jmpehrson wrote:Some quick feedback on the latest edition of Starmada. In our initial skirmish between a single HS5 destroyer and two HS2 patrol boats (no shields, but with armor plate), the most surprising thing we experienced was the large possibility of scoring non-damaging hits and the rate at which weapons were destroyed.
The HS5 vessel won but needed to inflict 13 damage to destroy one ship and 8 damage to destroy the second. In one volley, four hits were scored against a little HS2 vessel and hit locations were rolled. 6,6,6 and 4 came up. Since it was designed without shields and the weapons were already destroyed, these four hits actually resulted in no damage at all. During the repair phase, the HS2 vessel was able to bring online (damage control roll) one of it's weapons to be used in the following turn and continue the fight.
At this point, we were just surprised at the result without making an opinion if it was good or bad. We started with the Compendium version of Starmada where any hits to non-existent or damaged slots defaulted to hull hits, making for a quicker kill. That version also allowed for additional hull hits by getting reinforced hull allowing ships to live longer.
To be honest, I never liked the "default to hull hit" mechanic. Long-time players may remember that the initial version of Starmada X did NOT default to a hull hit if the damage roll had no other effect... but I caved.
The idea is that each damage die has a flat 50% chance of causing a hull hit. Period.
All other damage effects are designed so that 2/3 of the systems are lost by the time the ship has been destroyed. In some cases, you will have a damage die that does not cause a hull hit, and the indicated system has already been eliminated. In such cases, it may "feel" odd that the damage die has no effect; but it's just a quirk of the system, and allows for flexibility in outcomes. Some games, a ship may be destroyed immediately, while in others, the same ship may last forever due to the roll of the dice. I like this. Others may not.
We plan to play many more games to see how the results vary.
Please do! 
Here are a few home brew genre specific options we'd like to incorporate and would like some help/opinions costing out:
1. Anti-Ship fighter which used to roll 2 dice at 4+ against ships, but only
got defensive shots against other fighters on 6's. Speed 8, took two fighter
hits / anti-fighter battery hits to be killed but a single ship scale weapon destroyed it. Costing ideas?
With the customization of fighters option, this would have to become "+1 to-hit ships, -1 to-hit other fighters". My experience with this mechanic in previous editions of Starmada showed it to be somewhat unbalanced. I'm not sure how I would cost it.
2. We also invariably use limited use items in our games, often using logistics as strategic goals in our campaign games. How might a single use counter measure be used? Or organic hull can be used to repair only upto a certain level before being exhausted (limited material in order to effect repairs) - say original hull size? Maybe even model armor plate as an ablative protection? Or even shields, good for blocking three hits before it's capacitor is depleted. What would be a good method for costing these types of options, both in SU and CR?
The best starting point I can offer is to assume that a game will last no more than 10 turns. Then, apply 1/10th of the indicated effect for each turn's worth of use the expendable item has. For example, stealth that can only be used for 4 turns would have a modifier of 1.6 (2.5 is 1.5 more than no effect at all; 1/10th of 1.5 is .15; multiply by 4 turns you get .6; add this to 1 and get 1.6).
THIS IS A RULE OF THUMB FOR FURTHER TESTING -- IT IS NOT AN OFFICIAL (OR EVEN "UNOFFICIAL") RULE.
3. Stand off weaponry for fighters - how might this be modeled both in the
anti-ship and anti-fighter capacity? Combining with limited uses in #2 above, consider a fighter with a 5+ attack, with one use of a range 3 missile, 4+ 1 IMP 1DMG attack. It is assumed that this would be an either or attack and not allow the fighter to attack with both in the same turn.
Look for ranged weapons for fighters in the near future.
4. Double armor plate, which stopped hits on a hit location roll of 1 and 6
(the Compendium shield hit) only after shields had been knocked down. Costing Ideas?
Not sure what you're proposing here -- stopping a roll of 6 would block 50% of weapon damage. Is that what you want?
5. How is armor plate intended to interact with 'Extra Hull Damage' and 'Double Damage' weapons? For example, does a EHD weapon have a 1 in 3 chance of being blocked by armor plate? Do Double Damage weapons which roll a 1 for hit location on an armored vessel have both damage points blocked?
An Extra Hull Damage weapon would still inflict its bonus hit on a roll of 1. A Double Damage weapon has all of its damage blocked.
