Our party has just reached level 5 in Dead Suns and are wanting to upgrade the Sunrise Maiden. I was hoping we could get some advice on how best to do that. What configuration would likely give use the most bang for our buck?
Our initial reconfiguration looks like the following, but I'm wondering if there are mistakes, or if we could do better.
Medium explorer
Speed 12; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
AC 13; TL 13
HP 65; DT —; CT 13
Shields medium 200 (forward 50, port 50, starboard 50, aft 50)
Attack (Forward) particle beam (8d6)
Attack (Turret) flak thrower (3d4), light particle beam (3d6)
Power Core(s) Pulse Blue (200 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems basic mid-range sensors, crew quarters (good), extra light weapon mounts (turret 2), mk 3 armor, mk 3 defenses, mk 1 tetranode computer (tier 2, artificial personality upgrade), mount conversion (light to heavy); Expansion Bays cargo hold, escape pods, recreation suite (HAC/gym), tech workshop
Modifiers +1 to any 4 checks per round, +2 Computers; Complement 1-6
I'd replace the light particle beam in the turret with a coil gun, you get longer range, lose 0.5 average damage (but can benefit a lot more from diverting power to weapons because of the d4), and save 4 BP.
You might be better off putting the particle bean in the turret, put a light weapon in the forward arc.
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This is how I built her out for Tier 5. We're just about to start Book 5, and haven't had any real challenges in starship combat, even with both our gunners being Str-based melee types (solarian and soldier) with a knack for rolling poorly. At Tier 5, I went ahead and got the basics out of the way, top-line sensors, medical bay, decent computer. My general build philosophy since has been to have two big guns, then max shields as much as possible. We haven't taken a single point of hull damage since the first time I upgraded the ship, due in large part to our tactic of rebalancing shields after final positions are established so they are maxed in the facing toward the enemy ship.
Medium explorer
Speed 12; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
AC 15; TL 13
HP 65; DT n/a; CT 13
Shields Medium 100 (forward 25, port 25, starboard 25, aft 25)
Attack (Forward) tactical nuclear missile launcher (5d8)
Attack (Turret) linked coilguns (8d4)
Power Core(s) Pulse Red (175 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems advanced medium-range sensors, crew quarters (good), mk 5 armor, mk 4 defences, mk 2 trinode computer (tier 2); Expansion Bays escape pods, medical bay, recreation suite (hac), cargo hold
Modifiers +2 any three checks per round, +4 Computers; Complement 5
CREW
Captain Bluff +14 (5 ranks), Computers +12 (5 ranks), Diplomacy +11 (5 ranks), Engineering +5 (2 ranks), gunnery +6, Intimidate +14 (5 ranks), Piloting +7 (1 rank)
Engineer Engineering +14 (5 ranks)
Gunner gunnery +8
Pilot Computers +14 (5 ranks), gunnery +10, Piloting +15 (5 ranks)
Science Officer Computers +18 (5 ranks)
CONCEPT
A classic explorer
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Oh, and if it matters, our crew is as follows:
Dwarf Mystic 5 (healer build, guest player that may or may not continue serving onboard; role unknown)
Human Operative 5 (gambler build; pilot)
Morlamaw Envoy 5 (captain)
Shobhad Soldier 5 (low-Dex melee build; gunner)
Skittermander Mechanic 3 (tech build, retired PC that may or may not continue serving onboard; possible mechanic)
Strix Soldier 5 (high Dex range build; gunner)
Alright, here is a revised build, taking some of your advice into account.
Medium explorer
Speed 12; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
AC 13; TL 13
HP 65; DT —; CT 13
Shields medium 200 (forward 50, port 50, starboard 50, aft 50)
Attack (Front) coilgun (4d4)
Attack (Turret) particle beam (8d6), flak thrower (3d4)
Power Core(s) Pulse Blue (200 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems basic mid-range sensors, crew quarters (good), extra heavy weapon mount (turret), mk 3 armor, mk 3 defenses, mk 1 tetranode computer (tier 2, artificial personality upgrade); Expansion Bays escape pods, recreation suite (HAC/gym), smuggler compartments (DC 20), tech workshop
Modifiers +1 to any 4 checks per round, +2 Computers; Complement 1-6
I've switched out the light particle beam for a coil gun (that longer range is hard to ignore), moved the particle beam into the turret, and added some smuggler's compartments.
Here's what we went with at level 5. It's pretty close to yours, with a few differences either for taste (crew quarters) or weapon choice. The particle beam in the turret is a good move. Not sure on the flak gun - shooting down guided weapons seems somewhat unlikely but I haven't gone in-depth on that.
Sunrise Maiden (Tier 5)
Medium explorer
Speed 10; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
AC 13; TL 13
HP 65; DT n/a; CT 13
Shields Medium 140 (forward 35, port 35, starboard 35, aft 35)
Attack (Forward) heavy laser cannon (4d8)
Attack (Aft) flak thrower (3d4)
Attack (Port) light laser cannon (2d4)
Attack (Starboard) light laser cannon (2d4)
Attack (Turret) particle beam (8d6)
Power Core(s) Pulse Blue (200 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems basic medium-range sensors, crew quarters (luxurious), mk 3 armor, mk 3 defences, mk 1 trinode computer (tier 2); Expansion Bays cargo hold, tech workshop, escape pods, recreation suite (hac)
Modifiers +1 any three checks per round, +2 Computers, +1 Piloting
The group i run twin-linked the particle beam on the turret, then put new BP's into shields and power core to run bigger shields. The double particle beam has been melting everything in the AP so far.
At tier 5? How on earth did you afford that? I could barely fit ONE of those!
In any case I want multiple weapons, rather than one big one, so that the two gunners have something to do.
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A light particle beam and a particle beam are not the same weapon! :P
Sunrise Maiden (Tier 5)
Medium explorer
Speed 10; Maneuverability good (turn 1); Drift 1
Shields Light 80 (forward 20, port 20, starboard 20, aft 20)
Attack (Forward) High explosive missile launcher 4d8
Attack (Turret) particle beam (8d6), particle beam (8d6)
Power Core Pulse Blue (200 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Basic; Systems basic medium-range sensors, crew quarters (good), mk 3 armor, mk 3 defenses, mk 2 duonode computer; Expansion Bays cargo hold, escape pods
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Here is the build that is plowing through the encounters in the adventure I am running. This is a Tier 7 variant, but they basically are maxing power plant, shields and all-in on linked dual heavy weapon turret. On the side, they kept most of what the ship came with and added a max DC smugglers compartment. The turret has enough firepower to blow through enemy shields in a single hit, while their own shields would take at least 3 hits without re-balance to punch through.
Ship XLSX sheet from OneDrive:
They had originally had a "nuke-mobile" with tactical nukes on all 4 sides and a flak cannon in the turret, but that just seems to not really fit the world and would be disruptive to the story.