I recommend also generating terrain randomly:

Die        Terrain
1        None
2        Asteroids (1d6d6)
3        Black Hole (roll for size, 6 = no terrain)
4        Dust Cloud
5        Nebula
6        Planet (roll for size, 6 = no terrain)

So far, one good battle: "The Trap" in a dust cloud. When the longest-range weapons have range 9, a dust cloud makes it a knife fight! Fighters (or in our case, seekers) become more important.

A minor typo, I think. It says that replenishment points "can be used to repair hull damage and/or add new starships to to one or more fleets." Doesn't each side have only one fleet?

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57 Topic by mundungus

(4 replies, posted in Starmada)

F.1 says the minimum fighter flight size is 4. Why? Especially for strikers/seekers, being able to launch an individual missile seems useful.

One could imagine a solitaire scenario where a number of very powerful strikers are launched at your ship, and your task is to survive...

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58 Topic by mundungus

(1 replies, posted in Starmada)

What happens if a seeker's target is destroyed or leaves the map? Our guess is that the weapon immediately detonates harmlessly.

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59 Topic by mundungus

(6 replies, posted in Starmada)

Designing some ships, I'm struck by the very weak correlation between ship size and CR. Both of these are the same size (and waste little space):

(198) Haymaker-class frigate
Hull: 6 5 4 3 2 1                  
Engines: 5 5 4 3 2 1                  
Shields: 4 4 3 2 2 1                  
Weapons:
1:YZ 2:YZ 3:YZ 4:YZ 5:YZ 6:Z
Y: Medium Lasers: 2/4/6, 1/3+/1/1
Range-Based IMP
[G][G][G][G][G] 
Z: Light Lasers: 1/2/3, 1/3+/1/1
Range-Based IMP
[ACE][ACE][ACE][BDF][BDF][BDF] 
Special: Hyperdrive; Countermeasures; Armor Plating

(400) Stalwart-class destroyer
Hull: 6 5 4 3 2 1                  
Engines: 1 1 1 1 1 1                  
Shields: 5 5 4 3 2 1                  
Weapons:
1:X2Z 2:X2Z 3:X2Z 4:2Z 5:2Z 6:2Z
X: Heavy Lasers: 3/6/9, 1/3+/1/1
Range-Based IMP
[G][G][G] 
Z: Light Lasers: 1/2/3, 1/3+/1/1
Range-Based IMP
[ACE][ACE][ACE][ACE][ACE][ACE][BDF][BDF][BDF][BDF][BDF][BDF] 
Special: Hyperdrive; Carrier (84); Countermeasures; Armor Plating

Do other people tend to pick a size and cram it full of equipment, aim for a particular CR value, or what? Do you have a lot of empty space in your ships?

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60 Reply by mundungus

(7 replies, posted in Starmada)

Terminology aside, the rule sounds reasonable. One clarification is needed: if the tractoring ship moves more than 5 hexes from a tractored flight, is the tractoring broken?

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61 Reply by mundungus

(7 replies, posted in Starmada)

cricket wrote:
mundungus wrote:

Tractor beams pull.

Repulsors push.

In your world, perhaps -- in Star Trek, "tractor beams" do both.

I was working from etymology, but sci-fi precedent trumps that. Also, you've got particular reasons to be faithful to ... that universe. :-)

Intriguingly, the OS X dictionary agrees with you

(in science fiction) a hypothetical beam of energy that can be used to move objects such as space ships or hold them stationary.

but Wikipedia prefers the more specific definition:

A tractor beam is a hypothetical device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Tractor beams are frequently used in science fiction. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam or repulsor beam.

cricket wrote:
mundungus wrote:

Personally, I think tractors/repulsors that affect other starships could be much more interesting.

And IMPOSSIBLE to point-cost.

Well, it's ... um ... kinda like having more engines?

*shrug*

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62 Reply by mundungus

(7 replies, posted in Starmada)

Tractor beams pull.

Repulsors push.

This is something else. Maybe it's a lockdown beam? Freeze ray? Gravity cannon?

Personally, I think tractors/repulsors that affect other starships could be much more interesting.

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63 Topic by mundungus

(2 replies, posted in Starmada)

What is the convention in the sourcebooks for two weapons getting the same name?

I would have assumed that a given weapon has the same stats (excepts for arcs), but in the Imperial Sourceboook, Lightning Turrets have RNG 12 on some ships, 15 on others.

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64 Reply by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

...the wall problem is more severe in any milieu where a ship might be vulnerable from a particular side; put that side to the wall, and you're safe.

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65 Topic by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

Suddenly, I realize another aspect of Cricket's brilliance.

I always thought, "You should get some benefit from running away. Otherwise, everyone will fight to the death."

The catch is that retreating and leaving the field are not the same thing. If leaving the field can get you to safety, people will do cheesy things like set a missile cruiser at the edge of the map, fire an alpha strike, and duck off the board if the enemy comes near.

If ships that leave the map are destroyed, the best you can do is get to a safe corner and hope your allies will protect you.

That said, there are still troubling edge effects (assuming that the map doesn't float, because (e.g.) there are 30 asteroids on the table). If the enemy's best attack is to charge to close range, I can prevent him from doing so at full speed by putting my back to a wall.

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66 Reply by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

FWIW, here's a half-baked pseudo-campaign idea:

In a battle, score half credit for ships you drive off the map, full credit for ships you destroy. This encourages heavily-damaged ships to flee.

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67 Topic by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

Just curious: has anyone ever actually played The Sovereign Stars (as defined in the Imperial Starmada Sourcebook)?

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68 Reply by mundungus

(21 replies, posted in Starmada)

cricket wrote:

If you give one weapon one shot, the multiplier is:

(1 + 1) / 10 = 20%

If you give 5 weapons 5 shots, the multiplier is:

(5 + 5) / 50 = 20%

etc.

You're right. 20% of 12 is 2.4; it just rounds up to 3.

SUs is a prime factor in the ORAT calculation. Thus, the final ORAT, as a factor of what it would be without ammo, must first take the above 20% and then divide by the number from the book. Thus:

Hull 1-3: 20% / 0.4 = 50%
Hull 4-8: 20% / 0.6 = 33%
Hull 9-15: 20% / 0.8 = 25%
etc.

Ah, so these aren't the discounts (the amount of the reduction), but rather the sale prices (the amount left after the reduction). All is now clear and consistent, as is the Starmada way.

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69 Reply by mundungus

(21 replies, posted in Starmada)

cricket wrote:

Consider that at one shot per launcher (the cheapest option), a limited ammo weapon takes up 20% of the space.

Now I'm confused again. Consider the aforementioned Poton Torpedo. Assuming an ammo-free weapon, a battery of one of these firing into the A arc uses 12 SU. A one-shot version uses 3 SU. (The shipbuilder agrees with my calculations here.) That's 25%, no?

The offensive rating "discount" depends on the size of the ship:

Hull 1-3: 50%
Hull 4-8: 33%
Hull 9-15: 25%
Hull 16-24: 20%
Hull 25+: 17%

Wait, where did these numbers come from? I can't reconcile them with the table from (my copy of!) ISS, which has the battery ORAT divided by:

Hull 1-3: 0.4
Hull 4-8: 0.6
Hull 9-15: 0.8
etc.

Was this table also revised and nobody told me? (I don't think so, because my calculations are matching the shipbuilder.)

Qualitatively, this latter set of numbers means that there is a bigger discount for larger ships. This is appropriate, because large ships are actually losing something by limiting their ammunition; gunboats weren't going to live that long anyway.

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70 Reply by mundungus

(21 replies, posted in Starmada)

BeowulfJB wrote:

Whenever we used ships with expendables against ships that did not have them, the fleet with these brutal, dirt-cheap expendibles won hands down. The fire all the expendibles and the enemy fleet vanished.  I used them until we banned them.

If you have enough players, the countertactic may be gunboat swarms. (I'm just spouting off the top of my head here; I haven't tested this.) Against lone superdreadnought, the expendable admiral(?) has a no-brainer: launch everything at the one target. Against a large number of targets, the decision becomes ... more interesting.

Alternately, build ships that are heavily overdefended (shields, armor, countermeasures, etc.). You hardly need any weapons -- after the alpha strike, the enemy will be unarmed.

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71 Reply by mundungus

(21 replies, posted in Starmada)

cricket wrote:
Option C.5: Ammunition wrote:

In starship construction, a battery with limited ammunition has its total space unit (SU) cost multiplied by the number of "shots" plus the number of weapons, then divided by ten times the number of weapons, rounded up.

So...

Multiplier = (S + W) / (10W)

Assuming 10 shots for 5 weapons, that's a multiplier of 30%. If you double the number of weapons (but keep the number of "shots" the same), the multiplier becomes 20%.

Of course, that's on the overall SU cost, which itself was doubled when you doubled the number of weapons, so in comparison, 10 weapons costs 33% more than 5 weapons.

Oh, there's the problem: I have the wrong formula. In my (early?) PDF version of ISS, it says:

In starship construction, a battery with limited ammunition has its total space unit cost multiplied by the number of "shots" and divided by five times the number of weapons, rounded up.

Is the erratum posted somewhere? (I add my voice to the chorus noting that there is no link to errata on the official Starmada page http://www.mj12games.com/starmada/.)

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72 Reply by mundungus

(21 replies, posted in Starmada)

I tried to replicate my calculations with the shipbuilder. Consider this weapon:

Poton Torpedo: 1/2/3, 1/3+/3/1

Without ammo limitations, a battery of four of these (each in arc A) uses 48 SU.

With 6 torpedoes, that should become 48 * 6 / (5 * 4) = 14.4, rounded up to 15. The shipbuilder gives 12.

What's going on here? Has a newer formula been published?

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73 Topic by mundungus

(21 replies, posted in Starmada)

I'm looking at the formula for ammunition (C.5, ISS p. 12). Assuming all weapons in a battery fire into the same arc, doubling the number of launchers doubles both the numerator (as part of the base cost) and the denominator (# of weapons). In fact, multiplying the number of launchers by ANY constant has no effect on the cost of the battery -- so why not provide a launcher for every single missile/torpedo/bullet?

Am I missing something?

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74 Reply by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

Yes, it's an error in my printed version. I had a correction (which I made myself in pencil) in my (earlier) downloaded version.

May I suggest that there should be an easily-located file showing all of the corrections needed to the printed version?

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75 Reply by mundungus

(3 replies, posted in Starmada)

I believe the coefficient should be 29, not 19.

Should this be in the FAQ? Should there be a link to the FAQ/errata on the main Starmada page?

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