thanks a lot, and as I said - thank you for creating such a powerful tool!

I didn't find it necessary. the owner decides what to assign to which number. I might add the requirement that the first slot to be used must be the 7, then 8 and 6, then 5 and 4, etc.

If you assign several modules to an unlikely result like a 2 or 12, then it's OK. When it gets hit, well you ran out of luck...

And there's a safety plug built in the system - when there's no upgrade for a rolled slot, then move to the next one until you reach an occupied one. Good enough for me. Very good.

I am just still unsure if I will count 'system damage' when Extra Hull Damage or Double Damage rolls a 6 to penetrate, but maybe when the to-hit and the to-penetrate dice are sixes.

Eg. you roll a 6 to hit - swap this d6 for another one of a different color and when this d6 rolls a 6 to penetrate - you damage one of the target's systems. Still not sure if I will change it - I haven't playtested it yet, but I really like OldnGrey's take on the subject!

my takes:

- damage to systems (seems like a must for most SciFi settings in my mind)
- crews

both easy to apply if you want (the first is addressed in a separate thread, and the second can grant abilities like:
- can correct his planned move after others have moved
- increases weapon stats
- increased efficiency of marines
- increased efficiency of fighters
- some repair capabilities
no name just a few)

but if you want to know what I would add, here are my takes...

wow, I didn't know about this feature...

What I'd really appreciate  would be a compilation of updated pages, so that I don't have to print the whole thing again.

easy to add to the game, but also adds more dice throwing.
nothing wrong about it though, if we didn't like dice throwing we wouldn't be playing such games...

not a bad idea, but I liked the approach when the ship could take some punishment before losing any systems.

otherwise the first upgrade will be lost too easily...

and you may be right - making it only a chance of destroying the equipment might be interesting, but a little difficult to implement it well for me. maybe someone can do it properly?

I was thinking about two things:

* The victim can choose to remove one RANDOM upgrade instead of 1 hull hit point.

* Extra Hull Damage might be allocated to RANDOM upgrades instead.

But the idea of treating them like batteries is interesting, too...

Why the idea came to my mind at all was when I thought about these scenarios where your FTL drive gets damaged during battle and you can't jump out of the fray, or your power lies in your fighters but the enemy manages to damage the landing decks - the fighters can't start, or ... can't land anywhere and are lost...

now this seems to be the answer to many issues mentioned so far!

including my idea of settings not relying on thermal targetting - now you can use size-based targetting and moving doesn't make target acquisition more difficult but causing serious damage becomes harder when the target is moving fast.

good one for me.

Yep, I never was too much into mecha gaming and I didn't expect to go for this one, but the flexibility of this system and adaptability to any setting I thought of was enough to buy the game.

There are some tweaks which would have to be implemented (eg. targetting based more on size than thermal signature for some settings) but generally the game meets my expectations.

that was one of the things I was thinking about - base the Signature on Size for the settings where your targetting would be based more on vision or sounds than on special devices. for example at the 'clockwork' tech level, where thermal signatures tend to be low but also machines should be so big and clanking that they would be easy to spot and target.

and what was your idea? use Size as the base Targetting Signature and modify it in the same way as Thermal Signature would be modified?

Or modify the Size in some way and then use it as the base for Targetting Signature?

I agree. This works for all the settings where you use some kind of devices to spot targets. But when spotting is based on what you see or hear, size or noise become more important. This is more important in the early tech levels (clockwork - which also has low Thermal Signatures, and steam). I believe it should be much easier to see a large metal clockwork walker (which has very low thermal signature) than a squad of infantry).

So I think that for such settings I would use Size as base for Targetting Signature, and then modify it in the same way as Thermal Signature would be modified.

Moreover, you all discuss optimal and suboptimal vehicles/walkers - ok, I agree creating them is a lot of fun, but sometimes you want to stick to a number of predefined vehicles so that the players have to use what they are allowed to choose from and cannot create their own vehicles.
In this case it's only the tactical aspect of the game that they will be able to experience and use for their advantage.
Not that there's anything wrong or right about it - just the way it can be (and will sometimes be in my case).