I have usually played with only 2, but have never had problems in games with 3 or 4 when we have done that.

Best game I have ever seen, in any genre for creating your own weapons. Equipment is static, but you can mix and match.

The Starmada rules themselves do not have officer rules. There are some attempts in the VBAM stuff to work in approximations.

I am biased, but think the VBAM stuff works well with Starmada. It isn't perfect, but given that they were two originally unrelated systems they match works out better than you'd think.

There are some balance issues lurking in there, varying depending on who you discuss with here. There are tactics and counters to most of them, however. So good play wins out, usually.

Starmada X and Starmada Brigade are exactly the same rules. Brigade you get many more ship designs to start off with. So neither is "better".

I leave in the hands of our fearless leader...

NP, and welcome to our little neck of the gaming woods.

Their are quite a few ship designs in the 'Bourbaki Basin' section....

I'm not an official spokesman, but it seems to be when Dan can get a group of designers that can concur on the goal, then something happens....at least, that seems to be the way the Iron Stars expansions have occured.

Those expansions were sort of driven by the guys that wrote them, seems to me....

Don't even think that I really know anything about what really happens... :-)

Thank you; your answers are much appreciated.

What I meant by expansion was more rules wise than design wise.  I agree that if you have a design system, why play with pre-made ship (except to learn)?  I was seeking to know if there is going to be new rules to add to or replace old ones.  Just so my group and I know what to expect.

Hadn't heard anything either, mostly Spitting Fire and Iron Stars is what I've heard about - those games are not as mature as Starmada.

Starmada has been around over ten years in one form or another.

Starmada is slowly evolving due to the influence of the Forum, but I don't think that Dan's said anything about another edition.

..I ain't in the inner circle either.
:-)

You play Neptune and I'll be Saturn....

..I joke came to mind about two OTHER planets, but I'm not feeling that cheeky this morning...
:-)

..coffee.. more coffee.....

Under the description for the LRS it states that it counteracts the -1 to-hit penalty for attack at long range. What if the weapon has Doubled Range Modifiers? Does it only counteract one -1 or all of the long range penalty? What if the weapon has Inverted Range Modifiers and is getting a +1 at long range? Is there no benefit in that case?

If a ship with Organic Hull takes hull damage, repairs some of that damage and then takes additional hull damage, does it only hit the hull spaces that have been hit before (killing no additional crew) or can it hit "fresh" hull spaces? I have an opponent that I keep plinking for 1 hull damage, he keeps fixing it...how soon does this go through his crew.

I was afraid of that. I guess I just need bigger guns. And true, eventually I kill all of his weapons and he leaves. I usually get his Hyperdrive so he just runs with his repaired engines while I am slowed by damage.

Only problem..The ships are from a campaign where I do not have those little goodies. And yes, I am trying to get Increased Damage. I think it will be a nasty shock to him. I also need to develop a new weapon that just plain does more damage, I've relied on long-range weapons with good to-hit values but to shoe them in, I haven't opted for high PEN or DMG numbers. Well this has convinced me to put some big guns on my larger ships.

Keep in mind that I am still relatively low-tech. In our campaign, you have to develop the weapon abilities for each weapon type (K/E/B) separately. Here are the weapon abilities that I have researched (or started with).

DMG 1 [B]
DMG 1 [E]
DMG 1 [K]
Doubled Range Modifiers [B]
Doubled Range Modifiers [E]
Doubled Range Modifiers [K]
Fighter: Atmospheric
Fighter: Size, Light
Fighter: Speed, Slow ( 8 )
Fighter: Speed, Sluggish ( 6 )
Fighter: Squadron, Large
Fighter: Squadron, Small
Must Re-Roll Penetration Dice [B]
Must Re-Roll Penetration Dice [E]
Must Re-Roll Penetration Dice [K]
Must Re-Roll To-Hit Dice [B]
Must Re-Roll To-Hit Dice [E]
Must Re-Roll To-Hit Dice [K]
No Hull Damage [B]
No Hull Damage [E]
No Hull Damage [K]
No Range Modifiers [B]
PEN 1 [B]
PEN 1 [E]
PEN 1 [K]
Re-Rolls To-hit Dice [B]

I have the following weapons developed and in service on active designs:

Ballistic
Mk2 Proximity Missile [6/12/18, 3+ 1/1/1, Ballistic, Must Re-Roll Penetration Dice]
Mk1 Proximity Missile [5/10/15, 3+ 1/1/1, Ballistic, Must Re-Roll Penetration Dice]

Energy:
Ue3 Laser Emitter [5/10/15, 4+ 1/1/1, Energy]
Ud3 Laser Emitter [4/8/12, 4+ 1/1/1, Energy]
Uc3 Laser Emitter [3/6/9, 4+ 1/1/1, Energy]
Ub3 Laser Emitter [2/4/6, 4+ 1/1/1, Energy]

Kinetic:
CID 1 Coilgun [1/2/3, 4+ 1/1/1, Kinetic, Doubled Range Modifiers]

The ROF can vary of course so you could have a Ue3 Laser Emitter with a ROF of 3.

I have just finished developing No Range Modifiers [B] and Re-Rolls To-hit Dice [B] and am developing a new missile:

Mk1 HAWK Missile [6/12/18, 4+ 1/1/1, Ballistic, No Range Modifiers, Re-Rolls To-Hit Dice]

Now that I see the need for a higher damage/penetration weapon, this tech year I have the following five systems on my queue. I will get one of the five at the end of the year (2 more months).

DMG 2 [B]
PEN 2 [B]
DMG 2 [E]
PEN 2 [E]
Increased Damage [B]

I like this idea for a starmada/VBAM game.  I was going to set something like this up if I ever got a group to play.  Care to share the rules that you all came up with.  Love to read through them. 

-Bren

The Stars Divided source book is where we got the idea. A further amplification was obtained from Tyrel Lohr's Solar Federation Diary which can be found on the VBAM Yahoo group in the files section.