• Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 379

Topic: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Two days after I asked to see them, he's sent a TON of EA, Narn, Centauri and Minbari ship stats for Starmada X.....and they look fantastic!!

I have Mongoose's ruleset and counters, and it works fine, but I've got a massive hex mat just sitting here as well, begging to try this setting using MJ12's ruleset.   Just looking at the spreadsheets he used to convert the weapons and tech systems blows my mind.

So nicely done!  I appreciate it, and so will the local guys at the hobby shop.

AAR to come...

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

themattcurtis wrote:

Two days after I asked to see them, he's sent a TON of EA, Narn, Centauri and Minbari ship stats for Starmada X.....and they look fantastic!!

I have Mongoose's ruleset and counters, and it works fine, but I've got a massive hex mat just sitting here as well, begging to try this setting using MJ12's ruleset.   Just looking at the spreadsheets he used to convert the weapons and tech systems blows my mind.

So nicely done!  I appreciate it, and so will the local guys at the hobby shop.

AAR to come...

Aw, crap, I've forgotten to post something.....

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

themattcurtis wrote:

Two days after I asked to see them, he's sent a TON of EA, Narn, Centauri and Minbari ship stats for Starmada X.....and they look fantastic!!

I have Mongoose's ruleset and counters, and it works fine, but I've got a massive hex mat just sitting here as well, begging to try this setting using MJ12's ruleset.   Just looking at the spreadsheets he used to convert the weapons and tech systems blows my mind.

So nicely done!  I appreciate it, and so will the local guys at the hobby shop.

AAR to come...

thedugan wrote:

Aw, crap, I've forgotten to post something.....

Alrighty then...

My apologies to Roy, as I've had these for a couple of weeks now. Well, I think they're the same.....

http://www.geocities.com/thedugan/ROY/

contains:
KnownRaces.zip          4.2M 
LittleKnownRaces.zip   2.6M 
MainB5Races.zip         3.6M 

You'll need at least something to unzip them, as they take up too much room if unzipped! Each zip file has directories, and in each one is a butt load of spreadheets for the ships from Babylon 5 adapted to StarmadaX!

I got busy doing something else, and then had to clean up some stuff that took up too much room. I've only got 15 megs, to SOMETHING had to go - mainly crappy artwork for COUNTERMOVES, and some less than great older Iron Stars stuff.

Let's see how long it takes all of you to use all my alloted bandwidth....
:-)
{it's a free site, so I'm not paying for it}

  • Registered: 2006-01-04
  • Posts: 4

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

The B% Races will not come-up on the Download sad

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

star-sal wrote:

The B% Races will not come-up on the Download sad

I checked early (like 1 A.M.) local time on Saturday from work. They were unavailable then for download, as I had already exceeded my bandwidth.
big_smile

They ARE there (I just did a trial download), so try it periodically over the next few days - Geocities limits bandwidth in some fashion, so while it may not be available when you hit the site, it IS there.

Just be patient....and snatch the pebble from my hand.
:-)

  • Registered: 2006-01-04
  • Posts: 4

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Got it Yippe :!:  big_smile

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 379

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Some of the firing arcs are numerical instead of listing letters (IE firing arc 156, etc....)

Is this is bug in the excel sheets?

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

themattcurtis wrote:

Some of the firing arcs are numerical instead of listing letters (IE firing arc 156, etc....)

Is this is bug in the excel sheets?

Roy would have to answer that one, or whoever created the one on which Roy based his work...

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 379

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

I figure each numeral has to relate to a firing arc.  I just wanna know which.

IE
A= 1 or 2?

B = what?

yada yada yada

I bet if I could find a B5 War ship sheet I could tell which real quick

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

themattcurtis wrote:

I figure each numeral has to relate to a firing arc.  I just wanna know which.

IE
A= 1 or 2?

B = what?

yada yada yada

I bet if I could find a B5 War ship sheet I could tell which real quick

Go try a search on Google.

http://www.agentsofgaming.com/b5wship.htm

..is this what these ships came from? GAAaaaahhhh...

No WONDER they're outta business.

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 379

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

well, I gots it figured out except for ONE ship that has a weapon with an arc described as "1"

So the only weapon on a particular ship fires out of the A or B arc, and that's it?

Jeesh. :shock:

Anyway =
126 simply means the weapon fires in a front 180 arc -- or as close as you can get to that in Starmada.

345 is a rear 180 arc


Matt

  • Registered: 2006-01-22
  • Posts: 38

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Hello, I'm Roy,
  Here's how the hex arc firing conversions work.
    A-F are exactly the same as in Starmada.
    1-6 are the same as in SFB.
  For those not familiar with that system, use this:
    1 is the front of the ship, 4 is Aft (back end) end of the ship, 2 is starboard forward, 3 is starboard aft, 5 is port aft and 6 is port forward. All arcs are 60 degrees.
   Hope this helps.
  Roy
                                               1
                                           _____
                                    6    /         \  2
                                        /            \
                                        \            /
                                    5    \         /   3
                                           \-----/
                                              4

  • Registered: 2006-01-22
  • Posts: 38

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Ok, that last post of mine got mangled. Nuts.
Alright. Again. All arcs are 60 degrees.
  1 is the front 60 degree arc bisected 30 degrees left of dead ahead and 30 degrees right of dead ahead.
2 is the starboard forward hexside.
3 is the starboard aft hexside.
4 is the aft hexside. Firing dead astern bisected 30 degrees left of astern and 30 degrees right of astern.
5 is the port aft hexside.
6 is the port forward hexside.
Hope this helps better than the first one.
Roy

  • Registered: 2007-01-13
  • Posts: 33

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

thedugan wrote:

http://www.agentsofgaming.com/b5wship.htm

..is this what these ships came from? GAAaaaahhhh...

No WONDER they're outta business.

The ships of the month that are still up are mostly joke ships.

They did post real ships as well, but they tended to get removed as soon as they showed up in an official product.

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 101

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Actually, they went out of business due to everything they made being based on B5 and losing the license. They had just started "branching out" when the rug was pulled out from under their feet.

IIRC the license was lost for the same reason that Star Trek games don't stay in production very long. The parent company wants way more money than most game companies can afford.

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Brother Jim wrote:

Actually, they went out of business due to everything they made being based on B5 and losing the license. They had just started "branching out" when the rug was pulled out from under their feet.

IIRC the license was lost for the same reason that Star Trek games don't stay in production very long. The parent company wants way more money than most game companies can afford.

It wasn't just that - but the ridiculousity of 'licensing' surely didn't help the bottom line....

I was on SF-ConsimL for a large part of the 'run' that included their run up to their peak - I wasn't the only one that complained that they were a 'variant of SFB'.

Spoke to a few guys that owned it, and it was referred to by one fellow as 'SFB with rules added by Gary Gygax'. Too complicated for what it tried to do. I glanced at something that was sent to me, and it reminded me of some of my own games....THAT is a horror story.
big_smile

They only thing that really sold it was the the B-5 relationship, I heard more than one complaint about the 'clunkiness'.

I figure if it had been a stand-alone game, it wouldn't have been as successful as Starmada - which isn't a 'top tier' game, but still sells respectably (I assume, since it's not changed radically, but slowly evolving.  Dan would have to divulge some sales numbers).
:-)

  • Registered: 2007-01-04
  • Posts: 21

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Just downloaded these and had a quick look.
Roy, you sir are an absolute f***ing legend for doing this. Makes we want to rush out and buy B5 Minis just to give it a try

  • Registered: 2006-01-22
  • Posts: 38

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Yeah, Warner wanted more money than the franchise was worth to hobbyists and fans (us) so the owner let it go. Sadly the B5 system was one of my favorite ship vs ship gaming systems (beat the heck out of SFB as far as playability). Sadly if the game system had been independent of the licensing we would probably still be seeing fresh stuff coming from AOG.
Major unfortunate is what Mongoose is doing to the starship combat end of the game. MJ12 will never have to worry about any competition from them in that regard.
Still for my money, MJ12 has it down cold for moderate sized fleet battles. Anything larger and you have to simplify the system down (Ala VBAM) so that it plays in a decent time span. Still kicks butt!
  Now where is the Ground Combat version? Tanks, artillery, platoons of men blasting it out?!
Roy

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,424

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Ironvein wrote:

Yeah, Warner wanted more money than the franchise was worth to hobbyists and fans (us) so the owner let it go. Sadly the B5 system was one of my favorite ship vs ship gaming systems (beat the heck out of SFB as far as playability). Sadly if the game system had been independent of the licensing we would probably still be seeing fresh stuff coming from AOG.

You really think so? I knew AOG more from their SFB supplements than the B-5 stuff. I know some people liked it, but it just seemed too much like SFB to me and a few people on the SFconsimL list.

Ironvein wrote:


Major unfortunate is what Mongoose is doing to the starship combat end of the game. MJ12 will never have to worry about any competition from them in that regard.

Honestly, I've heard very few positive things about anything from Mongoose. I'm not being a 'brand weenie' because this is a MJ12 board, the only things that I've heard positive were a few things from fan-boys about the RPG-related stuff. I don't buy things that I don't see anything good about, so I've never bought anything from them. With my gaming budget, I'm not one of those that buys things site-barely-seen, without a lot of knowledge about it, or a lot of VERY positive reviews from people I trust.

Ironvein wrote:

Still for my money, MJ12 has it down cold for moderate sized fleet battles. Anything larger and you have to simplify the system down (Ala VBAM) so that it plays in a decent time span. Still kicks butt!
  Now where is the Ground Combat version? Tanks, artillery, platoons of men blasting it out?!
Roy

I haven't kept track of the OTHER ground combat stuff that's been done, but you might take a peek at the WARDOGS stuff.

I know the artwork is going to be good - and I'm not saying that because I'm working on it - Ian (middenface, IIRC) has done some absolutely GREAT pieces, and he's done at least as many things as I have.

Might be a while before it's 'out', but I think gOOgleplex has the rules up somewhere. It's actually sort of being aimed at the old 'Battletech' crowd, but with a broader emphasis than on Mecha - mechs are just PART of the combat equation.

  • Registered: 2007-01-04
  • Posts: 21

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

Now where is the Ground Combat version? Tanks, artillery, platoons of men blasting it out?!

Look at Assault Corp in the forums and hope like me that they get it out soon.

  • Registered: 2022-11-15
  • Posts: 1,286

Re: Thanks Roy (B5 to Starmada X)

I'm gonna add in on what Mike was saying...

If you're looking at being able to run company on company sized battles or smaller in a vein similar to CBT (but MUCH better), then Wardogs should be a good fit.  I've been tinkering with some of the rules lately and took the playtest files down while I'm 'under the hood'...;)  I'll put things back up once I've got a draft ready.  There is an optional rules section in it that allows something of a wardogs to starmada interface.
The artwork is gonna blow folks away...and I'm not just saying that.  Seriously...if you can get these guys working on your project you most certainly will not regret it.  I swear I'm looking at pictures of models sometimes.

Assault Corps is gonna be your cup if you like a bit more command involvement in the battles and running larger groups.  Justin has done some good things from what I've looked at myself.

As to the B-5 game...I was really disappointed in it.  Overly complicated and too slow for my tastes.  Pity cause I thought the series was better than the Star Wars Movies...and wished they'd have kept going with things.  What I've seen of the Mongoose products for it is almost insulting to me...that or I've gotten spoiled by much better quality rules and mini's.  :wink: