Building Starships

[Doug Taylor]

Has anybody done much building of starships? One of my players started, based on the awesome fighters Fugazi Grrl posted on this site (see Reply #2 on the "Fighters" thread, found on page 2). He used the one I picked to use as the Fighter craft for our Akira-class ship, which is the Peregrine/Hawk-class. I just crunched the numbers myself, and they came up just a tad over (based on the oridinary Space given by the rules).

One question that I don't think is very clear: When you purchase multiple phaser arrays, does that cost that amount of Space for each array? In other words, if I buy 3 phaser arrays, does it cost for each array (so if it costs 5 Space, it would be multiplied by 3 and cost a total of 15?)

I would imagine it does, but it's not like you really get any extra shots for having extra arrays (it simply adds color), so I could see how it wouldn't, logically, as well.

Thoughts?

[Fugazi Grrl]

A word of advice - never crunch the numbers on anything I design. Because they will be more than a tad over. I never bothered to do all of that math stuff because frankly, it is a pain and a nuisance.

I just take a similar ship with similar specifications and go from there.

That way, I can get a functional ship for gaming purposes in 20 minutes. The other way wold take me 3-4 months per ship. I quit playing other sci-fi games because of all the math involved in starship design, because I figured "why go to all that trouble".

Honestly, I nearly quit playing CODA-Trek a few weeks ago after someone else mentioned one of my designs was not math-legal, since it is such a pain, and a source of stress for me to try to do the math.

And ICON doesn't require all that junk to build a ship.

If people keep crunching my work, I'll have to ask that my designs be removed form public availability. Unless they can keep the results of their crunching to themselves.

Because it really bothers me to hear about it.

[Tomcat]

Has anybody done much building of starships? One of my players started, based on the awesome fighters Fugazi Grrl posted on this site (see Reply #2 on the "Fighters" thread, found on page 2). He used the one I picked to use as the Fighter craft for our Akira-class ship, which is the Peregrine/Hawk-class. I just crunched the numbers myself, and they came up just a tad over (based on the oridinary Space give
One question that I don't think is very clear: When you purchase multiple phaser arrays, does that cost that amount of Space for each array? In other words, if I buy 3 phaser arrays, does it cost for each array (so if it costs 5 Space, it would be multiplied by 3 and cost a total of 15?)

I would imagine it does, but it's not like you really get any extra shots for having extra arrays (it simply adds color), so I could see how it wouldn't, logically, as well.

Thoughts?

Having multiple arrays does consume the space, but it does not just add color. The more arrays added to the ship increases the offensive value and damage done.

[Tomcat]

I should say beam penetration, not damage - although that's what it is.

[Doug Taylor]

A word of advice - never crunch the numbers on anything I design. Because they will be more than a tad over. I never bothered to do all of that math stuff because frankly, it is a pain and a nuisance.

I just take a similar ship with similar specifications and go from there.

That way, I can get a functional ship for gaming purposes in 20 minutes. The other way wold take me 3-4 months per ship. I quit playing other sci-fi games because of all the math involved in starship design, because I figured "why go to all that trouble".

Honestly, I nearly quit playing CODA-Trek a few weeks ago after someone else mentioned one of my designs was not math-legal, since it is such a pain, and a source of stress for me to try to do the math.

And ICON doesn't require all that junk to build a ship.

If people keep crunching my work, I'll have to ask that my designs be removed form public availability. Unless they can keep the results of their crunching to themselves.

Because it really bothers me to hear about it.

I'm extremely sorry to have caused any stress, FG. I normally would have never even added things up, and only did so as one of my players "built" a ship that was 95+% the same as one of yours (he simply made the weapons a bit tougher, without subtracting anything).

I don't think there's anything wrong with doing things the way you did them; making things for RPGs shouldn't be giving us PTSD about horrid math problems from back in school anyway!

Again, so sorry to have even mentioned it. Your ships are amazing; the designs look incredible and they very much fit the style and 'feel' of Trek. I seriously apologize for "crunching the numbers" on them at all, and will not do so again.

[Doug Taylor]

Having multiple arrays does consume the space, but it does not just add color. The more arrays added to the ship increases the offensive value and damage done.

Ah, gotcha. So you add up the total offense based on the total number (the number of arrays times the Offense Value of the particular weapon) to get the Total Offense #.

Thanks, Tomcat!

[Doug Taylor]

As others have mentioned, the Starships book has a few places where it looks like it was rushed through, as if they were hustling to get it out.

Anybody know what the various two-letter codes stand for? For instance, on p. 19 (Table 1.16) at the bottom it lists "Cruiser classification vessels (CA, CB, CEX, CL, and CH) purchase missile weapons at -1 space cost..."

Just guessing, I'd say these stand for

CA: No idea, but it reminds me of a standard cruiser in Star Fleet Battles ; perhaps Attack Cruiser?
CB: Battlecruiser?
CEX: Cruiser/Explorer
CL: Light Cruiser
CH: Heavy Cruiser

It would have been nice if they coded each ship entry, or gave us a list of what these stood for at least (I haven't found one if they did).

Also, does anyone know what the "IF" and "DF" stand for in the listings for Photon Torpedoes?

Thanks in advance!

[Doug Taylor]

Never mind the first part of my question; I just found the list of Classification Codes on p. 134 of the Narrator's Guide. I still think it would have been nice for them to have listed those in the Starships book, if for no other reason than to prevent having to flip back and forth between books (there's a number of times one has to do that when building starships).

[PGoodman13]

IF == Indirect Fire.
DF == Direct Fire.

No idea IRL what those would actually mean in regards to photon torpedoes, but that could just be me....

[Doug Taylor]

IF == Indirect Fire.
DF == Direct Fire.

No idea IRL what those would actually mean in regards to photon torpedoes, but that could just be me....

Thanks, PG! I have no idea either, and - though it really won't affect my game - it's nice to know what they mean in any event!

[Wightlord22]

I use an Excel spreadsheet template to put together starships. Most recently I've been using it to put together standardized versions of all of the ships in the books. The Vesta Class has been a pain in the ass though.

[PGoodman13]

I'd love to see both the spreadsheet and the standardized ships.

[somaticon]

Thanks, PG! I have no idea either, and - though it really won't affect my game - it's nice to know what they mean in any event!

Indirect fire simply means you do not line of sight to the target essentially firing blind or a spread in the hopes of hitting a target eg. anytime that a vessel fires at a cloaked vessel Nemesis, Undiscovered Country as examples.

Direct fire is just what is suggests.

[Doug Taylor]

Indirect fire simply means you do not line of sight to the target essentially firing blind or a spread in the hopes of hitting a target eg. anytime that a vessel fires at a cloaked vessel Nemesis, Undiscovered Country as examples.

Direct fire is just what is suggests.

Very cool, and that does have an impact in-game. Thanks so much for the explanation, somaticon!

[somaticon]

Some of my ship designs will either be over or under points space wise. Its difficult to be true to some of the earlier designs especially when it comes to equipping them.