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So I've decided to try a second edition solo playtest too, like wmsing. I'll be posting questions and turn outcomes here.

Initial questions:
If a carrier goes out of supply, do the flights being carried accrue OoS points too? Do they take damage for every 2 OoS points too? If so, and the Carrier has endurance, does that delay the fighters taking OoS, or just the Carrier? When a carrier is resupplied, are all parasites resupplied too?

The number of flights launched at the start of combat is determined by readiness, and readiness is determined, in part, by Scout. If you have flights with Scout, they contribute to the pre-battle readiness roll even though depending on the roll, they may not have been launched yet?

I've been playing around with the Fighter Launch Rails and Catapults, and think they are fantastic additions that don't actually dominate non-carrier designs. For comparison, here are two scout designs I worked up.


Wildcat
Scout Carrier
BC 3 BT 1 MC 1 CR 4 CC 1 DV 1 FTL 1 (2) Endurance 1 (1/2) Fighter Rails 5 (2.5)

Carrying 5:
Midge
Scout Flight
BC 1 BT 1 MC 1/2 CR 3 CC 1/2 DV 1 Scout 1

vs

Ferret
Scout
BC 3 BT 1 MC 1 CR 4 CC 1 DV 1 FTL 1 (2) Endurance 2 (1) Scout 2


The Ferrets are actually slightly cheaper to build and maintain (for a given Scout total - Scout 20 requires 4 Wildcat/Midges for BC 32 and maintenance 15, or for Ferrets, BC 30 and MC 10), and have higher endurance. The carriers, conversely, could be fitted with bombers and interceptors making them more versitile. If you were to swap the launch rails for Catapults, you could add an additional level of Endurance to the Wildcat, and could carry a BC4 heavy scout flight with Scout 7, which would be better at scouting than either the Ferret or the Wildcat/Midge combination, but those would take longer to build, and be considerably more fragile. So at TL0, it works quite well.

countercheck wrote:So I've decided to try a second edition solo playtest too, like wmsing. I'll be posting questions and turn outcomes here.

Great! That'll be a big help in figuring out which sections of the rules haven't been updated yet and getting the bugs worked out of things. A bit of collective back and forth will help decide the best direction to take some of the rules that are still under consideration, too.

If a carrier goes out of supply, do the flights being carried accrue OoS points too? Do they take damage for every 2 OoS points too? If so, and the Carrier has endurance, does that delay the fighters taking OoS, or just the Carrier? When a carrier is resupplied, are all parasites resupplied too?

Well, that shows me that I've been doing out of supply levels wrong in my campaign (I was using old rules - oops!) I remember Jay, Charlie, and I running numbers and discussing this all back in February or March, and I can't believe that I forgot all about it. Old dog, new tricks, too many iterations of the rules, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Anyway, to answer your question, here's the rule as intended that should have been included in that section of the rules (and is there now):

"Units that are being based aboard another unit don't earn out of supply levels when they are out of supply. However, carriers and transports that become crippled as the result of being out of supply won't be able to base as many units as they could before and their owners will be forced to destroy one or more of the flights, ground forces, or other units based aboard those craft until the total build cost of units remaining is less than or equal to their new basing capacity."

The reason for this is that otherwise based units would be too susceptible to destruction from being out of supply, and their carriers are already in a position where they could easily take enough damage from being out of supply to halve their basing capacities and be forced to destroy units anyway. For example, a 2 CC starship with 6 Carrier unit carrying 3 x 2 BC flights would have its Carrier value reduced to 3 after it's crippled. At that point the carrier has to reduce down to 3 BC of flights -- so two of the flights would have to be destroyed unless there was additional basing capacity in the fleet to support the extra flights.

In other words, we backload the fighter supply issue onto the carriers themselves. As long as the carrier isn't crippled all of its fighters or troops are fine. Afterwards, though, it can't support them and has to scavenge them for parts.

The number of flights launched at the start of combat is determined by readiness, and readiness is determined, in part, by Scout. If you have flights with Scout, they contribute to the pre-battle readiness roll even though depending on the roll, they may not have been launched yet?

I've kind of gone back and forth on the flight launch rules and right now I'm leaning toward ignoring them again and making them an optional rule in a future tech book (along with Launch Bays as a separate augmenting technology). Right now I just have fighters launching automatically in combat.

In fact, here is the rundown of how I am running combat right now in my playtest game:

At the start of an encounter you roll for detection:

Detection (2D6)
Roll, Effect
2 or less: Emergency Detection. Sensors just barely picked up the incoming force but doesn't know anything about it.
3-4: Limited Detection. Sensors only detect the drive signatures but can't tell how many units are in the fleet.
5-6: Partial Detection. Sensors can discern the size of the opposing force (total Command Cost) but can't tell how many actual units there are.
7-8: Normal Detection. Sensors can tell the size of the opposing force (total Command Cost) as well as the number of units.
9-10: Significant Detection. Sensors can tell size (Command Cost) of the force, the number of units, and types of units.
11 or more: Complete Detection (as above)

Modifiers:
This empire has a colony in the system (+1)
+1 per 10 CC of friendly units in the system
+1 per 5 Scout (round down)
-X Stealth, where X is the enemy force's lowest Stealth value

This detection table gives a range of different values that supplies different levels of intelligence in unmoderated games. More importantly, they each provide a surprise modifier to the Readiness roll before each scenario. If anyone can think of some better breakpoints of information players could get that would be great. As it is the two low end and two high end tiers are the same except for their surprise modifiers.

Readiness (2D6)
Roll: Effect
2 or less: Disastrous, -4 to combat rolls
3-4: Bad, -2 to combat rolls
5-6: Poor, -1 to combat rolls
7-8: Normal, no modifier
9-10: Good, +1 to combat rolls
11 or more: Excellent, +2 to combat rolls

Modifiers:
-4 Emergency Detection
-2 Limited Detection
-1 Partial Detection
+0 Normal Detection
+1 Significant Detection
+2 Complete Detection
+2 Interception Scenario (attacker only)
+2 Pursuit Scenario (defender only)
+1 Defensive Scenario (both task forces)

Detection therefore tells how prepared all of the system's defenders are for combat, but then the readiness going into a battle determines how ready that individual task force was. Combat roll penalties indicate the force was ambushed, bonuses mean they staged the ambush.

It's also important to note what the combat rolls mean. As a rule, the CSCR in 1E used X * 1D6/10 for a lot of things. 2E is now using a X * 1D10 / 10 and ensconcing it as a combat roll. Anything in the CSCR that requires a combat roll uses this format. Readiness modifiers are added to the D10 die, but the die can't be reduces to less than 1 or greater than 10. That gives a permanent 10% - 100% effectiveness for all systems. For comparison's sake, the old 1E roll gave a 20% - 60% return on stat values (if I remember my calculations correctly).

I've also simplified the combat scenarios quite a bit from the previous draft. There are no longer set commitment levels Instead you spend as much intensity as you want for each type of mission. Scenario length is set at XD6 where X is the intensity (this might change). Interception gives the attacker a +2 bonus to readiness rolls but the scenario length is halved (round up). Pursuit gives the defender a +2 bonus to readiness rolls and the defender must give preference to cripples when building his task force, but the scenario length is halved (round up). Deep Space is a basic scenario without any modifiers, good for balanced fights. Defensive scenarios are the only ones that can include starbases and each side gets a +1 readiness roll bonus as they are both ready for a fight.

The amount of intensity that a force has is still 1 per 10 CC (round up), but I'm starting to think that a better stat or way of calculating that probably exists. I think tying it to Command Rating might be better, but whether as an aggregate of a fleet's total CR or based on the CR of the largest fleet unit, I'm not sure. I've been trying to figure out a better solution than 1/10 CC but just haven't found anything that works that great yet.

You can include one squadron in your task force for every point of intensity spent on the battle. Larger battles therefore require more intensity, and its common for two evenly matched forces to leave some ships out of a battle for lack of intensity.

Finally, a rule that isn't written anywhere but I'm going to test is to give smaller forces a +1 Readiness bonus for every squadron that they're unable to field in a battle because they don't have enough units. Think of a situation where an enemy pays 6 intensity to field 6 squadrons against the empire that only has enough ships to form a single squadron. That one plucky squadron would get a +5 Readiness bonus, meaning it would be very effective for its size... but it's going to get thoroughly plastered but at least it might be able to get in a few good licks before going down. The intent is to help counter, albeit half heartedly, the threat of super fleets and empires that can just go nuts throwing huge fleets at small groups of ships.

The concept of intensity is something that migrated over from the Federation Admiral, and it may end up just not being a good fit for 2E. I've wrestled with that being the possible issue, too. There are several other alternatives, such as just going through an in-order generation process where each player assembles their ships in squadrons and then work through from Interception => Deep Space => Defensive => Pursuit with each player just declaring how many of their squadrons are participating in each (or, in the case of Interception and Pursuit, the attacker chooses which enemy squadrons to attack). Under such a rule set a squadron could only "attack" once per encounter. For example, a squadron used to perform and Interception during that step couldn't be used to attack during a later scenario, but it could still be attacked by an enemy.

My head hurts now. This is one point of contention with trying to get the rules done: finding a balance between simplicity and still having enough detail to make the CSCR and encounter resolution both fun and effective without turning into the blowout battles that were painfully common in 1E.

I've been playing around with the Fighter Launch Rails and Catapults, and think they are fantastic additions that don't actually dominate non-carrier designs. For comparison, here are two scout designs I worked up.

I was trying to brainstorm some other flight basing ideas that would fit the roles of certain ships we see in sci-fi.

Wildcat
Scout Carrier
BC 3 BT 1 MC 1 CR 4 CC 1 DV 1 FTL 1 (2) Endurance 1 (1/2) Fighter Rails 5 (2.5)

This should should be CR 3, CC 1/2 at that build cost, and the FTL cost rounds down so you actually have another 1 MU to spend on abilities (either more Endurance or maybe some PD to give you better survivability?).

Midge
Scout Flight
BC 1 BT 1 MC 1/2 CR 3 CC 1/2 DV 1 Scout 1

This unit unfortunately isn't possible at TL 0, as you are paying 1 MU for 1 DV and 2 MU for 1 Scout. That's 3 MU, and at TL 0 the Midge would only have 2 MU to play with. However, the design does become viable at TL 3 when the Midge's max MU increases to 3.

Ferret
Scout
BC 3 BT 1 MC 1 CR 4 CC 1 DV 1 FTL 1 (2) Endurance 2 (1) Scout 2

Ferret-class scout (revised) [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0 Starship
DV 1, AS 0, PD 0, CR 3, CC 1/2
FTL 1, Endurance 4, Scout 2

This increases the cost of the Ferret by 1 EP to 4, doubles its MC and BT, but fits in all of the desired abilities plus some healthy Endurance (it can be out of supply 4 turns before feeling any effects - that's pretty nice for a scout).

Revisiting the Wildcat with the idea of turning it into a conventional carrier that could carry a Scout shuttle:

Wildcat-class scout carrier (revised) [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0 Starship
DV 1, AS 0, PD 0, CR 3, CC 1/2
FTL 1, Endurance 4, Carrier 4

Again, it's a little bigger than before to fit in the extra Carrier value for the 2 BC flights that at TL 0 are required to fit Scout onto a flight (the revised Midges would probably be 2 DV, 1 Scout just to make them more survivable).

You're right that the carrier method for exploration would offer the most versatility as you could swap out the scout shuttles for fighters or bombers when the need arises. My bigger worry about both designs is that with such low DV and now PD they are going to be very easy to destroy (because they are incapable of intercepting incoming fire aka increasing formation levels!).

Endurance costing looks like it might be problematic, and I may need to find a bonus for it that would be commensurate with increasing its cost to an even 1 MU or 2 x CC to remove the fractions. But then the supply rules that I forgot about were written before I halved most everything's CC, so I really need to go back and see what I can do to address that. I know at one point I had it so Endurance increased the number of OSL required to score damage to a unit. If I went back to that, then these units would have 1 Endurance (vs 4 Endurance) and would be able to be out of supply 3 turns before taking 1 damage (50% longer than normal, essentially).

Thanks so much, Tyrel! Big help. I can't believe I missed the cost increase to Scout. Having Scout cost 2 is a good choice, I think. I was planning on assembling BC40 task groups with a +5 scout modifiers, but with the increased cost of Scout, thankfully, I'll be slowed down.

How are you deriving the CC value? Is it still BC/2? The revised versions of the WIldcat and Ferret (BC4, CC1/2) indicate that maybe it is something else. BC/5 rounded down.

I am concerned, a bit, that the Catapult option is vastly superior to buying Carrier unless you want to launch enormous BC 5+ flights. or BC 1 flights

Is it possible to have a unit with DV 0 that is instantly killed by any enemy fire?

I'm an idiot, but I can't find where the rules say anything about how you generate supply. I know Supply Depots increase supply range by 2, but I don't know what the base range is. Is it Utilized Industry?

PD vs Guided. Does the PD cancel Guided before the d10 roll (which I think is a much better option than d6, though you might consider 2d6) or is it effective PD that canceles guided. Because if it's after the D10 roll, one Guided on average will take 2PD to block. Just a thought. Also, Guided retains its effectiveness regardless of readiness.

No, it is totally true that hyper-light scout carriers refitted with bombers and fighters are vulnerable, and would rely on escorts or their own fighters for point defense. I imagine they'd function more as battle taxis rather than actual combatents - a way to give fighters an FTL lift, and a possible force multiplier. They'll die if they get hit, but because they aren't adding to the combat total, they'll probably be a lower targetting priority than the destroyers.

I like Intensity. Nicely simplified. Do squadron leaders need to pay their own command cost? For alternatives to CC/10, have you looked at Aggressiveness or Xenophobia? I think CC is probably the right way to go, rather than CR. Maybe CC/10+Detection modifier? Is there any way to dump unwanted intensity? Or here, CC/10 +/- Detection Modifier. If you have good information, you can choose to either press more closely or avoid battle.

Another completely random thought for an advanced rule. Apply the PP pool as a negative modifier to Morale in capitals, due to overcrowding. Just a thought.

Wait, how are you costing FTL? For the Ferret and Wildcat, I'm getting an FTL cost of 2 (50% of 4), which brings the total MU cost to 9, no?

Here's my first crack at complete force design

Starships

Hostile Acquisition class heavy cruiser [20 MU]
BC 10, MC 4, BT 5, TL 0 Starship
DV 6, AS 4, PD 5, CR 6, CC 2
FTL 1 [5]

Hostile Acquisition class heavy cruisers are the most commonly encountered of UA's heavy units. Not quite the workhorse that the Wildcat is, Hostile Acquisition cruisers tend to serve as frontline task force leaders.

Fallacy class battleship [40 MU]
BC 20, MC 8, BT 10, TL 0 Starship
DV 10, AS 8, PD 12, CR 10, CC 4
FTL 1 [10]

Pride of the fleet, the Fallacy class battleship is a battle centerpiece, not designed for independent action. Invariably accompanied by carriers and escorts, the Fallacy's extensive command and control systems make UA's task forces rightly feared.

Endurance class supply ship [10 MU]
BC 5, MC 2, BT 3, TL 0 Starship
DV 2, AS 0, PD 0, CR 4, CC 1
FTL 1, Endurance 2, Supply 5

A long range supply vessel. Supply shuttles were initially considered as alternatives, but the necessity of forward placement and constant readiness suggested that a dedicated supply platform might be superior.

Wildcat-class scout carrier [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0 Starship
DV 2, AS 0, PD 0, CR 3, CC 1/2
FTL 1, Catapult 2

The mainstay of Universal Acquisition's fleet, the Wildcat is a small, extremely flexible carrier capable of extended operations when supported by Endurance class supply vessels. While technically unarmed, the Wildcat can host a pair of parasite flights that are tremendous force multipliers, and which can be swapped out and exchanged for non-combat shuttles like Angels or Inspirations in peacetime. Wildcats tend to try to avoid direct combat themselves, instead preferring to retire behind a cloud of parasite fighters and bombers, but can be included in larger fleet actions to provide additional command and control for their flights.

Fighters and Shuttles

Fury-class Heavy Bomber [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0, Flight
DV 3, AS 0, PD 0, CR 3, CC 1/2
Guided 5

A heavy fighter equipped with a heavy load of anti-shipping missiles. Heavily armoured, but extremely vulnerable to anti-fighter platforms, the Fury relies on its intimidating weight of fire to persuade hostiles to target its munitions rather than the Fury itself.

Fire-class Heavy Strike Fighter [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0, Flight
DV 3, AS 2, PD 3, CR 3, CC 1/2

The traditional escort of the Fury-class bomber, the Fire carries a heavy point defense loadout sufficient to seriously threaten hostile interceptors or provide point defense for the carrier, while still demonstrating enough anti-shipping capability to discomfit light hostile warships and force them to split their fire between defending against fighters, guided munitions, and close in point defense.


van Gogh-class ART Insertion Shuttle [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0, Flight
DV 2, AS 0, PD 2, CR 3, CC 1/2
Atmospheric, Assault 2

The van Gogh is an assault shuttle designed to carry an Asset Realization Team from orbit to a planet's surface reasonably safely, if not comfortably. While no one would confuse a van Gogh for an interceptor, the insertion shuttle carries sufficient point defense weaponry both to deter hostile fighters from interfering with a planetary assault, and provide close in fire support to the ARTists once they are on the ground.

Angel-class Customs Patrol Shuttle [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0, Flight
DV 1, AS 0, PD 0, CR 3, CC 1/2
Atmospheric [2], Police 2

A squadron of atmospheric shuttles with space for a customs squad or SWAT team.

Inspiration-class Scout Shuttle [8 MU]
BC 4, MC 2, BT 2, TL 0, Flight
DV 1, AS 0, PD 1, CR 3, CC 1/2
Scout 3

The Inspiration is a pure recce vehicle, covered in distributed arrays and high quality optics. It is extremely fragile and not designed for direct participation in combat operations.

Orbital Fortresses

Contractual Obligation class orbital fortress
BC 24 MC 5, BT 12, TL 0 Orbital Fort [48]
DV 16, AS 20, PD 12, CR 10, CC 4

Extremely heavy orbital fortress, mounting interlocking weapon systems designed to pulverize the enemy before they get a chance to bombard a target planet.

Customs Station
Small Orbital Fort
BC 5 BT 2 MC 1 CR 4 CC 1 DV 2 Police 3 Catapult 1
A sprawling orbital station designed to support the local government by cracking down on smuggling and illegal actions of all sorts. Bases a squadron of fighters, usually Angel customs shuttles, but in a pinch, something a little heavier.

Ground Units

Police Station
Small Ground Fort
BC 5 BT 2 MC 1 CR 4 CC 1 DV 2, Police 3 Catapult 1
A large, lightly defended complex designed to support the local government by dispatching flying squads of armored military police to break up riots and provide general policing duties. Bases a squadron of fighters, usually Angel customs shuttles, but in a pinch, something a little heavier.


Asset Realization Team
Light Infantry Company
BC 2 BT 1 MC 1/2 CR 3 CC 1/2 DV 2 AS 2
A company of lightly equipped infantry, trained for smash and grab operations, not long term occupation. They are hover capable, but their transports are simply ruggedized versions of civilian models, all but unarmed and unarmoured. The ARTists are tough, for unmechanized infantry, but horribly vulnerable to artillery and air power.



[Exploration Group
2x Endurance 10
5x Wildcat 20
10x Inspiration 40
70

Defense
4x Angel 16
2x Police Station 10
2x Orbital Customs Station 10
1x Contractual Obligation Fortress 24
60]
130

[Assault
2x ART 4
2x van Gogh 8
12

Combat
4x Fire 16
3x Fury 12
1x Fallacy class BB 20
1x Hostile Acquisition 10
58] 70

So I've been playing through this. I just finished Turn 15. I've explored about 14 systems, averaging about 1 system a month. More often than not, I get two systems a month, but then I need to spend a few turns relocating my scouts to a more important sector.

The number of systems I've encountered with self-supporting BIO ratings is... really small. The first one I hit was behind a Plasma storm, which made it very undesirable. Other than that, I think I've only encountered two, but those two are ridicuoulsly good. None of them, however, are closer than 2 Jumps from homeworld

The Morale isn't adding anyt choices for me right now. THere's no way I can influence it, other than the intel missions, and the fluctuations aren't dramatic enough to spur me to action. I'd like it if it were hooked into Police somehow. If it were something like Roll 1d10+(Police+Ground Units)/5, where anythng under a 5 indicates morale drop, and a natural 10 increases morale, then it would be something I could interact with. Or if there were twice the chance of it going down as going up, and I could do intel missions with police to bring it back up. Something.

Ditto Pirates. I haven't extended any trade routes yet (my only colony is two jumps away, and is too poor to be really worth the 20 EPs required to extend the trade route. Further, since the max chance of Pirate formation I can have is 5% until I encounter another power (which, since the chance of encountering another empire is still at 3%, seems like it won't happen for a while), policing systems with a few flights or couriers is really easy. I guess it is influencing my behavior a bit, in that I'm not extending trade routes willy nilly, but it's driving me to conservative play.

Agh! So frustrated! Just got an abandoned colony, and rolled boxcars on infrastructure, on a CAP 9 system. The catch? Biosphere 0! Unless I find a really good breadbasket, all that's going to be scrapped.

Countercheck, can you easily total up the BIO values of your exploration so far? I'm curious if (as discussed in other threads) the rule was 1Census eats 2 Food instead of 3, what that would do to the ratio of self-supporting systems to non-self-supporting in the exploration you've carried out so far... (Obviously it doesn't help your BIO:0/CAP:9 case, though; that's just terrible luck )

Ask and ye shall recieve


Bio 5 - 1 Caps 6
Bio 4 - 3 Caps 10, 6, 6
Bio 3 - 2 Caps 7, 9
Bio 2 - 7
Bio 1 - 2
Bio 0 - 3

But I only JUST discovered the Bio 5 and the Cap 10 Bio 4s. And one of the Bio 4s is behind that plasma storm.
So fully 2/3 of the systems I discovered are incapable of supporting a population on their own, and only a quarter can produce a surplus, and THEY are all 2 or more jumps away from the Capitol. If Census consumed 2 instead, the majority of systems would suport life on their own, with 1/3 requiring imports and the other 1/3 providing them. It wouldn't be a problem, except you need a really healthy surplus to continue colonization. Through selective colonization - of the 18 systems I've explored, I've only colonized 3 - I've gotten mine up to +18. I've currently colonized the 5, one of the 4s, and one of the 2s. The other 4 (that's not behind the storm) is 3 jumps away, and I can't stomach a 75EP colonization at present.

I actually think this would be a good example of a facility or civilian tech enhancement, reducing the cost of living.

And, of course, in my last turn I discoverd a pair of high cap Bio 4s, one of which has a derelict alien TL5 dreadnought in orbit! Yippeee! Except, of course, that they're both inhabited by primitives. ONe system is in the interplanetary stage, and they'll be breaking apart the dreadnought for scrap long before I can prototype some tugs to take it home, and the other is in the Information age, and both are EXTREMELY HOSTILE. TIme to break out the planetary bombardment rules!

Here, for those who are interested, is a list of all the systems I've explored, except for the aliens, who I'm still wrangling. The number before the name of the systems connected to the system is the direction, starting with 1 at the top, and moving around clockwise.



Sol
Homeworld
CAP 10, RAW 5, BIO 5, Cen 8, Mor 7, Eco 8, Ind 8, Agr 8, Rch 8
Shipyard, Supply Depot, Trade Centre, Mining Station
Jumps 1 (Shadow), 3 (Truck Stop), 5 (Charles' Star)

Castor Very High Importance
Single Class GV Yellow Main Sequence
CAP 6, RAW 7, BIO 5, Cen 4, Mor 6, Eco 4, Ind 1, Agr 4, Rch 1
Jumps 1 (Truckstop), 3 (Babylon), 4 (Kerensky's Reach)

Anvil - High Importance
Binary Star System Class M Red Star Main Sequence
CAP 9, RAW 4, BIO 2, Cen 4, Mor 6, Eco 4, Agr 2, Ind 1, Rch 2
Jumps 2 (Truck Stop), 4 (Cul de Sac)

Pollux
Single Class MV Red Main Sequence
CAP 10, RAW 7, BIO 4, Cen 3, Mor 5, Eco 3, Agr 3, Res 3, Ind 1
Jumps 1(Tower), 3 (Charles' Star), 5 (New Glasgow)

Truck Stop - Very Low Importance
Single Class M Red Hypergiant
CAP 1, RAW 3, BIO 1
Flare Star
Jump 2 (Deadwood), 3 (Kilkenny), 4 (Castor), 5 (Anvil), 6 (Sol)

Cul de Sac - Low Importance
Binary System with a Class K Orange Main Sequence Primary
CAP 4, RAW 3, BIO 2
Asteroids
Jump Lane 1 (Anvil)

Deadwood (Moderate Importance)
Binary Class K II Orange Bright Giant
CAP 5, RAW 2, BIO 2
Strategic Resource: Economic
Jump Lanes 1 (Unknown), 2 (Unknown), 3 (Unknown), 4 (Kilkenny), 5 (Truck Stop)

Kilkenny
Binary Class FV White Star System
CAP 7, RAW 3, BIO 0
Strategic Resource: Population (Irony)
Jump Lanes 1 (Deadwood), 2 (Unknown), 3 (Unknown), 6 (Truck Stop)


Shadow - Very Low Importance
Multiple Star System Class G Yellow Supergiant Primary
CAP 0, RAW 0, BIO 0
Dark Nebula
Jumps 1 (Goliath), 3 (Dead End), 4 (Sol System),

Goliath System
Single GV White Main Sequence Star
CAP 12, RAW 4, BIO 2
Jumps 1 (Unknown) 4(Shadow)


Dead End - Very Low Importance
Multiple Star System, Class M Red Subdwarf Primary
CAP 5, RAW 1, BIO 1
Flare Star
Jump 6 (Shadow)


Bernard's Folly - Moderate Importance
Multiple Star System
Class M Red Main Sequence Primary
CAP 6, RAW 1, BIO 4
Jumps 2 (Shadow)
Plasma Storm

Charles' Star
Single Class GV Yellow Star System Yellow
CAP 6, RAW 2, BIO 2
Asteroids
Jump Lanes 2 (Sol), 5 (New London, 6 (Pollux

New London
Single Class MV Red Main Sequence Star
CAP 7, RAW 3, BIO 3
Jumps 2 (Charles' Star), 6 (New Glasgow)

New Glasgow
Binary Class AV Blue-White Main Sequence
CAP 9, RAW 2, BIO 3
Jumps 1 (Unknown), 2 (Unknown), 3 (New London), 5 (Unknown), 6 (Unknown)

Tower
Single Class FV White Main Sequence (Dwarf)
CAP 6, RAW 4, BIO 4
Strategic Resource: Intel
Jump 4 (Pollux)

Kerensky's Reach
Single Class KV Orange Main Sequence Star
CAP 10, RAW 3, BIO 2
Jump 1 (Pollux)

Babylon
Single BV White-blue Main Sequence Dwarf
CAP 9, RAW 4, BIO 0, Eco 9, Ind 9, Agr 9, Rch 9
Jump 6 (Castor), 3 (McWorld)

McWorld
Single Class KV Orange Main Sequence Star
CAP 9, RAW 4, BIO 2
Jump 6 (Babylon)

Interesting -- it looks about as I expected, then: the way the dice have rolled in your playtest, 3 Food / Census causes a pretty tight growth constraint while 2 Food / Census would allow the same results to generate a pretty comfortable growth rate without much trouble.

This is fascinating to me because it shows what a stark difference a very small tweak to the game engine can make in the feel of the system... it feels like "Slow Growth (3 food / Census)" vs "Fast Growth (2 food / Census" vs "Fast Everything (2 food / Census; 1/2 Tech Cost; 1/2 Build Time)" engine tweaks might be sufficiently important to dialing in the play experience that they ought to be called out as variants somewhere in the core rulebook.

I actually think this would be a good example of a facility or civilian tech enhancement, reducing the cost of living.

True - under either paradigm, planting some orbital farm facilities on your existing colonies (esp. the ones with high BIO), since they grant +2 Utilized Agriculture, would let you trade some of your economic surplus fairly efficiently for additional population growth.

Doing Orbital Farms at Sol and Castor would net Universal Acquisitions +20 food output for 100(Sol)+150(Castor) EP construction cost, and then maintenance of 4 EP per turn. Even leaving the Census food cost at 3/turn, that should still fuel a fairly rapid expansion if you can keep up the scratch to do it (diverting money away from defense and research -- INTERESTING CHOICES yaaaay)

Ooh, I was reading facilities wrong! Hadn't realized they were updated! I'll just delete the mining station on Sol, since I couldn't afford it, and start building them orbital farms!

2 food/census is an increadibly massive hack, since it'll probably double initial economies. Once I started colonizing sytems, my income practically doubled over 10 turns. Imagine if I could have done it earlier!

I'm pleased with how long it takes to mobilize properly. I could have thrown a pair of ships at the more aggressive of the two little systems I've discovered, but instead, I took a few turns to put a proper task group together. I'll be able to get effectively 40 AS, which means I can generate an anti-population bombardment mission every second turn. With luck, my marines won't have anything to do but clean up the mess.

countercheck wrote:Thanks so much, Tyrel! Big help. I can't believe I missed the cost increase to Scout. Having Scout cost 2 is a good choice, I think. I was planning on assembling BC40 task groups with a +5 scout modifiers, but with the increased cost of Scout, thankfully, I'll be slowed down.

Scout is one of those abilities that ended up making more sense to cost at 2 MU for now. If we end up needing to expand its abilities we can always go to 1 MU and increase to +1 per 10 instead of +1 per 5 as necessary, but that ends up with scale creep that I'd prefer to avoid if at all possible.

How are you deriving the CC value? Is it still BC/2? The revised versions of the WIldcat and Ferret (BC4, CC1/2) indicate that maybe it is something else. BC/5 rounded down.

CC is being computed as BC / 5, round down (min 1/2). That's why units that cost 1-4 end up with 1/2 CC. The CR is then (CC x 2) + 2. This gives small ships the ability to still command small flotillas instead of being completely crippled as they were before with 2-3 CR and 1 CC. A 3 CR / 1/2 CC frigate can command itself plus 6 other escorts in a single formation, for example.

I am concerned, a bit, that the Catapult option is vastly superior to buying Carrier unless you want to launch enormous BC 5+ flights. or BC 1 flights

I have a feeling that most of those conceptual abilities like Catapult will have to be jettisoned until such time as a good solution can be found to cost them out.

Is it possible to have a unit with DV 0 that is instantly killed by any enemy fire?

I've gone back and forth on that, and right now I'm leaning towards forcing units to have at least 1 DV. In the past I just had it so that a single point of damage will crippled a DV 0 unit, but this devalues the first point of DV you purchase. The other thing I looked at was giving units a free reserve of DV during construction, but that makes adding up MU a bit more of a bother when you're doing it mentally on the fly. Another alternative is to have a point of damage destroy two DV 0 units... but that's just a weird exception that would get lost in a rules jumble.

For now just assume that you have to purchase at least 1 DV for any unit.

I'm an idiot, but I can't find where the rules say anything about how you generate supply. I know Supply Depots increase supply range by 2, but I don't know what the base range is. Is it Utilized Industry?

I just posted a new draft of the rules, though supply still needs reconciled to express recent changes from my playtest campaign. I've shifted the rules so that Supply Depots are required to extend supply out from a system and each Supply Depot has a range of 3 jumps. Systems themselves can resupply a total CC of units equal to their industrial capacity. A system with 40 IC can therefore resupply 40 CC of units each turn, which is normally only important if the units aren't in range of a friendly Supply Depot or you're a low tech empire that doesn't have any Supply Depots.

PD vs Guided. Does the PD cancel Guided before the d10 roll (which I think is a much better option than d6, though you might consider 2d6) or is it effective PD that canceles guided. Because if it's after the D10 roll, one Guided on average will take 2PD to block. Just a thought. Also, Guided retains its effectiveness regardless of readiness.

The Guided weapons end up being treated like flights for the purposes of being shot down by PD, so it's effective PD that counts. I've also been making combat rolls for all of the offensive special abilities as they are used, too, so that the effectiveness of Guided could change from round to round.

No, it is totally true that hyper-light scout carriers refitted with bombers and fighters are vulnerable, and would rely on escorts or their own fighters for point defense. I imagine they'd function more as battle taxis rather than actual combatents - a way to give fighters an FTL lift, and a possible force multiplier. They'll die if they get hit, but because they aren't adding to the combat total, they'll probably be a lower targetting priority than the destroyers.

It's legal for a player to deploy flights without their carriers as long as the size of the battle doesn't force them to be included. That way a large fleet carrier with 10 flights could move into a system and then generate an intercept scenario where it just sends out a squadron / task force comprised solely of flights. Very Wing Commander-ish, and helps to insulate the carrier and its other flights from damage.

I like Intensity. Nicely simplified. Do squadron leaders need to pay their own command cost?

Command elements (aka squadron leaders) don't have to pay their own command costs, just the command costs of the units in their squadrons.

For alternatives to CC/10, have you looked at Aggressiveness or Xenophobia? I think CC is probably the right way to go, rather than CR. Maybe CC/10+Detection modifier? Is there any way to dump unwanted intensity? Or here, CC/10 +/- Detection Modifier. If you have good information, you can choose to either press more closely or avoid battle.

I could see an Aggressiveness modifier, but the probably would be to balance it in such a way that the low AG empires would still be able to generate scenarios. I guess what could happen is have a few different sources and just total the meaningful modifiers (be they CC, AG, or Detection) and see what pops out. CC does seem to be the most important, as that represents the actual size of the force in the system.

In Jay's original version of the intensity rules, each empire had a fixed amount based on its relationship with other powers in the scenario. But that was largely because the size of fleets in FA are small and largely controlled. In VBAM 2E you can have much larger fleets in a system. CC / 10 (RU) still looks like the best solution at the moment, but I'll still fish for other alternatives.

I think a version of the advantages system would make the best intensity dump, using leftover intensity to give yourself a bonus to your combat rolls. That's if there is a real need to dump intensity, though, instead of just deciding not to spend any that's left.

[/quote]Another completely random thought for an advanced rule. Apply the PP pool as a negative modifier to Morale in capitals, due to overcrowding. Just a thought.[/quote]

That's an interesting thought. -1 to loyalty checks for every 100 PP unspent in the pool, and apply it to every capital system in the empire. It would at least give empires some reason to get out and expand if they have more than enough food to feed an ever-growing imperial population.