Star Fleet Advanced Rules Preview

[Ben2]

That and plasma-Ds.

Looking forward to seeing Warhawk carriers and Gladiator fighters mind you.

 

[Iron Domokun]

In TOS, approaching starships were usually barely if at all visible as a dot unless the viewscreen was heavily magnified - that's what you're trying to hit with this "shotgun".[\quote]
And yet, the Enterprise did just this during the TOS episode Balance of Terror, and damaged the Romulan Warbird badly. Silly or not, you can do it. (It should be noted that phasers aren't hit-or-miss, you "slash" the beam through an area, unlike photon torpedoes or disruptor bolts.)[\quote]

That actually makes sense. Or the torpedo could convert into a much larger, less intense bolt which covers a broader area.

You have just described the Gorn plasma carronade It doesn't do much damage, but is highly likely to do some damage.

 

[AdrianH]

In TOS, approaching starships were usually barely if at all visible as a dot unless the viewscreen was heavily magnified - that's what you're trying to hit with this "shotgun".

And yet, the Enterprise did just this during the TOS episode Balance of Terror, and damaged the Romulan Warbird badly. Silly or not, you can do it. (It should be noted that phasers aren't hit-or-miss, you "slash" the beam through an area, unlike photon torpedoes or disruptor bolts.)

It still required some intelligent guesswork on the part of the captain to figure out where the cloaked ship was likely to be. Tie this into my earlier suggestion of a special action "Search for Cloaked Ship" (rename it if you like), requiring the firing ship to do something to figure out where to shoot. Guess where it is based on what you think the commander will do, spot a star which just winked when it shouldn't, or make up something else - but you need to do something to narrow down the area. Pass the CQ check and you have some idea where to "shotgun", fail and you're firing completely blindly.

That actually makes sense. Or the torpedo could convert into a much larger, less intense bolt which covers a broader area.

You have just described the Gorn plasma carronade It doesn't do much damage, but is highly likely to do some damage.

Presumably this is intended to do the same as the plasma shotgun? That is, turn a weapon which can do lots of damage to one ship into a weapon which can do little damage to lots of small ships?

 

[Iain McGhee]

Not in it's FC form, exactly. It's more intended as an anti-cloak/rapid fire measure. It ignores the range penalty for firing at cloaked ships and doesn't have the normal 3-turn arming sequence (it can be fired every turn if you wish). Only usable by the light Plasma-F mounts.

 

[Iron Domokun]

Presumably this is intended to do the same as the plasma shotgun? That is, turn a weapon which can do lots of damage to one ship into a weapon which can do little damage to lots of small ships?

Plasma shotgun is totally different to plasma carronade. Shotgun divides large torp up into smaller torpedoes, each of which is a normal seeking weapon. The smaller torpedoes have less range and do less damage, which makes them adequate against small targets. They are not limited to small targets. The Carronade is a type of plasma bolt. The torpedo is detonated in the tube with a wide aperture, and the plasma sprays out over a wide volume. Range is very limited (5 hexes in SFB/FC, which is very short).

In any case, I'm not going to argue about cloaks any further. In the SFU, you know approximately where the cloaked ship is and can try to hit it. The cloaked ship is not invisible, you just can't get a good location fix. That's just how it works.

 

[Iron Domokun]

A couple of questions about the cloaking rules...

When a ship decloaks "before its normal movement", does that mean it gets its 6" reposition and then may move another 12" as normal? So it can end up 18" away from where it is now, potentially? Ouch.

Also, do ships still get a bonus for being within 8" of the cloaked ship? Or if another ship has hit it this turn? If you can get both bonuses, 2+ turns into 4+, making firing at a cloaked ship a much more attractive proposition... of course, in the SFU, some effects can "flashcube" a cloaked ship, leaving it revealed and vulnerable.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Remember you are reading playtest rules

However, no, under the current rules a decloaking ship _only_ gets that 'free' 6" move. It no longer moves normally.

And no, there are no modifiers to penetrate cloaks (yet).

 

[BFalcon]

Remember you are reading playtest rules

However, no, under the current rules a decloaking ship _only_ gets that 'free' 6" move. It no longer moves normally.

And no, there are no modifiers to penetrate cloaks (yet).

Hmm... that's actually a shame, I'd have liked to have seen them get a chance to move as well... but I guess 6" in any direction and any orientation is a good enough move, on reflection... and I'd sooner not have the "flashcube" effect thanks Iron... not if the poor begger's a cruiser and there's a cruiser and dread fleet out there...

 

[Iron Domokun]

OK, I suppose that the cloaked ship is not causing any damage to the enemy is enough of a penalty for being cloaked. You'll also need to be careful when picking a spot to cloak or uncloak. You don't want to come under fire while fading out (only 4+ stealth) and you don't want to get killed before you can fire when you uncloak.

Edit: I'm also curious to know how the ablative armour on the War Eagle/King Eagle and Old Light Cruiser is being handled. Since it acts in SFB/FC more or less like extra shielding, are you just going to increase the Shields value of those ships? (I suppose giving them more damage points than would otherwise be expected would also work.)

 

[Da Boss]

The "Armour" trait is detailed in the blog and I think earlier in this thread its mentioned

 

[Greg Smith]

The "Armour" trait is detailed in the blog and I think earlier in this thread its mentioned

Although that too is a playetest rule and may change.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Although that too is a playetest rule and may change.

And indeed just has