Does it actually specify that batteries don't have charge indicators?
Does it actually specify that batteries don't have charge indicators?
It's rather coy about it. The transfer charge spell definitely assumes you don't know, and specifies that the spell won't let you know, damages the item if you overcharge it, and suggests you transfer fewer charges for safety's sake.
Powered armor is one of the few things that explicitly tell you a charge.
The implication is you have to guess, but you're logically supposed to track ammo, as dumping it on the DM is unreasonable (I certainly wouldn't want to track charges for X different items for 4-6 people).
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Profession(Power walker).Non-adventurers could make a nice living by just walking around with a backup generator and a battery provided by somebody looking for a recharge attached to them.
They keep going... and going... and going...
I just have this image of a kinetic-energy recharging droid in a pink bunny suit with a drum. :)
The guns and other stuff could have readouts though.
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The guns and other stuff could have readouts though.
They could, but unlike power armor, they don't specifically state that they do.
I assume you're just supposed to steal the batteries from defeated enemies. Carrying looted guns and armor is a lot of bulk, but most batteries don't even rate an "L".
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It's really annoying on powered melee weapons. It's so frustrating that the
lightsaberplasma sword flickers off after 10 attacks, when in Star Wars they last for decades.The first thing I'm houseruling is a self powered weapon fusion that will allow any powered weapon to operate indefinitely without needing to swap batteries.
Unlike with a ranged weapon, the usage is
for 1 minute of operation rather than per attack,
Got it, Portable miniaturized Mining Laser. Any weapon attacks with it collect materials from the target and store it as UPBs in the hilt. Slap a Manufacturing fusion on it and it self feeds UPBs for continuous damage as long as you keep swinging!
I'm so glad my group just follows wealth by level at every level up. Essentially we reset to WBL at level up, but gear we find in between we can use until then and afterwards it counts against your WBL.
We also just assume we collect batteries and other kinds of ammunition from foes and don't really track it assuming you buy a few extra batteries, magazines, etc.
Tracking ammunition isn't much fun, aside from tactical reload issues. But basically we assume every combat you start with full batteries, magazines, whatever.
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In SFS, they settled the question of recharging batteries by allowing you to recharge freely on your spaceships.
If this is an issue in home campaigns, talk to your GM and see if they'd be willing to consider this as a solution.
Hmm
Another thing worth noting in this discussion, the "Armory" book has a level 4 item called "Solar Sheeting" for 2000 credits.
When you take a full action to unfurl this thin, 5-foot-square black panel, it absorbs solar energy and converts it into power, acting as a recharging station (Core Rulebook 234). In direct sunlight, it takes solar sheeting 10 minutes to recharge 1 charge in a battery or power cell. In overcast daytime conditions, it takes 1 hour per charge restored.
So, how expensive is it to build and maintain a recharging station? Is it a supply and demand problem? Maybe people are using power faster than it can be collected.
Then again, why is cost based on the type of battery instead of the number of charges? It doesn't seem like the portable recharging stations care what kind of battery they are recharging. Perhaps the price is set by what people are willing to pay as opposed to how much they cost and they just charge wealthy adventurers more.
We ha similar issues with the battery rules and decided to ignore the whole "you have to pay for recharge" thing.
Batteries are automatically recharged if the players are one day+ on their ship (they have a f+#*ing nuclear/fusion/necro/mage-tec reactor which powers a 70 Meter long spaceship with energy shields, possible beam weapons etc. There will be enough spare energy to power some hand held devices).
I understood why they gave energy weapons some ammunitions, but the supporting rules for the batterys are... not good.
I'm also missing the support on the character sheets (e.g. ammunition check boxes at the weapons).
It's another point which shows that Starfinder is a not well thought out pathfinder scifi reskin.
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I'm so glad my group just follows wealth by level at every level up. Essentially we reset to WBL at level up, but gear we find in between we can use until then and afterwards it counts against your WBL.
We also just assume we collect batteries and other kinds of ammunition from foes and don't really track it assuming you buy a few extra batteries, magazines, etc.
Tracking ammunition isn't much fun, aside from tactical reload issues. But basically we assume every combat you start with full batteries, magazines, whatever.
We started doing the same, it's cut down a lot on the work we have to spend on bookkeeping during the AP. If we find something that's better than we have, we carry it for a while, and when we get back to base we decide to budget WBL for it or toss it for something else.
It's taken a lot of the angst out of deciding when to upgrade armor/sell it for 10%. We can always have up to date armor, or above-level armor but it costs a very big % of your total WBL budget.