CODA Ablative Armor

[tonyg]

Am I missing something or is the CODA version of Ablative Armor fairly worthless? I mean, a designer can trade off 5 SPACES for 5 STRUCTURE in the normal ship design process- without taking ablative armor, and avoid the drwbacks of ablative armor. Ablative armor doesn't seem like an edge.

[Doug Burke]

Here's a discussion of this very subject, including a response from Don Mappin, designer fo the starship design and combat systems for CODA Trek:

http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread.php?t=4525

[tonyg]

Thanks for the link Doug,


Stopping the first system damag block makes ablative armor useful-and better than just trading off spaces for structure. (Hmm, that gives me an idea for one of the minnor species I'm working on in my campaign. I was giving them TOS era tech in a TNG era campaign. I could add a tank-like design philophy to that. Make thier ship's a size larger or so that need be, but spend the extra space on reinforcing the structure.)

[Doug Burke]

Stopping the first system damag block makes ablative armor useful-and better than just trading off spaces for structure. (Hmm, that gives me an idea for one of the minnor species I'm working on in my campaign. I was giving them TOS era tech in a TNG era campaign. I could add a tank-like design philophy to that. Make thier ship's a size larger or so that need be, but spend the extra space on reinforcing the structure.)

or you could allow them to purchase multiple instances of Ablative Armor (normally a no-no, but would contribute to their survivability...).

[tonyg]

I was looking into the albative armor for Starfleet ships (Perimeter Defense Directive). I am thinking of assigning the players to a Saber-class ship and was reworking the CODA write-up with the advanced rules from Starships. I suppose if the Starship Experience rules are being used, a character could upgrade the ship's Ablative Armor edge. The extra 5 points of armor are hardly going to unbalance things. Of course, more ablative armor probably means more time travelling transportr accidents! (as in DS9's Past Tense)


The tank concept is for one about a half dozen minor powers I am working on for a new campaign. Technologically, they are behind most of the other powers in the region by a century, and have a bit of an inferoity complex/paranoia about it. Their designs have engines that use the OCU scale and weapons that use the 23rd century Penetration tables. Well, except for a flagship that has ben boostd with tech bought from the Orions. Boosting the structure should make their ships a viable threat , as they will be able to take a pounding--at least until Ops or Life Support gets knocked out.

I've been working up design philosphies for each of the powers to help add some character and personality to thier ship designs. A couple powers are locked in a low intensity wa,r having carrier based fleets whose fighter pilots are very chivalrous (ala WWI), another build ships for ramming (with a special powered ram that increases ramming damage inflictd while reducing damage taken), the low tech species builds tank like ships, another has superior tractor technology, and the other powers will have something unique as soon I I can come up with something clever.

I did this in my last campaign and it really helped in setting up the feel of the different cultures and helped in developing plotlines.



Thanks for the help! Hope I didn't bore you.