Overload

[storeylf]

The overload action doesn't specify you have to fire in the turn you use it to benefit. Is it therefore like cloak/reload etc in that once you have used it your weapons are overloaded until they are next fired, when ever that is?

Found 1 thread that said no, and another where someone suggested doing exactly that, and the red name guy who was commenting in the thread didn't contradict it.

 

[Da Boss]

hmm as far as I know the effect just last for the turn - although the writting probably does not make that very clear......technically I guess you could read it that once you have performed the SA you keep the benefit until the end of the game - but that is certainly not the intent.

 

[Renny]

Special actions only last for the turn in which they are selected although I would imagine the text could be more specific about it.

 

[storeylf]

I have to admit that I am a bit confused by special actions.

Some seem to be very clear that they only benefit you during the turn you use them (evasive, intensify defensive fire). Some are very clear they carry on (cloak).

Then there are those like overload that are neither. As it doesn't say it can only be used during the turn you use the action, when others are very clear if that is the case, I am assuming it is like reload, and that in fact you do the action to put your weapons in that state ready for when you do fire them. Just as reload puts them ready to fire until you do fire them.

But like I say it is a bit unclear to me as someone with no prior experience of the system.

Of course I am also thinking of how it plays in FC (I know, a different game) where you overload photons 1 turn and then they are overloaded until later use.

 

[H]

well, being cloaked isn't a special action, but activating it is, and that specific bit, is a one round action and has different rules. all special actions are one, round, and unless stated otherwise, their effects are too.

 

[storeylf]

You may well be right, I suppose I am looking overload being like cloak as well though. So firing an overload isn't the special action, the act of overloading in the first place is. Just as firing isn't a special action, but reloadiong is. That is how SFB/FC handles photon overloading for example, and whilst this is a different system I am assuming the rules are trying to simulate certain aspects of that game.

 

[H]

valid idea, and I would think that if you overloaded it would remain so, but i think IF that were the case in the game, you would have to have the negative effects in place until fired too? which is really the same as just doing the action every round anyway?

 

[Nerroth]

I might imagine that the intent was for overloads to only cover the turn they were activated in; though if they were retained until firing, that could allow a cloaked Orion* to overload photons or disruptors while under cloak, then fire them after decloaking (which may or may not be an intended option for them).

*Do Orions have an option to purchase cloaks for their ships as it stands, or is that an option to be reconsidered once the units from FC: Orion Attack are in line for porting over?

 

[Greg Smith]

*Do Orions have an option to purchase cloaks for their ships as it stands, or is that an option to be reconsidered once the units from FC: Orion Attack are in line for porting over?

Not yet. They are in the playtest stuff we have for Battleships.*

As ever, playtest material may change.

 

[archon96]

if i remember right in FC at least, if you overload the torps and dont use them that turn you have to pay a carryover cost to keep them overloaded on the next turn. the fact that the overload special action only lasts till end of turn may emualate this function.

 

[Nomad]

Depends on the weapon. In FC, photons, once overloaded, stay overloaded until fired or discharged harmlessly and disruptors are discharged at the end of the turn automatically. Other weapons vary.

I read the ACtA overload rule as only applying in the current turn; if you haven't got a target within 12" of your ship (6" move plus 6" overload range) at the start of her activation in the movement phase, it's a bit difficult to see why you'd use it.

 

[Sgt_G]

Sadly, the Orion cannot disengage cloak and overload photons on the same turn.

But a Skilled Captain could do that ..... :twisted: