StarGods

StarGods is an extra-unoffical ruleset for TGOD Games. A work-in-progress of Covenant. Unlike the other TGOD pages, the discussion page here can be used for critiquing the ruleset. It is meant as an attempt to utilize the Wiki system to streamline game play, allowing players to spend more time customizing their vessels and keeping them neatly, cleanly and easily accessed on their own ImperialWiki userpage. The use of icons and verbose unit stats would be more difficult to read on the forum, but is extremely fluid on a wiki. The gameplay remains the same, with easier hotlinking (linking directly to unit pages and OOBs for the ease of your opponents) than is available on a forum alone.

This is a file in a greatly messy state. Don't even bother reading up on it yet in it's current form.

StarForge

StarForge is an optional unit creation system for more advanced design. It lists stats for units in a more Roleplaying Game format, giving them attributes instead of numerical strings, and allows for a more complex balance of abilities to be used.

The mechanics of StarForge removes 'base value', or 'basic cost'. Hitpoints are replaced by a hull size attribute that also governs how many specials you can equip the ship with, it's Hyperspeed and Stealth ratings, and a few other things. Basic attack is now a purchased value, along with improved attack. Active defenses are now considered a standard component due to their omnipresent general utility, but the number of defenses you add to your vessel is up to you. The special attributes operate the same way as before, except the maximum number of special attribute points you can purchase is limited by the hull size. A larger ship can equip more.

Ship Name

Cost:

Hull Attributes

• Basic Attributes

• Special Attributes

Hull Attributes

Hull Attributes are those things that physically define a vessel's overarching capabilities and what special rules apply to those ships. Cost and Size are the most commonly listed, for obvious reasons. Other hull attributes like 'Command Ship' or 'Transport' are on-off attributes, they are either present or not, and will have their own specific pre-requesites and a flat cost for installation.

Cost

Describe the computing of cost

Size

Describe how size governs things

Command Ship

C4I

Transport

Carries a troop battalion

Cloaking

This ship is equipped with a Subspace Traversal Caterpillar Drive, otherwise known as a Cloaking Device. These experimental Hyperdrives were utter failures at moving things, but the unique energy-vanishing properties of Subspace made it useful when you wanted to hide something, such as a Starship.

Cloaked vessels may not take any action other than Roleplayed slower-than-light movement. Vessels cannot travel in Hyperspace while cloaked, but can cloak instantly upon leaving Hyperspace. Cloaking Devices can be deactivated instantly at any time, but attempting to activate a cloak during combat takes several turns during which you can take no other action. The exact number of turns is not important, as anyone attempting to enter Subspace in combat can easily be destroyed by even a single fighter-launched Subspace Charge, and this is very nearly certain to happen.

The beneficial effect is that cloaking ships always start combat in Ambush formation, even when they are the Attackers. The ability to enter cloak instantly after leaving Hyperspace even allows Interdicted cloaking ships the ability to strike first. If it comes down to a pair of cloaked ships fighting each other, the first one to leave cloak (and cease being a cloaked vessel) can be ambushed by the other vessel.

Basic Attributes

Basic Attributes equate the ship's fundamental abilities, and are notable because they are listed as ratings instead of absolute values, and are unrestricted by hull size (see above). This means you can invest as many points into these attributes as you wish, and that their final value is determined by a modifier--usually hull size. Using ratings for these attributes allows for different sizes of ships to have their own natural advantages and disadvantages, and makes ship design more fair and more sensible. The only limiting factor to making a frigate with the firepower of a battleship is cost, which is based on the point investment and not the final rating. For this reason, trying to create frigates with battleship firepower can be far more expensive than creating an actual battleship.

Firepower

Your firepower rating is amount of basic Damage this ship adds to the fleet. Firepower ratings favor larger vessels. Your entire fleet's firepower rating is added up into a single Firepower Pool when determining the amount of damage inflicted on an enemy.

Defense

Your defense rating is the amount of basic Damage this ship shields the fleet from. Defense ratings favor large vessels. Your entire fleet's Defense rating is added up into a single Defense Modifier, which is subtracted from an enemy Firepower Pool when determining how much damage you must assign to your fleet.

• Determining the Value: +N points of D soaks N x .25 points of damage per turn, allowing you to ignore it entirely. In some situations this may stop an enemy from being able to damage you with conventional attacks whatsoever. +D also reduces enemy C3 effectiveness, forcing an enemy to have a greater fleetwide +C3 rating than your +D rating before they can gain specific details about your fleet. Points of +Dmay be destroyed instead of hitpoints, no other special attribute may take the place of hitpoints.
• Attribtue Interactions: D reduces damage you take from conventional attack, and is tallied fleetwide, not individually. This may lead to odd situations, such as a 50 point ship massacring a 40+10D with several turns to spare, but the real advantage of +D is in screening friendly vessels. Furthermore the ability to selectively reduce your own levels of +D in leiu of hitpoints makes them a far superior defensive option.

Evasion

Your evasion rating is the combined benefits of maneuverability, firing profile and sensor camouflage the ship has. Evasion ratings favor small vessels. Evasion is an individual attribute, and does not affect others. Evasion ratings do not mask the presence of ships or disguise Hyperspace travel, but do make individual vessels more difficult to track and achieve a firing solution for.

• Determining the Value: The value of Stealth decreases based on the overall size of the vessel. Stealth systems are not counted when determining the overall size of the vessel. In plain terms, your Stealth Rating is equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall non-stealth vessel size, and then added to the automatic +1 Stealth Rating all ships have. A 40+10S vessel would have, therefore, a stealth rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). To compute a vessel's Stealth Rating, use the following calculation:

+S divided by (One Tenth Total Ship Cost besides Stealth) +1 Basic Stealth = Stealth Rating

• Attribtue Interactions: Because all ships have a +1 Stealth Rating, a fleet with no C3 equipped vessels would be unable to locate an enemy force from long range if they chose to 'run silent.' If an enemy has a vessel with C3 rating equal or greater to your Stealth Rating, you may be located and targetted as normal. All planets are considered to have a C3 rating of +1. Stealthed ships are only Stealthed when inert, though they may enter and exit Hyperspace while stealthed. Interdiction equipment may also be operated while stealthed, but short range scanners would detect the origin of the field and allow the ship to be targetted.

Hyperspeed

Hyperspeed is the faster-than-light movement speed of the ship. Hyperspeed ratings favor small vessels. Hyperspeed is an individual attribute, and does not affect others. Hyperspeed ratings do not benefit speed in realspace.

Hyperdrives determine your speed in Hyperspace, and also the ease at which you can be yanked into realspace and attacked by someone with Interdiction equipment. Like Stealth, Hyperspeed Ratings scale to favor smaller vessels, and use the same calculation for determining the rating. The rating is also used as a speed modifier for strategic map movement, generally interperted as a multiplier. A 40+10H ship would move 350% of normal movement speed, while a ship with no additional hyperdrives moves 100% of normal movement speed as determined by their natural +1 Hyperspeed Rating. It is possible to operate Interdiction fields and Hyperdrives at the same time, though reduce your Hyperspeed Rating by a value equal to +I when determining your movement speed.

• Determining the Value: The value of Hyperdrives decreases based on the overall size of the vessel, like with Stealth. Hyperdrive systems are not counted when determining the overall size of the vessel. In plain terms, your Hyperspeed Rating is equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall non-hyperdrive vessel size, and then added to the automatic +1 Hyperspeed all ships have. A 40+10H vessel would have, therefore, a hyperspeed rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). To compute a vessel's Hyperspeed Rating, use the following calculation:

+H divided by (One Tenth Total Ship Cost besides Hyperdrives) +1 Basic Hyperspeed = Hyperspeed Rating

• Attribtue Interactions: Hyperspeed Rating directly relates to your Strategic movement speed. If an enemy has a vessel with I rating equal or greater to your Hyperspeed Rating, you may be interdicted and forced into a tactical battle, starting with weapons offline and within firing range. All planets are considered to have an I rating of +1. The higher your Hyperspeed Rating, the fewer losses you are expected to take when fleeing a combat zone.

Special Attributes

Unlike Basic Attributes, points spent in Special Attributes are given absolute values instead of ratings, meaning that the effect you gain from them is equal to the amount you've spent on them. These are often considered to be flat bonuses to the ship. The maximum amount invested into ship Special Attributes is limited by the vessel's hull size. Special Attributes usually reflect specialized equipment that function without regard to the size of the vessel.

Electronics

Points of Electronics are advanced sensors, communications and electronics warfare packages.

• Determining the Value: +N points of C3 can reveal an equal or lesser Stealth Rating on short and long range sensors. Furthermore, asking for detailed information about an enemy fleet (numbers, makeup, presence of specific classes or notable ships) often requires you to have at positive adjusted C3 value.
• Attribtue Interactions: C3 has decreased function against fleets with Active Defenses running. You cannot scan a fleet or detect stealthed ships if your C3 rating does not exceed the other fleet's Active Defenses. Stealthed ships may not run Active Defenses themselves, but can travel along with those that do. All planets are considered to have a C3 rating of +1.

Improved Offensives

Points of Improved Offensives are powerful, accurate, or exotic technologies optimized for ship to ship combat.

Improved Offensives allow a vessel to target specific enemy ships and penetrade defenses, unlike basic attack, which is assigned by the defender Each point of +O counts for less than actual attack points, doing 10% of their total value rather than 25%, so a +10 deals a single 1 point of damage to the enemy. However, these values are tallied fleetwide and then assigned by attacker's choice. Furthermore, damage done by Improved Offensives is never soaked by Active Defenses and never strikes anything but the intended target. Damage done from Improved Offensives is dealt directly to Hitpoints. Avoid making too literal demands with +O values, as such specificity should not be a reason to abandon roleplayed damage. Improved Offensives do not benefit ground invasion. Despite what the numbers would say, these are not merely sniping weak weapons, it's just that making them do greater levels of damage than normal would make them too potent. Improved Offensives are the difference between railcannons that fire nuclear shells and marine striketeams that infiltrate enemy ships and plant nuclear payloads in the enemy reactor cores. Same damage, better placement.

• Determining the Value: +N points of O deal .1 damage per point, and assigned by attackers to targets of their choosing. Damage from +O is never soaked by the enemy Active Defenses and cannot be misdirected by the defender. This is not an excuse to abandon Roleplay, and this damage should be bartered for and bargained with as normal, just with the understanding it allows for specific targets to be chosen. It also acts as a disincentive to abuse +D.
• Attribtue Interactions: O interacts nearly not at all with the enemy, and nothing adds or reduces the effectiveness of Improved Offensives.

Siege Weaponry

Points of Siege Weaponry cover a generalized catagory of superior ground attack technology suitable for breaching largescale defenses.

• Abbreviation: B
• Determining the Value: +N points of B count for 5 points of Fleet Weight for the purposes of sieging a world, invading surfaces and harassing planetary defenses. It has no other function and cannot be used in combat.
• Attribtue Interactions: B is only used when attacking the ground, but has a wide range of applications there. Depending on which of the optional ground rules are in play, this may be an extremely strong or an extremely limited attribute, but remember that the best defense against a strong ground invasion force is a strong space defense fleet. Bombardment modifiers cannot hurt a protected world.

Interdiction

Points of Interdiction are Hyperspace dampening technologies designed to slow an active superluminal drive enough to eject the ship into realspace.

Interdiction equipment acts like flypaper to slow down Hyperspace vessels, trapping enemies that have equal or lesser Hyperspeed Ratings than your best +I. Interdiction fields do not stack. A vessel slowed down completely is shunted back into realspace and cannot easily escape again, taking either heavy losses or taking many turns to escape. The field does not extend far on a tactical map or strategic map, and vessels that slip into an Interdiction field always appear with weapons offline and within targetting range, allowing an enemy the first strike. Destroying the Interdicting vessel will cause the field to terminate instantly.

• Abbreviation: I
• Determining the Value: +N points of I can halt an equal or lesser Hyperspeed Rating on the strategic or tactical map. Ships capable of flying through the field may enter combat along with the trapped ships, but arrive just as powered down as their slower allies. Attempting to escape an Interdiction field causes you to take extra damage that turn, rather than the 50% you normally would take for escaping, or may require you to spend several additional turns activating Hyperdrives. Work it out with your opponent.
• Attribtue Interactions: I technically reduces all enemy Hyperspeed Ratings by a value equal to +N Interdiction. Ships are literally slowed back to sublight speed by Interdiction gear. It is possible to enter Hyperspace while running Interdiction equipment as well, but you reduce the Hyperspeed Rating of your own fleet by the same amount as an enemy. Friendly ships reduced to +0 Hyperspeed Rating cannot enter Hyperspace at all.