ACTA - SF Errata

[GalagaGalaxian]

Remember, these names were made 30 years ago, long before the unfortunate choices made by that man in the last decade+. There is also the NCC-755 USS Saddam.

Personally I never liked the fact that 50% or so of the Federation fleet is named after "obscure" 20th century (or thereabouts) people in the first place, and an ever larger percentage are humanity-centric names.

Federation Equality at work.

 

[SonOfOrder]

Ouch, I'd missed the USS Saddam. Really unfortunate naming policy on some of these ships

 

[Rambler]

Couple of questions that I could do with some clarification on.

Federation drone racks as anti-drone devices. What exactly happens when you roll a 1? Do you lose the use of 1 AD of drones or do you have to lose all your ammunition (on a Kirov say, so 4 times) before you totally lose the ability to fire offensive drones. Alternately is a single ADD roll of one sufficient to render your drone hard point worthless?

Just like normal Anti Drone Traits each 1 you roll results in losing one AD of Anti Drones or in this case Drones. SO if you were using allyor drone acks you would need to roll 4 ones. But, remember using advance rules you can split the drone AD up so that you only are using one of the racks in Anti Drone Mode at a time. so if it runs out you will still have 3 AD of drones.

Secondly, Tractor Beams. So I can't target a cloaked vessel, but what happens if I have a Romulan locked in a Tractor beam, and he tries to cloak ? RAW there is nothing to stop this, but presumably he still can't move, even when he decloaks again, unless it passes a roll to break away. Perhaps turning on your cloak should break tractor beam locks? Whilest on the subject of tractors, does a lock prevent turning on the spot?

Probable a Errata note here but, in Fed Com a unit that is held in a tractor beam has the effects of its cloak continuiously void as long as the tractor beam is maintained. Once the Tractor Beam is broken or dropped then the benifits start to kick in.

Thirdly, a question a question for the die hard SFB/FC guys. The Ortega class 713 USS Robert Mugabe? Seriously? I don't want to get too political on a wargaming board, but perhaps this ship designation should have been quietly dropped.

Thanks guys.

As pointed out most of these names were made a couple of decades ago at the same time numerious uiversities and even the Queen of England made the same mistake.

 

[Ben2]

Ouch, I'd missed the USS Saddam. Really unfortunate naming policy on some of these ships

Page 76 of the rulebook, DWD 0838, the USS Taliban. Given the US wasn't informally allied with the Taliban for that long before 9/11 it's a bizarre choice. History isn't really going to look favourably on the Taliban and I don't think advanced Federation sensibilities would either. If it is meant to represent Islamic cultures a USS Sherazad or Xerxes or something would have been a better choice. And if it is meant to represent Islamic cultures then picking a group that the muslims of the middle ages would have regarded as backward is pretty offensive. You may as well go with USS Hillbillies from Deliverance.

There are plenty of warship names from Earth history, and they could have created alien sounding names to represent the other Federation members. I think using so many historical figures makes the game seem very much of a time (who is going to give a crap about Robert Mugabe in 200 years, he'll be just another dead and long forgotten tyrant). Fortunately we don't have a USS Pol Pot or Joseph Goebbels.

 

[Rambler]

Ben2 - War Destroyers are not named for cultures. But for revolutionary groups and leaders. At the time these named were picked the Taliban was receiving aid and weapons form the US anybody remember Rambo III? over the last 30 years some of these groups and people have either changed their beliefs or the rose colored glasses of politics have come off. What is happening is futuristic history of the 80s has not been adjusted to compensate for the actual real world history that has occurred.

If you want alien sounding rebel groups or histories start writting the up and I am sure we can get some of the named changed to compensate.

And for what it is worth Xerres is a actual Destroyer in the SFU.

 

[Iron Domokun]

I don't think the names will change. According to what I've read about the ship naming policy, "alien-sounding" names are avoided because they'd just be a bunch of nonsense-sounding syllables. You get names like Saddam or Mugabe because, 400 years from now when the game is set, the perspective is different. Look at, say, Napoleon. Tried to conquer all of Europe, got his country into a series of disastrous wars that caused enormous suffering, finally defeated (twice). Yet regarded by the French as a national hero.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

I think a bunch of made up alien names is better than being pretty much all human culture names with an odd emphasis on the 20th century and thereabouts. I guess the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and the rest aren't worth naming ships after? :lol:

 

[Ben2]

The Federation is a homo sapiens only club.

 

[Nerroth]

Xerxes wouldn't have been Muslim; if anything, he may or may not have been Zoroastrian (though it's not exactly clear how closely aligned the various Achaemenid rulers were to the faith as Zarathustra preached it, if they were at all).

Although, one of the most famous ships in Star Fleet is the Saladin...

 

[Sgt_G]

I think a bunch of made up alien names is better than being pretty much all human culture names with an odd emphasis on the 20th century and thereabouts. I guess the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and the rest aren't worth naming ships after? :lol:

Actually, ADB tried that once upon a time -- players didn't like unpronouncable gibberish. But, hey, feel free to submit a list of suggested name to them. One never knows what might fly until you throw it into the air.

 

[dalek4890l]

One thing to remember regarding ship names is that it might not be that 'Saddam' but the one who helped a certain engineer (that I won't mention in case it breaks a licence condition) develop the warp drive. The 'Robert Mugabe' referred to may also be the governor of the last independent colony to join the Federation. As for suitable names you could avoid controversy by using nouns (Victory, Intrepid, Sabre, Foil, Cutlass, Whip, Flute etc.) or, as we don't know who will be famous in the future, just pick random human surnames (USS Sprange, USS Cole, USS Getgen are three that spring to mind, although perhaps they may attract criticism for being a little bit egotistical). Of course if you do this there's no guarantee that in five or so years these names won't belong to notorious serial killers, dictators or similar.

 

[Jean]

Do remember that our history diverged from that of the SFU in the 1990s. Some folks who fought in the Eugenics War and died as heroes became brutal dictators in the history we lived. Furthermore, by the time that the ships were named, a lot of the history had been lost or garbled. A revolutionary group may only have been known for standing up against injustice, not for the injustices the perpetrated on others.

We don't tend to name ships after members of the company. We did name one after Joe Butler, our long time webmaster and BBS sys admin, when he passed. He had done so much for us we could not let his name vanish. We named the lead ship of the Federation Area Control Ship class after Joe. This ship has been given hull number 1995, since 1995 was the first year that Joe Butler was the desk judge for the Origins tournaments. Area Control Ships are a triple threat, with fighters, gunboats, and their own weapons, and Joe was a triple threat, running the web site, a playtest group, and the tournaments. The USS Joseph Butler, NCC-1995, sails into the great beyond.

We do let people name a starship after a lady: http://store.starfleetstore.com/mer...ore_Code=S&Product_Code=9996&Category_Code=19

Jean

 

[scoutdad]

I think a bunch of made up alien names is better than being pretty much all human culture names with an odd emphasis on the 20th century and thereabouts. I guess the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and the rest aren't worth naming ships after? :lol:

I know where you can get some custom decals with those made up alien names! :roll:

 

[Sgt_G]

And no matter what people might think about my ego, I really Really REALLY R-E-A-L-L-Y do NOT ever want a ship named after me, thank you very much.

 

[Stumonster]

I am new to A Call to Arms: SF, so I need a clarification: When a ship takes a critical hit it may have a result to 'lose 1 random trait'. So, to make it random, the player with the damages ship really rolls a die to determine what system, or can they pick 'at random' from their ships list?

Secondly, if the ship has a trait of Transporters-5, does a critical hit knock out all 5 transporters as being 'one trait', or only 1, to it would be reduced to transporters-4 until repaired?

Thanks!

 

[scoutdad]

Yes, you roll a die to obtain a truly random result. Picking from the list of traits isn't going to give you a random result.

Yes again. If you have Transporters 5 and you lose the transporter trait - you lose all of them.

 

[djdood]

Regarding some of the names that have become distasteful in the decades since they were picked; ADB is pretty good about letting fiction writers "take care" of ships like that.

The War Destroyer Saddam was used in a "supporting" role in a Captain's Log fiction story ("The Battle for Rimworld", IIRC). The writer crafted the ship to be mechanically flawed, crewed by a sub-standard "poor" rated crew, and captained by an complete toolbag. It was destroyed, rather ignominiously, by Andromedans. The NCC London won the day, despite Saddam's failures.

I keep toying with the idea of fleshing out one of my short-fiction ideas, if only so I can have the Mugabe or Taliban meet similar fates.

 

[Stumonster]

@ScoutDad: thanks for the clarification.

I have another question: Romulan ships based on Klingon designs have a note saying all hits from the forward arc are reduced by 1/2 (round up). Yet,. Klingon ships as shown in the book to not get this rule. So, is it:

1) The Klingons DO actually get this rule but it was left out in error.
2) The Romulans should NOT have this rule and it was left in the book in error.
3) The book is correct and for some reasons Romulans get this and Klingons do not.

?? I searched the forums and there are a few threads that suggest Klingon ship should also have this. The threads are fairly old though. And there is also this on this site it says that Klingon ships should get the bonus:

'Romulans will need this as well, for the KR gives away a little in Shields and quite a bit in Damage, so it is by no means as durable (though the Fore Arc Shield special rule, also applicable to all Klingon ships) helps out a great deal.'

You can find this on Planet Mongoose link. Scroll down to the bottom and look at the article for 10/18/2011 on advanced rules.

 

[Da Boss]

Its a fleet special rule on p81 - Reinforced Shields

 

[Stumonster]

@Da Boss: DUH!!! Did not see that. Thanks for pointing that out.

Guess that is why you are 'Da Boss'.