Strain from ion cannon hits seems to spread out across the vessel. There's no good simulationist-friendly reason that 100 10-man damage control teams couldn't be working on that aboard a star destroyer. It is somewhat tough to roll it all out in a sitting.

Capital ships and how they interact with initiative seem like one of the biggest blind spots in the rules, the guidelines given are vague as **** and not overly useful.

So far in my games I've just given them an arbitrary amount of initiative slots based on what seems appropriate (and manageable) for the combat, but it's not a great system. Would be nice to have something more formal.

11 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Strain from ion cannon hits seems to spread out across the vessel. There's no good simulationist-friendly reason that 100 10-man damage control teams couldn't be working on that aboard a star destroyer. It is somewhat tough to roll it all out in a sitting.

We see star destroyers to be out quite long from Ion damage in canon. So there is a good reason to assume that in game terms the ion damage is already accounting for that and assumes that one repair crew roll is enough to represent this even on larger vessels which have extended ionisation across their hull.

Same for strain from maneuvers which might sometimes induce stress to the hull as whole. One repair crew represents here as well rather well repairing the problem on one spot, while others do the same at the other potential problem spots. Keep in mind here larger ships do suffer hundreds or even thousands of times more g-forces on turns than starfighters do on roll, yaw and pitch. They still just gain two strain for their extra maneuver. So I would say the better inertia stabilisers and additional crew is already accounted for.

Same for ion weapon attacks, small ships have less systems which are able to overload and thus less points which needed to repaired either. Larger ships have more systems which need repair there once there is an ionization cascade running through all their systems and shuts them down, meanwhile localized damage is not in reach for most repair crews either. Each time a single roll is appropriated, while not always representing just one crew working on the problem, it always fits even a simulation-friendly approach.

5 hours ago, Tom Cruise said:

Capital ships and how they interact with initiative seem like one of the biggest blind spots in the rules, the guidelines given are vague as **** and not overly useful.

So far in my games I've just given them an arbitrary amount of initiative slots based on what seems appropriate (and manageable) for the combat, but it's not a great system. Would be nice to have something more formal.

For practical purposes I would give the captain a regular initiative slot and unleash all their guns simply last, while using init order compared to each of their captains in relation to other capital ships. Gives the fighters the chance to start evasive maneuvers when the capital ships start firing.

5 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

We see star destroyers to be out quite long from Ion damage in canon. So there is a good reason to assume that in game terms the ion damage is already accounting for that and assumes that one repair crew roll is enough to represent this even on larger vessels which have extended ionisation across their hull.

Same for strain from maneuvers which might sometimes induce stress to the hull as whole. One repair crew represents here as well rather well repairing the problem on one spot, while others do the same at the other potential problem spots. Keep in mind here larger ships do suffer hundreds or even thousands of times more g-forces on turns than starfighters do on roll, yaw and pitch. They still just gain two strain for their extra maneuver. So I would say the better inertia stabilisers and additional crew is already accounted for.

Same for ion weapon attacks, small ships have less systems which are able to overload and thus less points which needed to repaired either. Larger ships have more systems which need repair there once there is an ionization cascade running through all their systems and shuts them down, meanwhile localized damage is not in reach for most repair crews either. Each time a single roll is appropriated, while not always representing just one crew working on the problem, it always fits even a simulation-friendly approach.

That action doesn't say it's limited to once per turn per vehicle. Would you allow two PCs aboard a light freighter to each attempt a damage control roll to restore SS in a given round? What about four PCs on a Gozanti ?

Good question, nothing say you can't but I can see some abuse from here :-)

1 hour ago, HappyDaze said:

That action doesn't say it's limited to once per turn per vehicle. Would you allow two PCs aboard a light freighter to each attempt a damage control roll to restore SS in a given round? What about four PCs on a Gozanti ?

Good question. And my answer would depend on circumstances and source of the SS. In general though, I would not allow it. If they are dealing with several problems at the same time or widespread damage, I might allow it, else I would make it an assisted check.

What I most definitely would now allow is 8 PCs on a Gozanti all doing damage control to ignore ion damage from opposing ships.

42 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

What I most definitely would now allow is 8 PCs on a Gozanti all doing damage control to ignore ion damage from opposing ships.

But where should the line fall?

If it took eight different ion cannon hits, why couldn't eight characters each pull damage control?

Now scale that by a factor of 10 for a capital ship hit by 80 ion cannons...

Except that all indications are that capitol ships are not effectively immune to ion damage

9 minutes ago, korjik said:

Except that all indications are that capitol ships are not effectively immune to ion damage

Maybe they get crappy rolls.

1 hour ago, HappyDaze said:

Maybe they get crappy rolls.

Now you sound just silly

I have a point on asking where to draw a line, but playing it to ridiculous levels for sure ain't the answer either.