If i was dictator of the galaxy and going design V2.0 ACTA

[Alexb83]

Or indeed if they'd embellished any details - which would be far more likely in order to boost morale.

Mind you, I think Sheridan did a bit of embellishing. According to him, his mines killed the Black Star and a few 'heavy cruisers' - but watching ItB, this doesn't seem to have been the case?

 

[emperorpenguin]

same reason why Ivanova hadn't heard about his famous way of destroying the Black Star

I always thought that she had heard the official story, but wanted to hear him tell it directly. In case ISN left out any... details

she says "I heard it was some kind of new tactic..."

that is like a Royal Navy officer not knowing a submarine sank the Belgrano!

 

[emperorpenguin]

Or indeed if they'd embellished any details - which would be far more likely in order to boost morale.

Mind you, I think Sheridan did a bit of embellishing. According to him, his mines killed the Black Star and a few 'heavy cruisers' - but watching ItB, this doesn't seem to have been the case?

yup he said 3 heavy cruisers in addition to the Drala Fi.

 

[frobisher]

I apear to be the only one who likes the priority system, it's quick, easy, and is every bit as flawed as a points system.

RETAIN fleet weaknesses - Lots of people want every ship for every fleet? whats the point, .

I agree on both points. I LOVE the Priority Level system, it is innovative and very quick to use.

Yup, I'd agree wholehearedly on this point. It could do with some tweaking though, maybe some restrictions and qualifications on some units to make up for something being "too cheap/expensive".

The downside is that each fleet needs to have things that fit at each priority level, and it was arguable that the Minbari upwards didn't bother with some of the lower ones. In a straight points system that's easier to accomodate.

As someone who has spent several years trying to fit his Dark Elf model collection into a 2000pt army list I know how fiddly points systems can be, and they are NOT balanced any more than a PL system.

They've got a little bit more "give", provided the base points and/or rarity restrictions are done right - GW are quite bad at that No system is perfect though, as in pratice a ship's worth is different against different opponents.

For instance, in B5 Wars the Minbari had a built in 15% ish points hike to reflect their Jammer (Stealth). Against First Ones, the Jammer didn't work. Now, the points values were not adjusted in this circumstance, because you should remember to turn off the jammer and shift its power elsewhere. Did this balance out it out? Yes and No, and some ships faired better than others. The Sharlin just got 5 points of power back that were practically useless to it, where as the White Star got exactly the power it needed to balance off its power deficite that prevented it arming all its weapons at once, so that more than compenstated (Remember, this is a ship with a cost the same as a fighter less Omega pretty much in that game, and a Sharlin is 2 1/2 such Omegas...)

Agreed again, A fleet's character is as much defined by what they don't have as what they do

Yup - that's the one thing above all else I hate about Star Fleet Battles - pretty much everyone has everything that anyone else has, at about the same points cost. Cookie cutterism at its worst

B5 Wars got that mostly right though, but some of that doesn't translate well to the ACtA system, but some of it has

 

[Locutus9956]

Curious then as to why Sheridan bothers to inquire as to the sensors used. If he knows EA don't have anything capable (and given his interest in "black" projects, he might know somehting of such a ground breaking nature), why ask the question?

Well I should point out that B5 was a JOINT project by the EA and Minbari Governments, for the most part it was built by the EA and funded jointly but for all Sheridan knew, having just arrived, the station COULD have had some Minbari sensor systems.....

Oh and Philogara, as for SFB, sure it has its flaws but in my experience most of the various races have VERY different weapon systems, sure there are a few experimental ships with other races weapons but theyre very very rare. The only weapon that crosses over to nearly everyone is phasers.

Now I havent played around with the ship design options in said game but Ive found that more often than not, ship design systems in that sort of game are hugely flawed and you can creates some MASSIVLEY unbalanced ships.

Lastly the thing with SFB that I like the most is that its all about how you USE your ship whether you win or lose rather than what weapons your ship actually has /shrug to each their own, there are when alls said and done very few games out there that I really and truly DISLIKE

 

[emperorpenguin]

Curious then as to why Sheridan bothers to inquire as to the sensors used. If he knows EA don't have anything capable (and given his interest in "black" projects, he might know somehting of such a ground breaking nature), why ask the question?

Well I should point out that B5 was a JOINT project by the EA and Minbari Governments, for the most part it was built by the EA and funded jointly but for all Sheridan knew, having just arrived, the station COULD have had some Minbari sensor systems.....

The Boneheads only stumped up cash, all the tech is Earthtech

 

[Alexb83]

Yes, but Sheridan didn't necessarily know that, which could give him even more motivation to ask. But really, the question was probably just there to facilitate the plot.
Funny how game players latch on to it as a hope to get past pesky stealth rolls. Thankfully JMS kept himself well-involved in post-episode Q&As

 

[Locutus9956]

Yes, but Sheridan didn't necessarily know that, which could give him even more motivation to ask.

Precicely Sheridan just got transfered to B5 with no warning and B5 was hardly a 'black project' so chances are prior to arriving he knew very little about the station itself

 

[kritikalfailure]

I'd make Precise weapons score a critical on a 5-6 (and still score a bulkhead hit on a 1).

I also wouldn't have double and triple damage weapons multiply damage on the critical hit table.

 

[Locutus9956]

I'd make Precise weapons score a critical on a 5-6 (and still score a bulkhead hit on a 1).

I also wouldn't have double and triple damage weapons multiply damage on the critical hit table.

Interesting ideas... I actually rather like them, makes the game less crit mad though it does perhaps tilt the game somewhat in favour of races with weapons that just have loads of attack dice since they will tend to score more crits overall. It would need tweaking but its not a bad idea to start out from...

 

[Alexb83]

Actually, if you read the rules as written (in the Revised box set, book 1) then triple damage weapons do not triple extra damage caused by critical hits.

Double damage weapons do double crit damage (it's noted in the double damage description). But under the triple damage entry it says nothing of the sort.

Has this been changed in an official release by mongoose since?

 

[emperorpenguin]

Actually, if you read the rules as written (in the Revised box set, book 1) then triple damage weapons do not triple extra damage caused by critical hits.

Double damage weapons do double crit damage (it's noted in the double damage description). But under the triple damage entry it says nothing of the sort.

Has this been changed in an official release by mongoose since?

Hmm that is interesting, though only a real rules lawyer would try that!

It says ALL damage is tripled but you're right it omits the phrase from double damage. Common sense is needed here.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

Has this been changed in an official release by mongoose since?

Do they really have to be? I mean, isn't it a simple case of common sense?

Wulf

 

[Locutus9956]

Erm it says that they triple all damage in exactly the same fasion as double damage. I cant see how you could read it otherwise to be honest.

Anyway back on topic: Something I would actually really like to see in ACTA v2 is the damage/armour rating thing from Victory at sea (where weapons have effectively different rolls for hitting and actually DAMAGING the target, it allows a whole load of options for ships, for exmaple you can make whitestars very hard to actually HIT but quite fragile and ships like Vorlons heavy cruisers can get hit left right and center but not actually damaged half the time etc etc.

Also the VaS crit table just comes across as much better (and much less game dominating). In short mongoose seem to have learned some lessons from ACTA and applied them to VaS. It seems only logical to apply those lessons to ACTA version 2

 

[Alexb83]

I've seen people arguing over far less on the rulesmasters thread Between typos and different ways of reading specific rules, there's a whole lot of room for people to spend more time quibbling over the rules than actually enjoying the game.

If the rules are spelled out in a way that defies argument, that helps IMO. (especially from my viewpoint, where I'm trying to start playing and get other people to start, too)

 

[Locutus9956]

Well simply put, if anyone tries to wiggle out of rules on grounds that flimsy I would perscribe a healthy course of bludgeoning to death with the rulebook

 

[emperorpenguin]

Something I would actually really like to see in ACTA v2 is the damage/armour rating thing from Victory at sea (where weapons have effectively different rolls for hitting and actually DAMAGING the target, it allows a whole load of options for ships, for exmaple you can make whitestars very hard to actually HIT but quite fragile and ships like Vorlons heavy cruisers can get hit left right and center but not actually damaged half the time etc etc.

I championed this cause a few months ago and I agree with you, I think it's a great idea, however I got a ton of stick over it. Glad to see someone shares my views!

 

[Wulf Corbett]

Well simply put, if anyone tries to wiggle out of rules on grounds that flimsy I would perscribe a healthy course of bludgeoning to death with the rulebook

It's too lightweight. Use a Brivoki, it's what they're for.

Wulf

 

[Locutus9956]

Well to be honest EP I might have been one of the people giving that stick, but I I was it was on the grounds that it would be too big a change to the game for an update, but if were looking at a whole new edition (as is the case) then thats a completely different story. Hell I could even get on board with the idea of using D10s in this instance The only issue with both of these is that you have to compleltely redising the fleet lists and that will probably lead to more cases like the arma sag and sfos whitestar etc. But its a small price to pay for a better game overall!

 

[Locutus9956]

Well simply put, if anyone tries to wiggle out of rules on grounds that flimsy I would perscribe a healthy course of bludgeoning to death with the rulebook

It's too lightweight. Use a Brikorta, it's what they're for.

Wulf

ok then use the box. With SFoS and Armageddon in it too