I don't think there is a choice. If they are licensing SFB then they HAVE to simulate SFB style play. In addition numbered Shields were referred to Multiple times in TOS, only "Next Generation and later" series used Overall Shield Percentages.

I didn't notice the Def 2 for the drones you had made.  I wouldn't bother.

Seeker: # = 6, speed = 12, Acc= 3+, Def 0, Dmg-2, SU = 30 (a nice "round" number  ).
(Speed 15s take 34 SU).

:idea: In SFB, drones homed on a specific target.  They should not be strikers, but definitely were seekers... 

My friends and I played SFB from the beginning thru several Captians Editions while we attended the University of Florida.

I would say there is little point in negotating a license and not using it. If I saw A Starmarda game set in the SFU (The SFB setting) I would expect it to have the feel of setting. By which I mean the different races play broadly simaler to thier SFB counter-parts otherwise I would fell pretty ripped off.

And from what I understand ADB's lisence is Very, Very strict on what you can do with it. I think its limited to the Origianl series, tech manual and animated series.. Not to sure on that bit thou.

Heck yeah...
That's because it was such a stunningly simple, but absolutely brilliant, idea.

Kevin

You seem to be miss understanting me some what. I am not saying the mechanics should be used, I would prefer as little new rules as possible. But saying that, unless you capture the feel of the setting it is pointless getting a Liscence.

HOW the ships play (not the rules as such but the feel of it) is the setting otherwise all you have is a bunch of names.

Klingon ships should be fast and agile, with quick fireing weapons.
Feds should be slower, better shields with slower fireing but harder hitting weapons.
Kziniti should be able to fill the skies with drones.

Thats what I ment.

See I don't agree with that at all. . . not having played more than a couple demo games of SFB/Fed Com, I really don't have an idea of how the various races ships compare and contrast to one another. . .

But having watched a TON of Star Trek, I would have thought:

Klingons - Tough and hit hard, but slow
Feds - Fast, well protected, but don't hit very hard
Romulans - Slow, moderately protected, hit very hard, but stealthy

As far as Kzinti go - I have no opinion on them whatsoever.  The only time I ever saw them was one episode of the animated series and in that we never learned anything about their ship's combat capabilities.

As far as drones go, I haven't seen a single "drone" in any episode, animated episode, or movie.  Unless you count "Nomad" as a drone from the original series -- but I don't really think he qualifies.

Thus, my point, you guys are trying to make this into another version of SFB, not Trekmada.  Fortunately, it sounds like that's not the approach mj12 is taking.

As far as "the point" of getting a liscence -- the point is to allow for some cross pollination of marketing thus benefitting both systems by saying "if you like this game -- here's a different take on it -- see if you like it too.

The license also gives those of us who are Starmada players some "official" star trek designs instead of constantly having to make our own.  Meaning that people from different places can meet and play trekmada without having to use one person or the other's designs in advance. 

Trekmada needs to be internally consistent with itself, but it doesn't have to have anything to do with SFB at all.

Quite.

Then what you proposed is what I suggested earlier: forced allocation of screens. 

I do agree about drones, and fighters.  Fighters really soured me on SFB early, but it was about the only thing out there.  They do not belong in Star Trek spaceship combat games.  An occasional AI missile does show up in the shows but they are very powerful weapons, each being nearly a tiny ship in strength.

*sigh*  Dug out my Star Fleet Battle Manual rules.  Except for having to designate actual degrees of fire for each weapon, IMO it's still the best Star Trek space combat game.  You actually use real warp speeds!  (cube your warp speed and that's how many ticks of movement you move, a tick is about 1.3 mm based on their measuring ruler).  And you have a chance to burn out Dylithium crystals when you go faster than your cruise speed.  (yeah, we know now that ST shows USUALLY use impulse speeds for tactical maneuvers, but using warp speeds was so neat).  And if a shield is completely down, you can stretch an adjacent shield to cover it and it will operate at half strength.  *sigh*

I wonder if Zocchi would allow an update?

there's already a SFB lite--Federation Commander. You're not really going to appeal to the old SFB crowd with Trekmada. Why bother learning (another) iteration of rules you already know? The SFB crowd is NOT your target audience. Who are they?

First, you've got Starmada players. They'll be happy to have official phasers, distrupters, Klingons, etc. Yay! An official Enterprise.

More important, though is the second group: Trek has been dormant for a while, but there's a sea change on the horizon...with the new JJ Abrams Trek movie, there's going to be a resurgence of interest in Trek, especially on TOS era, which looks an awful lot like SFB/SFU. Done right, Trekmada could easily pull in NEW players.

New players!?!  That's a goldmine (and a boon to the hobby.)

Plus the older SFB players could just do it themselves anyway.  Get the Core rulebook and make their own versions of all the ships.

As I understand the Licensing agreement from Paramount to ADB (I have not seen the actual agreement, but I am friends with someone who was peripherally involved on the Paramount side) ADB ONLY has rights to the "Star Fleet Technical Manual" ship era representations.

They contractually CANNOT use ANY OTHER Star Trek settings or official ships. They are free to create new ships that pertain to that setting but not duplicate anything in other series or movies (Including the upcoming JJ Abrams Trek Prequel movie).

If they were to publish anything that violated that licensing agreement, Paramount would be within rights to (And almost certainly would) revoke the agreement and sue both ADB and MJ12 for damages.

Star Trek is a hugely expensive license to obtain, as well, so I doubt they would have the $$ on-hand to re-negotiate. (Although Dan MIGHT be a secret wealthy billionaire dallying in the hobby. Who knows?)

PLUS we have to look at ADB's point of view. What good is licensing the game if they do not use the ship designs? The point is to help spur their Miniatures' sales, not just to help MJXII sell games. In order to do that MJXII will need to replicate the Ship designs at some level. HOPEFULLY this will be by massaging the Starmada designs to get the feel and general tactical utility of the original ship design.

If you are looking at this deal in the hopes that there will be "Official" Klingon Birds of Prey and Negh'var cruisers smashing NCC-1701-C it just ain't going to happen with this licensing deal.