Topic: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

Well, I deleted your topic on Jovian Chronicles by mistake hdan. I meant to move it to the Starmada forum. Many apologies.

Before I did that, I was going to say that I thought someone had done conversions for JC gundam stuff before???

was it Go0gleplex?  he's a mecha-phile.

Re: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

Argh! smile

That's ok, it was just idle speculation at this point.  I hope to have some time this weekend to collect some stats on the JC ships I have (armor, weapons, engines) and try to work out some sort of conversion system.

Is it standard to make the number of barrels in a turret equal to the ROF?  A few JC ships have tribarrel turrets, and that seems like ROF3 for those guns.  Also, JC uses five main weapon types:

Kinetic Kill - (Piercing?)
Laser - (Standard)
Plasma - These do "haywire" damage that can short out systems (Continuing Damage?)
Missiles - "lightly guided" (Seekers?  Maybe just standard torpedoes)
Smart Missiles - have their own AI (Strikers, for sure)

The mechs are going to be slow fighters with a Defense rating and maybe a boosted Attack to reflect their superior technology.  Each "faction" will get different upgrades - Jovian mechs with their plasma lances will get Extra Hull Damage (they use the lances to cut big holes in the enemy ships), etc.  I like the "dogfight against ships" idea, and may restrict the mecha upgrades to only work while dogfighting.

Standard JC fighters will probably just be "stock" Starmada fighters.

/hdan

Re: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

Given the ability for Exo-Suits to cut through and board ships, should they been done as dual mode fighters/breachers that count as a marine squad once they have boarded?

Re: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

RobinStirzaker wrote:

Given the ability for Exo-Suits to cut through and board ships, should they been done as dual mode fighters/breachers that count as a marine squad once they have boarded?

JC Exoarmors are too large to board enemy ships in a meaningful way, at least from what I understand.  I imagine they would do most of their damage outside the ship, ripping things apart with plasma lances and heavy missiles.

Exosuits are small enough to do it, but they're not really up to being "Fighters" imho.  I might make exosuits a special form of Striker squad that delivers a marine squad for each exosuit that makes it in.  Yes that's a fudge, but one exoarmored warrior is probably worth a whole squad.  Send along a flight of Exoarmors to protect them until they get into striking range.

I've been trying to think of a way to give exoarmors an advantage over normal fighters while still keeping fighters relevant.  I'm not really into lots of special rules, and I think I can get the effects I want more or less with the standard fighter rules.  Fighters get high speed so they can often get the first strike (if they time things right), but exoarmors get boosted attack and defense values and a lower than average speed (6?), plus "can dogfight ships" (simulates landing on the hull) and some damage buffs to give them a purpose.  (Am I right in assuming that higher attack and defense will make it desireable for fighters to "fly by attack" exos instead of dogfight them?  That's my intent.  Exos can (and should) dogfight each other, but fighters should try to avoid that sort of thing.  Just blaze by shooting and hope you can get out before the exos jump you.)

(Actually, that's an interesting idea - mechs can dogfight each other and ships, but not fighters!  Or maybe a more general rule, that the faster squad must initiate the dogfight.  Can slow squads force fast squads to dogfight?  Sounds like a good house rule....  Also gives a reason for interceptors to be really fast.)

I don't want to make the exoarmors too interesting though - this is a ship combat game, and the exos' purpose is to be the "torpedo bombers" of the setting - not great anti-fighter vehicles, but quite dangerous to a ship if they get close enough.  KISS.

/hdan

Re: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

jimbeau wrote:

Well, I deleted your topic on Jovian Chronicles by mistake hdan. I meant to move it to the Starmada forum. Many apologies.

Before I did that, I was going to say that I thought someone had done conversions for JC gundam stuff before???

was it Go0gleplex?  he's a mecha-phile.

Nope. Didn't do specific Jovian stuff conversion, but I did have an optional rule for running mecha in the 'mada universe as a crossover from Wardogs.

Re: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

hdan wrote:
RobinStirzaker wrote:

Given the ability for Exo-Suits to cut through and board ships, should they been done as dual mode fighters/breachers that count as a marine squad once they have boarded?

JC Exoarmors are too large to board enemy ships in a meaningful way, at least from what I understand.  I imagine they would do most of their damage outside the ship, ripping things apart with plasma lances and heavy missiles.

Exosuits are small enough to do it, but they're not really up to being "Fighters" imho.  I might make exosuits a special form of Striker squad that delivers a marine squad for each exosuit that makes it in.  Yes that's a fudge, but one exoarmored warrior is probably worth a whole squad.  Send along a flight of Exoarmors to protect them until they get into striking range.

I've been trying to think of a way to give exoarmors an advantage over normal fighters while still keeping fighters relevant.  I'm not really into lots of special rules, and I think I can get the effects I want more or less with the standard fighter rules.  Fighters get high speed so they can often get the first strike (if they time things right), but exoarmors get boosted attack and defense values and a lower than average speed (6?), plus "can dogfight ships" (simulates landing on the hull) and some damage buffs to give them a purpose.  (Am I right in assuming that higher attack and defense will make it desireable for fighters to "fly by attack" exos instead of dogfight them?  That's my intent.  Exos can (and should) dogfight each other, but fighters should try to avoid that sort of thing.  Just blaze by shooting and hope you can get out before the exos jump you.)

(Actually, that's an interesting idea - mechs can dogfight each other and ships, but not fighters!  Or maybe a more general rule, that the faster squad must initiate the dogfight.  Can slow squads force fast squads to dogfight?  Sounds like a good house rule....  Also gives a reason for interceptors to be really fast.)

I don't want to make the exoarmors too interesting though - this is a ship combat game, and the exos' purpose is to be the "torpedo bombers" of the setting - not great anti-fighter vehicles, but quite dangerous to a ship if they get close enough.  KISS.

/hdan

I like the speed rule as it does make sense that a faster unit can disengage from a dogfight..... my only question with that would be if you make smaller capital ship with high speed vs. those mecha.....

On a side note.... one of the things that has been pointed out to me is that Starmada may have the same (glitch?) that Full Thrust has... in that carriers can outrun their fighters.....
Fighters have a fixed speed, but carriers and other capital ships can keep applying thrust indefinitely.....
That would be a new way to defeat those fighter heavy fleets.....

Nahuris

Re: Hdan's Jovian Chronicles topic (oops)

Nahuris wrote:

I like the speed rule as it does make sense that a faster unit can disengage from a dogfight..... my only question with that would be if you make smaller capital ship with high speed vs. those mecha.....

On a side note.... one of the things that has been pointed out to me is that Starmada may have the same (glitch?) that Full Thrust has... in that carriers can outrun their fighters.....
Fighters have a fixed speed, but carriers and other capital ships can keep applying thrust indefinitely.....
That would be a new way to defeat those fighter heavy fleets.....

Hey, that's a good point.  Starmada seems to make overflying your engine rating painful enough that it may not be as big a problem in practice as all that, but it is an interesting point.  (Need to play more to get a proper feel for this.)  I might need to keep mechs normal speed, and juice up the JC fighters to compensate.

For a ship being dogfought(?) by mecha, I'd say that the ship drags the mecha along with it when it moves.  The idea of a mech dogfight pinning a ship is crazy, but maybe the mechs themselves are pinned to the ship.  Mechs should always be able to disengage from a ship by simply moving away from it in their movement turn.

That suggests the "mech close combat against ships" rule - a mecha squad that is adjacent to a ship can, on its move, enter the ship's hex and attack the ship.  While in the ship's hex, the mech is assumed to have landed on the ship's hull or otherwise "gone to ground", and cannot be attacked by the ship's guns, though it can be attacked by another ship or fighter squadron in an adjacent hex.  To disengage, the mech may simply fly away from the ship in question.  (In other words, the ship gets to shoot at mechs on the way in, but just like disengaging fighters, it can't shoot on the way out.)  Does that sound reasonable?  In the end, this rule winds up being a multi-turn sustaining attack rule.