1. If you fail Astrogation, what happens? You fail to plot the course and can try again until you succeed? Does threat translate into personal strain or ship strain or nothing?

2. Is there a chart that I missed that gives rough calculation time for Astrogation checks? I am guessing that you plug coordinates into the navicomputer, make an astrogation roll, and wait to see if you get a valid solution?

3. In a starship chase in difficult terrain (light asteroid field), why would you ever go faster than speed 1? The penalties for going faster than 1 are so severe that the slower guy will almost always win while the faster guy will fail. Is there something I am missing or is it really skewed towards going super slow? This seems to go against the theme of a chase.

4. When you jump to a planet, how far away from it are you on arrival? Extreme range? Can you try to jump closer and how?

5. Can minions in starships do two maneuvers in a turn?

6. How many maneuvers does it take to go from extreme to long at speed 5 in starship scale? Long to medium at speed 2-4?

7. During a chase, can the chased fire forward mounted weapons at the chaser? Is it like shields and gain the advantage where you are constantly looping and jockeying for position, thus you can decide which side of your ship fasces the enemy?

8. Emergence repair patches say they can be used on vehicles. Is this just fluff or can you use them to heal vehicles/starships?

9. When using minions in starships, do you ignore the starships strain threshold and just use the hull, or do the rules for minions counting strain as wounds only apply to the pilots themselves? I'm a bit confused by minions in starships so any examples would be great.

10. What range do you like to start space combat from? Sensor range of the PC ship, or sensor range +1 if actively sensing? Say the pc ship just blasted off from Mos Espa when suddenly tie fighters attack them. I know the range of "plot" works but I'm looking for a baseline.

11. What speeds do the ships start at? From a player point of view, I'd always travel at max speed in open space, but that sorta skips the excitement of the ships jockeying for position, moving closer, and trying to go faster than their opponent. I know the speed of "plot" works here but again I'm looking for a baseline/preference.

12. During starship combat and chases if a ship goes beyond sensor range of the enemy ship, is the encounter effectively over? Say both ships have short sensors and the enemy moves to medium range. Do I lose him/ does he lose me? Would I need to make a computers check while actively scanning to find him again?

5. If you want them to, then sure. Just apply personal strain as wounds to them. All up to how you as GM run minions and the demands of the encounter.

6. I think that's answered in the book in the section on the Fly/Drive maneuver.

7. Again, up to you as GM, but I would say no. If you are in a chase scenario, the chased should be focused on moving away from the chaser, keeping their forward weapons pointed away.

8. I'd probably allow my PCs to use one emergency repair patch on a ship per encounter, healing one hull trauma. There's only so much a patch on the inside of the ship can do.

9. No, a ship piloted by a minion still takes system strain, the minion pilot just doesn't take personal strain.

1. If you've failed an Astrogation check, you've got to take the situation into consideration. Is it during battle? Did you roll Failure with Advantage, or Threat? What negative dice were in play, and what do they all show? A routine hyperspace jump (everything normal, using good data, not in a time crunch) will not require a check, so the reason that you had to MAKE the check in the first place (as well as what is displayed on each individual die) will help you determine what to do with a failed check.

Threat, likewise, should be situationally applied. Either personal-scale strain or system strain could be entirely appropriate.

2. Yeah, there's definitely mention of times for hyperspace travel in the CRB. I'm AFB, but if you were to look up Astrogation in the Index, I have no doubt you will find it

3. Gotta account for the terrain, and the piloting skill involved, and the situation. Han Solo outflew the TIE fighters in the asteroid field in ESB because he was the better pilot. As he said, "They'd be crazy to follow us."

4. When you jump to a system or planet, you are at the approximate distance of plot. Determine why there must be a range band situation and go from there. Are you being chased? Is there a time limit? What did the dice say (if you made a check to Astrogate)? More Success could mean closer jump.

5. Sure. Just use the pilot's action.

6. AFB so...hope someone else can answer this

7. Nah, not unless you turn around with some crazy maneuvers and shoot. But then you'd be engaging them in battle, and the chase would likely be over.

8. Starships are vehicles, so...

9. See, I'd been playing it as "Minion" Starships have no strain threshold and any "strain" goes right to their Hull Trauma threshold, just like minions in personal scale. But I cannot back that up with any rules since, again, I am AFB.

Well, going by the main rulebook, it says that failures incur some kind of penalty.The more threat and despair rolled means the ship is in for a very rough time when it gets to its destination. If the initial roll failed...just flat out more-failure-than-success FAILED, have fun with it. Have them drop out of hyperspace next to their target planet, and ricochet of the atmosphere or some such. Have them show up in the wrong system...say, one thats currently being interdicted by a couple of star destroyers.

Astrogation calculation times take as long as you need them to take. If the astrogator wants to take a couple turns making sure everything is nice and good, let him do that. If he wants to smoke the jump by just punching in random coordinates and hitting the 'GO' button, fine. The time takes whatever you want it to. Besides, its more dramatic when your gang has a couple star destroyers bearing down on them, the astrogator is frantically checking his numbers before shouting to the pilot "Coordinates are in! PUNCH IT!"

Speed and chases. Well, the core book says that when making piloting checks in difficult terrain, the base difficulty is equal to the ships current speed or half its silhouette, rounded up. So if you are looking to shake some pursuers in an asteroid belt with your Size 5 ship, your base difficulty is going to be 3, even if you are at speed one. Crack those throttles open, man. They'd be crazy to follow you, wouldn't they?

1) Depends, but typically yes, you fail to get a valid flightpath and must recalculate.

2)Only a small table on Pg 247 that gives a few generalities. Some things like the Beyond the Rim adventure book dictate the duration of certain routes, but it's largely up to the GM. In the old days there were specified base flight times between certain systems. The problem was these didn't match the films very well, and what did match was subsequently destroyed by the flight times presented in the Prequel trilogy (Attack of the Clone did the most damage here, essentially carpet bombing all existing time calculations and having Yoda go from Coruscant to Kamino to Geonosis [with a frelling army in tow] in what appeared to be hours).

3) If you win the chase check, you change the distance by one range band. If you are also moving faster then the other guy, you change the distance by an additional range band. So that's the reason, if your piloting skill and talents are sufficient, or it's worth the risk to end the chase now, you go faster.

4) GM decides where you drop out based on the plot, the players desires, and the rolls.

Speed and chases. Well, the core book says that when making piloting checks in difficult terrain, the base difficulty is equal to the ships current speed or half its silhouette, rounded up. So if you are looking to shake some pursuers in an asteroid belt with your Size 5 ship, your base difficulty is going to be 3, even if you are at speed one. Crack those throttles open, man. They'd be crazy to follow you, wouldn't they?

The book says that you look at silhouette AND speed to determine the difficulty and upgraded dice. The larger sets the number of dice and the lower sets the upgraded dice, like skill checks. To show you what I mean look at this:

Ship size 3 or 4 halved rounds up to 2.

Speed 1 = 2 dice, upgraded once (DC).

Speed 2 = 2 dice, upgraded twice (CC).

Speed 3 = 3 dice, upgraded twice (DCC).

Speed 4 = 4 dice, upgraded twice (DDCC).

Speed 5 = 5 dice, upgraded twice (DDDCC).

Speed 6 = 6 dice, upgraded twice (DDDDCC).

Than you throw in even a single setback die and suddenly anything over speed 2 gets to be extremely unlikely for a success, while the opponent who stays at speed 1 has very good odds of getting one or more successes. This speed 1 wins almost always.

1) If you have time to double- and triple-check your astrogation calculations, you probably don't need to make the check in the first place. (Unless you're trying something particularly odd, or dangerous.)

Examples:

a) Han getting away from Tatooine. As soon as he he got the results from the navicomputer, he made the jump, because if he didn't it was going to be *bad*.

b) Plotting a course through the Maw Cluster (EU). If you screw that up, you've got problems that make a pair of Star Destroyers look like cotton candy.

Failure on an Astrogation check means something different depending on the exact context of the check, and just how bad the failure is.

In situation 'a', you'll either be off your preferred target (unexpectedly far out or close in, near a customs patrol, etc.). If you fail with a bunch of threat, you might even take System Strain as a result of the trip.

In situation 'b', you're probably going to take Hull damage from a failure (flying too close to a black hole in hyperspace is *bad*).

Regardless of the particulars, Despair can be really interesting. They can lead to whole new encounters, or even *adventures* when they show up. You happen to be pulled out of hyperspace by an Interdictor, or the mass shadow of an asteroid towed into the hyperspace lanes by some pirates. Come out in the wrong system entirely (you accidentally transposed some digits when you entered your destination, or some such). Have your hyperdrive blow out, dropping you in unfamiliar territory. Worse, have your hyperdrive fail to cut over to normal space, and overshoot your destination leaving you in *unexplored* territory. Etc.

Speed and chases. Well, the core book says that when making piloting checks in difficult terrain, the base difficulty is equal to the ships current speed or half its silhouette, rounded up. So if you are looking to shake some pursuers in an asteroid belt with your Size 5 ship, your base difficulty is going to be 3, even if you are at speed one. Crack those throttles open, man. They'd be crazy to follow you, wouldn't they?

The book says that you look at silhouette AND speed to determine the difficulty and upgraded dice. The larger sets the number of dice and the lower sets the upgraded dice, like skill checks. To show you what I mean look at this:

Ship size 3 or 4 halved rounds up to 2.

Speed 1 = 2 dice, upgraded once (DC).

Speed 2 = 2 dice, upgraded twice (CC).

Speed 3 = 3 dice, upgraded twice (DCC).

Speed 4 = 4 dice, upgraded twice (DDCC).

Speed 5 = 5 dice, upgraded twice (DDDCC).

Speed 6 = 6 dice, upgraded twice (DDDDCC).

Than you throw in even a single setback die and suddenly anything over speed 2 gets to be extremely unlikely for a success, while the opponent who stays at speed 1 has very good odds of getting one or more successes. This speed 1 wins almost always.

That's the point though. First off, its a gamble, youre going slow,betting you're going to score more successes and win the chase, I'm going faster, betting I will score more successes and double move.

Secondly you're making the "all things being equal" assumption. All things aren't equal. Talents like skilled jockey make a difference, and different craft have different stats like handling that tends to make a difference.

My main gripe with chases is that the difficulty is so high that anyone outside the chase scene can take advantage of it. If a smuggler is flying through a small asteroid field (or a planetary asteroid field), it's better just to shoot at the ship from the outside. Outside observers are not affected by the chase difficulty.

The chase dice don't accurately reflect what you're doing either. If you wanted to drive a landspeeder in a straight direction at half speed and you're not in a chase, there is no difficulty. But if you're in a chase, suddenly it's super difficult to drive straight.

My main gripe with chases is that the difficulty is so high that anyone outside the chase scene can take advantage of it. If a smuggler is flying through a small asteroid field (or a planetary asteroid field), it's better just to shoot at the ship from the outside. Outside observers are not affected by the chase difficulty.

The chase dice don't accurately reflect what you're doing either. If you wanted to drive a landspeeder in a straight direction at half speed and you're not in a chase, there is no difficulty. But if you're in a chase, suddenly it's super difficult to drive straight.

Actually no... The chase mechanic specifically says open space is simple. If you are conducting a chase on an equally boring terrestrial location (The planet ParkingLotia? Dragracington?) Then the difficulty is also simple. The rest of the time the game assumes you aren't just casually cruising in a straight line, but darting around trying to use the terrain to your advantage. If you aren't doing that, you should just use the normal movement rules.

1. If you fail Astrogation, what happens? You fail to plot the course and can try again until you succeed? Does threat translate into personal strain or ship strain or nothing?

If you fail you fail, that means some sort of mishap occurs. Be it ending up somewhere else than intended, taking a lot longer reaching there, or whatever fits. Threats would similarly add complications - if going for strain I'd say system strain, some sort of overload or something happening with the hyperdrive, like leaking fuel or whatnot. Despair... well have fun with that ... failing a check isn't something the PC necessarily knows, the player sure, but the character believes he or she did everything right. Advantages and/or Triumphs could of course help out here, to let the PC know that something is wrong and let them re-roll after a new series of rounds making the calculations from scratch (but this time perhaps with a boost die?). Usually I don't let the character know, unless they rolled a lot of advantages or a triumph.

2. Is there a chart that I missed that gives rough calculation time for Astrogation checks? I am guessing that you plug coordinates into the navicomputer, make an astrogation roll, and wait to see if you get a valid solution?

There is no actual predetermined amount of time required, no chart at least. Although, and I guess this is from the beta (or my mind! or perhaps based on some sort of consensus from earlier threads discussing this), I always thought it required somewhere between 2-5 minutes, which roughly translates to 2-5 rounds. Of course sometimes it could make sense that it should take even longer, if the it's a particularly complicated (lots of hyperspace hazards around like nebulae, black holes, planets, suns, super novas, whatnot) and long distance you're travelling.

3. In a starship chase in difficult terrain (light asteroid field), why would you ever go faster than speed 1? The penalties for going faster than 1 are so severe that the slower guy will almost always win while the faster guy will fail. Is there something I am missing or is it really skewed towards going super slow? This seems to go against the theme of a chase.

Remember that a chase ends when the pursuer comes within Close range of the target, a faster vehicle if successful will change multiple range bands. Of course ending the chase could become weird in some cases, as the players for instance want to continue their escape attempt, but once a chasing vehicle is within weapons range they can gain the advantage, which favours the vehicle with higher speed. Remember that the chase check is made before the start of the round, so the pilot has his normal action to spend during the chase - be it for weapons fire, gain the advantage or whatever else (like moving into hard terrain for the pursuer to crash).

4. When you jump to a planet, how far away from it are you on arrival? Extreme range? Can you try to jump closer and how?

Depends on the Astrogation check result. Look up page 246 for hyperspace travel and page 104 for the Astrogation skill and suggestions for spending (excessive) successes, advantages, threats, despairs and triumphs.

Also: Micro-jumping is presented as part of the modular encounters in Suns of Fortune, and this can easily inform ruling on how to attempt accurate jumps. Basically increase/upgrade difficulty as you see fit, or perhaps more in line with the systems intention use setback dice.

5. Can minions in starships do two maneuvers in a turn?

Yes. But only by sacrificing their Action - minions cannot voluntarily suffer strain as per page 390 in the CRB.

6. How many maneuvers does it take to go from extreme to long at speed 5 in starship scale? Long to medium at speed 2-4?

As per the FAQ/errata changing range bands requires two manoeuvres, unless otherwise specified as per the Fly/Drive manoeuvre.

7. During a chase, can the chased fire forward mounted weapons at the chaser? Is it like shields and gain the advantage where you are constantly looping and jockeying for position, thus you can decide which side of your ship fasces the enemy?

This depends on how you prefer to run chases. It's not unlikely that manoeuvring through a city scape or through an asteroid field involve turning back around for a short while to get passed some obstacle, in this case I'd say sure let a gunner or pilot fire off a couple of shots. On the other hand if you prefer the 2-6 second round notion of rounds in this case, using forward mounted weapons wouldn't make sense. I guess it depends on how linear and step by step you want it to be, or how narrative, cinematic and exciting you want it to be (sure, exciting might differ from group to group, so I'm not laying claim to the understanding of the term). I'd allow gain the advantage be used, perhaps also the choice of defensive zone, but only if it makes sense in the narrative: if flying in confined space like inside the Death Star I trench or through the Death Star II or something similar, I'd not allow the choice of defensive zone, at the very least I'd not allow evasive manoeuvres, as a sort of auto-gain the advantage... but circumstances should inform you, not some mechanistic understanding of the rules.

8. Emergence repair patches say they can be used on vehicles. Is this just fluff or can you use them to heal vehicles/starships?

The suggestion about one per encounter repairing 1 hull trauma above is pretty nice I think. I'd go that way.

9. When using minions in starships, do you ignore the starships strain threshold and just use the hull, or do the rules for minions counting strain as wounds only apply to the pilots themselves? I'm a bit confused by minions in starships so any examples would be great.

System strain remains in use, for instance if the minions decide to sacrifice their action for a second fly/drive manoeuvre, that will still cost them 2 system strain, but it wouldn't require 2 strain. Or if they first Fly/Drive closer one range band and then spend another manoeuvre to accelerate, that would be 2 system strain, but the minions could only do that by sacrificing their Action.

3. In a starship chase in difficult terrain (light asteroid field), why would you ever go faster than speed 1? The penalties for going faster than 1 are so severe that the slower guy will almost always win while the faster guy will fail. Is there something I am missing or is it really skewed towards going super slow? This seems to go against the theme of a chase.

Remember that a chase ends when the pursuer comes within Close range of the target, a faster vehicle if successful will change multiple range bands. Of course ending the chase could become weird in some cases, as the players for instance want to continue their escape attempt, but once a chasing vehicle is within weapons range they can gain the advantage, which favors the vehicle with higher speed. Remember that the chase check is made before the start of the round, so the pilot has his normal action to spend during the chase - be it for weapons fire, gain the advantage or whatever else (like moving into hard terrain for the pursuer to crash).

The chase generally ends at close range or when you pass Extreme into ..... XXXtreme? range, but it actually ends when the GM says it does. I'm not doing any GM fiat stuff, the book actually says so. So if you get to Close (or Engaged) and don't do something to cause the chase to stop or transition into conventional combat, there's no reason the GM can't have the chase continue. I could see where a failed Brawl check to tackle the chasee has the player careening into the ball pit while the chasee leaps onto a buffet table and runs right through the pizza party, leaving the chase ongoing.... also it seems the chase is taking place in a Chuck E. Cheese... which brings up other questions best left to another thread....

2. Is there a chart that I missed that gives rough calculation time for Astrogation checks? I am guessing that you plug coordinates into the navicomputer, make an astrogation roll, and wait to see if you get a valid solution?

There is no actual predetermined amount of time required, no chart at least. Although, and I guess this is from the beta (or my mind! or perhaps based on some sort of consensus from earlier threads discussing this), I always thought it required somewhere between 2-5 minutes, which roughly translates to 2-5 rounds. Of course sometimes it could make sense that it should take even longer, if the it's a particularly complicated (lots of hyperspace hazards around like nebulae, black holes, planets, suns, super novas, whatnot) and long distance you're travelling.

Isn't 2-5 rounds the number that keeps popping up in the adventures? I think that's where people have been getting the idea on how long it takes.

3. In a starship chase in difficult terrain (light asteroid field), why would you ever go faster than speed 1? The penalties for going faster than 1 are so severe that the slower guy will almost always win while the faster guy will fail. Is there something I am missing or is it really skewed towards going super slow? This seems to go against the theme of a chase.

Remember that a chase ends when the pursuer comes within Close range of the target, a faster vehicle if successful will change multiple range bands. Of course ending the chase could become weird in some cases, as the players for instance want to continue their escape attempt, but once a chasing vehicle is within weapons range they can gain the advantage, which favors the vehicle with higher speed. Remember that the chase check is made before the start of the round, so the pilot has his normal action to spend during the chase - be it for weapons fire, gain the advantage or whatever else (like moving into hard terrain for the pursuer to crash).

The chase generally ends at close range or when you pass Extreme into ..... XXXtreme? range, but it actually ends when the GM says it does. I'm not doing any GM fiat stuff, the book actually says so. So if you get to Close (or Engaged) and don't do something to cause the chase to stop or transition into conventional combat, there's no reason the GM can't have the chase continue. I could see where a failed Brawl check to tackle the chasee has the player careening into the ball pit while the chasee leaps onto a buffet table and runs right through the pizza party, leaving the chase ongoing.... also it seems the chase is taking place in a Chuck E. Cheese... which brings up other questions best left to another thread....

I touched upon that, but perhaps I wasn't clear enough. Point being that once within Close range, for vehicles, all weapons can be used and for starfighters without missile/torpedo launchers it's pretty much where they need to be to have any sort of anything. So yeah, you could continue the chase after that, but that could limit your own possibilities to attack the pursuer (if terrain and/or narrative would prevent you using forward mounted weapons), of course turret mounted weapons could still be used. I'd also suggest that Gaining the Advantage as a pursued target would end the chase, not in all, but many if not most circumstances.

@Jamwes: That might be it certainly. That is also based on the assumption, I guess, that the players know where they are going... in some cases my players don't (they are rather impulsive at times), so they spend rounds trying to decide...

I spent a week trying to figure out Astrogation for our group and to put together an action sheet for us. My thread is here:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/98715-making-sense-of-astrogation/

I take into account EotE Core Book, Beyond the Rim, and Corellian Shuffle from Sons of Fortune. I have not looked at the new stuff yet.

When in doubt, consult the critical damage chart, I always say

"They'd be crazy to follow us"

This strategy worked against a whole swoop gang chasing our swoop once. They lost more trying to keep up than they did to the assassin passenger shooting. And why they thought six idiots could fit into that narrow tunnel all at the same time?

Astrogation computation periods take provided that you need them to take. If the astrogator wants to take a several changes creating sure everything is awesome and excellent, let him do that. If he wants to smoking the leap by just kickboxing in RS Gold unique harmonizes and reaching the 'GO' key, outstanding. Time requires whatever you want it to. Besides, its more impressive when your group has a several celebrity destroyers keeping down on them, the astrogator is seriously Eldritch is an interesting action, eye-catching for several people, while Arkham is a conventional that is not actually working with the same concentrate on as Eldritch. They keep on repriting Arkham and expansions: this is a outstanding sign, because it indicates the variety, despite the years accepted since the latest expansions, keeps on advertising.

Wait, what? Can I have some of what you're smoking?

Me too, I'd love some.

Astrogation computation periods take provided that you need them to take. If the astrogator wants to take a several changes creating sure everything is awesome and excellent, let him do that. If he wants to smoking the leap by just kickboxing in RS Gold unique harmonizes and reaching the 'GO' key, outstanding. Time requires whatever you want it to. Besides, its more impressive when your group has a several celebrity destroyers keeping down on them, the astrogator is seriously Eldritch is an interesting action, eye-catching for several people, while Arkham is a conventional that is not actually working with the same concentrate on as Eldritch. They keep on repriting Arkham and expansions: this is a outstanding sign, because it indicates the variety, despite the years accepted since the latest expansions, keeps on advertising.

Added a few more questions after last night's game.

10. What range do you like to start space combat from? Sensor range of the PC ship, or sensor range +1 if actively sensing? Say the pc ship just blasted off from Mos Espa when suddenly tie fighters attack them. I know the range of "plot" works but I'm looking for a baseline.

11. What speeds do the ships start at? From a player point of view, I'd always travel at max speed in open space, but that sorta skips the excitement of the ships jockeying for position, moving closer, and trying to go faster than their opponent. I know the speed of "plot" works here but again I'm looking for a baseline/preference.

12. During starship combat and chases if a ship goes beyond sensor range of the enemy ship, is the encounter effectively over? Say both ships have short sensors and the enemy moves to medium range. Do I lose him/ does he lose me? Would I need to make a computers check while actively scanning to find him again?

11- What speed do ships start out at?

I'd start them at a cruising speed. Moving as fast as your ship can is great, but it strains the ship, the engines, and the crew. If you're moving as fast as you can, it's because you're chasing after someone else or being chased. It also reduces the time in which the crew has to perform an emergency maneuver in the even of, say, a ship dropping out of hyperspace directly in front of them. And it limits the maneuverability of the ship.

Moving at such speeds is also likely to raise the eyebrows of anybody monitoring planetary traffic. Such that it might actually instigate a race, as the local authorities conclude that the vessel must be carrying a fugitive fleeing off-world or some other form of illicit cargo. To say nothing of the fact that many more "civilized" planets and systems likely have enforced speed limits in areas where sublight travel is common - and the Imperial Navy and Customs likely have their own speed limits that they enforce against any non-(Imperial) military ship operating in their vicinity (might be rebels, smugglers, or other criminals attempting to flee - or the opening move in an attack against the Imperial ships). To say nothing of filing flight plans with local authorities that likely include the maximum and minimum speeds the craft will be flying en route from its departing spaceport to the designated area of space where the jump to hyperspace is to occur.

Obviously, such limits will have legal exceptions, such as genuine emergencies, although I wouldn't count on the Imperial Navy to not blast first, blast again, and then maybe ask the survivors a question or two before carting them off to a penal labor camp for treason.

What range do you like to start space combat from? Sensor range of the PC ship, or sensor range +1 if actively sensing? Say the pc ship just blasted off from Mos Espa when suddenly tie fighters attack them. I know the range of "plot" works but I'm looking for a baseline.

Super hard to say because the variables are so numerous. The plot isnt so much a concern as the encounter effects. How fast do you want the other guy to be able to close the distance for example will usually superceed any artificial baseline.

For sensor reasons short is usually a good starting point, or for random encounters, but it'll change based on what you want and all the other factors when you get to actual encounter design. There really just isn't a baseline.

What speeds do the ships start at? From a player point of view, I'd always travel at max speed in open space, but that sorta skips the excitement of the ships jockeying for position, moving closer, and trying to go faster than their opponent. I know the speed of "plot" works here but again I'm looking for a baseline/preference.

Kinda like the above. Half, or speed 2 is what I usually start with in my encounter construction. But that sorta "raw material" so I don't hesitate to change it if I want the players or adversaries to have a speed advantage or need to spend maneuvers early in the encounter.

During starship combat and chases if a ship goes beyond sensor range of the enemy ship, is the encounter effectively over? Say both ships have short sensors and the enemy moves to medium range. Do I lose him/ does he lose me? Would I need to make a computers check while actively scanning to find him again?

Its your call. Even FFG isn't real consistent, as you have things like Beyond the Rim tossing sensor rules details out of the window when they become inconvenient.

What I usually do is assume that once an encounter begins you can track an opponent out to extreme, but you have to be within sensor range to take sensor related actions. So like the book says, you have to go beyond extreme range to end a chase.

Honestly sensors are one of the hardest things to try and have hard rules since they sit in one of the most narrative parts of the setting and genre....

Added a few more questions after last night's game.

10. What range do you like to start space combat from? Sensor range of the PC ship, or sensor range +1 if actively sensing? Say the pc ship just blasted off from Mos Espa when suddenly tie fighters attack them. I know the range of "plot" works but I'm looking for a baseline.

For me, sensor range is just the range that a taget can be identified[/], not detected. You can detect a "blip" at up to extreme range, but can't identify it until it's within range. Of course, you can tell the basics at any range, like silhouette and speed, but that's about it. A Computer check could tell you if it's got a high "power signature" that could indicate lot of weapons, powerful shields, or souped-up hyperdrive.

To answer you question, I'd start at range +1 if you want identification right away, or farther if you want them to sweat a bit

11. What speeds do the ships start at? From a player point of view, I'd always travel at max speed in open space, but that sorta skips the excitement of the ships jockeying for position, moving closer, and trying to go faster than their opponent. I know the speed of "plot" works here but again I'm looking for a baseline/preference.

Again, how I run things (ship stuff is sorely lacking) I see speed as the equivalent of driving a car.

Speed 1 is slow, like in a parking lot or a residential area. Speed 2 is your "main road speeds" for when you're driving to the mall or something. Speed 3 is highway driving—the road is designed for high-speeds. Speed 4 is getting a ticket, unless you're on a road with no speed limit. Speed 5+ is getting a ticket, but outrunning the cops!

With that being said, if the players are around a planet, I'd say speed 1, maybe 2. If going from a planet to its moon or a jump point, that's speed 2. Going between planets in a star system? Speed 3.

12. During starship combat and chases if a ship goes beyond sensor range of the enemy ship, is the encounter effectively over? Say both ships have short sensors and the enemy moves to medium range. Do I lose him/ does he lose me? Would I need to make a computers check while actively scanning to find him again?

See my above answer about how I see sensor range. As long as the ship doesn't fall off the sensors, the computer can "tag" it so they can follow the ship' "blip" by extrapolating where it's going based on where it's been and what it was detected to be. Of course, flying close to another ship could get the sensor signatures mixed up and let the pilot roll to get lost in the sensor echo of the other ship. Thus making it just another blip again.

-EF