VBAM Games Forums

has been posted!

Endurance? Thank you!

Yeah, that's one of those things that have come up in the last year or two that upon reflection we felt really needed to be incorporated into the main rules.

This looks really great Charlie (and Jay and Tyrel).


-Mark

Enjoying the blog and the new unit profile looks better than the old one. From the point of view of one who uses tactical systems (and so more interested in the stats that have a campaign impact rather than on CSCR combat) a guide to the SIZ stat in the main book would be useful. The Death Star is '10' and a Heavy Carrier is '3' but where would we put Babylon 5, Chaos Planet-Killers and Constitution-class starships?

Cheers
Mark

There should be some sort of guideline to Size in the book.

Here's a rough and dirty sketch:

Size 1: Frigates, Destroyers
Size 2: Light Cruiser
Size 3: Heavy Cruiser
Size 4: Battlecruiser
Size 5: Dreadnought
Size 6: Battleship
Size 7-8: big stuff like the Planet Killer
Size 8-9: really big stuff like B5
Size 10: Death Star and various other small moons with big guns

Does this mean pseudo-fighters and their ilk will have separate rules (they aren't size 1, after all)? Or will they be really big fighters?

http://www.merzo.net/
Size 1 is about 10x (Fighter),
Size 10 is about -2000x (Death Star)?

(Starship Dimensions is such a cool site )

MadSeason wrote:Does this mean pseudo-fighters and their ilk will have separate rules (they aren't size 1, after all)? Or will they be really big fighters?

Right now we're looking at small craft and ground units having their own 1-10 size scale. In the case of small craft, pseudo-fighters and heavy gunboats would be a 9-10.

Not too sure about endurance. Would mean my super-battleship of doom would have to devote some space to cargo bays...

Only if you wanted it to be able to get away from your supply net. You could always have other ships toting supply for it for offensive operations. Endurance simply negates OOS levels.

Though I think you'll find that your super-battleship of doom would probably have the room to spare for a little cargo space.

Charles Lewis wrote:

MadSeason wrote:Does this mean pseudo-fighters and their ilk will have separate rules (they aren't size 1, after all)? Or will they be really big fighters?

Right now we're looking at small craft and ground units having their own 1-10 size scale. In the case of small craft, pseudo-fighters and heavy gunboats would be a 9-10.

I was hoping you would say this.

Charles Lewis wrote:

MadSeason wrote:Does this mean pseudo-fighters and their ilk will have separate rules (they aren't size 1, after all)? Or will they be really big fighters?

Right now we're looking at small craft and ground units having their own 1-10 size scale. In the case of small craft, pseudo-fighters and heavy gunboats would be a 9-10.

Yeah, that is our current plan. We'll have to see how that ends up working out. In the case of Ground Units, I don't see any real problem with it; with Fighters and Gunboats, though, we are going to have to see what works out best: whether to keep them as two ends of the same spectrum, or else break them into two separate unit types.

Charles Lewis wrote:Though I think you'll find that your super-battleship of doom would probably have the room to spare for a little cargo space.

In playing around with the current ship construction candidate, players will have quite a bit of room to add functionality to their units beyond simple combat stats. This means that those super-battleships can have some other abilities added on for good measure. For example, you might want to give you battleship some Sensors, Stealth, ECM, ECCM, etc. just to help make sure that it won't be caught blind in the face of the opponent. Building special-purpose ships for these functions will likely happen, but relying on such specialty vessels will make it far easier for your enemy to neutralize your advantage.

-Tyrel

Charles Lewis wrote:Only if you wanted it to be able to get away from your supply net. You could always have other ships toting supply for it for offensive operations. Endurance simply negates OOS levels.

Though I think you'll find that your super-battleship of doom would probably have the room to spare for a little cargo space.

No it doesn't! More guns I say! MORE!!!

/clears throat

Ahem...

Seriously, though, this does seem like a good idea. I'm a bit disappointed with the smallest size being classed as frigates rather than corvettes (but thats just a naming thing, I guess) but it would enable me to represent more accurately the MonDakrin or Izilzan...

One thing: is there a possibility of shield projectors being an ability in VBAM 2.0? It would be quite useful for the MonDakrin and also for the Abbai with their Pirocias...

So far playtesting of the tech system has given Size 3 ships roughly the same stat range as ships generally classed as CAs in 1E. That puts CLs at Size 2, leaving Size 1 for frigates and destroyers, which is less than desirable in some respects. However, modern naval useage has blurred the lines between frigates and destroyers (and destroyers and cruisers, for that matter), so the distinction is often a matter of role rather than mass.

Corvettes are a tricky matter. I would argue that they would probably be best represented by Size 10 small craft than a Size 1 ship.

Shield Projectors probably won't be in the default tech system, but that's the kind of thing that could easily be part of the Engineering Book that's planned to expand the tech system with all kinds of oddities and wonderments.