Topic: Tech Level vs ORAT?

The Admiralty rules say that Tech Level adjustments have no impact on ORAT calculations, but my assumption is that you should calculate the ORAT of a battery using the space requirements BEFORE tech level adjustments are applied, rather than after.  Is this correct?  If, so the rules don't really make that clear.

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

You figure the total SU cost for each battery, adjusting for tech levels first.  The final SU cost of the battery is what is used when figuring the ORAT.

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

So a ship with higher tech weapons (and thus more punch) will have the same CR as a lower tech ship?  That doesn't make sense to me.

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

rafial wrote:

The Admiralty rules say that Tech Level adjustments have no impact on ORAT calculations, but my assumption is that you should calculate the ORAT of a battery using the space requirements BEFORE tech level adjustments are applied, rather than after.  Is this correct?  If, so the rules don't really make that clear.

Technically, the rules indicate that you are to determine the SU requirement, including the tech level modifier. This modifier is then removed when determining the CR value:

SAE p.42 wrote:

Note that the evaluative process (see rule 6.2: The Combat Rating) is unaffected by TLs, as the combat rating is based upon the actual capabilities of the starship; TLs simply change how much “stuff” a ship may fit into a given hull. Specifically, it is necessary to “un-apply” the Weapons Tech Level modifier when computing the offensive rating. This can be done simply by dividing the battery's total SU cost by the appropriate tech level modifier.

However, your method would work just as well, if not better -- i.e., saving the TL modifier until last and only applying it after the CR has been determined.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

Cricket, thanks for the reply.  That confirms my intuition.  Intriguingly, my copy of the SAE PDF, purchased from RPGnow last saturday, does not have these two sentences on page 42:

Specifically, it is necessary to “un-apply” the Weapons Tech Level modifier when computing the offensive rating. This can be done simply by dividing the battery's total SU cost by the appropriate tech level modifier.

It simply ends after the word "hull."  Thus my confusion.

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

So, to put it into an example (and this is the question I asked a week ago, only no-one answered):

I have a weapon that takes up 40 SUs. I place it on a ship with a Weapon TL of +1, which changes the SU to 28. I place on 10 examples of the weapon all in single arcs, so that works out to 560 SUs. When I calculate the ORat, I divide the weapons by the TL and then proceed with the calculation, right?

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

murtalianconfederacy wrote:

I have a weapon that takes up 40 SUs. I place it on a ship with a Weapon TL of +1, which changes the SU to 28. I place on 10 examples of the weapon all in single arcs, so that works out to 560 SUs. When I calculate the ORat, I divide the weapons by the TL and then proceed with the calculation, right?

Yes.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

Great. That makes it simpler...

Re: Tech Level vs ORAT?

rafial wrote:

So a ship with higher tech weapons (and thus more punch) will have the same CR as a lower tech ship?  That doesn't make sense to me.

It has the same CR because the only thing that changed is that now you have extra SU.  But, you can probably decrease the hull size thus making the higher tech ship cheaper for the same offensive firepower and the one drawback is that you have less hull (hit points).

Here's an experiment: design a ship with 0 tech levels, then design the same ship with max tech levels and shrink the hull size down so that it's half the cost.  Now, which force would you prefer: a) 1x 0-TL ship, or b) 2x max-TL ships with probably about 1/3 the hull size?