Capital Ship Weapons [Starships Part I]

[Natalya]

I played this StarCraft II map a lot called Cruiser Command and I got pretty good at it. What that game did was your cruiser's reactor had a constant energy output (started at like 150gw per second then you could upgrade for more) that you could direct wherever or store in your capacitor to be used later. I don't think that would be hard for this game. Maybe like:

2cp buys you a 1gw/turn reactor
4cp gives you a 2gw/turn
8 gives you 3gw/turn
16 = 4gw/turn
32 = 5gw/turn

However many gw you get, multiply that by d12s for if the reactor gets destroyed that's how powerful the explosion is and 2" radius per level.

2cp gets you a 2gw capacitor
4 cp gets you a 4gw cap
8 = 6 gw cap
16 = 8 gw cap
32 = 10gw cap

You can't store more energy than your capacitor holds. Capacitor, if destroyed, releases an explosion of size 2" per stored gw and 1d10 damage per gw, so if it had 4 gigawatts it would be a 8" 4d10 explosion.

Then you can spend your gw of power on whatever. So if you want to boost engine output by 1d6 inches you get that d6 by spending 1gw from the capacitor or directly from the reactor. Want to increase shield output for 1 turn by 2d6? Spend 2 gigawatts to do it. It's very simple.

[Quantumsurfer]

Sounds decent. What if I wanted a gw to include other types of SNDice instead of gw=d6?

[Natalya]

Special rules for this would be you can't link reactors or capacitors in serial unless you bought as many of the most expensive ones as needed first. For example if you wanted a 16gw output from your reactors you would have to buy 3 of the 5gw reactors plus a single 1gw reactor, so you pay the full price. Same with capacitors. Every time you roll a bonus die you bought by spending a gigawatt, it counts as that energy being spent even if you rolled a 1.

Also, I propose we pronounce gigawatt with a soft g as in George.

[Natalya]

Sounds decent. What if I wanted a gw to include other types of SNDice instead of gw=d6?

Maybe it could be a bonus die of whatever scale is normally used for the given ability? Like if you have a gun that normally fires 4d10 for damage, then it would give you an extra d10 instead of a d6. Basically it should be like getting a bonus die for whatever you are about to do. I think movement should still be in d6 though.

[Quantumsurfer]

Hm. I'll give it a go next time I get round to playing a game.

[Skyian Leader]

Oh, thank you Natalya for your input, and solving the reactors issue. I particularly like the capacitors ideas, and the explosion dynamics!

I will make sure to place more armor around the reactor, and around the capacitors when i make them. Even through huge explosions are awesome, a ship that shoots explosions is even cooler. Gotta have that dakka.

Thinking more about this system, I realize that it would be advantageous to place small engines in the front, facing to the port and starboard for maneuverability (as I can route power to them when they need to be fired up) and as short-ranged massive flamethrowers

Also, would you be able to make 'power' rolls during your opponents turn? My opinion would be to say no, and let the player using the SHIP to spend their dice on their turn. If they think they would be shot to hell, a cowardly captain would order more power to the shields, leaving the opposing player with a choice, shoot the stronger shields or target something else for a turn. There would be less

I have my spring break next week, I will be able to make more headway on my SHIP construction. Currently I have 4 heavy cannons complete (yet to make the mountings), the power core, engineering, part of the crew quarters, most of the bridge, and the flooring of part of the gun deck. Need to finish the things stated above, add capacitors (core component), add life support (core component), add shield generators (add-on), add sensor arrays (attach to the outside), add point-defense guns and secondary guns (attach to the outside), make the gun pits for the Macro-Cannons (core component), and add a prow lance that can swivel and point to each side of the ship (add-on). Oh, and armor plating (slapped onto the sides). Need to do some more work.

And trust me, this will receive a battle report from me! (may be a month)

[Cakeman]

Or ... instead of making a new energy-pip system, handle the whole thing through SuperNatural Dice. (Sci-fi is totally a supernatural power.) The ship has regular minimum baseline stats for movement, armor, etc, and then there are a bunch of "reroute engine power!" d6es that can be pumped into things like shields or weapons or maneuvering or whatever.

Yes, why complicate things. This is ofcourse a lot easier accomplished, thanks for pointing that out, I haven't thought about the supernatural dice attached this way to vehicles and ships. I can see an engineering hero using the ships dice to "invert the polarized array" and lowering an enemy ships structurelevel before a devastating broadside etc. Yes, this is good. I will now go back to plan my nonexistant ship...