[[[Playtest Focus]]] Locking High Guard

[MongooseMatt]

As I type this, a new version of the High Guard PDF is just uploading to Drivethru.

In the best of all possible worlds (!) I would like to have all chapters except High Technology 'locked' by Monday morning - that is, defined, sorted and with no more changes. I think that will primarily mean reviewing spinal mounts, but no doubt you chaps will spot something else that needs a final tweak!

Anyway, that is the aim - for all comments to be in for High Guard this weekend. Speak now or forever hold your peace!

 

[Nerhesi]

UPDATED: Some changes were already made. Remaining ones here.

Crew Reduction for Military ships - it seems we are indicating crew reduction is only for large commercial ships. Our crew requirements have skyrocketed since MGT1 Matt based on the current model - for military ships

Distant Missile Launches halve the Effect not just a -6 (because thats basically saying just launch 6 more missiles).

Those are my top "3" items.

 

[Nerhesi]

Oh @#%@#$ - almost forgot one!

Screens Screens Screens.

The move from 10+ Difficulty, Effect x 2D to 8+ Difficulty, Effect X 1D. To avoid streaks and crazy elite guys running the show while the average navy joe being useless

 

[Nerhesi]

Reaction Drive Advantages/Disadvantages:

In making this area more clear, we totally nerfed them to hades It should be 20% or 25% per level - definitely not 10% per level. We dont need the line about what two advantages mean either as it is self evident if it is just "20% per advantage".

We want this option to be available as it was before, not very restrictive/rare

 

[AnotherDilbert]

CONSTRUCTION TIMES
Construction times vary wildly, depending on the size and complexity of the spacecraft and the capabilities of the shipyard. On average, assume that it takes one day per million credits to build a spacecraft at an average commercial shipyard.

So it will take centuries to build a BB...

 

[GhengisRexx]

Perhaps a line like "A typical shipyard takes 1 day per 1MC of ship cost. Larger ship yards can produce a ship much faster. If needed, the referee can determine what the production capacity of a ship yard is, in MC/ day."

 

[AnotherDilbert]

A ship may have a maximum of two computers (a primary and a backup), but the second must have a lower Processing score than the primary.

I assume the backup cannot run other software at the same time as the primary, e.g. primary running Evade and the backup running FireControl?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

HG, p20: Crew Requirements: Cleanup requested.
For a BB we need thousands of Engineers and Gunners and a grand total of 4 bridge crew.
The Sensor Operators from p30 are missing from the requirements.
Section Flight Crew for carried craft is missing.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Look over damage for turrets - barbettes- bays.
Example:

          Turret   Barbette  SmBay   Bay
Particle   3D+6      4D       6D     8D
Fusion     4D+8      5D       1DD    2DD

Turrets are better than barbettes. Particle bays only adds a little damage, whereas Fusion doubles damage for each size step.

Meson Bays do more damage than particle bays and ignores armour, not balanced.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Missiles very expensive.
Torpedoes cheaper than missiles, although they are supposed to be bigger and heavier?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

PD is basically twice as effective against torpedoes.
PD per mount is half as effective, but you can only launch a quarter as many torpedoes, meaning half as many PD mounts required to counter a bay.

So if you have PD good enough to keep you alive against missiles, you are immune to torpedoes.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

PD Batteries.
Very good, but very expensive at TL14.
Pointless, since they are much worse than laser turrets at TL13-.

So make Type I and Type II better.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Screens:

Angle Screen is a reaction like PD, hence is activated before the attack roll. Since spinals generally have bad to hit the meson screens is likely to be wasted by countering a miss. Core. p66 still says Difficult task.

Software Screen Optimiser will generally fail to achieve a positive Effect, hence have any effect at all.

I see they are cheaper, I still think they are too expensive, but I will have to check.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Black Globe: Still a convenient way to die.

How much energy is absorbed from some attacks, e.g. missiles is undefined.
The formula for discharging contains HULL squared, hence large ships can discharge any amount of energy. The formula should be dependent on HULL or PowerP, not both.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Software Broad Spectrum EW
You must roll 11+ on unmodified 2D for any effect. At 8% chance to kill a single missile no one will bother.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Nuclear Damper: Undefined how it works with missile salvoes.

Assuming that we need 8+ to succeed (actually undefined) a good boosted operator can achieve an average Effect of 7 + 5(gunner) -8 = 4.
Each ND reduces damage (before to hit, so before armour) with 2D * 4(Effect) ≈ 8D.

Each med bay fires 24 missiles at 6D for nuclear = 144D.

Assuming that each 6D damage prevented kills a nuc missile (actually undefined) we would on average need 144/8=18 ND at 10 dT = 180 dT to prevent the damage from a 100 dT bay.

The same bay would be prevented by 5 turrets (15dT) or 2 PDBatt (40dT), regardless of nuclear missiles or not, and regardless of what ship was targeted.

Conclusion: ND are too ineffective to be used.

 

[GhengisRexx]

I noticed what I think is an omission regarding Nuclear Dampeners on Pg 35 Should Dampeners reduce damage and remove the Radiation trait from Particle Accelerators? It is not mentioned, but I would assume so. Would Meson Screens have any effect on Particle Accelerators?


Also, Fusion Gun Bays pg 29, do not have the Radiation trait, but Fusion Barbettes do.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I noticed what I think is an omission regarding Nuclear Dampeners on Pg 35 Should Dampeners reduce damage and remove the Radiation trait from Particle Accelerators? It is not mentioned, but I would assume so. Would Meson Screens have any effect on Particle Accelerators?

I do not think there is any mistake.
Meson Screens reduces Meson Guns only.
Nuc Dampers reduces Nukes and Fusion.
No screen reduces Particle.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Well, that update/post shook the tree a bit

Keep it up, chaps, this is just what we need this week!

 

[Chas]

Ugh. Too quick for my liking. :? People are barely actually 'play testing' what is going on here...

Loose ends:
1) A definition of what happens with Ion weapon damage. We are told power is reduced - but what does that actually mean in game terms?
- Core rule book states up to half of base systems power can be lost without issue. What is the issue if you lose more?
- What happens when a ship loses all its power? A key usage of the ion weapon could be against fighters... depriving them of all power. What happens to a ship in this case?

2) Definition of a salvo (this is going to cause a lot of headaches without it actually stated)