Funk Thompson

Right, 1G is " cruise control" and they will do hours-long 2 to 3 G burns or minutes-long higher G maneuvers.

Low level allies:  Steve from marketing and his jack Russell terrier

Mid level:  A squad of marines

High level:  Foxbat

Next:  "Plan A"

7 hours ago, Cancer said:

The fuel/energy limit thing is a campaign flavor element, but an important one.  It has always been true that supply limits dictate the endurance of any combat mission; the problems the Japanese had over Guadalcanal came partly from it being at the very limit of the Zero's effective range set by fuel capacity.  Ditto the U-Boat/ASW campaigns in WW1 and WW2.  But, that's an annoying detail that many would feel isn't something they want in their RPG campaign.  Your call.

Well, it's more for the NPC craft - and smaller ones, drones, fighters, shuttles - than the player's ship.  Range for any "capital ship" is effectively unlimited in-system, and then limited by the JumpGates for interstellar travel.  There are interstellar ships that don't use the JumpGates  - or, use them where they exist then just slowboat to non-gated systems, which takes months / years depending on said system - most are distant binaries to gated systems, or at most a LY or two off the network.  There are also kind-of-FTL ships but even those can take months to years to get where they are going.  Again, player ship doesn't really have this limitation.  But, it still takes days / weeks to travel in-system from planet to planet, as do other ships.  Most ships burn around at 1 G of thrust, capable of more in short burns (a few hours, due to limits of the crew - no "inertial dampeners" or at least none that are 100%.)

So, the "setup" would / could be days of maneuvering until someone gets in weapons range.  Then timescale goes to combat time.

2 hours ago, dbcowboy said:

It sounds like the hand becomes its own character for the duration.  What about building as a Summons with side effect of character loosing their hand while separated?  

Yeah, I don't see this as duplication at all; summon or follower, summon being more mechanically apt (since you can "summon" it by detaching it.)

That said, summon / follower doesn't solve the core issue:  Does the hand need all the various life support and resistances to make it a "mechanical hand" with all appropriate mechanics?  I'd say the answer is yes, at least were this my campaign.  

The single most difficult character to make, for those I've tried, insofar as getting everything I felt I *needed* within the point limit, was a Cyborg clone.  And he didn't even have a detachable hand.  Just the senses and computer-assisted skills and such took up about half the character points (in 5E, 250; in 6E, even 400 wasn't quite enough to "do it right.")  Then brick plus his arm-cannon?  Plus cyberkinesis over machines?  Not happening

2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Considering the math can get weird easily...+1/2 is not bad, but something like +1.25?  Odd.

 

Trick 1:  go the other way. For +1/4, +1/2, and +1, you can divide the current net active points, THEN convert to DCs.  +1/4 means 4 points towards the damage dice needs 5 points active.  So multiply by 0.8.  20 active rolled * 0.8 would mean 16 active to boosting attack strength, so +3d6 normal or +1d6 killing.  Similarly,, +1/2 means 2 points towards damage costs 3.  Multilply the roll by 2/3.  Not too bad.  +1 is easy;  just cut the bonus points in half.  This works for Aids, Drains, or any kind of maneuver bonus.  Weaponmaster +1d6 killing is 15 points of "aid".  

 

Trick 2:  it shouldn't be hard to build a spreadsheet or work up a little program to be a DC calculator.  Put in the points being added, put in the advantages, it shows the DCs you get out of it.  Either construct a chart to print, or an app for use at the table.  Java, that's easy, and packaging as a standalone file is easy.  iOS and Android, the functional code is easy enough;  I've only played a tiny amount in the Android cycle, but someone used to coding in it should find it easy.  Now it's something that could be on your phone, and lord knows we all have our phones *everywhere*.  Heck, there might be something on the app stores for all I know.

There's a handy chart in the book, but it only goes so wide / so tall - some of my Star HERO stuff has insane advantages, as do a handful of FH spells and such.

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

It depends on circumstances.  In a dogfight or in close pursuit, almost certainly not.  In the early/distant meeting stage of an engagement it might change the nature of the battle drastically.  Especially if either combatant is limited by fuel or finite energy reserve.

Right, that is what I was thinking (insofar as how long it took; hadn't really considered the fuel part but that should very rarely come into play.  "My Lord, we lost them.  Well, it seems...  ah...  we didn't bring enough unobtainium fuel for a chase scene, sir..."  *hurk* *thud*)

The maneuvers table in OP is (mostly?) for the combat part; pre-combat maneuvers will depend on the pre-combat setup so far as where all participants are and such.  Underrun/overtake are the only maneuvers listed that would or could really apply before weapons range, but, again, I want that pre-combat part to be as quick as possible (while also capturing some level of fun and tactical options.)  The combat maneuvers will all need to be things the ship can do in moment-to-moment timeframes.

Advantage on the attack also changes how many DC's you get for extra DC's.  +1/2 on the attack = 7.5 per DC so 4 extra damage classes for +1d6k (I think.  I suck at the math of "adding damage" on the fly, and usually note it on characters for their STR and/or martial maneuvers with weapons.)

And for slingshot - don't need a primer, just an approximate of how long such a maneuver might take to see if it can work as a "combat maneuver."

I am thinking it will not.

14 hours ago, dmjalund said:

Big ships are slower because:

 

since they are bigger they are easier to hit, making high maneuvering a but less affective

since they are easier to hit, they must invest in more defences

more defenses are usually massive and/or highly energy consuming (which required massive generators)

thus making them denser than smaller craft

making them harder to accelerate which makes it harder for them to maneuver

which makes investing in defenses even more important

Thanks but yes, accounted for and not part of the question here.

Small ships in my setup have more meters of base flight (they accelerate faster), bigger ships have higher cumulative totals using cumulative advantage on flight.  (Big ships carry more fuel and can thus burn much longer for higher top speed.)

By RAW, yrs, anything stacks with anything so far as adding damage or DEF - unless otherwise noted by limitations.

The solution is campaign limits on DEF and Damage Classes.

How long would such a slingshot maneuver really take, anyways?

So, "Slingshot" as a Maneuver; Dodge + change vector / facing?  

I suppose that would get into "How long is a Turn" but with the AP penalty on weapons, I think the idea is that you will be spending several minutes plotting a firing solution (as spending extra time will offset the AP penalty.)

I need to think of a way, as well, to kind of group and time attacks made vs. when they hit and such.

And time scale will change between the chase / intercept roll(s), and actual combat time, but probably still won't go turn-by-turn, phase-by-phase.  All ships are SPD 2; DEX and movement speed varies by ship size / class, etc.

PS: Billiards would be the excuse for this moreso than allowing it, though.

I think you are still just talking CSL's that give a bonus to your bounced attacks?

17 hours ago, Cancer said:

OK, the Earth-Moon distance is about 1 1/4 light-seconds, which gives you one scale; the Sun is about 1.4 million km in diameter, a bit less than 5 light-seconds.  The Earth-Sun distance is 500 light-seconds.  Earth's orbital speed around the Sun is about 30 km/s.

 

Railgun projectiles are still subject to gravity, and run up against the relativistic limits; and railgun operation does give off a distinctive electromagnetic signature which will be detectable brfore the projectile arrives.

Yes, and hence ships have automated point-defense vs. missiles and most projectiles. 

Beam and particle weapons are the "new shiny" but electromagnetic screens are actually effective against such where they are not, or are less, effective against projectiles.

I am envisioning most combat being within orbit of a stellar body, or in the vicinity of the JumpGates and their defending stations.  With the occasional fight being one ship / fleet intercepting another in-route to said location.

"Chases" will be rare, since, generally, the faster ship wins, period.  But intercepting a ship with other assets in system would be a function of the skill vs. skill roll setup I am trying to work out.

12 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Are you sure about that? That’s not feeling it get sometimes on this board. ?

People will say that X is not supported by the rules; few will say AND YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG or anything (from what I've seen.)

We say what the rules support and/or what we do for our games, in an attempt to help, generally speaking.

I even have the weapons set up with delayed effect for range; railgun at 5km/s = 10 seconds / segments to go 50k km.  Beams are at about 1 seconds per 300k km.  (Rough estimates, natch.)  See the ship build link above.

So, yeah, if weapon ranges were short I could map it easier. 

I do use a map, just for where things are in relation to each other, but ranges are more notated each phase than depicted accurately on any map.

Weapon ranges are on the order of light-seconds.

Anywhere from a few hundred meters (boarding actions) to 1,000,000 or so KM.  A bit more on some weapons, in theory a railgun has infinite range if you have the time, but they are unwieldy past a few hundred thousand KM (even those with semi-guided munitions.)

16 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Also, you can get some of those Bene Gesserit martial arts stuff: he's about to punch, that is a feint, he's going to turn to the right.

Well, it would probably be the "excuse" to buy things like Combat Luck, Combat Senses, higher CV, etc.  As senses do not effect combat in that way. 

It isn't mentioned under the rules for Martial Maneuvers at all, and the rules for Adding Damage on 6E2 p.99 are a bit...  unclear.

Quote

Extra DCs bought for Martial Maneuvers count as base
damage for unarmed combat. (If a Maneuver’s used to
add damage to a weapon, the weapon is the base damage
and the Maneuver affects it according to the standard rule
described in the main text.)

The "standard rule" is that added DC's are modified by any modifiers on the attack.  

This might be a good one for "Ask Mr. Long" or see if it has been previously addressed?

41 minutes ago, Chris Goodwin said:

I'd like to see something like what Mutants and Masterminds calls a Feature.  It's more or less the equivalent to a Fringe Benefit, but as a Power.  It would be 1-10 points and would give the character some minor ability as worked out between the player and GM.  The old Instant Change Power could be an example of this.

Well, then we'd build the power and give it to them.  Add appropriate modifiers to simulate any rules of M&M "Features" you are needing.

And we have perks and talents that do similar; you buy the talent but it is really a Power.  Combat Luck is Resistant DEF with "Only vs. Attacks you can Perceive" or whatever.  Resource Points are basically a VPP where the source of the power is money and/or connections. 

I haven't found much I could not do with HERO; but plenty I could not do "well" or just never settled on a final build. 

1 minute ago, zslane said:

 

One easy way to do this is to have a campaign-wide default Limitation on all power builds: +0 "Not vs. Cosmic". Then provide a new Advantage +2 "Cosmic". With this scheme, non-Cosmic attacks will do nothing against Cosmic defenses, and non-Cosmic defenses will provide no protection against Cosmic attacks.

 

This is how I do things like Primal in fantasy campaigns. Primal (as from WotC's very first RPG product back in the day, The Primal Order) is the power that gods wield. Anything built with Primal bypasses (or defeats) anything not built with it. Same concept as the GURPS "Cosmic", I guess.

I used to do a similar thing with Star HERO ship-to-ship weapons vs. small arms.  "+2 STS Weapon" = x10 damage or whatever it was, I kept changing the number, and it made it a 10m AOE Explosion when not fired at a ship, etc.  But the math never worked out; so I scrapped it and just made ship-to-ship weapons (and ship defenses) ridiculously big.  6d6k to 10d6k, all with AP and/or Penetrating, starship armor all having at least 1 level of hardened and impenetrable, etc.  Have not gotten to playtest the new ship builds much, though.  

On 4/20/2018 at 6:09 PM, Sidume said:

I'd like to see a rewrite of the Teleportation power to have two options.  The standard default, and one similar to a Warp  which creates a gateway from A to B.  Doing it with mass rules can be clunky if you want something that affects volume instead of mass.

 

IT would also be nice to have an index of where to find things that have vanished form previous editions.  Instant Change?  See Transform.  Find Weakness, See (I forget). Etc.

You can build "portal" type teleportation, but it would be EXPENSIVE.  

And Find Weakness would just be Naked Advantage: Armor Piercing, Requires a Roll, etc.

"A complication that doesn't complicate / hinder the character is not worth any points." 

But to play on the theme....

It turns out, Cancer is the leading cause of cancer.

It was the best I could think of, and realize it may not fit his every need, but might give him a launching-off point.

Perhaps the source power could be even less damaging or whatever, and then make the slots AOE: 1 hex Accurate.  

Right, which is why you make the initial attack a small, constant attack, then the MP / VPP slots linked to the source attack but not constant.  They don't apply their damage every phase; a new attack is made for that phase using the separate, linked, desired / GM-determined secondary attack.

Because only the source attack is constant, though, you'll still have to make an attack roll for the secondary attack, each phase.  Pretty sure even Trigger won't remove that requirement.