[CODA] "Expanded Starship Operations" sourcebook

[Tobian]

Well having been using it for several hours now, the one thing that does seem to be a bit much (it could just be my printer) is the 'blue' of all the tables. It could use knocking back a little as it is very strong and fights with the black.. which I think is my own fault as I might have suggested it

I would suggest arround 35% Cyan and 5% magenta (or not so it matches your heading font closelly) - but it does look alot different onscreen than it seems to print out on my printer.

Some of the text also seems to be dropping a tiny amount outside of the tables on my printouts, at the bottom.

That said - I haven't noticed any really big REAL mistakes and the content is excelent - just waiting for more of the same!

[KillerWhale]

Thank you very, very much everybody Now I'm blushing all the way to the ears May ESO serve faithfully your games

Wow, a contract with Decipher... How much cool would that be :drool:

Goku: True! Another typo that'll have to be corrected in future releases.

Tobian: Maybe I could just induce some transparency in the color. I'll test it...

Don't worry all, I'll try to make "big" updates, so as not to have you print the whole thing again for each typo corrected Anyway I'll put up a changelog on the ESO website, so that you may see for yourself if another download or printout is worth your time.

[Tobian]

Well, with regards to the praise - you deserve it!

With regards to the transparency - sounds good, give it a go! it's just one of those things where onscreen display and print can just look a whole lot different. Perhaps you need to set up colour calibration to your screen and document, maybe that'll make it more colour accurate?

Always a tough thing to get right - I've had disasters with that myself in the past!

[ImperialOne]

KW, your work is a testimony to the dedication of all Trek RPG players and underscores the reason why Trek has and will continue to stand the test of time: the fans.

COngrats, we all look forward to the continued evolution of this book.

Charles

[Gabe Mitchell]

Indeed, excellent work. I got my chance to read through it (as well as re-print the last few pages, since when I printed it out Saturday, the library printer's toner level was shot and the last few pages didn't come through enough to be readable (but not at all your fault). I am highly impressed with your work. Obviously a lot of time and effort went into writing this up, and kudos to you for doing such a fantastic job of it.

Now I gotta try and find the Starfleet Ops Manual someplace... alas, I've been told it's out of print and, therefore, I can't get it unless I find it online someplace... le sigh.

[Enrious]

For some reason, when I printed it out, the standard text came out unreadable, as if it was too small for my laser printer to render.

[Tobian]

That sounds like a very odd error!

Have you tried updating Acrobat viewer and your printer drivers? The text wasn't particularly small on my computer?

[loryk]

hi everybody
I would like like everyone thanks a lot our dear KW for his great job

but the great disadvantage of the free e books is that the poor players can read them

and as my character (cder loryk its me ) is cited in that great book i need some explanations about the sheets of the citation (72-73)

isn't the ASBD (advance starfleet design bureau) a gathering of intelligent experts and enginners or is this gathering completely deaf .

because when cder loryk give this advice : the ship (ascendant) must have a better firepower in order to avoid long battles and prevent long reparations and important casualties.

the asbd respond with a ship only able at medium range (the most used by this ship) to inflict with its great new design pulse phasers same damages as personnal fighters "micro" torpedoes

I don't really understand but it's perhaps i'm only a player

[KillerWhale]

Thank you all guys I'm really glad you like it and that it's useful to you!

Loryk: you... you... you player!
If you had read all the book you would have seen the new rules about the pulse phasers

Historically, there was Pulse phasers in the NG which gave just a better offense value for calculating the penetration; and the Enhanced system (Tactical) edge which increased the penetration of one range increment.

Then came Starships, which changed the ruling about pulse phasers: pulsing a phaser meant taking an edge, increasing the Point Blank range penetration but decreasing all other ranges. That's far inferior to the Enhanced system trait, of course; that's not normal for a state-of-the-art system.

So... take a look p.42, my friend. You can take a malus on your tactical roll to increase the penetration, a la Concentrate Fire (or lower the penetration to increase your roll, a la Spread). That stacks with, erm, say, taking one of your favorites, Concentrate Fire bonuses. That also stacks with all maneuver bonuses. Yes, with Target System. Yes, with Lock On System too. It works with anything as long as you use the pulse phasers.

That means if you take a Concentrate Fire maneuver and take all penalties form the maneuver and the pulse phasers (-15: spend three Courage Points, my friend and you're there), the Ascendant's penetration rises to 10/8/8/0/0.

Reassured?

Thou hast sinned, my friend. Thou sin very often these days. Do not forget the cardinal rule: thou shalt trust thy GM. Thou hast not died on a die roll paragliding last week, thou shoulst hast known thy weapon penetration woulst not decrease and even increase. Thou shalt pay my beer at the band rehearsal tonight. I shalt hear no "buts".

Okay, maybe I'm megalomaniac

And, hey Loryk: don't take the Ascendant write-up as game-canon It's just an ideal world for our fellow players and GMs out there. We all know things do not happen as nicely in real life, do we?

Oh, and the Peregrine class torp penetration is 3/3/3/3/3. The Ascendant's is 5/5/5/5/5. That's different, man

Edit: To alleviate your worries check
http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...&threadid=5627
You have the old and new versions.

[Tobian]

Well that is what is known as a tradeoff - you get better penetration at close ranges for a reduction at further ranges.. However I have to agree with KW that the price is quite high and hte enhanced system would be better. IMHO - you should get a +2 at short range since you are losing a -1 from short and medium - because really it is a bit of a rubbish 'advantage' if you lose more than you gain! I might make that a house rule - basically - making it deadly in close combat, but at the tradeoff that it is deadly to be in close combat!

[loryk]

oh dear kw

gm gm gm ...

first yes i have read the peregrine torpedoe penetration at medium range (3) is equal to my pulse phaser at medium range (3)

second yes i have read in order to increase my penetration i must use a special maneuver and give malus to TN
You 're right I'll do that because Im commander loryk of the u.s.s ascendant with my desk filled of great starfleet medals
but take a newbie and ask him to take a 4 or 5 malus on his TN, I'd like to be his ennemy my dear there's no risk he shots me...
and that's a maneuver I'll do with a station so well (oh yeah!!!)

third you wrote in your great (i really think that your job is great but...) book about our implication in the refit and you know i want more fire power
i had pulse phasers 4/4/4/0/0 and torpedoe 5/5/5/5/5 i will have now phasers 5/3/3/0/0 and torpedoe 5/5/5/5/5

the only change on the firepower is for pulse phaser that is only a change due to the rules changing you mentionned

so i adviced for the refit a best firepower i have got nothing but a gm maneuver (that i already have ) in order to increase it with my skills

so if they don't take our advice in consideration in the great ASBD why did they ask them

that's all i want to know

[KillerWhale]

My friend, I'm afraid you didn't read me right

Let's take Concentrate Fire for instance. You can take -3 to your roll to increase your penetration by +1, that we already know You can do this three times on the maneuver, to get -9 for a total +3. Okay.

Now with the pulse phasers you can do that whenever you want (to a limit of -6 for +2). That means you can routinely - and, I repeat, whenever you want - climb up to 7/5/5/0/0 (which is, mind you, better than MOST classes. Only the Galaxy and the Nebula tactical variant have comparable values. The Sovereign has, for reference, 7/7/6/0/0. And it's more than the double in size than the Ascendant. Now, is not that firepower?)

That means if you want to increase the damage on a Lock On System maneuver, you can increase your weapon penetration SEPARATELY. That means you can do it on a Target System maneuver, or any other you want to use.

The advantage of taking penalties to increase penetration is BUILT IN the phaser array. Any bonuses from maneuvers like Concentrate Fire are FURTHER ADDED to that.

The ability to increase penetration in any situation is great, I think, because you have a base weapon damage that's "safe" to fire, but if you feel the shot is easy, and in specific situations, if you like, you can increase your penetration on any shot.

Let's not forget you can also lower your penetration to increase your chances of hitting. I remind you that the MARGIN between the TN for hitting and the effective roll is what is used to decrease shields. If you have a big badass ship with a TN like 25 for hitting the shields, you can still QUICKLY cause good damage to the shields by lowering your penetration and increasing your chances to hit. If you didn't have this, you'd have to burn out all your courage points then you'd be out of luck to score major damage on the shields. Then the enemy would take its time to grind you to dust. The "lower TN, lower penetration" advantages allows you to reduce the shields quickly against a more powerful ship, making inflicting damage much easier once the shields are down (then, you could also INCREASE again your damage to score multiple hits).

This "variable geometry" is unique in the rules, and it's pretty formidable, if you ask me. Especially with characters as skilled as you are.

One last thing about the torps: this is a multifunction torp launcher, which means it also allows you to fire photons, but also tricobalt devices.

[loryk]

I am a player really hein

but yes I apologize I haven't read your new rules about pulse phaser advantages


but in my reflexion it changes nothing
because for me we asked a refit of the SHIP for several points :
the tactical weaknesses : shields, hull and FIREPOWER
the speed
and the weakness of the ops

shield and hull yes it's upgraded (hull with ablative armor it's cool)
speed it's upgraded cooooool
ops i don't know i can't really judge

so it's already a good refit
but for firepower there is no upgrade on the SHIP

because we have on the FIRST ascendant 4/4/4/0/0 PULSE phasers
so there is a rule change (on starship right ??)
ok no problem
it become 5/3/3/0/0 okey
then when you will decide we use your new rules from ESO our ascendant (the first i repeat) will gain pulse phasers advantages (all the things you explained bove) and why because we already have PULSE phasers
okey

for the torpedoe i dont know about the multifunction but we have 5/5/5/5/5

and after the REFIT we will have PULSE phasers 5/3/3/0/0 with phasers advantages and 5/5/5/5/5 MULTIFUNCTION torpedoes

I say no upgrade on firepower unless the multifunction torpedoe launcher but if my memory's correct i cannot fire tricobalt on ships

and all I want to know is why my favourite systems are not upgraded even if it was perhaps the priority of the refit
that's all

[KillerWhale]

Now sit down and listen, you bloody player

Your phasers ARE updated. Look beyond the figures. The fact that it says "5/3/3/0/0" is only the visible face of the iceberg. I'm telling you that you can MODULATE this penetration and rise to 7/5/5/0/0 ON ANY MANEUVER!, OR lower it to gain a +6 to your roll. So in effect you have a BETTER firepowern, AND a modulation ability that can help you get the most difficult maneuvers done in a flash. Realize that with this advantage alone, you almost match the firepower of a Sovereing class... I don't know how else to say it. I s'pose we should carry on in the French-speaking thread, my English must be wobbly

Tricobalt devices require a special Starfleet authorization to obtain (they are not given for all missions). They have some shortcomings I won't discuss them because of the copyright on Starships, but as you like figures, I think nobody will blame me if I tell you the damage (modulable) is 10/10/0/0/0. Like it?

[Tobian]

Loryk, can I point out that the 'refit' has nothing to do with KW - it is the official Decipher rules on the Defiant in Starships. KW himself has allowed advantages to overcome these discrepancies - making the Pulse phasers more powerful than they were under the 'official' rules.

KW - Please feel free to surround Loryk with 3 Klingon defence stations - and with a Borg cube holding him in place with a tractor beam - for not being gratefull at being given improved firepower