Starship questions?

[Don Mappin]

Hi there. I know I'm tempting fate, but I'm offering to answer any starship construction or combat questions that you all may have. I realize that the system isn't perfect (damn word count), but we did try to do as good as job as possible in the space and time we were given.

With that said, I have also just finished the manuscript for the Starships book coming out later this year, which expands the system in whole new directions and touches on the areas that didn't get a proper treatment in the NG (such as the 21st and 22nd centuries for example). I'll apologize now if I have to resort to the stock answer of "that's in the Starships book."

I'm pleased to see a thread on making new Traits--that's something that allows you guys (and us) to take the system in new directions. Maneuvers are also a fun area to expand the system. Hopefully you'll take advantage of the open architecture to make the system your own.

So, with that said, fire away and I'll check your penetration against my threshold!

[Don Mappin]

Oh, I'll be compiling some errata soon, hopefully.

[calguard66]

Umm... I'd be happy to help proof read the Starships Book. Perhaps you could post it here and we could ALL proofread it?

Alternatively, I'm sure it would make a great FAQ!

[Sea Tyger]

Here's one question that's been bothering the owner/operator of my FLGS:

For Design Defect (Warp Propulsion System and Impulse Propulsion System), what is the time increment for the 2 structure of damage? Is it one hour, the same as the periodic reliability test?

[CorpBoy]

Originally posted by Don Mappin
With that said, I have also just finished the manuscript for the Starships book coming out later this year, which expands the system in whole new directions and touches on the areas that didn't get a proper treatment in the NG (such as the 21st and 22nd centuries for example). I'll apologize now if I have to resort to the stock answer of "that's in the Starships book."

While we're on the subject of what's in the starship book , I've got to at least ask: did the Borg Cube that Decipher rumored would be included actually make it?

CB

[Don Mappin]

I'm sworn to secrecy on the Borg cube. You'll have to wait and see.

I'll check on the Design Defect. I have a gut answer but I want to run it past Matt first.

[C5]

I apologize for being off-topic, Don, but do you intend to open an errata thread (and its counterpart "questions" thread) for the whole NG like the PG or limit it to Starship/combat rules ?
Apart from that, no question so far

[Lancer]

With a good enough roll for initiative in starship combat your enemy has to reveal one or two of his maneuvers he plans for the round.
Now if you choose not to re-roll initiative every round, does this apply in all the following rounds as well, or just in the first round of combat?

And if it's the same in every round, does it change due to initiative penalties incurred through damage, i.e. can a later change in initiative cancel the "enemy reveals maneuver" rule?

[Picaboo]

Simple question...
A system has a reliability of C and suffers one point of damage from incoming fire. Does the ship suffers the penalties from having lost E, D and C or just the C box?
What if this box of damage was used intentionally to reinforce shields or upgrade another system?

Another question...
In starship combat, the use of beam weapon seems weak in comparison with missille weapons. Voyager has a missille penetration of 5 all and beam weapons of 5/4/4/0/0. What is the advantage of using beams in this case. I know in star trek, starships got a limited amount of torpedoes but is it actually in the rules?

Thanks in advance...

[Don Mappin]

Errata: Yes, but my schedule is hell right now. Fortunately the NG isn't as rules-heavy as the PG, so the list of rules errata is shorter. Also, I don't want to offend anyone by putting out the NG errata too early. We all know how that upset people buying the PG.

I'll probably ask Doug Burke to pull together a list.

Initiative: If you roll for initiative once per combat then extraordinary successes reveal the opposing ship's maneuvers) at the start of the first round only. If you choose to roll every round then every round a commander may have to reveal a maneuver depending on the initiative results. (I don't recommend re-rolling every round: it slows things down a bit much for my tastes.)

System Damage: No, a system C that takes a point of damage, marking off its top box (out of three), does not suffer the effects of the D and E damage as well. This rule never changes regardless of how the damage is received. (Higher damage ratings only mean you can take more of a beating before your systems go offline--they still degrade over the course of a battle, hence the cumulative penalties.) Hope I explained that in a manner that makes sense.

Beams vs Missile: Penetration aside, beam weapons have several advantages over missile weapons:
1. They do not inflict splash damage at point blank range.
2. You can target specific systems (Target System can only be used with a beam weapon).
3. You can vary (lower) their penetration. Missile penetration is fixed.
4. There are several cool beam upgrades that missiles don't get (in the Starships book).

I realize 2 and 3 are probably new information and you can choose to 0-rule them out of existence if you prefer.

[Greg Smith]

Page 141: "Missile weapons fired at close range cause full damage to the defender...but the attacker suffers half penetration damage against his shields."

Should that read "Missile weapons fired at point blank range...", or is there further splash damage at point blank?

[Don Mappin]

Correct. You’ll see this one a lot and I grimace every time. Before “point blank” there was “close.” Later, when we unified everything over to the PG ranges, some of those instances of “close” were never properly hunted down and renamed.

So, any reference to “close” in the NG text actually refers to “point blank.”

[calguard66]

Defiant's cruising speed is listed as warp 6, but for her engine type should be warp 8.

Is this a typo, or an aspect of her engine problems?

[Chris Landmark]

All right, I've been having a go at the starship construction rules, trying to stat up various ships we haven't been supplied yet and give them good values relative to those the NG supplies us. While doing so, I've tried constructing the ships profiled in the NG, and come up with some problems. Namely, if I build a ship to have the exact same stats as one given on pp. 146-157, most of the time I end going over the allowed space for a vessel of that size. For example, the Intrepid-Class is built spending:

3 space for Atmosphere Capable
3 space for additional Standard Transporters (extra emergency & cargo free up to # of standard ones)
2 space for shuttlebay
1 space for extra tractor beam
4 space for sensor system
7 space for operations system
6 space for life support
6 space for impulse
7 space for warp
18 space for phasers
12 space for photorps
12 space for deflectors and extra threshold
total space used: 81

At size 6, only 77 space is allowed. No "extra" space is granted by taking a flaw or reducing the structure points, so the Intrepid Class has spent 4 more space than the construction rules allow.

Other ships which spend more space than their size allows are:

Constitution(2273): 2 space over (assuming emergency separation system costs 1 space instead of 2 for a standard separation system)
Defiant: 1 space over
Galaxy: 5 space over
Oberth(2341): 1 space over
Hunter: 1 space over
K't'inga: 4 space over

Either I am misreading the ship construction rules, the designers "fudged" a little bit, or the designers used a different set of rules we won't get to see until the starships book comes out. Someone please clue me in on this...

-Chris Landmark

Edited 'cause I missed a rather importaint bit of info which actually causes the Herbert-class transport to come in on-cost, and somehow I spent one extra space on the 2273 Connie.

[Sea Tyger]

Are you accounting for cost discounts for class type (i.e., beam weapons are cheaper for "heavy" ships and torps are cheaper for cruisers)? I thought the 2273 Constitution refit was actually under the point total when I added it up.

Now, many of the TNG ships do seem to be a couple of points over...