hey, Hi backatcha!

there hasn't been much discussion that I can remember about house rules, not because we don't encourage that here, but because, I think, Starmada can handle pretty much any idea you have.

But if you make your own ships, be sure and stick them in the Bourbaki basin, I know I personally troll through there avery time I go to a convention and I usually find all I need to run a good con game (er...) there.

as far as the shipbuilder goes, all I can say is that there are "plans in the works"(tm)...

Thanks for the info -- I'll explore what's out there and be on the lookout for updates to Shipbuilder and whatnot. A web-based version sounds keen. I have indeed built some ships (lots of them, actually), so I'll look into posting them to the Basin. Haven't looked, but suspect that Drake notation must be the way to go.

So onto my fledgling experiences with the game so far -- I've found Vassal to be an excellent tool in running the game solo so I can learn the ropes and see how everything works in practice rather than just in my head (probably won't get to try it with friends live for a month or two, during our next "game night"). I now grok the movement system with all the spiffy optional rules (side-slipping, pivoting, etc.), I've played with damage control, shields vs. screens, I've seen the power of power Countermeasures and Fire Control, I've witnessed the utter coolness that happens when a ship traveling at speed gets an engine hit or two and suddenly can't turn -- absolutely awesome stuff. Vector movement without tracking vectors. Bravo!

House rule-wise, the only things that have occurred to me are regarding shields and Pivots. (I own the Core Rulebook, the Rules Annex, ISS, H&C and KA, btw. Didn't see anything in those directly related to...)

-True Star Trek style shields -- where the hull at least doesn't seem to take any damage until the shield is completely down. My thought here was to make it so that any impact roll that exceeded a shield facing's value lowered that value by 1 rather than going through to the ship's systems/hull. So a D-7 hit by a Phaser in a shield facet with a rating of 3 would have that rating lowered to 2 if the impact roll was 4-6. (Possibly reducing it my more based on IMP or DAM.) I've also thought about having these kinds of shields automatically regenerate, but the more I think about this whole angle it probably makes shields too tough. Anyhoo. Thoughts?

-Pivots bug me just slightly in that after paying thurst for the rotation, you immediately rotated back to your "heading" solely for the ease of bookkeeping. Has anyone given thought to how we could keep the pivot heading -- indeed, even making players pay thrust to get the pivoted ship *back* on it's heading? I have a feeling In That Way Lies Madness, as even that little increase in complexity / bookkeeping will detract from the simplicity and elegance of the game, but am wondering if anyone else has given it thought.

Last question: is there a source of pre-painted minis around? Ideally pre-painted from the manufacturer? I'm *horrible* at painting minis, and for as much as I like these kinds of games, have never gotten enjoyment out of sitting down with the paintbrush...

...I'd settle for not being distracted so easily....

Me or you?

now what could possibly be distracting folks?  :roll: 

Another source for prepainted are the Hasbro Titanium line of die-cast. Most are 3-4 inches long and come with a 2 inch long base. I remount mine on a standard 1 inch hex base with a steel washer on the bottom for balance. Even some of the fighters make good capital ships. The Star Wars line is the most extensive but they did have Battlestar Galactica ships too.

Or find some 1 3/4 inch diameter wooden disks and a 1 1/2 inch diameter hole punch at your local craft store. (Hobby Lobby or Michaels type place) Download pretty overhead pictures of starships from the internet, size them down to less than 1 1/2 inches long and print them on a solid sheet of Avery label paper. Then use the hole punch to punch them out and stick them on the disks. These work really well for fighter flights or for creating really large fleets without breaking the budget.