RE: [FT] Sa'Vasku Fleetbook Conversion

Thanks Oerjan!
You have raised enough issues (and good ones at that), that I withdraw
the
draft and will go back to the design stage.

---
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net <mailto:bkb@beol.net>
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft
---

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of Oerjan Ohlson
Sent: Monday, July 12, 1999 02:07
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: [FT] Sa'Vasku Fleetbook Conversion

Some comments and questions:

Brian Bell wrote:

> Power: [...]
> Before writing orders, each ship rolls a number of dice (d6) equal to
its
> Power Factor (PF). 1's provide no power. 2-5's provide 4 power
points.
> 6's provide 4 power points and are rolled again with the probability
of
> generating more power.

Ie, slightly beefed-up in power (avg. 4 PP/PF i/o 3.5). Energy storage?

> Use for Power: Power is used to to EVERYTHING for the Sa'Vasku ship.
>
> Movement: Each point of Main Drive costs 1/2 PF (round up). Thruster
> and Push points will equal 1/2 of this amount (round up).

Round up AFTER you've determined how many MD/TP points you want, since
the odd-PF ships otherwise get a lot clumsier than the even-PF ones.
Ie, the MD cost should be

(PF*Thrust/2) (round up),

not

(PF/2 (round up))*Thrust.

> Jump Drive: The Sa'Vasku ship must expend PF*4 to travel FTL.

Ie, one turn's worth of power.

> Screens: Level 1 costs PF in power. Level 2 costs 2*PF in power.
Note: > There is no longer Level 3 screens. Each time the screens
negate a hit, > add 2 to the Power Points of the Sa'Vasku ship.

Hm... 2 PP sounds a bit too much considering how much energy it costs
the SV ship to fire 1 "beam" die, doesn't it? Still, it would make
using screens an interesting option rather than the fairly poor one it
is in MT :-/

> Regeneration: The Sa'Vasku may route power into the healing capacity
> of the ship. Each ship has a number of regeneration centers equal to
the > PF. It only takes 1 power point to engage a regeneration center.
> Regeneration can be attempted on armor or hull structure boxes (which
> must be stated before the roll). For each regeneration center
powered,
> roll a d6. For structure boxes (damage boxes) a roll of 5 restores 1
> structure box. A roll of 6 restores structure boxes

"restores 2 structure boxes", I assume?

> and allows a re-roll of that die (for  more regeneration).

Hm. IME, this is *way* too low a cost for regeneration (1.66 - 2.5 PP
per regenerated hull box, depending on whether a "6" regenerates 1 or 2
hull boxes). I've experimented with a fixed cost of 6 PP per
regenerated hull box, and even that was a bit low for the larger SV
ships.

> Weapons:
>
> Energy Pulse Weapon: For each 8" (or fraction thereof) range, the
> Energy Pulse weapon costs 1 point. Thus, at range of 9", an Energy
> Pulse would cost 2 power points. For each attack roll a d6. On a
score of > 4-6 the target takes 1 point of damage. Roll for penetrating
damage (as
> you would for a Class 1 Beam weapon).

Why use a different damage table from normal beam weapons? (More
complication, not much flavour added IMO)
Do screens defend against this? If so, how?
Maximum range?

> Heavy Energy Pulse: For each 8" (or fraction thereof) range, the
Heavy
> Energy Pulse weapon costs 4 energy points. For each attack roll a d6.

> The attack hits on a 4-6 (screens do not effect this roll). For each
hit, roll
> another d6. Damage is equal to the score of the 2nd d6. Screens do
not
> effect this damage, but armor will absorb upto 1/2 (round down) the
total.

Hm. This indicates that the normal EP is hindered by screens, 'cause
otherwise there'd be no reason to use the HEP (inflicts only about 70%
of the average damage of the EP against unscreened targets).

> EM Pulse: For each 8" (or fraction thereof) range, the EM Pulse costs
4
> energy points. For each attack roll a d6. On a roll of 4-6 the EM
Pulse
> hits (screens do effect this roll. For each hit the ship must perform
a
> threshold check for each system. This has no effect on other Sa'Vasku
> ships.

It should have IMO, but I'm not sure how.

> Wave Pulse: A Sa'Vasku ship may generate a wave pulse similar to the
> wave of energy that the Human Wave Gun produces. It is an area effect
> weapon. The
> wave of energy that is generated lasts only one round. It will cover
the
> entire front arch of the Sa'Vasku ship out to a range of 36". It
requires
> PF*3 power to fire. Damage is equal to 1d6 per PF for 1-12" range.
For
> the 13-24" range 6's are counted as 1's. In the 25-36" range 5's and
6's
> are counted as 1's. Damage is to every unit in the damage cone
(except > the firing Sa'Vasku).

This is much, much, MUCH more effective than the human-style WG (the
area of effect is 6-7 times bigger and the damage reduction with range
is lower). Within its arc and range it also far surpasses the EP and
HEP attacks.

> Drone Pods: For a cost of 4PF in energy, a ship may generate a
cluster > of drone pods. Drone pods act in all ways like standard
fighters. The
> drone pods are controlled by the ship that spawned them. This control

> costs 4 energy points each turn. Drone pods do not have endurance.
> They expire when control is discontinued.

Interesting.

> Construction: Sa'Vasku ships are created and costed by mass only. The
> cost of a Sa'Vasku ship is 10 cost per mass.

Given the extreme power of their Wave Pulse and their regenerative
abilities, even this may be too low :-(

> Toughness: Sa'Vasku ships may be of 5 toughness levels. The tougher >
a ship is, the lower its PF value will be.

> Toughness	Damages boxes per mass	PF per mass
> Fragile	Mass * .1			Mass * .2
> Weak	Mass * .2			Mass * .15
> Average	Mass * .3			Mass * .1
> Strong	Mass * .4			Mass * .08
> Super Mass * .5			Mass * .05

Hm. This means that it takes 1/4 as much energy to accelerate a
Super-tough SV ship of a given Mass as it takes to accelerate a Fragile
one of the same Mass. Sounds a bit odd, no?

If this mechanic is retained, the above table should be re-balanced by
setting the PF multipliers to .3/.15/.1/.075/.06. As it stands now
there's no reason at all to use Super or Fragile hulls while the Strong
one has a slight edge over the Weak and Average; but the points cost
don't reflect any of this since it is based straight off the Mass of
the ship.

> Structure (damage) boxes are represented on the ship diagram by a
> number of squares equal to the number of damage points that a ship
has > divided into 4 rows (as a standard FT ship).
>
> PF points are represented by diamonds arranged into 4 rows (as the
> structure points were), except any extra boxes are added from the >
bottom up.
>
> Armor: Armor points act just like normal (human) armor. The only
> advantage for Sa'Vasku is that armor is easier to regenerate than
> damage boxes. A Sa'Vasku ship may trade 1 structure box for 2 armor >
boxes at design time.

Interesting.

> Damage Effects: As a Sa'Vasku ship is damaged, it has a chance of
> loosing PF. When the end of the first row of damage boxes is reached,

> each PF diamond in the first row is rolled for. On a result of a 5 or
6 the
> PF is damaged. This is repeated for each row of damage boxes.

So you can never lose the PF diamonds in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rows,
or...?

> When a PF diamond is damaged, the corresponding regeneration center >
looses	power and cannot function until the PF diamond is restored.

There's no provision in these rules on how to restore PF diamonds, only
armour and structure boxes.

> System Shock: If the Core Systems rules are being used, Sa'Vasku
> ships may experience system shock due to massive damage. When the >
end of a damage row is reached, Roll a d 6 for each of the following:
>
> Unconsciousness: On a roll of a 6, then the Sa'Vasku ship has fallen
> unconscious for 1d6 turns. Or until healed (roll of 6 by a
regeneration
> center)

Can it heal itself while unconscious?

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry