Man-to-man combat is pretty easy. You will all have one action point at the begining of combat. You post an attack, which
can either be a regular attack, and specify which weapon you use, which enemy you attack, and if you aim for a certain area
of that enemy. You also can use feats. Feats are special abilities that can either improve upon skills, or are skills themselves.
You can use a feat during your move instead of an attack. If you use a feat, please, say it in bold.
After you post whatever you do, I'll calculate stuff, you know the deal with that. After you make one move, you get another
action point back after other players have posted.
There are several types of space combat, so i'll go over all of them for you.
Fighter combat is pretty basic. All fighters only have a one-man crew, so that player does everything. The fighter is
basically an extension of the player. You post an attack, saying what weapons you fire, what enemy, you know the deal. Space
combat posting works the same as man-to-man, one action, then wait for other players to post. Space combat has it's own
feats.
Medium sized ships run pretty similar to fighters. There is a pilot and a copilot. The pilot controls evasion, boarding,
and other piloting skills. The pilot can also control one turret, at a reduced effectiveness. The pilot can fire the turrets,
using one action point. The copilot controls the ships's main weapons. These weapons use normal attack rules, you can fire
one weapon once for the cost of one action point. Other turrets may be controled by players, under normal battle rules.
Heavy ships is where it begins to get complicated. There is a pilot, who controls piloting jobs, like boarding other
ships. The pilot can also control a turret, at reduced effectiveness. The copilot can control the main weapons, under normal
rules, if there are any on the ship. If there are no main guns, the copilot can control two turrets, able to fire both using
one action point. There are also three navigators, which CAN be player controlled, but they do nothing. These slots are optional
for heavy ships, but having three navigators will highly increase the ship's effectiveness. NPC navigators, and other crewmen,
may be purchased. Players may also control the ship's turrets and other weapon systems, firing one attack for one action point.
Heavy ships may have a captain, who controls the NPCs, as well as boosting other's proformance. The Captain also should give
the orders on the ship, it is his desicsion of what he wants his ship to do.
Capital Class ships are basically bigass heavy ships, so not much more complicated them them. One pilot, in command of
the ship and all it's functions, such as planetary bombardment, or launching fighters. The pilot may also control two turrets
at reduced effectinveness, but able to fire both with one action point. The copilot controls four or less turrets, able to
fire all four of them with one action point. There are also eight navigators, once again, able to be controlled
by players, but reccomended to get some NPC crewmen. For capital ships, you are required to have five at least. There are
also eight gunners. These guys control the ship's main weapons. They may be player controled, able to fire one shot per action
point. These men are not required. Gunners, just like navigators, may be NPCs. Players may be a gunner, controling a main
weapon, navigating, doing nothing, or do several other things. If the capital ship has fighter bays, they may launch in a
figher or other ship. You may purchase NPC pilots for these fighters. Players may also man turrets and other weapon systems.
All capital class ships must have a captain. The captain orders the NPCs about, and also boost the proformance of all onboard
his ship. The captain also can give orders to the pilot to have him launch fighters, board a ship, and so on.
Think of the copilots in all cases as gunners, pilots as pilots, and other players as the crew. The crew can man turrets
(they get boosted effectiveness), repair the ship, play holo-chess...
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The ranks on board are those used by the United States Navy in 2004 by some odd coincidence. The lower ranks should follow
the higher ranks orders, they still have free will and thus are allowed to reject orders but that is considered insubordinate.
Ensign - ENS
Lieutenant - Junior Grade LTJG
Lieutenant - LT
Lieutenant Commander - LCDR
Commander - CDR
Captain - CAPT
Only the Captain can give a promotion on the ship, as he is the commanding officer. However, if the Captain is unable
to command the ship for any reason, command falls to the second highest in rank.
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A starship has several primary systems, all at the crew's disposal. The most basic ones are as follows:
Life-Support: Maintained by several different kinds of replicators throughout the
ship. Most of the life-support replicators are redundant to prevent enemies from targeting life support. Energy can be diverted
to life-support in order to quickly replenish oxygen and other requirements of life.
Shields: Four
shield generators are on board, on command they can create a bubble of spatial distortions that reduce the amount of damage
suffered by weapons fire and other space hazards. Shields must be activated and drain power from other systems. Increasing
power to shields increases the amount of damage they absorb.
Armor: The damage that passes through
the shields is then reduced by the armor. Armor is always active and can stop some radiation but not much. When armor is destroyed
it must be replaced in space-dock or by landing on a planet. You cannot divert power to armor.
Weapons:
Weapons inflict damage on targets selected by their user. Damage to a weapon decreases the possible damage it can deliver.
By diverting power to weapons you increase the damage that can be done to the target. Weapons can be set to overload, damaging
the weapon to the point of non-functionality and forces the ship to suffer minor structural damage but it delivers massive
amounts of damage to its targets.
Engines: Engines allow the ship to move at sub-light velocity. Increasing
power to engines allow the ship to move and maneuver more nimbly. Damage to the engines decrease speed and maneuverability.
Sensors:
Sensors allow a crew to know whats going on outside the ship without resorting to looking out windows. Increasing power to
sensors allows much more detail on sensors scans and a increase of range.
