Hello
I am considering designing my own starships for FT. Now I'm going to stick to
the bug like feel of the ground forces I designed. (you remember the Slug
conversations:)
What I'm interested in is whether people prefer each ship to be purchased
whole or whether there was any merit in producing various ship parts for you
to mix and match and build your own?
So I simply make say various hulls, turrets, bridges etc. and you stick them
together as you like to make the various classes of ship.
Either method works. At the extremes are the S'V with little to no duplicate
parts, to the UNSC with lots of interchangable bits that can be used to make
many variations.
As long as the ships have an overall theme that ties them together.
As to which I prefer: modular, for the most part. Having only a few
'choices' for the hull and engine, but with several add-ons that are
interchangable. As an example: the new Shogun Class Command Dreadnought has
large turrets on either side of the main hull. I don't know if these are
seperate pieces, but if they are then having missile packs that would fit in
with the design to replace them would be nice.
One thing I really like about the Japanese fleet is that there *are*
decernable weapon mounts.
[quoted original message omitted]
> Either method works. At the extremes are the S'V with little to no
The 3 big gun turrets ARE separate parts on the Shogun, and the
three-tube
batteries from the big UNSC ships should fit as an alternative (and
vice-versa). All the OTHER Jap ships have their turrets/weapons cast on.
> One thing I really like about the Japanese fleet is that there *are*
I felt it was in keeping with the anime feel of the designs, deliberately
the "big-gun battleship" look which is probably silly but in keeping
with the source material!
Obvious weapon mounts are something I have avoided in the past, as did Paul
Copeland when he sculpted the original FT fleets; in Paul's case I think it
was because he is a bit of a Trekkie at heart, and Trek ships don't have very
obvious gun mounts, but for me it has been largely a desire not to have to
worry too much about the game stats exactly fitting bits of the
models - I always feel that is a bit restrictive, especially in a system
as "open" and flexible as FT. There is always SOMEONE (probably several
someones, actually) who will do the <begin nasal whining voice> "Why has this
design got two class 2 and two class 3 batteries, but the model's got four
turrets all the same size...?" <end nasal whining voice> bit.......
;-)
But, having done it with Jap ships, I suppose I'm going to have to make the
stats at least SOMETHING like the models.....
Jon (GZG)
> ----- Original Message -----
> Ground Zero Games wrote:
Nope, you don't have to. All Jap ships are like Q-Ships -- anything
you can see is merely a decoy. It's the stuff you don't see that you
have to worry about. (8-)
JGH
> Ground Zero Games wrote:
Ahhh, isn't PSB a wonderful thing...... ;-)
On Fri, 25 Jan 2002 18:43:26 +0000
> Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.keme.co.uk> wrote:
Nah, I disagree... I would actually prefer something to the effect that
WYSIWYG is NOT required to play. That would protect the feel of the
game as far as open-ness goes. If there is a hint of WYSIWYG being
preferred, then the rules-mongers will get into the game and hose up
what looks to be a very fun game to play.
That being said, having the option to customize your ships with a modular
design sounds great! If nothing else, it would enable people
who are scratch-building their own ships to take some shortcuts by using
the weapons provided for the weapon mounts.
--Flak
But what do I know, I just read the 2nd edition over the past couple of
days...
> But, having done it with Jap ships, I suppose I'm going to have to
> Jon wrote:
> There is always SOMEONE (probably several
> got
bit.......
> But, having done it with Jap ships, I suppose I'm going to have to
Don't give in! There's a zillion and one ways to get whatever stats you want
into whatever model you want with different PSB.
_Obviously_ the first two turrets are Class 3 Ruby-core beams (painted
metal-red) whereas the other two are class 2 Sapphires (painted
metal-blue) - or - the 4 turrets are _obviously_ double-mounts that act
as a single class three beam each, whereas the class 2 beams come from those
emitter domes on the side of the ship...
> As to which I prefer: modular, for the most part. Having only a few
One of my principle design points was to make hulls with several weapon mounts
that can filled by an array of weapons, cargo or system pieces.
Jeremey
> Noam Izenberg wrote:
"Why
> > has
bit.......
> > But, having done it with Jap ships, I suppose I'm going to have to
I go with the philosophy that the weapons shown on FT SSDs are
*representative*
of the weapons the ship (and/or mini) is carrying.
I mean, there isn't ANY way one could model all the weapons shown on some
ships which are just bristling with guns (Superior Models'
starships - now under license of KR I believe! - come to mind first)
On Fri, 25 Jan 2002 18:43:26 +0000 Ground Zero Games
<jon@gzg.keme.co.uk> writes: <snip>
> But, having done it with Jap ships, I suppose I'm going to have to
Why? Just say No... I mean "Because"
I love not having to worry about the ships I have from GZG and Brigade for
just that reason plus this scenario they are Human Beam carrying ships and
next scenario they are Nekton Needle Cruisers and then they are Whistler
Missile Carriers....
My Bead ships (progressing slowly) are the perfect 'Generic" ships for me but
they will have 'stuff' (Seed Beads) stuck on as 'apertures' etc.
Gracias,
On Fri, 25 Jan 2002 14:09:54 -0500 Tim Gray <tgray@adacplastics.com>
writes: <snip>
> That being said, having the option to customize your ships with a
Yeah, I might get them for my Bead Ships. You can never have enough 'bits' it
seems. Gracias,
The man who used to change alias twice a day replied to the man who recently
began scrambling his name into odd random anagrams:
> >Don't give in! There's a zillion and one ways to get whatever stats
Personally, I'd prefer to simply quote the FT2 rules, page 9:
"Beam weapons are mounted on ships in BATTERIES, consisting of a number of
projectors slaved together under a single control system."
Nothing says that the weapons making up a single battery all need to be
mounted in one single turret :-)
Regards,