Space Combat Revisited
Ok, it's late at night and maybe I should have waited until I had more time to read this post and edit it a bit, but I'm impatient to throw the subject into the pits and see how people tear it apart. I want a new space combat system. The original isn't bad, well, except for the broken parts, and there's plenty of those. But, the general flow is pretty good. There's just some really unsatisfying parts that I want addressed. Somewhere in the mix I also want some simplification, to address multi-ship combat.
I want to stay true to the 6 original “special orders” while permitting as much player-character modification of those orders without actually changing them. So let’s start by revisiting those orders.
-
Before those 6 orders is the default order. This permits you to move a full move or a half move and fire your weapons at full. Weapons firing at full were modified by range, target size, and target movement. FFG didn’t include target size and movement into their calculations and I have to agree with that assessment. Target size seems a minor issue when the target is already thousands of miles away, and while movement might be an issue it seems like an unnecessary complication. That leaves only range. FFG included it and I propose to keep it. Now I will discuss the special orders. The problem I have with some of the FFG changes is that they permit too many things to happen at once. I’m sure they had in mind to engage all the player characters in every possible strategic round, and I agree with that reasoning, but I think all characters can have a role every turn without every ship being able to perform every action every turn.
-
Next let’s consider All Ahead Full orders. The original rules state that power is redirected to the engines, so weapons fire is halved and no turning is allowed. FFG changed this in two ways that produced very unsubtle effects. Your pilot could increase the speed of the ship with an Adjust Speed Maneuver, and your Enginseer Prime could bump that up with Flank Speed . This could be done simultaneously, and I’m sure we’ve all had those characters in our campaigns that could reliably double, and sometimes triple the ship’s speed nearly every round. And this would never affect weapons fire and only rarely affect turning. That’s not a desirable outcome. There was that outside chance of crippling one’s own engines. I did like that touch, though it disappeared when the Explorator had a few ranks. I propose that pushing the engines to greater speeds negates the ability to turn, and has a negative effect on weapons fire. I further propose that the weapons fire is affected differently depending on the weapon type. Energy-based weapons, such as sunsears or lances, would have their damage lessened due to the power drain (this is very efficacious when using Math-hammer-style armor rules), while macrocannons broadsides and other kinetic broadsides are lessened in STR, and macrocannon batteries and other kinetic batteries have their BS check penalized, representing the increased difficulty in bringing them to bear accurately.
-
Next let’s consider Come to New Heading . Originally, this order automatically permitted 2 turns at the cost of halving weapons fire. FFG changed that to a Difficult Piloting check, and the penalty to weapons fire is -20 to BS. It’s ambiguous whether that penalty still applies in the case of a failed piloting check. The original rules stated that the ship sacrificed firing opportunities to turn more sharply. I’m not sure what that means, so I’m going with power redirected to the maneuvering thrusters. I don’t think the 2 turns should be dependent on a piloting check. Ships 1-3 miles long aren’t going to turn faster due to deft handling of the helm. They are going to turn faster because of the power applied. The penalties to weapons fire would be the same as those mentioned above under All Ahead Full orders.
-
That brings us to Burn Retros orders. The original rules were a bit contradictory here. The maneuver was made possible by redirecting power, as the above orders, but it said that not only would the ship slow, but that it could be turned more sharply, yet they still only permitted one turn per strategic round. I propose that weapons fire is reduced as the above orders, that the amount of forward momentum arrested is decided by a piloting check, and that a good piloting check might permit an extra turn beyond the first.
-
Lock On orders probably received the biggest nerf. In BFG it virtually doubled a ship’s firepower, permitting a re-roll on all misses, and I see no problem with that as it stands. Re-rolls don’t permit any more hits than possible, but will affect that more hits are scored. I think this will be particularly effective with NPC ships, which becomes important when trying to providing a challenge when the player-characters get up in ranks. The question, then, is how to simulate that when hits are tallied using DoS. The original orders did not permit any turning, and I think that should still apply. That skilled pilot still isn’t going to turn a miles-long ship when all available power is being poured into the weapons systems.
-
The comes Reload Ordnance . FFG decided this could happen while other things were going on. I agree with them. I think the BFG rules got it wrong. Then again, I haven’t play-tested not using these orders with BFG. It might be a balancing issue, which might help explain why small craft are too powerful using FFG’s rules.
-
Lastly is the Brace For Impact orders. FFG ignored this entirely. I can understand that, given that it happens during the opponent’s turn. Still, I like the idea of a defensive action, and Evasive Maneuvers didn’t really rock my world. In fact, I find the idea of a 3-mile long ship dancing around a bit preposterous. In the original rules this gave the targeted ship a 50/50 saving throw against every hit, and that’s extremely powerful. The ship that used these orders could only perform the default orders in their next turn, and all weapons fire was halved in addition to that. I’m curious what other people think of this.
So using these types of orders, how do all characters get involved? Well, the captain issues the orders, and gives someone else a +10 bonus to perform their task, so that’s one person that’s absolutely involved every turn. An Enginseer Prime is doing all the re-routing of power, and with good skill checks could lessen the penalties of the chosen orders, representing the efficient use of power, and selectively underpowering sections of the ship that weren’t in dire need at the moment. So that’s another person that’s involved every turn. Regardless the order, if speed changes were modified by piloting checks, that would involved yet another person every turn, and provide something more than just 3 speeds per ship. In fact, I think that every role on the ship can be slightly tweaked to be engaged every turn.
I’ve written quite a bit more on the subject, and I’m keeping notes and constantly re-tweaking my thoughts. I decided to write this post and see what others think about ship combat. We’ve all talked about it before. I’m not one for holding my breath until RT 2.0 comes out. What are your thoughts?