• Registered: 2006-03-23
  • Posts: 241

Topic: Firing Arcs

I think I remember seeing someone reference alternate firing arcs that they use as a house rule. I couldn't see then what the difference was. Last weekend, the issue came up when someone wanted a weapon to cover the front hald of their ship. Kind of a AB plus half of C & D. Then I remembered the numbered firing arcs from SFB and realized that is what this other person was talking about.
Perhaps for the next version of starmada the numbered arcs could be included as well? Currently all of the spreadsheets support them, as they don't care what you enter. A little chart like this attached one could be used to illustrate them?

  • Registered: 2005-03-30
  • Posts: 272

Re: Firing Arcs

The last two or three times I can remember this subject being discussed, the best option presented was to just use standard analog clockface notation for your firing arcs.  You can cover pretty much any combination of 30 degree angles that way, and everyone knows what a clock looks like so there are no codes to remember.

The only drawback is that you'll have to pencil in your real arcs on the SSD sheets, since the shipbuilder doesn't support the option.

Rich

  • Registered: 2006-03-23
  • Posts: 241

Re: Firing Arcs

hundvig wrote:

The only drawback is that you'll have to pencil in your real arcs on the SSD sheets, since the shipbuilder doesn't support the option.
Rich

I think all of the SXCA out there see no difference in the following two firing arc designations:

[a] Left Side Laser [2/4/6, 3+ 1/1/1]
ACE

[a] Forward Half Laser [2/4/6, 3+ 1/1/1]
126

As long as the arc is 30 degrees, the SXCA do not care what character you put in. You could use "X$)" and it would count as three arcs for SU calculations. Your playing group needs to be aware of what designations are being used though.

  • Registered: 2005-04-08
  • Posts: 62

Re: Firing Arcs

When I did this a couple of years ago, I converted SXCA to use degrees (in 60 degree increments), instead of number of arcs.  For placement, I allowed the start and end points of firing arcs to be on any even multiple of 30 degrees.  Worked fine.

Doug

  • Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 859

Re: Firing Arcs

I have started to use such arcs as well, but primarily only the 'spinal mount' arc, especially with a few certain weapons. Pop over to the Bourbaki Basin and look under Miscellaneous--there'll be an example there.

  • Registered: 2006-01-17
  • Posts: 359

Re: Firing Arcs

In our group, we use something similar... with the letters abcdef as the normal arcs, and 123456 as the adjusted arcs with 1 being straight ahead.

Since I have a number of the assault frigates from Homeworld... it works perfect for the Plasma Bomb Launchers that are mounted in the nose of the ship.  It also allows me to create the Ion Frigates, as I can put a single weapon with a ROF of 3, and repeating as the beam. It does a wonderful job of simulating the raking effect of the Ion Beam in the game.

John

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

Re: Firing Arcs

Nahuris wrote:

In our group, we use something similar... with the letters abcdef as the normal arcs, and 123456 as the adjusted arcs with 1 being straight ahead.

I like this.  It gives overlapping arcs and is rather easy to work with.

  • Registered: 2006-03-23
  • Posts: 241

Re: Firing Arcs

go0gleplex wrote:

I like this.  It gives overlapping arcs and is rather easy to work with.

And, more importantly, there is no requirement to adjust the SXCA as it doesn't care what value you put in for the arc designations.