Re: [GZG] FT:XD changes, part 1

Hugh Fisher wrote:

>* Turns in cinematic: half drive rounded UP or DOWN?
>In FT 2, it was rounded up so a ship with drive 3 could turn 2 
>points. In 2.5, it was rounded down so drive 3 could only turn 1. In 
>FT Lite, it's back to rounding up which I copied for FT:XD. So, do 
>you play round down or up?

If you want the published designs to make any sense at all in 
Cinematic, you round down. A single point of accel is not a very big 
deal, but 5% of TMF and a single point of (Cinematic) turn rate both
are.

Also, the half-*distance* moved isn't rounded - if the current speed 
is an odd number, the ship moves something-and-a-half mu before the 
mid-move course change. Course changes are rounded only because ships 
are supposed to adhere strictly to the 12 clock facings; there is no 
such requirement for distances (unless you play FT on a grid of some 
sort, but then you're probably not using the published movement rules 
anyway <g>).

>* Point defence
>In FT:XD I allowed ships with ADFCs to fire at fighter groups 
>loitering nearby and not actually attacking. In 1.1 I'm planning to 
>take this out. Will anyone notice?

Those players facing large numbers of fighters will.

>Scatterguns in FT:XD roll 3 PDS dice instead of 1D6 casualties as in 
>FB 2.5. (This gives a wider range of results and in particular 
>allows them to miss completely.) For 1.1 I'm planning to increase 
>this to 4D6, as 3D6 reduce the average effect too much for a one-shot
weapon.

Sounds good to me.

>* Ship fire phase: before or after fighters/missiles?

Since you allow anti-ship weapons to engage fighters, before. That 
way a ship can resolve *all* of its fire, both anti-ship and 
anti-fighter/missile, at the same time without forcing the players to 
track which weapons fired in what phase. No biggie in smaller 
skirmishes, but it can be a real pain in large battles.

>* Graser-2 mass reduced to 8
>
>This one is tricky. I think the graser-2 is slightly overpriced at mass
9.

I'm not nearly as worried about the single-arc version as about the 
multi-arc ones. +3 mass per extra arc is slightly too much, but +2 
mass/arc is definitely too little... Maybe 8+3/extra arc?

>(Regardless of whether grasers re-roll or not - that's another
discussion.)

Run both versions. With rerolls at a cost of 4xMass, without at 3xMass
<shrug>

***
Doug asked:

>Is mixing these [fighter/missile] attacks into the ship initiative 
>driven fire too painful
>for words?

When you have a dozen or more fighter groups... yes, it is :-/

Regards,

Oerjan

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