As a SFB and Fed Com player I can offer a few of my observations to some of these questions.
Da Boss said:
Whilst its important that Trek keeps a feel for Trek in terms of style and substance there is no point in simply reproducing the same rules in the new game that would make ACTA into a pale imitation and remove the advantages of its ability to play large scale fleet engagements quickly.
A thing to remember is we are talking Star Fleet Universe here not Movie Trek or one of the later series Trek here. It does however have the feel of the Original Series. SFU Klingons do fire Disruptors and Phaser but will never fire Photons or Cloak. SFU Romulans do Cloak and tend to fire few weapons that take longer to arm but, will kick like a mule when they hit you.
Thats all fine - I meant the Style of the SFU needs to be maintained but not at the expense of playability / making ACTA: ST too complex and elimnating the advantages of converting the system.
Da Boss said:
Compatibility with ACTA: NA (ideally ACTA 2nd ed but that’s not going to happen) Same quick and easy movement system - although probably need something to allow ships to reverse as thats something that seems to be farily unique to Trek? Maybe just a SA after all stop - "Engines Full reverse" or some such"
I assume SFB has a reverse mechanic?
SFB use Retrograde Movements rules basically you come to a dead stop then "shift" into reverse. Fed Com on the other hand uses a slightly different approach but the gist is you pay double the energy cost to move backwards.
That sounds the same as using the All Stop Special Action one turn and then "Engines Full reverse" next turn - so nice and easy esp since no need to worry about the speed of ships
Da Boss said:
Same quick and easy weapons - althougb would prefer more dice than in Noble Armada - the ships feel a bit well wimpy with their AD. Some fluff in the rules - always helps I feel.
That is up to to how Mongoose decides to write the rules. SVC has stated before that it is not important for other rule engines to use SFB's Tax Codes to determine how there weapons work what is important is that the new rules have the same feel that SFB or Fed Com have. For example, Disruptors take one turn to arm, Photons take 2 turns to arm, Plasma Torpedoes takes 3 turns to arm. That kind of thing or One Photon Torpedo does roughly Twice the Damage of a Disruptor Bolt.
I'd go along with that - but having slow-loading and weapon traits should mean that each missile type cna be very different. 3 turns is a very long time in ACTA - slow-loading is bad enough - ask Vree players!
Da Boss said:
What I don't want to see
Massively complex rules on power management etc
Having to track lots of things (Especially since crew stat was removed for this very reason)
If you are interested in this level of detail might I loan you my 4" Rule book with all the rules for SFB in it. =p Seriously though, people play different games with different degrees of rules because they play with the amount of detail they are interested in and ADB recognizes this. Look at the difference between SFB and Fed Com. One system uses a detail Energy Allocation System which requires you to make most if not all of your decisions at the start of the turn. If you do not allocate energy for it at the start you probably are not going to be able to do it if a opportunity comes. Where as Fed Com uses a Power Pool that you pay for things as you go.
As Burger said previously - Special Actions should cover pretty much all the thngs that power management does - wherther that be overloading weapons (Concentrate firepower- the old one would be better not the rubbishy new one), executing tight turns (Come About), Bracing for impact (CBD), All power to Shields etc etc. These are quick to implement and require very little tracking.
Da Boss said:
Def don't want it to have lots of missiles to track all over the place - that way lies a very slow and annoying game. At most I'd be happy to see BFG style torpedo barrages.
This one is going to be sticky, but it will be up to Mongoose to decide how they want to handle them. Seeking Weapons (both Drones and Plasma Torpedoes) serve 2 functions in the SFU. The first is obvious, that is to cause harm to your enemies. The second is to control his maneuvering and forcing him to move in a direction of your choosing instead of where he wants to go. If you abstract out the flight times of these weapons it will change the feel of them in game play a little bit but, that is a detail that may need to be sacrificed in the name of playability.
