• Registered: 2011-04-23
  • Posts: 31

Topic: Volatile Seekers

I'm working on an RKV weapon, and I'm considering making it a Volatile Seeker.  This makes me question - when does Volatile "trigger?"  Normally with Seekers you determine the actual attack strength (the total attack dice) when you set down the token.

The question is, when do you roll d6s to determine the final Attack Dice for Volatile?

    [*]If you determine it when the weapon is fired, then you roll the dice before setting down the Seeker tokens (and the token value can get REALLY high).
    [*]If it's immediately before attacking, then the Seeker gets the base Attack Dice and is easier to intercept in its entirety (though letting even one through is potentially catastrophic), and only when the face up counter makes its actual attack do you roll one die per base attack die to determine the final number of attack dice.

It isn't clear from my reading of the rules which way to go, though it's likely there's a sentence somewhere that says it clearly and unambiguously (chances are, it's even underlined).  lol

  • Registered: 2010-03-09
  • Posts: 630

Re: Volatile Seekers

I would say the first. If your weapon is scatter, for example, you determine the AS when firing, not the next turn. I suppose volatile works the same.

marc

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Volatile Seekers

The former (first) bullet point is the correct procedure.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2010-03-09
  • Posts: 630

Re: Volatile Seekers

I just ended a Vassal game involving my personnal Gorns, which have volatile short range weapons. When entering the short (<3 hexes) range, they were truly terrifying. Ships litteraly evaporated.

Marc

  • Registered: 2011-04-23
  • Posts: 31

Re: Volatile Seekers

cricket wrote:

The former (first) bullet point is the correct procedure.

Thank you.

And yes, Volatile weapons can pulverize poorly-defended craft.  (It's a great argument for not relying on Armor and Hull Points - Volatile weapons turn wars of attrition into de facto surrenders.)

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 740

Re: Volatile Seekers

Actually  a two-shot weapon with the trait Volitile costs the same as a weapon without Volitile but with 7 shots.  I personally prefer the simplicity of less dice rolling and the idea of being able to fire at multiple targets more easily.
But if Volitile works for you, and makes the game more fun, USE IT!   This game is all about making ships the way you want to and having fun with it.
smile

  • Registered: 2011-04-23
  • Posts: 31

Re: Volatile Seekers

Volatile works rather well for weapons that are supposed to be random and less affected by point defense (shields).  Similarly, Catastrophic works well for weapons that are supposed to be random and more heavily affected by point defense.  I tend to make fleets for other games (RPGs that I run or would like to run), so I have something I'm trying to simulate (this is part of the reason I really like Starmada - you can use the rules to simulate what you need simulated).