Ablative Armor

Ok, me again. Curious if anyone figured out the point of Ablative Armor. As it stands, you spend 5 space to get the armor trait giving your ship +5 structure. Or, instead of getting the edge you can spend that 5 extra space to get 5 extra structure points. The only differance between the two is that the armor can only be repaired at a starbase while the pure structure points can be repaired anywhere.

Kyle

The point of ablative armor is that it exists in the Trek universe, and therefore should be available in the game. Yes, from a rules perspective it's a bit silly, but one could make a related argument for the whole idea of ablative armor vs. thicker hull plating in the first place. It's Treknology; when all else fails, smile and nod. :D

What they need to do is decide on where they want to place the +5 bonus. Left over space, for a flaw, and Ablative armour. Three things that say the same thing. Pick one! And leave it at that.

This my only complaint so far.

Keep in mind that for every 5 full points of damage you suffer from a system hit. It may be that Ablative armor is the first 5-point set and that you don't suffer a critical for having it destroyed.

I would simply suggest having Ablative armor provide 10 extra points rather than 5.

Jay

Quote:

---

Originally posted by JBWan
Keep in mind that for every 5 full points of damage you suffer from a system hit. It may be that Ablative armor is the first 5-point set and that you don't suffer a critical for having it destroyed.

---

Correct.

You can also pick up Ablative Armor for "free" by taking a Flaw. You'd have to spend valuable space to do that with structure, so essentially you could mimic the same result by taking a Flaw and increasing your structure through space, but then that 5-point block would trigger a roll on the Damage Chart.

Ablative Armor lets you shrug off those first five points with no ill effect.