I understand most everything in the book except the modification options on the starship mods. The language isn't english. Can someone explain this.

Modification Options: 2 one additional point of defense to one defense zone of choice of Mods.

This is for the shields

2 additional storage (25 Encumberance) Mods.

This is for the compartments

2 Reduce hyperspace class by one to a minimum of .5 Mods.

This is exactly how its written and we cant see what its really trying to say.

Okay, so you buy the attachment, right? You attach it.

Those mod options can be applied to each attachment. It takes awhile, and 1000 credits x the number of mods already on that attachment. You (or whoever is doing it) also has to make a Hard Mechanics check to do it correctly. The difficulty increases (or, if you prefer, is upgraded) for each one you do after that. The number before the little blurb is how many times each one can be bought.

So, you could spend 1000 credits and a hard mechanics check to add one additional point of defense to one defence zone on that shield if you have bought and installed it. You could then spend 2000 more credits and make a Daunting mechanics check (or, an upgraded Hard mechanics check, how I do it, because I love despair it makes further upgrades not impossible as hell). If you succeeded on both of them, then your shield would provide +1 defense in two different starship zones (or +2 in one of them, if you chose that.) Failure wastes the time and credits, threat can increase the time and credits spend, and despair can possibly trash the entire attachment and make you have to buy it all over again!

Each attachment can be upgraded like that. It works just like personal weapon and armor attachments, but the time and credit costs used by them are all multiplied by 10. Since a weapon/armor mod takes 100 credits and a few hours to take, a starship mod takes 1000 credits and possibly up to a day to install!

Oh, good idea about upgrading the check instead of increasing the difficulty. At the very least, I think that makes a lot of sense after difficulty 5 (normal max difficulty). Some of the mods, such as the hanger bay, go up to 5 mods of the same type, which would mean 7 difficulty dice for the final mod!

Im still not totally understanding. 2 additional storage means you can add two extra 25 encumberance to your ship for no more hard points? Where does it state that the difficulty goes up for each upgrade. Im just trying to really know it for the next time my players ask.

Exactly! It is totally absurd, and nearly impossible to do. I hate that. I prefer upgrading it, which still steepens the difficulty while adding dat Despair!

The rules for the increase in difficulty are found in the entry for weapon and armor attachments in the equipment section. The only reference to that for starship upgrades is in that at the starship attachment sections, it says that it works just like weapon and armor attachments, but the costs and time required are multiplied by 10. Luckily, that multiplication doesn't apply to the mechanics checks. I think rolling against 30 difficulty dice would probably be 99.9999 percent impossible XD.

But yeah, you basically just improve the attachment and make it better at the risk of wasting money on failed checks and ruining everything. You can make that compartment attachment bigger by hollowing out more room to store stuff, but there's a chance it won't work and it might even damage the ship or the already-existing compartments.

I understand most everything in the book except the modification options on the starship mods. The language isn't english. Can someone explain this.

Modification Options: 2 one additional point of defense to one defense zone of choice of Mods.
This is for the shields

2 additional storage (25 Encumberance) Mods.
This is for the compartments

2 Reduce hyperspace class by one to a minimum of .5 Mods.

This is exactly how its written and we cant see what its really trying to say.

Exactly! It is totally absurd, and nearly impossible to do. I hate that. I prefer upgrading it, which still steepens the difficulty while adding dat Despair!

According to an interview with the devs, this is intentional. Since there isn't a hard numerical cap like there is with hard points, the escalating difficulty (and eventual failure) serves at that cap.

The idea is that players are then encouraged to think about how to customize their own weapons, resulting in more uniqueness and not just a "here's a shopping list of mods for everyone who owns a blaster rifle."

2 one additional point of defense: Twice, you may do an upgrade to give a single zone of your choice a permanent increase to defense. second need not match the first. Probably represents a combination of better shield placement, more efficient emitter components, and increased power feed, probably by reducing lighting and other comforts elsewhere.

This must be along the lines of thinking in JJA's Star Trek - shield power has been rerouted to the bridge lighting.

I still get confused when they say increase the difficulty and then it appears that they mean upgrade the difficulty, or do they?

Exactly! It is totally absurd, and nearly impossible to do. I hate that. I prefer upgrading it, which still steepens the difficulty while adding dat Despair!

According to an interview with the devs, this is intentional. Since there isn't a hard numerical cap like there is with hard points, the escalating difficulty (and eventual failure) serves at that cap.

The idea is that players are then encouraged to think about how to customize their own weapons, resulting in more uniqueness and not just a "here's a shopping list of mods for everyone who owns a blaster rifle."

See, rather than just stacking more difficulty on it, I would rather just use a Despair to cause some kind of damage to the attachment that prevents further modification. I think I'd just rather do it that way, so that people might still try to mod it as much as they want. I mean, it would cost A LOT of credits to deck it out that much after awhile.

Wookiehunter, check out the rules for attachments and mods on page 187. It explains the process.

For the storage, the entry you are talking about is smuggling compartments. Those don't add space. Instead they convert 25 encumbrance of existing space into hidden storage. For each of those mods, you can convert 25 more encumbrance.

As for upgrading the difficulty, it's supposed to be nearly impossible to continually add mods. The idea is to be forced to choose which ones you need, and then hope for the best (since failing means you can never make that upgrade again with that attachment).

If you do get that third or even forth mod, it will feel like an accomplishment, not just something that everyone eventually gets to.