I could be off-base with this, but I believe in the case of shockwave, you have to have shields in order to equip it...since if your space units are 0, then there's nothing there :roll: .

The Re-roll to hit only counts for the very first shot of the weapon.  The repeating shots should not get the re-roll (though Dan can correct me if I'm wrong here)    If the target has PDS a lot of those shots aren't going to mean much I'd think.

The hyperdrive issue is rather odd...maybe the reason no limit was set was due to the intention being one only (or maybe a back up max.)  House rule can fix that abuse readily enough though.

Beowulf - In fact I can, and did.  I thought I broke the system for a while, but there is something in the Starmada X rules that states that rolls always fail on a 1.  Thus, the only thing doubled range mods does for short range fire is make one heck of an anti-fighter weapon (it allows fighters to be attacked at 2+ To-Hit).

Thanks for the house rules ideas though.  We may try some of them.

googleplex - According to the rules, and all logic, there would be nothing there, in terms of the usefulness of the shockwave.  There is nothing in the rules, however, stating that a useless shockwave cannot be installed.  It generates a Q box on the spreadsheet, and via the rules.  It probably should be played as if it doesn't, but I'm just looking at what the rules say.

The same goes for Re-Rolls applying to only the first roll.  It says (once), but that seems to be applying to individual dice.  It says I can do it for any of them, but it is unclear if it also means all of them.  Repeating seems to indicate that if a To-Hit dice hits, it is re-rolled.  Would that then count as the one reroll?  I guess I'm just confused by the wording.

As for the hyperdrive, I'd be curious to know the rationale behind not making it take up space, but have it give you extra space if you remove it.  The specific way it works is that if you have a hyperdrive, you get the standard SU allotment for the ship.  If you don't, you get a 10% bonus to SUs.  This would indicate to me that it is expected that the default is for a ship to have a hyperdrive.  Most of the wording in the sections on hyperdrive use, however, seem to lean in the direction of something that can be added to a ship.  It confused me to no end when I was redesigning the spreadsheet and doing the statistical analysis.

All that aside, thanks for the help.

shift

Awesome, thanks for the help!

I was misreading the entry on repeating, and not registering that it is the same die that "repeats".  The "correct" way, however, makes it a lot harder to program into a spreadsheet to do my firing for me...:) ah well, the joys of excel...

shift

PS why so many vlookups in sxcafighters?  It makes it very confusing to reverse engineer.

Might be worth mentioning that a good counter for Repeating in general is to find ways to reduce the chance to hit, since anything that shifts the odds really drops your expected number of hits rapidly, even with Reroll To-Hit.  ECM, Stealth, the optional Evasive Maneuvers and Fighter Screening rules, using fighter attacks to make explosions in a stacked hex...they can all do the job to one degree or another.

Rich

Sunbursts are good as well. They create instant locations where nothing can fire through.......

John

Ummm.... don't sunbursts have to be purchased in sets of 5 and therefore 2 on a ship would be illegal? I know the SXCA allows purchases of any number but the rules are quite clear.

BTW we limit repeating to 4 shots to avoid it being overpowered.

Not much of an "exploit" there, since you're paying a hefty mass cost for a weapon that only outperforms more standard systems at short range, and which has very low effective damage output/mass at long range.  You stand a real chance of getting your big, expensive guns blown off by long-range sniping, and an opponent with Stealth just ruins your day.  Also,  for any given combo of range & firing arc, there are far more hexes in your medium and long range brackets than in short, so you'll have to spend *more* mass on broader arcs or risk your opponent not being in arc if/when you do finally hit your "sweet spot" range.

I really don't see where that breaks the design system.  You're getting roughly what you pay for, assuming your opponent isn't silly enough to just fly straight up to you and trade shots at point blank.

Rich

But there is still no other way to get anywhere NEAR that kind of attack power that I can see.

Any weapon's chances of inflicting maximum potential are quite small, but this weapon will have so much firepower that even if only 1/4 actually succeed you will likely wreck all but the largest ships. And for that kind of firepower you can put a few on.

You have fantastic firepower at Medium range too. Its just not ridiculous like it is at Short. The only place you are paying a lot for a little is at long and on a R:18 weapon, that shouldnt be all that terribly often.

Obviously this shouldnt be the only weapon you use (compliment it with a few Reverse Range Mod/Repeating type weapons and make them pick their poison).

Note that I also just made it the biggest that exists to get that 208 cost (which isnt that high really). But you can very easily make a smaller version of this weapon which is quite economical that will still incinerate most small and mid-size opponents.

The point is that nothing I have seen to date can come close to firepower/CR that nesting Range-based can do.

Anyways, dont believe me? Try it out a few times against someone who doesnt know its coming (and thus builds directly against it). For 'normal' games, its the highest damage/cost ratio I've seen by quite a large margin (unless we were missing something).