S&P47 ACTA Review

[emperorpenguin]

they are now the most model-accurate WYSIWYG fleet

only ships with hangars carry fighters, only visible weapons etc

So, maybe you can tell me, why the Vorchan has ion cannons and a plasma accelerator? Which weapon is in the turret, and where are the other visible weapons to justify the other weapon on the statline?

I only just finished watching B5 through again (God bless the Universe box set) and I didn't see a Vorchan fire anything but the doral turret, those ball-shaped torpedoes (in only one scene) and a few orange pulses that appear to come from the tip of the nose (also only in one scene). So why two weapons on the statline?

if i had to guess i would say the 2 turrets are the plasma and the wing mounted protrusions are the ion cannons.

not the wing mounts, those are where the missiles from ITB were launched from

The Plasma Accelerator is fired from the nose tip as seen in "The Coming of Shadows" and "Acts of Sacrifice"
The topmost turret is the ion cannon, there is no underside turret in the show, very funny that the model has one!

the torpedoes of the Demos launch from a hatch just behind the tip of the beak. Again good justification for the difference between the Demos and Vorchan. Both carry ion cannons but one mounts a beak plasma gun, the other instead carries torps

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Now, see, that's what I wanted. There's no obvious weapon port on the ship's nose, but the shots clearly come from there, or somewhere on the forward fuselage, anyway. Thanks EP.

I thought the Vorchan seen in In the Beginning launched missiles from somewhere near the vertical fins...?

 

[thePirv]

Problem is some folks desperatly wanting to destroy canonical elements out of the game just for fun of it.

For christs sake where's the problem in centauri having some lasers? It's not like they are going to be mainstay of fleet...So not mainstay, still canonical...Where in the name of Great Maker is problem?

Guess some people just want Mongoose to remove all elements of Babylon 5 and rename everything to generic names with no bearing to show...

LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING!
The Centauri do still have beams, they just aren't the super beam team that they were in previous editions.
Centauri in the show DO NOT USE BEAM WEAPONS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE GAME!
There is on screen evidence to support this as compared to the schematic diagram that you keep referring to. On screen evidence is far more canonical than anything AOG or anyone else has come up with.

As it stands, you are the only one trying to destroy cannon and have the game the way you want it.

 

[Banichi]

I've a question about the shield mechanic that is to be used in the game. In the artical it mentions that absorb damage. So, for example I shoot at a bimith( shields 10/2 ) with my nova and get 7 hits. Does this mean that

A: Those seven hits all get absorbed by the shields, which then go down to three. The abbai laugh, and get ready to give me some quad array loving.

B: I take my seven hit dice and roll again and get 1 2 3 5 4 3 6. the crit comes up as a 1/5 fuel system rupture. This causes an aditional 2 damage, 1 crew, and -4 speed. All together eight damage, and 1 crew. Plus the speed crit. The shields go down to two, but the speed crit, and lost crew still apply.

What I'm getting at is this. Do shields stop hits, or damage? And do they stop crits if the shields are still in place?

 

[MustEatBrains]

Problem is some folks desperatly wanting to destroy canonical elements out of the game just for fun of it.

For christs sake where's the problem in centauri having some lasers? It's not like they are going to be mainstay of fleet...So not mainstay, still canonical...Where in the name of Great Maker is problem?

Guess some people just want Mongoose to remove all elements of Babylon 5 and rename everything to generic names with no bearing to show...

LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING!
The Centauri do still have beams, they just aren't the super beam team that they were in previous editions.
Centauri in the show DO NOT USE BEAM WEAPONS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE GAME!
There is on screen evidence to support this as compared to the schematic diagram that you keep referring to. On screen evidence is far more canonical than anything AOG or anyone else has come up with.

As it stands, you are the only one trying to destroy cannon and have the game the way you want it.

I guess it really comes down to "selective canon" - in cases like this, when two different canon sources seem to partly contradict each other, whoever makes the game has to decide which sources to use. In this case, it´s the one source everyone knows, the conclusive screen evidence, as compared to one technical drawing (which might still be little more than an early concept).

that´s all within acceptable borders - I mean, it´s not like we´re argueing "in the series the G´Quan fires two parallel laser beams, so it´s heavy laser should be twin linked" or something like that.

The trouble is, we have several different sources of canon:

JMS: Everything he has written, including screen evidence, interviews and such. (even the old novels, unless those written by himself or his wife, are only partly canon according to him).

Agents of Gaming: Everything AOG has done has either been approved by JMS himself, or his representative (whoever that might have been), so basically it has been canonized. The problem is, that the AOG books contradicted screen evidence in several occasions. Since those books were written while the series was still shot, later developements in B5 obviously weren´t based on/didn´t care about the AOG canon stuff.

Mongoose Publishing: MGP is the current holder of the license, and as such they are the ones currently keeping the B5 universe alive. And while JMS distances himself from the Mongoose stuff, according to Warner Brothers the MGP stuff IS canon. And since WB pratically owns B5, that carries at least some weight.

After all I´ve heard/read, 2nd ed. tries to mediate between all those sources, which really is the best we could hope or ask for.

 

[LaranosTZ]

I've a question about the shield mechanic that is to be used in the game. In the artical it mentions that absorb damage. So, for example I shoot at a bimith( shields 10/2 ) with my nova and get 7 hits. Does this mean that

A: Those seven hits all get absorbed by the shields, which then go down to three. The abbai laugh, and get ready to give me some quad array loving.

B: I take my seven hit dice and roll again and get 1 2 3 5 4 3 6. the crit comes up as a 1/5 fuel system rupture. This causes an aditional 2 damage, 1 crew, and -4 speed. All together eight damage, and 1 crew. Plus the speed crit. The shields go down to two, but the speed crit, and lost crew still apply.

What I'm getting at is this. Do shields stop hits, or damage? And do they stop crits if the shields are still in place?

A: The abbai absorb all the beam shots, laugh, fire back, until they realize that you caused 7 hits in one shot, and they can only regenerate 2 points of shields per turn, and you still have other ships that can fire.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Now, see, that's what I wanted. There's no obvious weapon port on the ship's nose, but the shots clearly come from there, or somewhere on the forward fuselage, anyway. Thanks EP.

I thought the Vorchan seen in In the Beginning launched missiles from somewhere near the vertical fins...?

That wasn't a normal Vorchan, it was the "Dusk Coutari" which was a unique experimental design. Stats in Earth/Minbari War book.

 

[Iain McGhee]

what publishing programme did they use for the battle report graphics map?
Could players have access to it to produce forum battle reports?

Looks like VASSAL screenshots to me.

 

[Lord David the Denied]

That wasn't a normal Vorchan, it was the "Dusk Coutari" which was a unique experimental design. Stats in Earth/Minbari War book.

Dusk Coutari is totally unsupported ret-con trying to cover up a CGI mistake.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Of which there was plenty of. Makes a nonsense of some of the canon/non-canon arguments when they often contradict themselves on the programme if it fits the plot (or the Director's whim for that matter).

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Certainly makes life difficult for anyone trying to be accurate. Mind you, the Dusk Coutari was pretty blatant. If such a ship had existed and been under Londo's control, you'd think he'd have made some mention of it, at least in private, or at least that there'd be some reference to it. All we know is a Vorchan comes out of a jump point, blasts a G'Quan into pieces with one salvo, blasts the planet's surface, and scarpers. We don't know that it was a special, unique super-Vorchan. There's nothing on screen to suggest that.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Not as such, no. Although I suppose you could argue that a Vorchan that could kill a G'Quan in one volley must be special in some way. Perhaps the Captain rolled several 6-6 criticals !
It'd be just like a Centauri to use loaded dice :lol: