A New Universe for ACTA's

[Nerroth]

You might want to add the Inter-Stellar Concordium to the list of major Alpha Octant empires* there; plus the Lyrans and Hydrans are no less major than the Gorns or Kzintis would be.

And to be fair to the (Neo-)Tholians and Seltorians, they do (or in the case of the Tholians, did) run an entire galaxy; it's only the various forces that made it from M81 to the Milky Way that one could consider "minor".

Plus there's a whole bunch of other empires in various non-Alpha settings; but they will have to wait for quite a while, I imagine.


*These days, ADB prefers to use "empire" or "species" (whichever term is more appropriate to the situation) rather than "race".

 

[godsgopher]

Oh drat, well I missed the Inter-Stellar Concordium. I knew I was forgetting something, but that's just the point isn't it? There are SO many different groups I can't name them all.

And of course there are still your regular, run of the mill, average Joe pirates. Which is why you find all the races having some kind of "police" ships. Much like the raiders from B5 they use whatever they can steal or con to be a threat to decent space travelers.

 

[Apep]

OK when are we going to see renders for the new ships ? :twisted:

 

[Ben2]

Half the point of police ships was that they were really really small versions of cruisers and let you play a quick game of SFB (which took quite a long time generally).

In ACTA there won't be that issue. Instead of 3 hour epic police ship duels it'll take about 10 minutes to resolve, and fleet battles will get done in a couple of hours not a couple of days.

 

[Myrm]

I found police cutter level games to be quite interesting - the ships were fragile and the damage output fairly low such that the ability to sling a point of reinforcement here or there made a big difference.

So with less systems to worry about and ships that seemed less intimidating new players could do a lot with them. I found them fun.

 

[godsgopher]

The insane level of detail found in Star Fleet Battles obviously wont make it into ACTA's its just an entirely different system. However ACTA's has always been a dramatic system. With Critical hits quickly disabling things you were relying upon to win the fight for you. So I think its going to be fun.

 

[MongooseMatt]

OK when are we going to see renders for the new ships ? :twisted:

Stand by for painted models in about 3 weeks time (ish). Plus a _lot_ more details on the game itself.

 

[MongooseMatt]

The insane level of detail found in Star Fleet Battles obviously wont make it into ACTA's its just an entirely different system.

Well, you might be surprised It still plays fast (of course - wouldn;t be CTA if it didn't), but we already have High Energy Turns, overloaded weapons, Labs, transported troops doing raids, seeking weapons, and a whole bunch of other bits and bobs that will make this game, again, feel very different.

The movement rules still only take a page though!

 

[Burger]

How large will the models be, compared to B5 models? I mean a typical average-size ship, will it be the size of a Tethys, a Hyperion or a Victory?

Are you making them smaller than currently, or bigger??

I guess it's a bit early but any clues to how many ships will the fleet boxes contain and how much the price will be? Will they be similar price points to the NA ones or the B5 ones?

 

[Stormrider]

How large will the models be, compared to B5 models? I mean a typical average-size ship, will it be the size of a Tethys, a Hyperion or a Victory?

Are you making them smaller than currently, or bigger??

I seem to remember someone saying that the Enterprise was originally 3 inches long, and that they were being scaled up 20% (could well be wrong there though). Which would make the Enterprise just over 3.5"/9cm long. Scale from there.

The current fleet boxes I've found have about 5 ships in, all of a decent size (nothing tiny) and are $40, if that helps any.

 

[MongooseMatt]

How large will the models be, compared to B5 models? I mean a typical average-size ship, will it be the size of a Tethys, a Hyperion or a Victory?

Are you making them smaller than currently, or bigger??

I guess it's a bit early but any clues to how many ships will the fleet boxes contain and how much the price will be? Will they be similar price points to the NA ones or the B5 ones?

About Hyperion-ish, on average. They will look bigger because of the saucers and nacelles.

As for pricing, we are currently looking at five ships in a squadron set for $29.99, and 16 ships plus a mini-rulebook in a fleet set for $99.99. For the UK, do the usual conversions and add a 'tad' to allow for VAT, though we will try to limit that as much as we can.

 

[Stormrider]

About Hyperion-ish, on average. They will look bigger because of the saucers and nacelles.

I can see me fielding a federation fleet now... Just had the thought that I can add some detachable nacelles to me Vree fleet

 

[MikeB]

Is there a scaled-down version of CTA's rules anywhere on the Mongoose site for downloading? I would really like to see the general gist of the rules.

 

[Ben2]

So Matt, considering doing a mega deal of x squadron boxes plus a rulebook?

And what would a squadron box look like?

1 cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 1 destroyer, 1 frigate 1 scout/other?

I really liked the old Federation Texas Class CL as well. Can you confirm if that made the cut?

 

[godsgopher]

It would seem really strange to me if they didn't have the "Old" Light Cruiser. After all its in both SFB and Federation Commander. Not having it would be leaving out one of the core ships of the setting. Not to mention making it impossible to do any kind of Early Years force.

 

[H]

Is there a scaled-down version of CTA's rules anywhere on the Mongoose site for downloading? I would really like to see the general gist of the rules.

you can download noble armada from a couple of places for a cost, "maybe" still get B5 acta, though it's unlikely given the licensing.

 

[MongooseMatt]

So Matt, considering doing a mega deal of x squadron boxes plus a rulebook?

With the Fleet box being released at the same time, this is unlikely. We _could_ have a mega-mega deal, for all fleet box sets and the rulebook, for the player who has to have everything

Would there be any interest in that?

I really liked the old Federation Texas Class CL as well. Can you confirm if that made the cut?

I believe it has.

 

[Greg Smith]

With the Fleet box being released at the same time, this is unlikely. We _could_ have a mega-mega deal, for all fleet box sets and the rulebook, for the player who has to have everything .

You mean LBH?

 

[Da Boss]

I have the Old Star Trek III combat game which I dusted off (literally)last night to have a look. It seems to cover the same ground, but has shiny full colour counters unlike the lets face it very "basic" ones I have seen for SFB.

Is there any crossover in non cannon ship design as many of the ships in the box look pretty good.

 

[MikeB]

The old FASA Star Trek Combat Simulator was very clunky to use. Ship speeds were very slow compared to weapon ranges, therefore ships tended to go "pop" well before closing in on one another. The Federation Commander system is a good representative of the SFU and I'm glad Mongoose is basing its ACTA: Star Fleet off of it.