1

(42 replies, posted in Starmada)

I don't think tracking it on the datacard would be too big of a deal. I mean it goes sequentially. Engines, shields, weapons. Hull as appropriate. Unless, I suppose, you've got a ship that has a high hull size. Then you might "get lost" in the tracking, so to speak. Generally, the hull size of ships that I create are around 10 or so; I think it would work well for that amount.

2

(42 replies, posted in Starmada)

As for Nova, the damage system is something I really liked! It goes very quickly and yet still represents a gradual degradation of capability. My issue with Nova is the firing procedure. I found it to be rather difficult to learn; it's a bit counter-intuitive, I think. Nothing really wrong with that, though. I get the reasons why it was done that way. I still prefer Admiralty, though. smile

3

(42 replies, posted in Starmada)

I had figured that you would track for each ship individually. Hadn't thought about having it carry over through the entire course of the battle. That would help randomize things, I suppose. Order becomes important then, wouldn't it? As we play it now, we assume all damage is simultaneous and all players resolve it at the same time. That was what I was assuming when I thought of the idea.

4

(42 replies, posted in Starmada)

Thread Necromancy!!

I kind of agree with the OP of this thread that Starmada has too many iterations of die rolling;
1. roll for to-hit,
2. roll for shield penetration,
3. roll for damage, and
4. if a weapon is hit, roll again for weapon damage.
When I first started playing, this actually rather bothered me, especially with large fleets. As time went on and I played more and got more experience with the combat procedure it became less of an issue. I got quicker at sorting out hits from misses.
However, I did come up with a couple of ideas that may help anyone else experiencing the same feeling.
I have not used either of these. (Although, I did go as far as to purchase some additional dice for the first option)

Use 20-sided die for damage dice:
With this method, you throw a d20 for each damage point instead of making two seperate d6 rolls for damage.
Die      Result
1.        Weapon Hit #1
2.        Weapon Hit #2
3.        Weapon Hit #3
4.        Weapon Hit #4
5.        Weapon Hit #5
6.        Weapon Hit #6
7-12.   Shield Hit
13-18. Engine Hit
19-20. Null result. You'll have to re-roll, anyway.
Score HULL hits on odd numbers 1-18. If the ship has "Armored Hull Plating", score a HULL hit on odd numbers 1-12 (ignoring the odd numbers through the Engines hit sequence).
This procedure maintains the same chances of getting a particular result from a damage die under the normal rules.

Dice-less Damage:
With this method, you don't throw dice at all; you apply damage sequentially without any randomness whatsoever.
Damage Pt.     Result
Point #1      Hull Hit (Ignore if "Armor Hull Plating"). Engine Hit.
Point #2      Engine Hit.
Point #3      Hull Hit. Shield Hit.
Point #4      Shield Hit.
Point #5      Hull Hit. Weapon Hit #1.
Point #6      Weapon Hit #2.
Further damage repeats but changes the Weapons hits:
Point #7-10 Same results as first iteration,   
Point #11    Hull Hit. Weapon Hit #3.
Point #12    Weapon Hit #4.
Point #13-16 Same results as first iteration,
Point #17    Hull Hit. Weapon Hit #5.
Point #18    Weapon Hit #6.
Further Damage just repeats the entire cycle.

Edit: I fixed a mistake where I got Engines and Shields mixed up in the second method.

5

(1 replies, posted in The Admiralty Edition)

Reviving a kind of dead thread here...but here are my thoughts.

The SFU mauler cannon is actually kind of a short ranged weapon with a maximum range of 10. The Mauler player has to get in close; there is no possibility of bombarding at range. For Starmada, I would give it range 9 or 12, I think. A shorter range would also somewhat offset the advantage of the forward focused [G] arc, making the weapon more balanced in a fleet of ships.

I would give it IMP=1, and Damage=1, with either Range Based Impact or Range Based Damage. In SFU, the (damage / input power) ratio varies with the range. At close range it's 2x, at medium it's 1x, and at long range it's 1/2. So one of the Range Based traits should apply. If using Firelinked, I'd prefer Range Based Impact to give a better chance of penetrating shields. Although, the shield strengths in SF Starmada are rather weak anyway so Range Based Damage would work fine too...

I think Firelinked is fine. In SFU, the Mauler can fire more than once per turn. It can fire as many times in a turn as it has groups of Power Batteries. Some Maulers even have more than one Mauler Cannon allowing the ship to fire at more than one target simultaneously. Given that in Starmada all weapons fire that occurs over a turn is resolved at once, I feel that the Firelinked trait isn't really necessary. Although, it certainly doesn't hurt anything either.

Another consideration is that in SFU, the Mauler is a guaranteed hit (unless using Electronic Warfare rules). One could drop the Firelinked trait and give it the No Range Modifiers trait with ACC=2+ to represent the terrific accuracy of the Mauler.

The Mauler ship would have as many Mauler weapons as needed to make the CRAT work out.
So, I think the Mauler could look like this:
MAULER CANNON: RNG 9 / ACC 2+ / IMP 1 / DMG 1
(No Range Mods, Slowfiring, Range Based Impact) 
[G] [G] [G] [G] ...

6

(11 replies, posted in Starmada)

No. Think of it this way:
If Starmada X AFB take up 5% of SUs and SAE AFBs are 5SU each, then you have 1 AFB for every 100 SU since 5 SU is 5% of 100 SUs. Therefore, to get the number of AFB for a ship in SAE, divide the total hull SUs by 100.