I may invite you up here to assisst with that one.....LOL

I decided to just go with Dan's first suggestion... and if it isn't liked, we'll just not have cloaked ships....

Unfortunately, since he provides figs for 3 of our 6 players..... he feels he gets to argue every point..... however, Wulfe Hawke and I are seriously working on dealing with that issue.

Nahuris

I hope I didn't kill the thread.... I just have a player who absolutely loves cloaks... and is always looking for ways to cheese every rule.....LOL

Nahuris

Raf.... we're gamers... the only thing we like more than blowing each other's fleets to ash is talking about the rules we use to blow each other's fleets to ash......LOL

I do like your smart munition idea... but if that is true, then friendly ships should be immune to hits, even in the area of effect... making the idea of a "smart AoE" weapon more of a weapon mod....

Maybe something to add to a future supplement.......

I can see it now, fast frigates with smart AoE rushing into close range with enemies, and detonating the weapons on themselves..... hmm range 3, lots of weapons, smart AoE, and range based damage, and rate of fire..... Kind of like using fire ships in Age of Sail era battles.

Nahuris

I'm glad this question came up...

I've seen other games where a ship will be declared "cloaked", but we leave the fig on the table to keep track of where the ship is..... and the next thing you see is people firing off AoE weapons to get the splash damage going..... :roll:

However, what if a cloaked ship is right next to an uncloaked ship... do we want to make it a blanket statement that an undetected cloaked ship is immune to AoE weapons?

I would like to get this decided BEFORE it comes up in a game.

Nahuris

Pretty much the only things I drink are Hobgoblin Ale.... a really nice English Ale, or Japanese Plum Wine....

Not much of a drinker

Nahuris

Or the Obscure even.....LOL

Don't worry.... we all do it, some of my friends used to call me the apprentice to the obvious for a reason.....LOL

I never quite made it to master of the obvious

Nahuris

Shields are always going to be tricky in this conversion... more so than weapons, at least in my opinion.....

For example, the standard Federation tactic that I have seen has been to slow the initial advance, put extra power into your shields, and overload your torpedoes... and then do an alpha strike and hope to breach the enemy shield and do damage. The mass volley was superior to a steady rate of fire over time, as the shields tend to regenerate.... in addition, as a shield facing is weakened, part of the tactic is to continue turning your strongest shields towards the enemy.... with Starmada's more fixed shield structure, that part of the game is not as important......

Are there ideas for regenerating shields and a means to damage specific facings while not losing the entire shield, ect.?

Maybe we should start a thread highlighting the tactics of each race, and look at the flavor of the game from there... it might help with ideas on making the conversion work.

John

Underling's option is very good... it allows the fighters to remain the fast reaction force on the board, while making all weapon fire simultaneous...

I'll have to try it out and see if it works....

My only complaint with fighters was the massed destruction effect that I saw used once. This is from a Starmada X game.... and the player in question first made it a point to look at the control sheets for the other players. If the opponent did not have sunbursts (at the time, one of the only area of effect weapons), he would use a fleet consisting of a couple of light Hull 1 or 2 ships that were extremely fast. The rest of his fleet consisted of long range fighters..... no carrier needed, they had their own hyperdrives.

He would mass his fighters and then rush in on one of your ships, he was pretty much guaranteed a kill, and would then hide behind the explosion, making it hard for the rest of the fleet to target the fighters. His explanation was that it was the same as a Star Wars fighter strike, ala the X-Wing novels.

If his opponent had sunbursts, he avoided massing the wings in single hexes, and instead tried to turn it into a running battle with the floating map option. If his opponent had carronades, he would insist on long range fighters (2 hex range)..... and everyone was eventually forced to take both sunbursts and carronades... limiting any form of unique design for each fleet. I havent't had time to play any AE games yet, so I cannot say whether the same problem exists or not.

What are the odds of a dedicated anti-fighter escort ship? Something like the Carrack class, from Star Wars. Maybe if you take "anti-fighter" as a weapon mod, you get to fire during the fighter phase at the normal to hit, but the weapon cannot be used against capital ships (flachette ammo, or whatever reason).
I want to avoid the paper, rock, scissors,..... Nuke argument as well, but have always been intrigued with the anti-fighter escort ships.

John

I think that we all can identify with that one....LOL

John

My fiance' is going to love that last one.....

I'll have to attempt a scratch build of it....LOL
Mind sending me some more pics?
Also, do you have the rest of the fleet to go with it?

John

My fiance' used weapons that did no hull damage in Starmada X to simulate "Ion Cannons" similar to Star Wars. They didn't specifically destroy the weapons or items... but instead disabled everything.....

She would then board with her marines, or use a "tug ship" (basically a small hull with high engine ratings) to tow the "disabled" ship away....although she prefers marines...

Then again, her species that she created is based around slaving.....
The crews are taken back to her bases, and implanted with control chips...
At least the ones that aren't eaten are implanted....LOL

John