Modable rules: Starmada has certainly one of the most if not the most flexible design system. Although the worth of a ship is quite accurately calculated there are certain combinations of traits that are hard to beat. The design system at its core gives you all the freedom to build ships for specific backgrounds but when pitting scratchbuild fleet against each other you might want to limit some stuff if you have a powergamer in your group. A good bit of terrain (planets, asteroids) and random scenarios can even out the odds.
That said if you are looking for ship duels (which I suppose you don't) Starmada is not the best option. About 6 ships per side and maybe some small ones or fighter flights is what I would call a standard battle. This largely depends on the ships size you design however. I for myself prefer large battles and Starmada's rules are streamlined well for such battles.

Scenarios: As a generic system it has generic scenarios but one can imagine most of the premises of the scenarios to happen in any background. Although forces have different strength sometimes the victory conditions make all scenarios fair. This is something I really appreciate. Many games have problems when it comes to balancing. But I found every Starmada scenario to be fair and they add strategical depth unless of course you tailor-build a fleet for it. But as you can easily randomize them it adds another layer of thought for the fleet designer. Overgunned slow ships with long range may be good in direct confrontation but outgunned or with the enemy starting close by these ships will get butchered.

Learning Curve: The basics are very easy. The movement system of the new edition needs some time to getting used to. I prefer the more simple old one, which is included in the rulebook as an optional rule. When playing I have to flip through the rulebook occasionally to re-read what a special ability does but when played frequently you wont need the rulebook. There are a lot of optional rules to add some element or flesh out an aspect if you like. Some add quite a bit of depth to the game but makes it also a bit more complex.

So much for the pros. The only con in my book is that you have to roll lots of dice. Rules wise this is good because luck more or less evens out with more dice instead of only a couple of rolls per game.

Cool, I will try this, although I already found a good way. I simply added a reference table like the ones for movement and to hit modifiers. So you can open it and have all Drone and Plasma stats ready in one place during their phase.

I added some explosion effects and a new map, still having a hard time finding good ship images...

Had some time yesterday and found out doing what I want to do with ordnance is easier than I thought. Here is a (staged) shot of drones and a plasma torpedo:

[attachment=1]plasma.jpg[/attachment]

The first thing I noticed in this screenshot: I have to change the map, too :-)

I only know plasma's from the Strafleet Command PC game where they are greenish sizzeling balls of... well plasma. So I settled for green. I could color code them for different types but I guess this wouldn't do much. The drones pics are borrowed from one of OldnGrey's unofficial source books. Flights cannot turn so they all look like flying up. I will change that so screenshots will look better :-)

Here is the original image I found with a google search for photon torpedo (plasma torpedo didn't found any good images):

[attachment=0]thumbnail.jpeg[/attachment]

Now I don't know the source material but isn't it possible to calculate all costs in advance. So vessel A has a base CR and a table in the book that states the stats for possible weapons it can use and their value (for each given ship). So Weapon A will cost 20 CR for vessel A and 25 CR for vessel B and so on based on each vessel's DRAT. The sheer amount of customization will very likely be toned down a bit, but it is very easy for the players to just take a ship and some weapon options and simply add the CR together.

Thanks,

my goal with Starmada conversions is always to simplify the source material as most combat systems don't handle large fleets too well. So my BFG fleets can be rather large without bogging the game down too much. I had teleporters and such in an earlier version but skipped them because of that. Maybe I will write a special rule for boarding similar to sailing ship boarding in style. Target has to be adjacent and sufficiently damaged and ships then become entangled while boarding or only a raid is happening.
Fighters are also a constant problem of mine. I switched between strikers and flights and although I have individual stats for them I would like to simplify them further. I will look into that when/if I do other races.

As of now movement seems to be really important with these conversions. You have to keep fighters away and short range broadsides are devastating due to the low shield values. Battles are mostly skirmishes at long range (I also use lots of terrain) then it ends up with very brutal close range firefights and it is never obvious who will win until the last moment. Really like it this way.

Btw, up for a game with Vassal?

There is a very nice method of balancing things out in nearly every tabletop game you play. Tip came from an old White Dwarf issue I think regarding terrain: One player sets-up all the terrain then the other player chooses on which side of the table he wants to deploy his forces.

This method can also be extended to the forces itself. One player designs the forces and the other players choose first (roll dice to determine the order among them) after giving them some time to analyse the ships. The designed forces have to be sufficiently different. If this is still not working try to restrict key features for each faction. Faction A only builds hulls <6, Faction B cannot have Shields >3, Faction C uses only weapons with ranges <=12, Faction D has all Tech Levels -1 and so on.

If the factions are fun the designer may modify his creations for the next battle to adress weaknesses and no player may choose the same faction twice in a row. This technique can even create a healthy metagame where your pick is based on the picks other players took before you.

@EDIT: Another method often used with imbalanced scenarios in wargames is paired games: Players agree to always play two games, the second one with switched sides. In this way minmaxers have no choice but to be beaten by their own minmaxed fleet and will hopefully design balanced ships.

You're playing via Vassal right? So I guess a "screenshots or it didn't happen" is in order ;-)

I see but the rules regarding engine rating cut in half when moving and weapon rerolls are also exceptions. Free spin would be constant so basically a "no-brainer" during the movement phase. Whether or not this uses actual engine rating my concern is that the station may chance facing at will or stop due to damage.
I believe constantly spinning one hexside every turn or remaining completely stationary is the thing everyone expects from sci-fi space stations. On the other hand I know that Starmada is and always have been about flexibility.

Space stations are build with a different mindset.

1. Think of a tank and a bunker. The tank is build with steel, which is heavy and protective but still light enough to get moved around. A bunker must'nt move, so you can use something more heavy to build and protect it: tons of concrete.

Maybe a different Hull / Space Units table will do. So you get ~10-25% more space for the hull points because you don't have to include all the auxilary systems for space travel and such.

2. As stations are, you now, stationary they usually spin around. This might be necessary to maintain artificial gravity but is also neccessary for defense. Something immobile shouldn't have a weak spot. So killing of all weapons in one section of the station is not a death sentence as the station constantly spins around.

A simple rule that each station moves one hexside clockwise per turn will do I guess.

3. Stationary structures are basically sitting ducks. That's the reason for their blistering array of weapons and strong shields.

Maybe a space station should be easier to hit. If so this should include all weapons and special equipment "weapons" (spinal, etc.).