Hello all!
3-18-14 Update: Ok, after some do overs, the conversions are looking good!
3-19-14 Update: Took down the pdf because I'm reworking weapons. It makes more sense to normalize slow to rof of 1/4 b5 weapons and normal weapons to rof 1/2
3-21-14 Update: Ok reworked the weapons to normalize slow to rof 1/4, nonslw to rof 1/2. The BAS numbers make a lot more sense. Also working on a version to model sustained, raking, and piercing lasers.
3-22-14 Update: Posted Version 7 with modeling for sustained, piercing, and raking lasers
I'm posting my Babylon 5 Wars Conversions. I spent a lot of time coming up with a conversion formula. Every single conversion is based on mathematical conversions from B5wars stats. I also made it such that it met the relative scale of ships in the canon star trek books so that you can face them off.
B5Wars hull boxes -> Nova
Medium Vessels: Core Hull Boxes + (CArmor-3)^2
Heavy Combat Vessels: Core Hull Boxes + (CArmor-3)^2 + Front Hull Boxes + (FArmor -3)^2
Capital Ships: Core Hull Boxes + (CArmor-3)^2 + 2*( Front Hull Boxes + (FArmor -3)^2)
Then multiplied resulting number by 7/40 to get nova hull.
Thrust:
B5 Wars Thrust Cost 4 -> Nova 4
B5 Wars Thrust Cost 3 -> Nova 6
B5 Wars Thrust Cost 2 -> Nova 8
B5 Turn/Delay Average Cost of 6 or better adds +1 Nova Thrust. Turn/Delay Cost of 4 or better OR agile additionally adds overthrusters (see CR Vorchan-class and Demos-class Warships)
Weapons:
For BAS, I got Average Weapon Damage, then subtracted 4 for armor, then multiplied by 1/8 for BAS. I kept traits to a minimum overall.
-Particle Weapons: No traits.
-Plasma Weapons: Small bump to BAS (added 4 instead of subtracting 4 for armor) and Dfs.
-Interceptors & Guardian Arrays: 1-2-3 dfs, pnp, and gives ship fragile systems (or negates reinforced systems) and ECM 1.
-Raking Lasers: Subtracted an additional 4 due to rakes hitting multiple armored components, and divided BAS by 3.5 and gave vlt to mimic the randomness of raking weapons. I had to normalize raking light lasers to slow (rof1/4) because they did too little dice damage at rof 1/2. This is most the default, if somewhat random, laser damage mode.
-Sustained Lasers: These were hard to model, because in b5, one usually needed to power down some systems to fire them this way, and the benefit they provided you was that if you hit them, the next turn you auto hit them if they are in your weapon arcs. No way to model this directly, so what I did was made sustained lasers slw, bls weapons because bls weapons can't fire at short range - this mirrors how difficult it is to keep a ship within your arc at close range and because you typically can't afford to power down systems at close range. Their BAS is modeled normally meaning that they have a slight damage boost over raking lasers since they only subtract 4 for armor once (whereas raking weapons subtract the 4 twice), and are much more consistent since their BAS is not divided by 3.5 and made volatile. These are your long range consistent laser damage mode.
-Piercing Lasers: These lasers were easier to model (no EA ships have them). They take a to hit penalty, but add tremendous firepower potential. They have prc, slw, dfs, and cts (BAS divided by 3.5 to normalize). This is your close range laser damage mode.
-Pulse Weapons: Normalized around 2*5 pulse damage - 2.5*4 and then divided BAS from above by 3.5 and gave rpt, vlt to mimic randomness and grouping of pulse weapons. I had to normalize medium pulse cannons to slow (rof1/4) because they did too little dice damage at rof 1/2.
Racial Effects:
EA: None (except Interceptors as modeled above)
CR: Fire Control, Reinforced Systems
NR: Reinforced Systems
Part of the difficulty was tweaking the Hull multiplier and the weapon damage modifier. But after a lot of trial and error, I like the resulting conversions.
Enjoy!
