Starship Combat Playtest

Post by **NukeHavoc** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:16 pm

Post to this thread if you're interested in participating in the starship combat playtest. I'm thinking we'll run the playtest sometime in the next 2-3 weeks, either on a weeknight or weekend depending on what works for folks.

We might be able to squeeze it in as pre-gaming as well, but we'll have to see.

Jonkga · Post by **Jonkga** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:28 pm

I'm very interested in attending this. I can probably be there most weeknights and weekend days.

setanta14 · Post by **setanta14** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:38 pm

I'm in, especially since I plan to play a character who is a pilot of some sort.

erilar · Post by **erilar** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:41 pm

Very interested.

Lars Porsenna · Post by **Lars Porsenna** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:11 pm

Yes, but depends on schedule...

Damon.

EvilGenius · Post by **EvilGenius** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:02 pm

I am also very interested but I can only make it on a weekend.

Hardcorhobbs · Post by **Hardcorhobbs** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:08 pm

Post by **NukeHavoc** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:16 pm

EvilGenius wrote:I am also very interested but I can only make it on a weekend.

I'm thinking a Sunday afternoon -- e.g. 3-7, 4-8. That seemed to work well for the high-level play test.

ken

Post by **NukeHavoc** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:04 am

We ran our first playtest last night -- three TIE fighters (CL 7) againt an X-wing (CL10) and another CL10 KOTOR-era fighter (Nate can post the details on that).

We learned:

* The TIES were completely outclassed by the X-Wings.

* Concussion missiles do crazy amounts of damage.

* You don't want to be caught in a ship without shields (meaning TIE Fighters are exactly the sort of flying deathtraps you'd expect them to be).

* There is an arcane formula in the Starships of the Galaxy book that explains how to determine what a challenging fight would be based on CL.

* The "encounter creation" blurb in the Saga core book is wrong; you need to read the errata for the correct rules. As is, the core book says a CL 1 stormtrooper would be a challenge for a Level 1 hero. It should say that a CL 1 stormtrooper would be a challenge for *four* Level 1 heroes.

* As in D&D, a difference in CL of 3 or more (e.g. our TIE fighters vs. X-Wings) means that the combatants are outclassed; our lowly CL 7 TIES had no chance against the CL 10 X-Wings.

Jonkga · Post by **Jonkga** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:20 am

Question: do we know how much making certain modifications changes the CL of a ship? I.e., if we get that CL6 transport, and add laser cannons and shields to it, what CL does it become? If we add more powerful shields, does that change the CL significantly? What about torpedos? What about Hyperdrive or navicomputers?

EvilGenius · Post by **EvilGenius** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:43 am

awww man. Are we going to do another starship playtest? I'd really like to shoot down some TIE fighters.

And maybe a captial ship or two ......

Post by **NukeHavoc** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:45 am

EvilGenius wrote:awww man. Are we going to do another starship playtest? I'd really like to shoot down some TIE fighters.

I think our next test -- either in game or out of game -- will be a freighter against TIEs Fighters (and maybe a TIE bomber). Not sure if we want to deal with capital ships (at least, not with players involved) but I'm open for trying 'em out one day.

Regarding your question Jon -- I don't know. I'll check my Starships book and get back to you.

ken

Post by **NukeHavoc** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:48 am

btw, as for the combat ... it rocked. The rules are basically the same as the character ones, with a few extras and modifications for use with starship-scale encounters. It's not nearly as crunch as other starship battle games (Starfleet Batltes anyone?) but it gets the job done, and its fast enough that you don't get bogged down in the minutiae of shield management and vector-based movement.

Post by **NukeHavoc** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:30 am

To answer Jon's question, there is no CL chart for upgrades. They recommend comparing the ship to others and eyeballing CL. I think starship design is more art than science.

Jonkga · Post by **Jonkga** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:36 pm

NukeHavoc wrote:To answer Jon's question, there is no CL chart for upgrades. They recommend comparing the ship to others and eyeballing CL. I think starship design is more art than science.

See, and I think this might be where they went too far away from the crunch factor. There needs to be a detailed chart showing "if I add this shield, or this weapon, it changes my ship's CL to this." Without that, its just too much of making stuff up yourself with no real guidelines. I mean, sure, after last night, its easy to say x-wings are more powerful than tie fighters, but how do they quantify that? The shields the x-wings have that the tie's do not add exactly how much to the CL? Without answers to these sorts of questions, starship combat will quickly become even more frustrating to me.

I also think we need a few more starship combat playtest, once we've actually read the rules. Sure, last night went pretty well, but I wouldn't want to just be exploring the transport rules, and deciding on the fly how much our upgrades have affected the ship's CL, during an actual gaming session.