You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Play nice. (This means you.)
Logins from the previous forum have been carried over; if you have difficulty logging in, please try resetting your password before contacting us. Attachments did not survive the migration--many apologies, but we're lucky we kept what we could!
mj12games.com/forum → Starmada → Stations and Shipyards etc.
Looking to add Stations and off-shoots to the shipyard for VBAM.
Do stations still add x1.5 to the SU available per hull?
Defence rating x1.8 before additions?
50% extra hull boxes on data card? Although this does seem a bit much in AE. Max at 30?
Paul
Been trawling everywhere for details.
SU increase by x1.5
Drat x1.8
Armor Plating requirement
No Engines or hyperdrive but can be given Overthrusters to pivot in place.
Very big stations could be made by designing them in sections, attacking ships having to declare the section being attacked. Loss of a section destroys 20% of next in line? Thoughts?
Paul
Why do they need special rules? Just use a real big hull and put no engines or Hyperdrive on 'em. Why should a stationary unit get treated any different than one that moves?
Why do they need special rules? Just use a real big hull and put no engines or Hyperdrive on 'em. Why should a stationary unit get treated any different than one that moves?
Honestly, this is always what I've wondered...
People have been asking for special rules for space stations since Day One -- and I've always wondered what I was missing.
Why do they need special rules? Just use a real big hull and put no engines or Hyperdrive on 'em. Why should a stationary unit get treated any different than one that moves?
That's what we do. They're sitting ducks though, literally.
In the Conpendium version of Starmada, the weapons on a Space Station fired twice as far as ship mounted weapons, at no extra cost. Perhaps this could be added to SAE Space stations to make them also Battle stations/Space Fortresses. :geek:
In the Conpendium version of Starmada, the weapons on a Space Station fired twice as far as ship mounted weapons, at no extra cost. Perhaps this could be added to SAE Space stations to make them also Battle stations/Space Fortresses. :geek:
With appropriate range costing, sure.... 
It would be good to have a way to lock them into orbit around a planet, but without having engines?
It would be good to have a way to lock them into orbit around a planet, but without having engines?
Eh, sure, but that would be a scenario condition, wouldn't it?
In the Conpendium version of Starmada, the weapons on a Space Station fired twice as far as ship mounted weapons, at no extra cost. Perhaps this could be added to SAE Space stations to make them also Battle stations/Space Fortresses. :geek:
It could, but I'm guessing that you would go for range 30 weapons! If some people had their way, they would be firing at the enemy before they even got in the same room :roll:
To answer some of the questions.
New rules, no, just restrictions / differences in construction.
I changed the shipyard so that making a ship for Starmada also gave a ship for VBAM. In campaigns these things become more important. Also, requirements for shipyards, repair docks etc have already been laid down. Primarily this is for those that use VBAM.
They are sitting ducks. Yes, but can afford 50% more weapons, longer range weapons for the hull size. Just consider them easy targets but watch it when they bite back. (or shed a bucketfull of fighters.)
In orbit without engines, look up, that is the ISS and it aint got an impulse drive even! They can have overthrusters if you are afraid they might fall 
Scenario wise, they are a planets last best hope.
If you do not use the shipyard for VBAM campaigns or linked scenarios then just leave the option at No, you will never know it is there. That is the best thing about optional, it's ignorable.
Paul
Well...technically (oh god...there he goes again)...
Stations do have engines in the form of station keeping drives. Just little ones that allow them to adjust their orbits...or nudge themselves back into one after gravity tags them a little bit. Figure something along the lines of 5-10% of the SU cost of an Engine-1 value.
Weapons shouldn't fire any farther than they are designed. The revised weapon cost calculations should be taking all of that into account anyhow, so they just aren't that special.
I can see an SU bonus (15% max) since their size and (likely) geometry would mean a more efficient use of space for control runs, bulkheads, etc. But no more than that.
My two cents. :geek:
Well...technically (oh god...there he goes again)...
Stations do have engines in the form of station keeping drives. Just little ones that allow them to adjust their orbits...or nudge themselves back into one after gravity tags them a little bit. Figure something along the lines of 5-10% of the SU cost of an Engine-1 value.
Weapons shouldn't fire any farther than they are designed. The revised weapon cost calculations should be taking all of that into account anyhow, so they just aren't that special.
I can see an SU bonus (15% max) since their size and (likely) geometry would mean a more efficient use of space for control runs, bulkheads, etc. But no more than that.
My two cents. :geek:
I do not put station keeping thrusters in the same class as engines needed to shift a spaceship (I seem to remember that a re-supply vehicle had to use it's engine to give one of the stations a boost), which is why i suggested overthrusters. Actually they were suggested back in 2007. The extra 50% space has been used in other sxca's since the Compendium.
I know that there is always a temptation to "get real" but "technically", it is just a game.
If it was based on reality I imagine it would be guys (and gals now) hanging out of tin cans yelling Yeehah and shooting at each other with .45's. (Is there a game there?)
Paul
If it was based on reality I imagine it would be guys (and gals now) hanging out of tin cans yelling Yeehah and shooting at each other with .45's. (Is there a game there?)
Sure, we could call it "Cans or Coffins?"...
Sorry for the impending Wall of text:
I don't know, the whole concept of a stationary weapons platform seems a little silly to me. If I were ever confronted by one (and had the tech available in Starmada) I would just strap engines to as big a rock(s) as I could find in the outer system, accelerate it(them) hard for a month or ten and smash it(them) into any orbital or even planetary defense installations that wouldn't surrender to me. No engines equals sitting duck in space warfare. Build 'em as big as you want, I'll just look harder for a bigger rock.
If you have sufficient space borne forces to contest the outer system then why did you build the big station anyway? I understand construction/repair and orbital cargo transfer facilities but weapons platforms? Seems better to put weapons on mobile hulls that can go to the enemy or leave if they cannot win.
Units with no engines already get extra mass...the mass not used to equip engines (5% alone for not equiping Hyperdrive). Any mobile ship should lose to an equivalent sized stationary unit just due to the extra mass the stationary unit can throw into weapons and defense. If you want to reflect an even tougher unit, pick a larger HS.
As for station keeping engines, wouldn't all units already have them assumed into their basic hull structures. My 12 HS Battleship needs 'em just as much as a big space station does...just not as often.
If the whole point was simply to win the battle, you'd be right...
The question to ask is "WHY do you go to war?"
If you want to live on the planet you suggest pounding into submission, probably it is best NOT to use large rocks at high speed to beat the population into submission. For stations, such rocks are okay - provided you can assure that the large stations don't land on the planet more or less intact....
Don't confuse station keeping engines with maneuvering thrusters. They are two completely separate systems.
Don't confuse station keeping engines with maneuvering thrusters. They are two completely separate systems.
Aye that may be, but it's all gas ta me. Well at 2.00am it is.
In the tin can game, how much thrust is produced by the crewman that has been eating beans? 
I think that there is a lot of fuss over nothing. Stations are not a part of starmada anymore, although I can see no reason not to use one for some scenarios. Babylon 5 used one for Five seasons! Why would anyone want a big station? Maybe to call home whilst terraforming a planet, maybe because people usually like space (room to move around in without being cramped, not the almost empty place). A stop off place, R&R, Hotels, Training facilities or maybe they would just look intimidating when seen from the ground?
I thought every mother tells her kids "DON'T THROW ROCKS!"
Paul
In the tin can game, how much thrust is produced by the crewman that has been eating beans?
4.222
I thought every mother tells her kids "DON'T THROW ROCKS!"
unless they're Irish
or Hill billy. Ya don't throw rocks ya can't catch dem squirrels! 
OldnGrey wrote:In the tin can game, how much thrust is produced by the crewman that has been eating beans?
4.222
OldnGrey wrote:I thought every mother tells her kids "DON'T THROW ROCKS!"
unless they're Irish
Then, it's "Don't throw potatoes!"...:)
or Hill billy. Ya don't throw rocks ya can't catch dem squirrels!
Even the most backward Hill Billy has access to firearms, who the hell needs rocks?
I think that there is a lot of fuss over nothing. Stations are not a part of starmada anymore, although I can see no reason not to use one for some scenarios. Babylon 5 used one for Five seasons! Why would anyone want a big station? Maybe to call home whilst terraforming a planet, maybe because people usually like space (room to move around in without being cramped, not the almost empty place). A stop off place, R&R, Hotels, Training facilities or maybe they would just look intimidating when seen from the ground?
Space Stations - the Mobile Home of Science Fiction.
The question is "Do they attract tornadoes like their more primitive cousins?"
Uses of a Station:
- Temporary quarters for occupying troops
- Temporary quarters for the terraforming crew
- Industrial parks for building and manufacturing items more efficiently made in space (there's actually a lot that can be)
- Agriculturual Stations that grow food for worlds unable to produce enough of it
- Luxury hotels, because sex is always better in Zero-G.
The question to ask is "WHY do you go to war?"
If you want to live on the planet you suggest pounding into submission, probably it is best NOT to use large rocks at high speed to beat the population into submission. For stations, such rocks are okay - provided you can assure that the large stations don't land on the planet more or less intact....
This is a question for my political masters. I'm an Admiral...I want to end the fighting in as quick, ruthless and ultimately least expensive (to my side) manner as possible. I don't want to beat the population into submission...just take out their space capable weaponry. Once I control the planets orbits I can drop small rocks that result in equivalent multi-kiloton range nuclear weapons with zero radiactive fallout. I can custom tailor the size rock to the installation needing smashing and leave the least possible secondary effects.
This reminds me of terrorism. Its not my fault the hostages got killed when I took out the terrorists..the terorists took them hostage not me. Conversely..if you build weapons on a planet...be prepared to lose the planet. there is always the seige method but I bet blockading an entire planet would be an exercise in futility.
Submission of the planet's population is a police matter not a military problem.
Uses of a Station:
- Temporary quarters for occupying troops
- Temporary quarters for the terraforming crew
- Industrial parks for building and manufacturing items more efficiently made in space (there's actually a lot that can be)
- Agriculturual Stations that grow food for worlds unable to produce enough of it
- Luxury hotels, because sex is always better in Zero-G.
I can agree with these (and the o-G sex does sound fun). None of these options requires special rules like extra HS or longer ranged weapons.
Is anyone else seeing scenarios here? I've got at least 3:
1. Attack/Defend the station
2. Attack a station being towed into position (convoy escort, fun!)
3. Prevent the station(s) from being hit by asteroids
I guess the most important role a station can play is as an objective.
No radioactive fallout, but dust clouds that will block out sunlight lowering temperatures globally and filtering light...thereby affecting the vegetation whereby screwing up the entire food chain. Heaven forbid you actually strike a tectonic plate faultline...add in major earthquakes, volcanic action, and ruined aquifers too boot!
Be sure to drop plenty "Change of Address" forms too! 
mj12games.com/forum → Starmada → Stations and Shipyards etc.
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.