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The real phases of starship combat
One of the more confusing things about starship combat is the not quite defined turn order that the phases give you. Are you going before or after the pilot? Who's turn is it now? There's like 6 parts to the helm phase...
So here's the practical order starship combat actually happens in. Yes, its still legal, just differently defined.
The real phases of starship combat
1) Musical Chairs. Everyone Pick your role
2)Captain. Ask the captain what they’re doing this round
3)Engineering Phase. The Engineer goes here. The First Mate goes here if attempting a targeting aid.
4)Precog. If you have a Mystic Officer they attempt to aid initiative with Precognition
5)Pilot Initiative. The Pilots roll initiative
6)Pre-Flight. The Science Officer Scans so the Pilot knows where to go to avoid the big guns. If the Chief Mate is improving maneuverability with hard turn they go here. If the Science Officer is aiding the gunners with Lock On instead it doesn’t really matter if they go before or after the Pilot.
7)Loser Stunt and move. The Losing Pilot makes their stunts and move their ship
8)Loser Post-Flight. The Science Officer on the losing ship should re-balance shields here.
9) Winner Stunt and move. The Winning Pilot makes their stunt and moves their ship
10) Winner Post-Flight. The Science Officer on the winning ship should re-balance shields here.
11)Gunnery. Finally. FIRE AWAY!!!
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LOL accurate. Starships is something best left to a team who are going to be together for a while like in an AP. Trying to sort the variable on a new player Tier 1-4 SFS scenario makes this all the fun with the new options.
I love the game but this aspect is hard with new players and challenging to GM's to keep all players interested while we sort WTH is happening in this part of the game.
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Nice summary. Wasn't sure if this is a ironic post or not (I'm still not 100% sure^^).
Starship combat is one of the systems which bogs me the most.
I LOVE spaceships and co-op tactical combat, so I'm hyped for the "5th character which is played by all players together" idea and the tactical gameplay it could provide.
But the rules are... let's say hard to get by (they aren't really complex, more... written and presented in a strange way).
I make heavy use of cheat sheets (a few small filecards which contain the action one role can do. So every player can grab the one of his role), as well as a whiteboard with the turn-order.
Also I stay away from making science & engineering rolls for the NPCs. Instead I give them abilities like (once per combat they can regain x shield points).
Nice summary. Wasn't sure if this is a ironic post or not (I'm still not 100% sure^^).
Where's the fun in saying....
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Also I stay away from making science & engineering rolls for the NPCs. Instead I give them abilities like (once per combat they can regain x shield points).
I do this too! Way better and easier on me when GMing, and players basically don't see the difference.
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Maybe...
The way I see it though, despite it's copmlexity, the answer is whichever option allows you to take more shots/do more damage. I have found that, with the right turn-to-turn positioning, it varies whether you want to win or lose initiative. Forcing an enemy to flyby while you flyby is the most ideal for each turn. If they don't take the gamble, they likely put themselves into a less advantageous position. Life gets a lot easier if the GM allows a 7+ operative pilot to utilize the take 10 ability.
The movement part of starship combat is pretty much a numerical optimization problem. I am tempted to write code to solve it. I think the turns where you are Winner Pilot are quite easy, and the ones where you are Loser Pilot (which is what really takes skill) will be more work but should be solvable, by brute force if I can't find a cute trick.
Otherwise I feel like a doofus every time, because it's a solvable problem but if I try to solve it each turn, combat takes *forever*.
There is some non quantifiable value trade off to that. You want to point your big guns at the other ship (usually the front) but you also want your most damaged shields aimed away from them. Which one you prioritize more matters a lot depending on your and their remaining shield/hull points.
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There is some non quantifiable value trade off to that. You want to point your big guns at the other ship (usually the front) but you also want your most damaged shields aimed away from them. Which one you prioritize more matters a lot depending on your and their remaining shield/hull points.
With this system it seems best to put your big gun in the turret preferable non missile weapons so in the case of losing initiative your gunners (Fire-Control types for us Navy people) can still get best weapon on target and punish those evil NPC's.