ACTA:SF questions about crew criticals.

[astronomypete]

Hi quick question..

Crew Critical 4 "No Specal Actions"

If the ship had declared an existing special action IE "All Hands on Deck!" at the start of the turn, would the ship still gain the benefit of the bonus rolls? or would all actions stop at that point.

 

[Rambler]

All Special Actions would stop at the time the 4th ranked Crew Critical was scored. And to be perfecrly honest you just lost your ability to use those overloads you loaded as well. Figure enough of the crew has been killed or wounded that whats left has thier hands full putting put out fires and sealing the odd coolant leaks which are probably radioactive to boot.

 

[astronomypete]

It's all well and good saying that. But if you can't use any crew actions then how can you de-cloak?

 

[Rambler]

My take.

The same thing that happense if you enter a asteroid field or dust cloud. Since engaging the cloaking device was a special action in the first place you immediately lose all benfits of the cloak without the benifit of the disengage cloaking device movement. Harsh yes but it was a serious blow to your ship in the first place.

 

[JohnDW]

I agree, since you would lose your special actions, and since engaging cloak is a special action, you would lose the benefit if your cloaks as they shut down (probably because of all the fires)

 

[Greg Smith]

It's all well and good saying that. But if you can't use any crew actions then how can you de-cloak?

You can't. But if you are on a level 4 crew crit, that is likely to escalate, with only a 1 in 6 of being able to repair (you already have -1 CQ), would you want to?

Now granted, it may have been a freak photon that went through your cloak and penetrated shields and scored two crew criticals, leaving your ship mostly undamaged. In which case, head for the nearest dust cloud.

 

[astronomypete]

I look at it from a slightly different perspective.

In SFB you overload your photons in energy allocation. Ergo until the next energy allocation you will not lose your overloaded photons.

In SFB you charge your cloak you don't disengage your cloak in a forced manner until energy allocation comes round and you can't power them.

Therefore I would argue that things which are in place at the start of that turn should continue until after the end phase.

But I stand to be corrected.

 

[SneakyPete]

The rules state that all effects are applied immediately. If you lose the ability to do Special Actions all of their effects end immediately.

You can house rule whatever you want though, but I rather like it as written.

 

[astronomypete]

I accept that it happens immediately but how about cloaks? Do you get to move for free, and turn when you de-cloak.

And overloads you have already charged the weapon why would you lose it? If you lose an overload in SFB its discharged into space, and you can't fire that turn.

I'm just sayin... (and probably playing devil's advocate to get a rules clarification)

 

[Da Boss]

The rules are pretty clear on this matter:

Under Special Actions: Critical Hits (p12

"If a ship is restricted from performing Special Actions, then it will also immediately loose any Special Action it is performing, loosing all benefits in the process."

The SFB reference is interesting but irrelevent as the rules cover the situation completely

If you loose your cloak - it just stops working and you loose your stealth save
if you loose your overload - again its gone - energy lost, leeked, capacitors blown up etc.

 

[Rambler]

Actually Astronomypete the overload thing is just funny if you come at it from a SFU point. Just because you overloaded it does not mean you did cause you czn still fire overload weapons as standard loads if you have a target of opportunity pop up outside of overload range. Also you can not hold overloads in ACTASF use them or lose them this turn. But reloaded weapons do not discharge they stay charged till you fire.

Different game mechanics at work here thats why I pointed out the overload earlier.

As far as the cloak goes I still read it as you lose right then and there. The move 6 and turn is actually part pf another special action.

 

[Greg Smith]

The problem with cloak is that if you are already cloaked, it requires a special action to decloak.

In SFB you decloak simply by not allocating power at the start of the turn. So ACTA does not mirror SFB in this case.

However, I would point out that discrete turns and are power allocation are a game mechanism, and realistically (I know, bad word to use) power allocation would be continuous during the course of the battle and if the crew were sufficiently depleted there would be no-one able to alter the power allocation controls, ergo the cloak remains 'ON'.

 

[Nerroth]

Perhaps the overload is meant to echo the way it (can) work in Federation Commander; where photons can be overloaded during Energy Allocation or by adding in unused Energy Points at the instant of firing (and where single-turn weapons like disruptors aren't handled in Energy Allocation at all; they are only paid for and/or overloaded at the instant of fire).

In FC, much less of your ship's power is set aside through Energy Allocation at the start of a turn; in essence, every ship has a large amount of what SFB would refer to as "reserve power". It's one of the key differences between both game systems; which may be a factor to consider, given FC's relevance to the conversion of the Star Fleet Universe into A Call to Arms.

So, perhaps the way in which overloads are handled here refers more to the amount of power that was intended to be allocated at the time of firing, rather than being "warmed up" beforehand.

 

[astronomypete]

So, perhaps the way in which overloads are handled here refers more to the amount of power that was intended to be allocated at the time of firing, rather than being "warmed up" beforehand.

That concept I like and works for me...

Now if only we can explain the inability to decloak? Or how cloaking functions work, to get it nailed down.

Anyone guys/gals? A simple definitive answer?

 

[Iain McGhee]

In ACTA, only turning the cloak on or off uses a Special Action. Unlike CBD and such you don't have to continually use a SA to keep the effect going, so I'd say if you get a "No SAs" critical while cloaked it's stuck on until you fix the critical. It would drop if you began cloaking and took a "no SA" effect that same turn as the SA was still active at the time.

BTW, the move and turn when decloaking is part of the decloaking SA, you don't get it if you lose the trait through damage.

 

[Rambler]

The way I read it is a continuious special action with a special rule allowing you to run a second special action. In games I run and any Tournaments I organise will use that interpetation unless Mathew FAQs a answer.

And yes there are a few cases that allow you to use 2 special actions. Also I have made a similar call on Tractor Beams.

 

[JohnDW]

Does it need an explanation or a comparison though? ACTA is not SFB is not FC. Sure they're all in the SFU, but they're not the same game.

If people are persistant though, you could think of it as: the only special action you're allowed to use while cloaked would be to reload or decloak, so after the first turn of engaging the cloak, you could think of each turn after that as a 'maintain cloak' special action, requiring power to continue to go into the cloaks.

The critical in question, crew level 4, involves multiple fires, localized decompression, and secondary explosions as the 'effect' on the critical table. Even if the crew itself isn't needed to direct or maintain the energy flow to the system, power must be disrupted somewhere in order for the ship to gain no bonus from any special action. Power isn't going where it needs to go for everything to keep working.

Its suffecient enough reasoning for me, and this is the first ACTA as well as the first SFU game for me so I'm not much rooted in what both universes have done in the past. Comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Nerroth]

Personally, if a Critical score caused the Cloak to disappear, I'd just have the device break down; in that the ship would decloak, but lose the "free" move (since they aren't choosing the de-cloak; the choice is forced upon them). It would simply be stuck in place.