Don't buy them!
(Apologies if you thought this was another free battery loop-hole thread. It's not.)
I don't know why I didn't notice this before, but I just realized that you can use smaller batteries in a weapon than your gun is designed for.
In fact, doing so can be extremely cost effective! If you don't mind getting fewer shots with your weapon, you can save quite a lot of credits in the long run by doing this.
Take the avalanche-class zero rifle, for example. A single ultra-capacity battery costs 445 credits and nets you 20 shots. A single standard-capacity battery, on the other hand, costs only 60 credits and still nets you 4 shots. Twenty shots worth of standard batteries only costs 300 credits. You just saved 145 credits, as well as a L bulk!
Now, I know that's probably not worth the cost in action economy sometimes, but it's still worth considering. After all, why bother paying extra for a 20-shot battery if you almost never fire your weapon more than 10 times in a given encounter? Save the money and get a lighter, less costly battery (or batteries) and simply recharge/reload in between encounters.
This may also be useful for GMs who are planning encounters with NPCs with limited funds and a short life expectancy. (Do NPCs in Starfinder have limited starting funds like in Pathfinder?)
Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?
Pick them up off of dead guys?
Pick them up off of dead guys?
That's another great cost-saving measure, but if the GM takes my advice, they'd all probably be drained. :P
Have at least one of every size of battery and have the Technomancer or Technomantic Dabbler use the 0-Level spell Transfer Charge to steal reassign charges from enemies' or unwitting others' batteries you find lying about. Also work for recharging common armour upgrades like Jump Jets and Jetpacks!
Your GM also might allow you to recharge batteries using your ship's power core for free.
Pick them up off of dead guys?That's another great cost-saving measure, but if the GM takes my advice, they'd all probably be drained. :P
Surely empty batteries are nearly as valuable? So you can charge them all during downtime and carry hundreds of shots of juice around in the field (or your cheeks, as the case may be)?
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Also buy pulsecaster rifles at 100cr and pull the battery with 40 charges...
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Then paint "TEDIORE" on the rifle, hand it to your technomancer, and call it a day.
Yeah. My character will probably keep a few batteries on their person to hot swap while out on an adventure, but will recharge them each time an adventure arc is over (when you're able to return to your ship).
And if you have a technomancer in your party you can simply carry one of each battery type with you and siphon charges off of batteries found on enemies. Seriously, why wouldn't use use ammunition found on your enemies?
Slow speed battery rechargers exist. No reason they shouldn't be available on ships as a standard feature. You don't need to pay for an airlock or fire extinguishers or room lighting, either.
Pretty sure the rule book specifies players can recharge all batteries free of charge on their ship (assuming they have one).
Slow speed battery rechargers exist. No reason they shouldn't be available on ships as a standard feature. You don't need to pay for an airlock or fire extinguishers or room lighting, either.Pretty sure the rule book specifies players can recharge all batteries free of charge on their ship (assuming they have one).
It says your GM can allow it on sufficiently large ships.
It says your GM can allow it on sufficiently large ships.Slow speed battery rechargers exist. No reason they shouldn't be available on ships as a standard feature. You don't need to pay for an airlock or fire extinguishers or room lighting, either.Pretty sure the rule book specifies players can recharge all batteries free of charge on their ship (assuming they have one).
Can you find the direct quote from the rulebook?
Also, as a side tangent can you find the rule about "bonuses don't apply to space combat unless the specify they do". I know it's somewhere in the book but I can't even remember what section it is in.
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"on sufficiently large ships"? What the hell are they using for power cores on smaller ships? A hamster on a wheel? Anything powering a starship capable of blasting through planar boundaries, soaring through ill-defined wibble space, and arriving across the galaxy in a week or so should be able to recharge your batteries as long as you have the right adaptor.
Can you find the direct quote from the rulebook?
Page 234 under Recharging Stations:
"Most settlements of any significant size have public recharging stations for batteries and power cells. To recharge the full capacity of a spent battery or power cell takes 1 round per charge and costs half the price of the battery or cell. You can recharge a partially depleted battery or cell, but the price for doing so is the same as if it were fully spent. At the GM’s discretion, some larger starships might have onboard recharging stations. These might offer recharging at low or no cost, but they typically take 1 minute per charge to recharge a battery or power cell."
The entire concept of the low or no cost recharge at one/minute comes from the line saying it's at the GMs discretion.
By RAW and RAI, a GM could stated that *all* recharging stations cost 50% and charge at one/round. Or even state that there are no free recharges; maybe the slow charge is 10% cost at one/minute or even one/hour or even one/day.
The rules leave it entirely up to the GM.
Also, as a side tangent can you find the rule about "bonuses don't apply to space combat unless the specify they do". I know it's somewhere in the book but I can't even remember what section it is in.
Page 322, under Actions:
"Class features and items affect crew actions only if specifically noted in the class feature or item."
Note that there are issues with that. Like Operatives Edge doesn't specifically note that you can use your +1 to all skills in starship combat, so technically you wouldn't get the +1 to your pilot check. Likewise for Specialization feature granting skill focus.
Yeah, I know about the issues it causes for Operatives and others and actually was trying to explain this to others but couldn't remember the wording or what section it was in. So thanks for that.
Basically nothing would apply to crew actions in space combat because pretty much nothing specifies that it does.
Yeah. I've been ignoring it for the most part. Even have the mechanic's drone on one of the ship's guns.
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"on sufficiently large ships"? What the hell are they using for power cores on smaller ships? A hamster on a wheel? Anything powering a starship capable of blasting through planar boundaries, soaring through ill-defined wibble space, and arriving across the galaxy in a week or so should be able to recharge your batteries as long as you have the right adaptor.Sufficiently large can just mean bigger than a fighter or shuttle. On those, especially at low tier, your going to be running your entire power budget most of the time.
You're firing the weapons constantly??? Are you a space goblin, Malk?
Another neat trick for saving money on batteries is to remain entirely on Absalom Station, where you can recharge them for free using the power of the Starstone (provided your GM allows it).
The Starstone provides for the station in two key ways. By offering free energy on a massive scale, the artifact-powered central reactor allows the station to undertake many energy-intensive forms of agriculture and recycling in order to feed and reclaim nutrients from its citizens. Strangely, while this energy appears limitless for most industrial uses, attempts to store it in battery form and transport it beyond the station in industrial quantities inevitably fail, with the batteries mysteriously losing charge as they travel away from the station.
Since the downside of using the free power to recharge seems to be proximity-based, staying on the station theoretically means that your batteries won't just spontaneously lose charge if you charge them with the power of the Starstone as opposed to paying for a charging station or a new battery.
I only track the energy charges during combat. As soon as the players a back on the ship I housrule that they recharge ALL their batteries there within a few minutes.
It makes absolute no sense that players who own their own fusion reactor (or whatever) have to pay for energy. The power a battery need is minimal compared to a starship that it shouldn't be an issue, to simply use the ships reator to charge them.
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Don't buy them!
(Apologies if you thought this was another free battery loop-hole thread. It's not.)
I don't know why I didn't notice this before, but I just realized that you can use smaller batteries in a weapon than your gun is designed for.
In fact, doing so can be extremely cost effective! If you don't mind getting fewer shots with your weapon, you can save quite a lot of credits in the long run by doing this.
Take the avalanche-class zero rifle, for example. A single ultra-capacity battery costs 445 credits and nets you 20 shots. A single standard-capacity battery, on the other hand, costs only 60 credits and still nets you 4 shots. Twenty shots worth of standard batteries only costs 300 credits. You just saved 145 credits, as well as a L bulk!
Now, I know that's probably not worth the cost in action economy sometimes, but it's still worth considering. After all, why bother paying extra for a 20-shot battery if you almost never fire your weapon more than 10 times in a given encounter? Save the money and get a lighter, less costly battery (or batteries) and simply recharge/reload in between encounters.
This may also be useful for GMs who are planning encounters with NPCs with limited funds and a short life expectancy. (Do NPCs in Starfinder have limited starting funds like in Pathfinder?)
Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?
According to the rulebook the weapon should come with the correct battery included in the cost.
Page 168
Weapons that use standard ammunition (arrows, charges,
darts, mini-rockets, petrol, rounds, scattergun shells, etc.) are sold preloaded.