shields up, Mr. Sulu

[arabuck]

So how are shields handled in ACTA: SF? A big part off Star Trek style combat games is some degree of control over the shields (or at least having shields). I wasn't a fan of the Klingon Armada shield rules (they were too weak), but I know there are no power allocation rules in ACTA, so I'm curious.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

Each ship has only a single shield and shield rating. These absorb damage first, however, there is a 1in6 chance of shield bleed-through. In addition there are special actions which can reinforce or rebuild them in some manner (however I don't know the details).

Yes, only a single shield, however the Klingon ships, at the very least have a special rule that makes all hits to the front half of the ship do only 50% damage (thus their 18 shields are effectively 36 in the front! A Constitution has 24 shield points by the way). Other races might have a similar rule if their shields heavily favor the front facing.

You can read these articles for a bunch of tidbits about how various parts of the game work.

 

[arabuck]

That sounds cool. I've never played an ACTA game, but I'm hoping I will in the near future. My favorite Star Trek inspired game is the Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, but hardly anybody is playing that anymore.