Issues with scale?

[mikelosaurus]

I've been talking to some friends I know about ACTA and one of the reasons some of them have cited for never getting involved is due to problems with the relative scale of the different minis. While I think they may have largely got the wrong end of the stick after seeing the different ranges previously released by AOG, there are still some genuine discrepancies, although it looks like these can be mostly be alleviated by just mixing-and-matching with what's out there.

I originally thought that it was just the 'big ships' from each race/faction which were too small but after having re-watched a bunch of B5 episodes I don't think that's the case. Most the ACTA range seems to fit well, with the exception of a handful of the smaller ships, which should really be smaller than they are.

This gut feeling seems to be borne out by the marvellous site http://www.merzo.net/ where you can see that the White Star, Shadow Scout, Olympus Corvette and Drazi Sunhawk should be much closer in size to their Fleet Action equivalents. It also seems to imply that the only models too small are the EA Explorer and the B5 station, which should be double or triple the size of the castings available.

I do wonder though how accurate these comparisons are and whether there are any definitive, authorative statistics on ship sizes which could be used as a reference point. Has anyone really worried about this before me? Does anyone else really care that much about getting all their minis to look 'just right' together...?

 

[H]

well it's all made up, so all the sizes are actually made up, so there can be no real discrepancy in size, everything seen on screen is down to the perspective of the shot and the descisions of the Graphic design team.
we are told B5 is 5 miles long, but the B5 model had no scale information on it. so it could be perfectly correct.
i could understand issues in a 25 mil WWII game where everythign is historic, but complaints about a made up selection of ships not being the right size?! I mean whu?

 

[Burger]

ACTA ships are not to scale with each other. For example, Sharlin, Omega and Primus are about the same length. So the Sharlin, should be huge!

As far as can see, the scale is, "whatever looks good". And that works for the game, because mini size is really irrelevant to the game.

 

[Bostich]

But, yes others have thought about this before. A few mix in FA scale ships into ACTA, most common I've seen is to use FA scale Vorchans.

Another popular manifestation of the scale issue is the "how many fighters can surround a ship" debate.

Of course FA scale is also not to scale with itself. Really these are counters being represented as miniatures. Because of the huge discrepancy in the ship sizes from say Sharlin to Fighter, using actual scale of any kind would make the game basically unplayable.

j.,

 

[nekomata fuyu]

For my ISA fleet, I'm using an ACTA scale Sharlin and Victory alongside FA scale White Stars. I also have 2 ACTA scale White Stars, but I might see about using them as Gunships.

 

[Narchy]

Given that the Olympus is supposedly half the size of a Hermes, yet the model is twice the size, I don't think scale should be dwelled upon too much!

The game uses stem-to-stem, or dot-to-dot for targeting etc so that is not an issue.

The problem I have encountered is maneuvering ships around each other and fighters in base to base contact. That's where the scaling really falls to bits.

 

[Ripple]

Yeah, they were never intended to be anything but playing pieces. Otherwise we'd be playing with laser pointers and tagging ship models instead of worrying about stems. They were pretty artwork, and they wanted you to see the details. At least that was the original idea, and the models had some nice hull plating and such...

In theory all the small ships were in scale to each other, then medium ships and finally the large ships (explorer and B5 excepted). But unless you have the old B5Wars material it's a bit hard to tell which belonged in which size catagory, as ACtA ignored some of the designations in favor of PL assignments.

Ripple

 

[Triggy]

ACTA ships are not to scale with each other. For example, Sharlin, Omega and Primus are about the same length. So the Sharlin, should be huge!

As far as can see, the scale is, "whatever looks good". And that works for the game, because mini size is really irrelevant to the game.

But they are about the same length! You just have to include the fins, tails, etc. to make them similar (BTW, the Primus is meant to be about 75% of the length).

It's generally the smaller ships that are out of scale (they are too large) and the fighters could actually stand to be about 1/2 to 1/4 of the current size to fit in.

If you really want a "to-scale" B5 miniature, the Revell kit is absolutely perfect when compared to the Omega, etc.

 

[Nihm]

That's what we use is the Revell model, its about 17 inches long. We use the FA scale ships mentioned above (white stars, sunhawks, warbirds, some vree saucers,kutai, vorchans etc...) But I agree with some of the others, use want looks good and is pleasing to your eye. Base sizes aside if you all agree to use the stem to stem rule

I took an Explorer and used another one to lengthen the one with the strut/scafolding looking parts, and made a Cotton Tender out of the forward "head" section of the chopped up one

Use what you wanna use, you're the one who has to look at them in your display cabinet and on the battlefield

 

[Banichi]

Otherwise we'd be playing with laser pointers and
Ripple

I think some people do play with laser pointers.

 

[Burger]

Otherwise we'd be playing with laser pointers and
Ripple

I think some people do play with laser pointers.

.o/

 

[Banichi]

I think it pays to take the scale of the minies with a pinch of salt in this game. After all, even in the show scale was all over the place. I think a great example was the times you would see a star fury coming in to dock through the main airlock.

 

[H]

or in the lost tales where you see a Sharlin about 10 times bigger than a G'Quan. (i know they were bigger, but not THAT much bigger)

 

[M1ndr1d3rs]

or in the lost tales where you see a Sharlin about 10 times bigger than a G'Quan. (i know they were bigger, but not THAT much bigger)

It was set 20 years after the series... Maybe the Minbari's top brass at some point thought:
What's better than a Sharlin? Duh... :roll: An even bigger Sharlin!! :twisted:

 

[l33tpenguin]

You would think that with a ship that massive, stealth would be right out the window.
'All forward guns, fire at will, I repeat, fire!'

'Uh, but sir, we can't lock on, they seem to have some sort of stealth technology!'

'What the %$(*% do you mean you you can't 'lock on' That thing is taking up the whole freaking window. Just point at it and shoot, you can't miss!'

Could give it a special trait 'Bore sight weapons may attack this ship if it is located anywhere in the forward arc'