I think the main difference with Starmada is that if you don't like the ships you can easily design your own.  Therefore you don't end up with the arguements over what arc a weapon should have or how powerful it should me.  With the use of a points system rather than broad priority levels you can get a better play balance between ships (my CR100 ship vs your CR100 ship should be a fair fight, but a fight between two skirmish level ships in ACTA could be very one sided depending on the ships chosen).

I believe Starmada has been around longer than ACTA so they have had the opportunity to work out any issues over the years/editions.  The only thing that I remember seeing issues around recently are how anti-fighter batteries work and should they be allowed to fire at fighter flights as they fly past and such.  Some people allow them to fire during the fighter movement phase which solves this problem but raises questions about the correct cost for such batteries.  Doesn't seem to be a big thing and no one has thrown their toys out of the pram over it.

If you are looking for a game that is even quicker/easier to play you could look at Starmada Fleet Operations.

You may also want to look at the Vassal module that is available to allow you to play by e-mail.

My group's recently banned ammo, ranges over 18, and engines over 15, but the core of the system is solid; it's only when you start getting out into 'degenerate' player-designed ships that things start to get ugly.  And yeah, there's been some debate over AFBs...  I don't think we've found a good solution yet.  I've switched to Point Defense for my anti-fighter needs, since it really helps keep the strikers / seekers off.

Currently, there are only two things I found cheesy (or more to the point, uberpowered). Those are two weapons special characterics: Repeating and Continuous damage. The first can become a real killer if used with an ACC3+ (imagine that with a 2+). The latter can kill a ship with one shot and a lot of luck. The first time I used them, the first hit ended up in 7 damages in addition to the compulsory hull point. Oh, yes, every hit from a continuous damage will always inflict one hull point.
The combination of both can become very unnerving the the opponent.
But it's easy to limit the effects if you feel the same way.

Marc

Thanks.  I've seen those, but all the zip files are corrupt.  It's me who replied to your thread, I'm waiting on you to repost the others     

There's only murtalianconfederacy's version that's available as he posted direct to the forum.  I'm still unsure whether I want to go with the 0 sheilds version but I'm going to give it a go first.  I'll be playing my first test tonight so I'll let you know how it goes.

Oops, yes it's RobinStirzaker's version not murtalianconfederacy.   :oops:

Diddimus,

How did your test of my B5 conversions go?

It's good to here that Starmada seems to have resolved one of your major issues from a previous system.

If you are still finding it to be a problem on occasion you could use the optional plotted movement rules so everyone moves together.  It may slow the game down but I am used to it from historical naval wargames so don't notice it.