Federation Commander

[cnuzzi]

There's been a lot of talk about plasma in FC being broken, with ships being too capable of simply outrunning it. Has anyone considered simply having "speed 24 acceleration" NOT move on impulse 8, subpulse 1, thereby making speed 31 the fastest possible for ships in FC, as in SFB? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

Forgive me if this has been suggested, but I've read a lot of the old posts and never noticed it - just a lot of calls for speed 40 plasma and acceleration limits for ships.

[Steve Cole]

There is no need to fix plasma, which is just fine exactly as it is. The problem is tactics. People complaining that plasma is broken are people complaining they actually have to work to win. They want to win without working very hard. They want a torpedo that will score a fatal hit under any circumstances that plasma doesn't work this way. Plasma (like any seeking weapon) can be used to tell the enemy "stay out of that area" or "go away" or whatever. Seeking weapons influence enemy movement.

Players should not think they can chase somebody and launch a plasma and get a hit. Torpedoes move 32 and ships can barely reach that speed if they don't do much else. So if the enemy hasn't used a lot of power this turn your chances of a hit are slim. But launching plasma at a retreating enemy is NOT the tactic when you want a hit, it IS the tactic when you want him to LEAVE you alone for two turns.

If you want a hit, go for shorter ranges (10 or less, 4 is better) and launch from a position in front of the enemy. The time it takes him to turn around will let the torpedo catch him. If he uses a high energy turn he burned a lot of power and has a chance of a catastrophic failure.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[sunitapr]

This is really helpful information. I am sure I will solve it.

[Magnum357]

Speed 40 Plasma is actually an advanced (X2 i guess?) Tech used during the Trade wars and beyond. Its not really broken, its just not used in Federation Commander. The Insurance doesn't cover certain advanced systems of ADB.

[Steve Cole]

The trade wars. Yeah, I remember there being one obscure reference to that 40 years ago and nothing has ever been done on the subject. I have no idea what they were going to be. I think one of the staff said "mention this to tease them for a future product and we'll figure out what the product is later." I don't really know if that reference still exists in current canon.

I just went a checked the current timeline. The trade wars are not mentioned so we de-canonized that a long time ago.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander