Energy Diffusion

[Sulfurdown]

What impact would this have on the shadows if they were added?

Energy Diffuser (N/M) - The player may mark damage on the diffuser instead of the ship damage. Each end of turn phase this amount is reduced by the M value. If the player ever assigns more damage then the N value the diffuser is disabled for the rest of the scenario and any over damage goes to the ship as normal damage.


Something like a limited Adaptive Armor. I'm not sure if I'd want the Diffuser to have a maximum of around 1/5 to 1/2 of the ships damage capacity. i.e. Shadow Ship = 250 damage, Diffuser (50/10)

Opinions?

 

[Jhary]

Why boost up the shadows?

 

[Triggy]

A rule like this would need balancing as pointed out above so this didn't just become a boost (although the Shadow Ship does need one). It's not the worst idea in the world though...

 

[Sulfurdown]

Why boost up the shadows?

It's an attempt to bring out more of the character of the Shadows and that they are slippery targets to hit and kill. Adaptive Armour was rightfully stripped from the Shadows since that has more of the Vorlon feel but that leaves them without any comparable defense. I know they still have the Damage Resistance but I personally don't care for the "Damage Resistance" rules. They add unnecessary complication and actually make the ancients _more_ prone to taking damage (you never bulkhead a Shadow or Vorlon, you instead do one damage times the multiplier). Something like a Diffuser still has to be used with precision otherwise you’re dead in the water but it give some amount of intimidation for a hit and run. Something to bring the Shadow ships more on par with the Vorlon Heavy Cruisers.

 

[Alexb83]

Both the Vorlons and Shadows are heavily let down by the current 'damage reduction' rule - strictly speaking it's more of a damage enhancement, in that with a normal weapon you can do 0-1 damage against non-ancient ships (then multiply), whereas against an ancient ship you can do 1-6 (and then multiply).

Yes, Vorlons have the benefit of adaptive armour - but they miss out slightly on speed and SM ability (and hull above Battle level).

If you were going to give the Shadows something on top of hull 6 for hunters and Ships, I'd suggest throwing in a drawback to the system. As discussed on the Canon thread further down, Shadow ships were often paralysed when hit by beam weapons - perhaps they can ignore damage, but take penalties to movement if they're hit.

Personally I'd just leave them as they are, or move both Vorlons and Shadows back to the same damage system as the Ancients in Armageddon (normal hits, but can take crits which are auto-repaired). That'd work much better...

 

[Sulfurdown]

I don't necessarily agree on the speed issue simply because the shadow ship starts at a speed 6 (doubletime = 12). I'll have to check the Vorlon specific rules for Arma. [EDIT: Went back and reviewed the Vorlons - Yup, they get screwed on speed and the VHC can only get up to 7.5 on a APtE! versus the SS 12 on a doubletime]

The idea of the stall out on the beam hit is one that I'm trying to form a coherent and simple rule set for. The best I have so far is that if a Ship is hit by a beam weapon it cannot be selected to fire next (which means you could hold a single shadow ship from firing until last if you've got the right ships). It's simple and doesn't have to keep track of records except to the next ship selection. I may just move the Shadow ships back to a Standard damage chart (250 hits ~ 71 or 72 on the normal scale and the self-repair goes to 4). I hadn't considered a Crit/Autofix but that might be an interesting tweak.

 

[Sulfurdown]

Purely for arguments sake... what if:

Divide all the Shadow/Vorlon vessel damage scores by 3.5 (the average roll of a d6) and reduce Self-Repairing so instead of things like 4d6 it's simply 4 (straight 2s would become 1s, etc).

Instead of using the alternate damage chart use the normal one so bulkheads are now possible.

For the "Damage Resistance" treat all incoming fire from non-ancients, non-vorlon, non-shadow as one lower in the AP range (i.e. Super AP = AP, AP = Normal, Normal = Weak, Weak = Super Weak or -2), Vorlons/Shadows remain immune to Crippled or Skeleton Crewed Status and a Critical will simply do an additional 3 damage instead rolling on the Critical chart.


I know that space stations use the same damage chart as the Shadow/Vorlon but in the case of a behemoth, immobile, space station that can't turn into or away from incoming fire, it makes sense that a 1 does a point of damage rather then being a bulkhead.

 

[sidewinder]

How about if you just give all first ones hull 7 against non first ones. And put their hits and self repair back to their SFoS stats. I like their weapons being boosted though, its not like they get a lot of them.

 

[DrSeltsam]

The idea of the stall out on the beam hit is one that I'm trying to form a coherent and simple rule set for. The best I have so far is that if a Ship is hit by a beam weapon it cannot be selected to fire next (which means you could hold a single shadow ship from firing until last if you've got the right ships). It's simple and doesn't have to keep track of records except to the next ship selection. I may just move the Shadow ships back to a Standard damage chart (250 hits ~ 71 or 72 on the normal scale and the self-repair goes to 4). I hadn't considered a Crit/Autofix but that might be an interesting tweak.

Im sorry but this is a nice idea from a fluff point of view but i do not believe it will work "ingame".
Who will take a Armageddon PL ship that only has to be hit by a Skirmish PL beam to be unable to attack ?
Even a flight would do more damage ... :roll:

 

[Sulfurdown]

And the "Damage Resistance" would need editing. As a buddy of mine pointed out the vessels that rely on the high number of weak dice, etc would gain an even bigger advancement against the species which are supposed to be more powerful and load out the 5/6 hulls.

back to the drawing board.

 

[blackphoenix]

Seems a little complicated from a tracking it point of view, why not just add a d6 or two to the repair to represent this?