Topic: New weapon traits

As has been noticed by several people, the Drydock v2 beta includes several weapon traits that aren't currently included in the Unity rulebook. Some of them are from the Star Fleet Universe (SFU) conversions; others are truly "new" but not yet implemented. Here is a quick guide:

Power Points (1PP/2PP/3PP/4PP) - The weapon requires a number of Power Points (PP) to fire. This is a SFU-only trait.

Accurate (Acr) - The existing Pinpoint trait is being renamed as this.

Armor Penetrating (AP) - The weapon ignores screens (soon to be renamed "Armor").

Evaporating (Evp) - Applied only to a Seeker weapon, this trait causes the flight to lose one Seeker at the end of every turn until it is gone. Used to reflect Plasma Torpedoes in the SFU.

Multi-Shot Expendable (Exp2/Exp3/Exp4) - The weapon can be fired a limited number of times; e.g. Exp3 means the weapon can be fired three times before being used up. The existing Expendable trait is the same as "Exp1".

Fighter-Exclusive (FtX) - The weapon can only be fired at tiny targets; it is too weak to have an effect on starships.

Pinpoint (Pnp) - The weapon is able to selectively target enemy systems. Each damage die that comes up 4-6 can be rerolled: 1-2 = Engines; 3-4 = Weapons; 5-6 = Shields.

Piercing {special} (Pr+) - This is used for the upcoming Full Thrust conversion.

Semi-Armor Penetrating (SAP) - The weapon applies half damage (rounded up) to the target's screens (soon to be renamed "Armor"); the rest goes through to the ship.

Shield-Killer (ShK) - This is a SFU-only trait.

Seeker (Skr) - Used to indicate the weapon is a Seeker.

Multi-Turn Slow (Slw2/Slw3) - The weapon can only be fired every third or every fourth turn (i.e. it must be inactive for either two or three turns).

Starship Exclusive (SsX) - The weapon can only be fired at starships; it is too big and/or imprecise to fire at tiny targets.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: New weapon traits

Wow, thanks for the list Dan.  Those are awesome.  I'm loving all the "armour" related weapon traits!  I also like the new Pinpoint - basically gives you a reroll to try to get the system you want - increases the odds without making it automatic.

The only one I'm not too excited about is Starship Exclusive.  In our group's admirality campaign, that was probably the most common trait taken (and taken to make the weapon more efficient, not to be thematic).  My suggestion is that it should only have a healthy discount for weapons that would have been reasonable to use against fighters/seekers (like decent accuracy 1-2imp, 1 dmg, and relatively short ranged).  If somebody has a high imp or dmg weapon with long range and piercing or modulating - they would likely never shoot that at a fighter no matter what - so they shouldn't receive much of a benefit for it.

-Tim

Re: New weapon traits

That's a good thought. Perhaps making the discount only applicable to ROF and ACC; high IMP and DMG are useless against fighters anyway.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: New weapon traits

I noticed that you didn't mention one weapon trait:

Rp6

I'm guessing that it's repeating but only on a 6 and not 5-6 as normal?

Re: New weapon traits

MRCAcct wrote:

I'm guessing that it's repeating but only on a 6 and not 5-6 as normal?

Correct.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: New weapon traits

mj12games wrote:

That's a good thought. Perhaps making the discount only applicable to ROF and ACC; high IMP and DMG are useless against fighters anyway.

That could be interesting.  Sort of a different table for ROF and ACC costs for starship exclusive, instead of a 0.7 across the board?

DMG is definitely useless against fighters, but IMP has a small niche in taking out either heavy fighters or seeking weapons that have gained a save via their weapon traits.

Re: New weapon traits

Marauder wrote:

DMG is definitely useless against fighters, but IMP has a small niche in taking out either heavy fighters or seeking weapons that have gained a save via their weapon traits.

One rule that is changing: seeking weapon saves are no longer a Thing.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: New weapon traits

mj12games wrote:
Marauder wrote:

DMG is definitely useless against fighters, but IMP has a small niche in taking out either heavy fighters or seeking weapons that have gained a save via their weapon traits.

One rule that is changing: seeking weapon saves are no longer a Thing.

No problem, kind of hard to remember which save went with which trait.

Or course with no saves it's tempting to just go plain Jane and go imp=1, dmg=1, no traits and swarm their defenses. If I take a trait (or higher imp/dmg), I get less seekers for the same price, but they are just as easy to shoot down, so I end up with a lesser attack.

Tim

Re: New weapon traits

Marauder wrote:

Or course with no saves it's tempting to just go plain Jane and go imp=1, dmg=1, no traits and swarm their defenses. If I take a trait (or higher imp/dmg), I get less seekers for the same price, but they are just as easy to shoot down, so I end up with a lesser attack.

Which is why the ORAT computation for seeking weapons is also changing. I've acknowledged before the current calculation is horribly out of whack, so I'm taking the opportunity to change it to (a) bring seekers into balance and (2) address the "Plain Jane" issue without recourse to saving throws.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: New weapon traits

Okay, cool. What do you think of a "save trait" for seekers. In SFB we used to take armour modules in drones  sometimes to soak up phaser fire. Might be cool but might not be worth the hassle.

All of these changes smells like a new supplement!

Tim