Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber
I'm working on setting up a Fly Free or Die campaign, and as a favor to my players - especially given the new system for earning BP and upgrading ships that's presented in this adventure - I wanted to put the pre-made ships onto sheets for them. I thought that would help them understand how the ships are budgeted to begin with, and get some ideas on how to expand and improve from there.
However, both of the pre-made ships so far seem to break a few rules for starship design, which won't really help me accomplish this. I have a few questions, spoiler-tagged below so as not to spoil anything about these ships.
Ship just got real:
Starting with BD514, the build as described on the inside cover has a couple of problems. The "Micron Ultra" power core doesn't seem to be a valid selection for Small ships (tiny only). Also, even if you scale back to a comparable power core (say, the Arcus Light), the build as described costs 59 BP (it's 60 as written), above the 55 BP limit for a Tier 1 ship - even above the "up to 5% over budget" limit in the new ship-building system from the adventure. It also goes over the PCU limit, with all systems adding up to 81 PCU (even allowing for the 'illegal' Micron Ultra).
The Oliphaunt in book 2 also has the issue where its Power Core is the Pulse Black, a model not allowed on Medium ships (which the Oliphaunt is). It also goes well over the PCU budget, with its current systems clocking in at 129 (compared to a Pulse Black at 120).
My players are also bound to ask how many BP they have with which to upgrade the ship, and so I think it's important to ask how many BP the null-space cargo holds "cost," and whether it costs any power to run them? Given how the holds malfunction during Part 2, I have to imagine they are powered devices.
Did you drop out thrusters or drift engine when doing PCU budgets? You have to turn off your thrusters to use your drift engine, so the only limit is all other systems plus the more expensive of those two systems.
And there's no rule against having more stuff than you can power, you just would have to turn some of it off.
Yup, I wrung BD514 thru James Turner's online ship generator and it flagged the power core issue right away for me. Otherwise, it seemed ok. But, "I've made a few modifications myself" if you know what I mean and have created a few versions for my players to choose (or roll their own) which include some type of weapon. That let's me include some ship combat/action encounters which I find sorely lacking in FFoD #1. Even played around with some ablative armor and deflector shields to exercise some of the SOM options. Just can't wait until I get my hands on FFoD #2 so I can see what the Oliphaunt holds.
Flyteach
Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber
You know what, I'm an idiot. I used a ship calculator sheet to add this all up, and I failed to notice there was a weapon pre-added to the list as an example entry (a weapon that definitely does not appear on the ship) and I never removed it.
You can basically disregard the entire post. User error.
My question about the power cores still stands though, as does the one about the
i realise this post is like 4 months old, but i'm just running into similar problems as i try to recreate the Oliphaunt...
i'm getting a PCU of 144/120 - yes ok, 25 of that is weapons, but the shields and thrusters are 80 and 30, and the ECM defences is another 2, so thats 112 even with the expansion bays turned off. So if you want to have shields and movement and ECM, you can't fire a shot?
Also, it seems to be coming in 2 points under budget on BP (93/95)? does that sound right or have i missed something?
I'm thinking of changing the power core to a pulse white, as that gives enough power (so long as you turn off the labs), and uses those last 2 points of BP? (its still technically a T/S engine, not M, but i feel like those are more guidelines than actual rules...)
oh, and is it just me or is the critical threshold wrong? 1/5 of 70 is 14, not 11.
i realise this post is like 4 months old, but i'm just running into similar problems as i try to recreate the Oliphaunt...
i'm getting a PCU of 144/120 - yes ok, 25 of that is weapons, but the shields and thrusters are 80 and 30, and the ECM defences is another 2, so thats 112 even with the expansion bays turned off. So if you want to have shields and movement and ECM, you can't fire a shot?
Also, it seems to be coming in 2 points under budget on BP (93/95)? does that sound right or have i missed something?
I'm thinking of changing the power core to a pulse white, as that gives enough power (so long as you turn off the labs), and uses those last 2 points of BP? (its still technically a T/S engine, not M, but i feel like those are more guidelines than actual rules...)
oh, and is it just me or is the critical threshold wrong? 1/5 of 70 is 14, not 11.
Maneuverability is wrong, too. A medium transport is Average (Turn 2).
