1 Topic by nimrodd

(1 replies, posted in Discussion)

What is the status of the reprints of the Unity Rulebook?

On April 2, I ordered the PDF and hardcopy.  I received the link for the PDF, but have not heard anything since then.  My e-mail asking for an update has been ignored.

Just checking.

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2 Reply by nimrodd

(92 replies, posted in Starmada)

And how much is it going to be for the PDF or the Hardcopy?

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3 Reply by nimrodd

(8 replies, posted in Starmada)

Arrigo wrote:

grabbed it. But where are the fighter options? And there is a way to generate a drake notation without recurring to typing it manually?

If you go to the MJ12games Yahoo Group, in the file section under Starmada X, there is a file called sxcafighters.xlt that has the fighters and I believe the Drake Notation sheet.

Jimmy

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4 Reply by nimrodd

(5 replies, posted in Starmada)

cricket wrote:
Ironchicken wrote:

I would like to use weapons with a ROF <1 per turn

Keeping mathermatical i would consider a formula of ROF expressed as a fraction adding 1 to the numerator and denominator.

I think it's reasonable, although I personally would only allow a 1/2 weapon... anything more than that and you're getting a bit cheesy.

Consider that under this system, a 1/4 weapon could be 4x as powerful for the same cost and space -- and if I can fire a bunch of them in turn 1, it's doubtful my enemy will be around to fire back during my "recharge" time...

You could rule that these weapon systems are like the Anime Spinal Mount, in that they may not start the game charged.  Thus a 1/4 weapon could not fire until round 4 at the earliest.

Jimmy

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5 Reply by nimrodd

(39 replies, posted in Starmada)

GamingGlen wrote:

But, a fighter flight can move to a ship and claim CSP, then also move with the ship?  Might this let a normal fighter flight move 10+ship movement.  It might need to be clarified that a ship cannot move more than (maximum flight's move) - (flights actual move).  Or, find another way for a flight to attach to a ship (has to be in the same hex of the ship at the start of its action?).

Since ships move before fighters move, this is not a problem.

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6 Reply by nimrodd

(39 replies, posted in Starmada)

hundvig wrote:
GamingGlen wrote:

They HAVE to return to the carrier if their escort is destroyed?  Are they teleported to a carrier immediately?  WHY?

I don't think they magically teleport back to their carrier when the ship they're escorting dies either, they should have to use normal movement rules.  The "WHY?" is spelled out above, because they need to rearm (or be reassigned to a new CSP target).

No, when their escorted ship dies, the CSP dies with it. 

Why you ask? 

According to the way Dan laid it out, the CSP is in the same hex as  the escorted ship (whether the miniature is sitting beside it or not).  Also, the CSP moves with the ship (can't move during the fighter turn).  Well, according to rule 4.3.1, when a ship dies it creates an explosion counter.  And, according to rule 5.3.4, when a fighter enters a hex with an explosion counter, it is immediately destroyed.

Therefore, when the escorted ship dies, so does the CSP, end of problem.

Jimmy

Go to forum: Starmada

7 Reply by nimrodd

(65 replies, posted in Starmada)

GamingGlen wrote:

Does immediately mean with EACH fighter flight that attacks, or at the end of the Fighter Phase?

Yes, according to rule 5.3 Fighter Combat:
"Note that the damage from fighter flights is applied immediately. For example, if a starship takes a shield hit from fighter attacks, it loses that shield for the remainder of the Fighter Phase as well as for the upcoming Combat Phase."

Jimmy

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8 Reply by nimrodd

(13 replies, posted in Starmada)

When a lot of people talk about "cheaper", they are not referring to the Combat Rating, they are referring to the SU cost as being cheaper.  It is not until you hit Hull Size 20 (assuming all TLs equal 0) that shields are cheaper than PDS by SU cost.

Jimmy

Go to forum: Starmada

9 Reply by nimrodd

(67 replies, posted in Starmada)

jimbeau wrote:

That's exactly what expendable weapons are used for.

You add just the shots you have ammo for. then when you've shot the weapon, you strike off a box as if it were hit.

how's that different from a weapon with only a few shots?

The 2 major differences between 5 expendable weapons and a single weapon with 5 shots is that: 1) I can fire off all 5 expendable weapons in a single turn and 2) It takes 5 points of damage to that damage track to kill the expendables, whereas it only takes 1 point of damage to kill the single weapon with 5 shots.

Jimmy

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10 Reply by nimrodd

(11 replies, posted in Discussion)

Congrats!

Now where did you move?  Was it to Texas, or am I thinking of someone else?

Jimmy

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11 Reply by nimrodd

(9 replies, posted in Starmada)

KEB stands for Kinetic, Energy & Ballistic.  Basically each weapon is defined as to which one of the 3 types it is (i.e. a mass driver would be kinetic, lasers would be energy and missiles would be ballistic).  Shielding is also defined as to what it can block.  If the race you are fighting primarily uses ballistic weapons, you would probably up your ballistic shielding.

As someone else pointed out on the e-mail list, it adds an "extra layer of strategy to ship design/counterdesign".

Jimmy

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12 Reply by nimrodd

(44 replies, posted in Starmada)

BrotherAdso wrote:

Regardless, if we have time, I think we'll try out the fighter design spreadsheet, too, to see how it works.  One question: why this 'fuel' business?  It seems to take a great idea and incorporate WAY too much bookeeping...)

If you want, just ignore the fuel.  The main reason for the fuel was that once I put everything in the base fighter, I ended up with about 57% empty space.  Other people had commented on other games that had fighters with a range limitation of 6 turns (easy to put a small die on the stand denoting turns left), so I set 6 turns as the base and calculated fuel useage from there.  That was the only reason for the fuel.

Jimmy

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13 Reply by nimrodd

(44 replies, posted in Starmada)

Several months ago, I created a Fighter design spreadsheet and posted it to the yahoo groups file section in the Starmada X section.  It is called "Starmada X Custom Fighters 1.03.xlt ".  I extrapolated the standard Starmada X designs down to a hull size where 6 fighters fit into 50 SU (at TL0).  There are a couple of other fighter specific options that are in the sheet to accomodate the standard Starmada X fighter options.

Jimmy

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14 Reply by nimrodd

(123 replies, posted in Starmada)

I just downloaded the Shipyard v1.1 and I have a question and something that might be a possible future enhancement.

The question is, how do you make a weapon Expendable in the shipyard?

The way I understand the shipyard to be used is that you can put a collection of ships (representing a race or whatever) in the same workbook.  One enhancement might be to allow different TLs on individual items, such as weapons.  This would allow you to keep using the same workbook to represent a race as they progress in TL (i.e. Cold Navy ships), and even have upgraded ships that may have one weapon system at TL 1 while the rest are still at TL0, representing new weapon systems that have been developed and installed.

Jimmy

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15 Reply by nimrodd

(123 replies, posted in Starmada)

jimbeau wrote:

Didn't someone do an excel sheet with a "text" layout? Modeled after Peter drake's "Extremely Simple Starship Record Sheet"

I did a version (SXCAfighters.xlt) that is posted to the yahoo groups file page (currently version 2.5g).  It outputs the SXCA file to a text string that can be cut and pasted where ever.

Jimmy

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16 Reply by nimrodd

(150 replies, posted in Wardogs)

Go0gleplex wrote:

I'm also thinking I may need to break the weapons down into categories:
Energy
Ballistic
Missiles
Melee

I would make it Energy, Kinetic (for bullets, magnetic rounds, etc.) and Ballistic (for missiles).  This would keep it using common terms with the KEB variant for Starmada.

Jimmy

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17 Reply by nimrodd

(20 replies, posted in Starmada)

hundvig wrote:

About the only spot where they're (IMO) clearly ahead of Starmada is the way their design system decouples structural integrity from ship size...

Actually, I think that this has been brought up as a Mod.  Dan would have to price it, but a "Tough" hull would only show up on the damage chart as a 1 & 4, as opposed to the 1, 3 & 5 that it currently is (or use Armor).

A "Weak" hull would show up on 1, 2, 4 & 5.

Jimmy

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18 Reply by nimrodd

(1 replies, posted in Starmada)

jimbeau wrote:

Dunno why there's no "The Miniatures Page" announcement, but the cold navy store is open again!

Mike made the announcement in the "Xtreme Hobby is on hiatus" thread on Oct 27.
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=55194

Someone else started another thread ("COLD NAVY IS BACK!") on the 29th.
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=56818

But yes, it is great that he is getting things worked out so he can reopen.  With the quality of the Wave 1.5, let him take the time to get the Wave 2 releases right, even if it takes another six months.  They will be worth the wait.  I believe though that he is looking at early 2006 for getting the first of the Diesho out.

Jimmy

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19 Reply by nimrodd

(55 replies, posted in Starmada)

Tyrel Lohr wrote:

I had forgotten all about that, Jimmy. Found it again now, and will put it in a safe place. One question, though; the range seems to be independent of size, or at least it breaks beyond a certain size. Any ideas why? I make the fighter bigger and the available "fuel" doesn't increase.

I am probably just using the sheet wrong, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

-Tyrel

No, you aren't using the sheet wrong.  The formula I created gives all engines the same efficiency rating, but since larger ships have proportionally larger engines, there is less fuel space.

Also, I don't actually show the amount of fuel on the sheet, I just show the duration and the range (duration * Engine).

I probably need to create a sliding scale to make larger engines more efficient.

This is the kind of feedback that I was hoping to get, but didn't.  Any other comments?

Jimmy

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20 Reply by nimrodd

(55 replies, posted in Starmada)

Tyrel Lohr wrote:

The only other thing I would have on a wish list is an even more advanced, detailed method of designing fighters. Setup a system where fighters are considered a weapon system maybe, so that they could potentially have variable Movement Range, ROF, PEN, DMG, and maybe some special effects. The basic and custom fighter rules are nice, but I am still left wanting something a bit more meaty so that fighters can be more variable in abilities.
-Tyrel

I did post such a detailed fighter construction spreadsheet to the MJ12 Yahoo Group, but I never saw anyone comment about it  sad .

Jimmy

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21 Reply by nimrodd

(10 replies, posted in Starmada)

cricket wrote:
Jimmy Simpson wrote:

Actually, there is a version that has been modified for VBAM and KEB system that is in the files section of the VBAM Yahoo List.

Can you give us a direct link?

<http://tinyurl.com/byvt2>

You have to be a member of the VBAM yahoo group <http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/VBAM/?yguid=217080191> to be able to access the file above.

Jimmy

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22 Reply by nimrodd

(10 replies, posted in News)

Do PEN and DMG affect attacks on fighter flights

It is posted that all extra PEN or DMG is lost when hitting a fighter.  You might clarify what happens when a Heavy Fighter is hit (it takes 2 hits to kill).  I think that the extra PEN or DMG should kill the heavy fighter.

Jimmy

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23 Topic by nimrodd

(0 replies, posted in Starmada)

Someone on the Victory by Any Means mail list mentioned finding a tactical game that allowed more fighter flexibility.  I decided to create a spreadsheet to design custom fighters, based off the Starmada X rules with as little modification as possible.

Based off a TL 0 standard fighter, I first determined the hull size to be 0.09, which when plugged into the formula in the book, comes out to 8.181 SU, which when multiplied by 6 comes to 49.086 SU for a flight.  I added a weapon (range 1, to-hit 5+, ROF 1, PEN 1, DMG 1, Half Shields), engines 10 and overthrusters.  I also added a life support section (includes the cockpit) at .5 SU.

This left me with lots of room to fill (including the 10% due to removal of the Hyperdrive, it came to 5.132 SU).  Some people on some boards have mentioned having a limited range for fighters, and most have said a 6 turn range, so I set the standard fighter fuel to 6 and figured a calculation that seems to work.

The main thing is I would like people to review it and let me know what they think.  Right now it is posted in the MJ12 Yahoo Group in the Starmada X section as "Starmada X Custom Fighters 1.03.XLT".

Jimmy

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24 Reply by nimrodd

(10 replies, posted in Starmada)

Compendium wrote:

•Since they do not need to account for the stresses involved in
spacefaring acceleration, space stations have more space available
for systems than a similarly-sized starship. Therefore, space stations
receive 150 SUs per hull point. (This is instead of, not in addition to,
the 10% bonus granted to starships without hyperdrives.)

If we change this to a 50% bonus instead of a flat 150 SU/hull this
might work.  Otherwise any Starmada X ship larger than 6 would be
larger than a station of the same hull size (at Hull 6, both would
have 900 SU).

Compendium wrote:

Space stations tend to have their hull spread out over a larger area
than a similarly-sized starship. Because of this, stations have 50% extra
boxes on their Movement Track (e.g., a space station of size 6 would
have 9 boxes on its Track).

Is this use of the movement track just supposed to indicate extra
damage absorbtion?  Or should this be translated as 50% extra hull
boxes (and leave the movement [Engines?] track empty).

Jimmy

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25 Reply by nimrodd

(5 replies, posted in Starmada)

A while back Mike Hardy posted the Cold Navy construction guide for Starmada.  Check the second post in the following topic.

http://xtreme-hobby.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50

They may still not match up entirely correct since the SXCA has been continuously tweaked over time, but it will be a good start.

Jimmy

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