2e publishing suggestions

animus

Mongoose
I have a couple of suggestions for the layout of the 2e books.

First list weapons on the ship stat pages by firing arc - group them that way, not by range or dice, but by arcs. this will really help the usability of the books.

Second, include a picture of the ship every time it's listed. This mostly applies to the EA which has the same ship across several "fleets." I've seen newbies frustrated by having to refer to other pages to see what they're looking at.
 
I think I heard that too. I know every time I play a different fleet I'm always a bit irritated when trying to find counters for that fleet...
 
Great idea on the arcs. Thankfully the sources I use online (Epicarmycard and Burgers) do just that. Its was very annoying playing my first few games before I discoverd those two great sites.
 
animus said:
I have a couple of suggestions for the layout of the 2e books.

First list weapons on the ship stat pages by firing arc - group them that way, not by range or dice, but by arcs. this will really help the usability of the books.

Second, include a picture of the ship every time it's listed. This mostly applies to the EA which has the same ship across several "fleets." I've seen newbies frustrated by having to refer to other pages to see what they're looking at.
I'm actually not such a fan of them being listed by arc - I find it much easier to find the weapon I'm looking for in order of weapon type (i.e. I can see how many AD the Ion Cannon has in every arc all at once and judge its firepower that way). I'm not really saying one way is outright better, I'm just pointing out that not everyone finds listing by arc better.
 
I like the idea of layout by arc. It does make it easier to just look and say "Okay, all of this can shoot at you".
 
A major improvement would be to have the ships in order of their priority level rather than, well, all over the place really (almost in alphebetical order :wink: ). It would make the ships far easier to compare. (Then in each priority level put them in 'in service' order, earliest to latest).

Also, instead of putting 'every' extra rule in special rules, a Defences bit would be good (for Interceptors, stealth, dodge etc..).

Just to save space, instead of having 'Carrier 2' and then 'Fleet Carrier', Why not just have 'Fleet Carrier 2'. It's gotta be a Carrier to be a Fleet Carrier afterall!

Actually putting Craft as a weapon would be good: Weapon is the name of the flight, AD is number of flights, special would be if the ship had carrier or fleet carrier (Range and Arc being dashes).

If a ship has got a Flight computer, putting an asterix (or similar) next to the skeleton crew rating would be handy, same goes for regeneration and the Full Damage rating. Adaptive armour could be put by the hull value as well. (All these special rules would still be written in the special bit).

For Laser/Pulse Arrays having a both values and sets of rules divided by a / would be nice. i.e. weapon: laser/pulse arrays, Range: 12/15, Arc: F, AD: 5/10, Special: Beam, AP/Twin-linked.

I think having everything put in arc order would be alright, but I find that the weapons in order of range (then arc, B,F,T,P,S,A, B(a)) is far easier to use.

The order of the special rules for weapons should be put in use of order IMO. i.e. what sort of weapon is it (Beam, mini Beam, normal, Twin-Linked),
then if its got AP (Super AP, AP, normal, weak),
then if its precise (precise, normal, imprecise (why doesn't this rule exist?)),
then if its Slow Loading (Normal, Slow Loading when crippled, Slow Loading),
then if it has a damage multiplier (x1, x2, x3, x4!).

The order of Special rules should start with Scout (or Advanced Scout) and Command +n, and end with Shuttles and Troops (yes, put troops under special rules!). It would just be easier to tell what something is at a glance. Also Special rules can take up alot of space, I think it would be better to put it after the ships stats (like in BFG).

Cheers,

RayB
 
Just to save space, instead of having 'Carrier 2' and then 'Fleet Carrier', Why not just have 'Fleet Carrier 2'. It's gotta be a Carrier to be a Fleet Carrier afterall!

Yes, but they do different things, and as long as the mechanism for removing special abilities remains the same in 2e (50/50 when crippled, though some are auto, such as fleet carrier) then they should be listed separately.
Carrier allows you to launch and recover more than one craft, Fleet Carriers have added command and control equipment, as well as ready repair facilities.

as far as weapon list order, I prefer the heiarchy of arc/range/AD

for special abilities, weapon traits, I don't care, but the current alphebetical is fine with me.
 
Weapons listed arc/range/AD sounds good

Ships by priority and then by date or alphabetical - a full list of all ships by date and priority level would be a fine appendix.
 
Chernobyl,

Ah yes, I hadn't really thought of the Fleet Carrier getting crippled. To me it would make a fair bit of sense to lose both traits at once however. If the carrier ability is gone, would it really make sense for the ship to be able to recover and repair and indeterminable ammount of flights?

For Arc order where would turrets go? What would be your arc order?

Cheers,

RayB
 
Weapons listed by arc is immensely more useful than anything else. You can instantly see which weapons can be fired at targets in each arc.

Ships listed alphabetically is fine by me, they all have the PL in the top right corner anyway. As long as the PL matches that in the fleet listing... can anyone say "Batrado" ;)
 
Burger said:
Weapons listed by arc is immensely more useful than anything else.
In your opinion of course.

We've already had more than one person expressing a preference for each set of formatting :)
 
Triggy said:
Burger said:
Weapons listed by arc is immensely more useful than anything else.
In your opinion of course.

We've already had more than one person expressing a preference for each set of formatting :)

I don't understand your position at all in this, Trig. As a person who is constantly trying to interest new players I keep hearing the weapon list complaint a lot. If it weren't for the stat sheets/cards put out by fans (thanks Burger and Chern), I don't think I could get a second game. It's illogical to me to list weapons by range or chronology or ancestry, (however, I could be convinced to list maybe by the color of the beam or by "zap" sounds vs. "ka-thump" sounds).

Explain to me the logic of range listing for game play. I think for game play, it has to be by arc - show me another game that has arcs that don't list them that way.

As for turret, that's another arc. The order of the arc listings wouldn't be as big a deal as the grouping of same arc weapons together, but a logical one might be B, F, S, P, A, B(a), T.
 
Turret should go first as it is always applicable. It should go Port Starboard, left to right (like reading, the language its written in :) ).

The range order is a guide of which weapons you will fire first (as you close).

Cheers,

RayB
 
Okay turret can go first, but then the forward guns because they get fired the most.

I don't get the alphabetical thing at all - and they're not always alphabetical. I think the books were set by people who don't actually play the game.
 
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