Rebuilding a new Ship

[NukeHavoc]

Zulen Tek spends his off hours combing through used part databases and starship schematics, thinking of how he'd build hack his dream ship into shape. And for Zulen, the true challenge comes from modifying an existing vessel to do what he wants: anyone can *build* a ship; it takes true talent to reshape an existing one to match your vision.

These are just suggestions based on what we've discussed previously. My first priority was finding ways to make the ship more maneuverable. The big challenge is likely finding a ship with enough emplacement points.

WEAPONS
* Pilot controlled weapons: A must have, allowing Highlife to fire on enemies at will.
* At least one crew controlled weapon (perferably two)

MANEUVERABILITY
In terms of creating a faster, more maneuverable starship, there are several things we can do. First, the pilot adds the ship's Dexterity modifer to his Pilot checks, so anything that improves Dex will help:

Manuevering Jets
Starships of the Galaxy

* Mauenvering Jets +2, 2 emplacement points, 2,000 cr base
* Mauenvering Jets +4, 3 emplacement points, 5,000 cr base
* Mauenvering Jets +6, 4 emplacement points, 10,000 cr base

Tech Specialist Vehicle Trait
Starships of the Galaxy

* Enhanced Dexterity

As a tech specialist, Zulen can apply the "Enhanced Dexterity" trait to the new ship, granting it a +2 bonus to Dexterity (I'm assuming that the maunevering jets and enhanced dexterity stack).

Personalized Controls

Combat Thruster
Starships of the Galaxy

* Combat Thruster, 1 emplacement point, 2,000 cr base

Combat thrusters allow the ship to behave as a starfighter for purposes of dogfighting and being targeted by capital ships, but do not reduce the Pilot penalities associated with the ship's size.

Personalized Controls
Scum & Villainy

* Personalized Controls, 0 emplacement points, 1,000 cr base

Provides a +1 bonus to any check associated with a particular station on the ship (e.g. pilot, engineer, etc.) You need to install it for each station.

OTHER ENHANCEMENTS
Auxilary Generator
Scum & Villainy

Auxilary Generator, 2 emplacement points, 2,000 cr base

Provides +2 Strength bonus to the ship, allows it to run if the engines are disabled. Salvage uses for this should be obvious.

Docking Clamp

Auxilary Generator, 1 emplacement point, 2,000 cr base

[NukeHavoc]

So based on this we could give the ship a total of +4 to Dex with Maneuvering Jets and Enhanced Dexterity. That would yield a +2 bonus to Pilot checks. Adding in Customized Controls would give us another +1 to piloting checks, for a total of +3. It's not much, but it should help.

Something else I was thinking of was creating "Advanced Combat Thrusters" which would act as Combat Thrusters, but also allow your starship to maneuver as one size category smaller for purposes of Pilot checks OR reduce the penalty by 2 (probably the later is more balanced).

I'm not sure how I'd price that -- maybe 5000 cr? -- but it's something I think the game needs. As is, I don't think you can explain how the hell the Falcon was able to make its Death Star Run. It took a few hits, but for the most part it performed as well as the A-Wings, X-Wings and TIEs (thus the reason why I'm thinking of reducing the penalty by 2; it should still be harder fly a freighter.

Thoughts?

[setanta14]

Sounds good to me... for pricing, I think I'd make it a function of ship size rather than a fixed cost. The bigger the ship, the more thrusters and contol systems would be needed to run them.

After research--
Page 38 of Starships of the Galaxy has a generic cost modifier table:

Huge X1
Gargantuan X2
Colossal X5
etc. etc. etc.

[Lars Porsenna]

Well, I don't think the Falcon performed as well as xwings during the DSII run. I think it was pretty clear it was far less maneuverable...but far more maneuverable (granted) a ship of its size as any right being. Note the space battle before the run and the slower turns the Falcon was making (now I have to go re-watch the movie...). Furthermore -- and I know this is dodgy canon -- but playing the Xwing vs TIE Fighter and Xwing Alliance, the Falcon (and other YT1800 transports) definitely are not as agile as a dedicated fighter.

Damon.

[setanta14]

Emplacement Points:

"If you lack the emplacement points to support a system, you can still install it; however, more time and credits are needed to add the subsystems that enable your new systems to function. For every emplacement point you lack for a system, add 2 days to the base installation time, 5 to the Mechanics check DC to install it, and 20% to the system cost. Additionally, any starships that have modifications installed in this manner are automatically considered "used" (see page 10), and any systems added without sufficient emplacement points are damaged beyond repair if the starship is disabled..."

[NukeHavoc]

Page 38 of Starships of the Galaxy has a generic cost modifier table:
Huge X1
Gargantuan X2
Colossal X5
etc. etc. etc.

Yeah, advanced combat thrusters would be a base cost kind of thing (multiplied by the size of the ship)

[NukeHavoc]

Well, I don't think the Falcon performed as well as xwings during the DSII run. I think it was pretty clear it was far less maneuverable...but far more maneuverable (granted) a ship of its size as any right being. Note the space battle before the run and the slower turns the Falcon was making (now I have to go re-watch the movie...). Furthermore -- and I know this is dodgy canon -- but playing the Xwing vs TIE Fighter and Xwing Alliance, the Falcon (and other YT1800 transports) definitely are not as agile as a dedicated fighter.

Right. The more I think about it, the more I"m inclined to say that Advanced Combat Trusters could take away some, but not all of the large-ship penalty. Even getting rid of two points of that penalty would help, IMHO. As you say, the Falcon is clearly not as maneuverable as the fighters, yet at the same time, there probably aren't *that* many freighters who could do what she did.

The other option is to make it a feat or talent; e.g. "Skillful Pilot" or some such, which could also remove some of the penalties.

[setanta14]

I think reducing the ship size penalty is the way to go.

Plus, the Falcon might not have been as maneuverable as starfighters, but it didn't have to be because it had two dedicated gunnery stations separate from the pilot with guns in turrets instead of fixed on the wings or fuselage.

[Hardcorhobbs]

[Thinking out loud]:

So we start with a -10 on pilot checks. Maneuvering Jets reduces that to -9 for the first bump. Enhanced Dexterity reduces it by another for -8. Personalized Controls gives another bonus reducing the check to -7. If we throw in Advanced Combat Thrusters (assuming a penalty reduction of 2) this brings it down to a -5. At 4th level Highlife's skill goes up twice (once for level, once for stat bump) to a 15. Which means, with all this added Highlife goes from a +3 piloting check to a +10. I think we can work with that

I agree with all of the enhancements you proposed Ken. I don't know that they all have to be in place before the time jump, but after I would say they've all been installed. The only one I would add is a smuggling compartment. Not that we're doing anything illegal with the ship. You just never know when those things could be handy!

[NukeHavoc]

I think the problem is now one of emplacement points. I'll need to look at my books to see how many emplacement points these ships have; a Corellian ship could handle that no-problem, but others tend not to only have a few.

ken

[Hardcorhobbs]

The Dexterity of the Aeon Harrier is 10. One of the ships for sale at the auction is the same class, a 578-R Space Transport. So we would need the upgrades. However the other ship up for auction, the ship that half the group hates, is the Ghtroc 720 Freighter. This ship starts with a Dexterity of 14. Add in Zulen's +2 Dex bonus, and custom controls (neither of which take an emplacement point), and you've already decreased the modifier to a -6. This is even more evidence that we should be buying the 720.

[setanta14]

The Ghtroc 720 Freighter may be a dexterous flying sea turtle, but IT STILL LOOKS LIKE A FLYING SEA TURTLE

-10 to Charisma based roles for lost cool points

[Hardcorhobbs]

The Ghtroc 720 Freighter may be a dexterous flying sea turtle, but IT STILL LOOKS LIKE A FLYING SEA TURTLE

-10 to Charisma based roles for lost cool points

I don't deny it at all. It absolutely looks like a flying sea turtle, and that makes me like the ship even more. Add to that the fact that it's more dexterous, and has three times the cargo space that the harrier has! Purely from the crew's point of view, (who's trying to setting up their own transport company) cargo space is much more important than what people think when they look at the ship.

[Lars Porsenna]

I like the turtle ship myself...

Damon.

[NukeHavoc]

Naturally, Zulen only cares about how the ship performs, and thus all of Highlife's points are very appealing to him.