Not particularly familiar with Mass Effect, but I'll give these my best shot:

1) The size categories you typically see in Starmada (in the published supplements, at least) is that frigates and corvettes are down below 4-5 hull, light cruisers are in the 5-6 range, cruisers are 7-9, battlecruisers 10-11, battleships 12+, capping around 15 usually.  You could put dreadnoughts in the 14-15 range.  There's some debate as to whether it's more accurate to rate ship categories by CRAT, though (so anything above, say, 500 points might be a dreadnought, while 250-500 might be cruisers and below 250 frigates).  It's pretty arbitrary, and doesn't really have any rules effect.  Just assign what works.

2) You could use Anti-Fighter Batteries from ISS.  They sound similar to what you're describing (in terms of being able to effect both ships and fighters at close ranges).  The range on them might be a little too short for your liking; if that's the case, just build range 3 anti-fighter weapons for them.  You could also use the Point Defense special ability, possibly in combination with anti-fighter batteries.

3) Not sure what you mean here...  probably a more VBAM specific thing?  You could try PMing OldnGrey; I know he's done some conversion work on VBAM and 'mada compatibility.

4) Well...  you could just make it a G arc weapon with some impressive stats (and maybe slow-firing for flavor).  I believe the Shipyard (see the files subforum) also has an option for spinal-mount weapons, but it's not really in the rules as written for starmada (I think they're basically G arc weapons whose damage scales with hull size).  Likewise your heavy broadside guns; just lock it into C or D arcs and give it some nasty firepower.  Minimum range is also not bad for modeling guns with slow tracking that can't be brought to bear well on nearby targets.

I'm using a hex based movement for clusters, but I think I'm just gonna tie the ships standard speed to it the FTL speed. It makes sense from a ME point of view and simplifies things for me.

I haven't the slightest idea what this "Shipyard" is that you've both referenced. You said to see the sub-forums, but their isn't a sub-forum with that title. I like the idea of basing spinal weapons off of size... it really adds credence to why the Dreadnaughts are the terrors of space, and it follows the ME universe well.

I'm thinking of giving the GARDIAN lasers the multi-fire type advantage (can't remember the exact name) from the Annex. So they'll be designed as a PD and an anti-ship capability, but you can't use both at the same time.

As for the ship classes, they are dependent on size. Since everyone's tech is really similar, their isn't going to be large point disparities between ships of the same class. Unless someone goes out of the way to build an expense ship... then that's on them. So I guess I should ask what are the sizes of ships? I might have missed it in the core book, but I didn't see an upper limit to sizes. Also size 1 and 2 just seem to small even for frigates... more like shuttles then anything else.

Thanks for the help guys.

[size=100]I forgot to add to my original post. I'm looking for 4-6 players. PM me if you're interested.[/size]

I'm a relative novice to both Starmada and VBAM. I've played around with both, but am certainly not a veteran by any stretch of the imagination. I am, however, a huge Mass Effect fan, and I've actually been toying around with the idea of doing a VBAM/Starmada campaign set in the ME universe myself.

Even though I'm no Starmada expert, I will throw in my two cents on your earlier questions, if only because I feel very familiar with the Mass Effect universe.

1) I would generally cap Mass Effect ships somewhere around the 12 Hull range, and that I would reserve for true behemoths like the Destiny Ascension. In the Mass Effect universe, the ships are relatively fragile compared to the firepower available to them, and so Hull sizes should all stay relatively close together to facilitate that, IMHO.

3) With FTL, remember that the ships in ME do not use their mass-effect drives for interstellar travel, even though it is, technically, FTL. Mass-effect drives are used to travel quickly in-system to the secondary and primary mass relays, which provide effectively instantaneous travel between them. So, a ship's speed will only really matter on the ship-to-ship scale of Starmada, and the strategy of interstellar travel will be left to controlling the various mass relays. In essence, no Mass Effect ship really needs to have an FTL system assigned to it in Starmada's designs--the ability to quickly reach mass relays is just a function of the mass-effect fields and the ship's more-or-less conventional engines.

I could go on with this and make some VBAM-oriented suggestions, but I'll leave it to you to ask more questions if you want to hear(read) me ramble more.

Chalk me up for interested on this one. I'd also be happy to help you with setting up any background materials, figure out specific stats in either system, etc.

Well, if your plan is to consider missiles and torpedos to be seeker or drone fighters, then yes, the AF stat will be perfect for the GARDIAN lasers. I do, however, always wonder whether missiles need to be statted up as destructible attack craft at all. As a veteran BFG player, I do get nostalgic for the days of filling up the space between fleet lines with corridors of nuclear death, but it's a little absurd given the scope of space combat and the discussion of tactics in the ME universe.

Actually, I think that if you simply inverted VBAM's standard hyperspace system, it'd work just fine. Make the minor jump lanes really long and geographically important to represent the primary relays, and make the short, localized jump lanes be major lanes to represent secondary relays. What this will do, strategically, is make it so that fleets don't move across the face of the galaxy suddenly, but they do have a good ability to mobilize forces from local systems to assemble a good defense. On the Starmada side of things, I'd suggest that you use the standard Hyperdrive rules for in-battle retreat, even if individual ships don't need to equip a subsystem to do so.

(And FYI, I feel fairly certain that the conceptualized flight between star-systems in ME2 is not ME cannon. The first two books never reference real-time travel greater than forty times the speed of light, which is treacherously slow for galaxy-spanning. I think most of the game just assumes you are taking secondary relays everywhere and wanted to get beyond the repetitive relay load-screen. Maybe.)

1) Since Eezo is essential for virtually all space-technology in ME, I'd make it be a randomly distributed resource on planets. I'd make it necessary for 1 Eezo to be spent for every X number of resources necessary to build a ship. This way, the more technologically formidable the race's fleets are, the more Eezo they need. Off the top of my head, I'd say 1 Eezo for every 10 resources it cost to build a ship would be good. As long as Eezo is scarce, it won't need to be used for anything else--players would trade it around as a critical bargaining chip in building up fleets. Probably  :roll: .

2) Hrm, well, I'd be all for keeping the mass accelerators on fixed arcs, but I'd say the rest of the weapons' guidelines look good. I definitely agree that main-line accelerator cannons should have a minimum range, to represent the fact that their limited aiming capabilities are worthless at a certain point. I'd say that the Disruptors can be statted out like regular batteries with short-range, since their weapon description in the codices seems to hold that they are so short-ranged that only fighters and frigates use them, in general.

Also, what software/play method are you planning on using? I have a good amount of familiarity with Battlegrounds, which I've considered trying for Starmada battles, and I'm vaguely familiar with Vassal, too, but I'd be happy to learn any new system to try this campaign out.

I'd like to see about playing the Quarians, if at all possible. I imagine they'd be statted up with a sizeable, out-dated fleet with a mass of support ships, transports, and trade ships to represent the Migrant Fleet. If the trade ships are in the right proportion and active, they should provide just enough to cover the maintenance cost of the Migrant Fleet. That way, the Quarians will be dependent upon diplomatic treaties and inter-species trade, and they'd be appropriately reluctant to mobilize their massive fleet in open war.

Oh, and if these exchanges through the forum get too cumbersome, feel free to pm me and we can exchange more in-depth ideas there or through e-mail.

I think I'll just house-rule torpedoes to be seekers for the purpose of intercepting them with GARDIAN lasers. Seems like the simple and efficient fix.

Well the Hastings in the first book stated it was traveling at 15 million km per second. That's 50 times the speed of light. Though it is a frigate, so it's probably a bit quicker then cruiser or dreadnought class vessels. The closest star to Sol is Proxima Centauri at 4.2 light-years. The VBAM "1 turn = a month" timeframe fits fairly well into that equation (right about 1 month). I'm not sure how you'd discharge the drive cores between systems though. I'm sure there's probably a way, just WAY slower then using a planets magnetic field and WAY WAY slower then landing on a planet. After all it was stated that the Citadel had special platforms to safely discharge the drive core... I'm sure a more portable device that is considerably slower could be loaded into a cargo bay or storage area of a ship.
Back to the matter at hand. It seems you are suggesting I should "remove" the instantaneous travel between mass relays? That could be interesting as I was already planning to slow "solar systems travel" down quite a bit as well. For a fast frigate, under my rules; to travel straight from one side of a solar system to the opposite side should take around 2 to 3 turns. Add in a turn or two for Mass Relay travel, and it will slow force mobilization a bit. So a few months to get significant forces into a systems seems about right. It makes intel very valuable:
"Admiral... a Turian fleet is in route to this system, and they'll arrive in 3 months time!"
"Send for reinforcements from Sol system."
"It will take Sol's forces 5 months to arrive."
"Then we have to hold the line for 2 months, organize our policing vessels into attack groups and make preparations for ground forces as a last line of defense."
"Aye Aye sir!"

Well that's not the impression the Bioware staff gave in the interviewsMy reasoning for them actually traveling to other systems with onboard FTL capability stems from the fact that they use up fuel between the systems. If it was to conceptualize minor relay transit... you wouldn't be using that fuel. To each his own though.   

That's similar to the idea I was considering. I like the idea of the different empires buying, selling, and trading Eezo. Economics make the... universe go round!

This is again, me taking some creative licensing with ME. I like the idea of turreted mass accelerators. It just makes sense. The broadside guns on a dreadnought run through 40% of the vessels width. Why not mount of bunch of mass accelerators on turrets that equate to 20-30% of the width that allow you to fire on ALL arcs. As for torpedoes, it doesn't say their short range only weapons. Just that they get intercepted by GARDIAN lasers if you fire them at long ranges. It seems to me that firing a bunch of torpedoes at long range, mixed in with flights of fighters, would be a very valid tactic. Some of the fighters/torpedoes are bound to get through. Granted I wouldn't fire 1-3 torpedoes randomly without providing something else to shoot at... then you're just wasting ammo.

I primarily use Battlegrounds. I am open to suggestions though.

I already have a plan for the Quarians Migrant Fleet. They will be similar to a random encounter where they show up in a factions system, and drain resources from that system. Players can buy them off, or attempt to "herd" them away from their system (carefully... they have alot of ships).
The Quarians and the Geth are the only two NPC factions I've decided on. Reapers will NOT exist in my game. No Collectors either, because they don't really have a purpose without Reapers.

I'm fine for now. If someone else comes on and asks us to move it to PMs, then so be it. Deal with that when it comes to it.</r>