Heavy Plasma Cruiser

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:34 pm

Is there a Heavy Plasma Cruiser for the Feds? (I assume switching Plasma F for Drone Rack on the Fed Heavy Cruiser.) If not, is there a reason, will there be, would such a ship be in any way unbalancing, and does SFB have such a ship?

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:51 pm

No, No, Yes, No, No, and No (respectively). I think the reason is that the Feds have only a tiny supply of plasma launchers, and would rather use them on ships that will fight where they are most useful. Ex. The Sixth Fleet's ships were mostly washouts, very few original CA's. They did have a dreadnaught and a battlecruiser, though.

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:16 pm

I can't figure out precisely how you're answering each question. Please specify.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:22 pm

The Feds have the BCF plasma-armed battlecruiser, which has two type-F launchers (in place of the neck photons of the BCJ and neck drone racks of the BCG). All three battlecruisers retain the "heavy cruiser" photon torpedoes in the saucer (four).

There is also a DNF plasma-armed dreadnought which swaps a pair of photons for plama-F's (leaving it with four photons). The DD in Communique has a plasma-F armed variant (swapping two photons with two plasma-F).

There are other plasma-armed variants in SFB, but none have made it over to FedCom yet.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no Fed ship that uses anything heavier than a plasma-F (all of which they initially bought from the Gorns).

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:23 pm

What other variants are there in SFB?

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:24 pm

SFB has 3000+ ships in it. There's a lot.

I'll let someone else look them up.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:10 pm

USS Enterprise wrote:What other variants are there in SFB?

That's a loaded question:
SFB has 16 Alpha Octant races...
Several Simulator only races...
a dozen or so Omega Octant races...
the Lesser Magellanic Cloud races...
etc...
Each of these races has the major ship size classes / types and then each of those has dozens of variants...

That puts the total to well over 2500 to 3000 ships... waaaaay too many to enumerate here.

Suffice it to say that every race has nearly every variant of every ship out there...

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:15 pm

So, do the Klinks have a Plasma Armed Ship?

Do the Feds have a PL G or Better.

Do the Klingons ever use a cloak?

Does any race have 4 or more Plasma R on a single vessel?

Nerroth · Post by **Nerroth** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:19 pm

To clarify, there are 21 currently-published Omega empires - not counting rebel splinters, inter-species factionalism and other such which can be found within some of those.

And the timeline has at least another 5 or 6 which have yet to be published.

In the Cloud, there are 5 empires published so far, plus two more awaiting development, and who knows what else to be added in future.

And then there's whoever the Tholians might have knocked off on their way to dominance of M81...

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:20 pm

I will assume your query was what other Federation plasma variants are in SFB. Here is a quick rundown of plasma armed ships in the Federation. Note that the Federation only uses Pl-F. They do not use anything heavier.

Currently in Federation Commander are the DNF (plasma armed dreadnought) and BCF (plasma armed battlecruiser). In both cases what is effectively done is replacing a pair of drone racks with Pl-F.

In Booster 91 (the Franz Joseph Design Booster) there is the DDL. This is a DD with two photons replaced with two Ph-F. This will be the third Federation plasma-armed ship in Federation Commander.

In SFB, there are two more plasma armed ships: the FFL (plasma armed FF) and the NCF (plasma armed NCA). The FFL is a frigate that swaps both of its photons for Pl-Fs. The NCF is configured like the DDL where half of the photons are swapped for Pl-Fs. Note that the FFL was "historically" produced; the NCF was not. The FFL has a decent chance to make it into Federation Commander. I would not count on seeing the NCF.

On the larger subject, except for the DNF and BCF, all Federation plasma armed ships swap out photons for their Pl-Fs, not drones. So, any prospective CA, NCL, DW, or CL plasma armed variant will likely do the same: lose photons for Pl-F. Because of this, I do not expect any such theoretical ships to be introduced.

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:26 pm

Yes it was about Feds except the Part about the 4 PL R's. I was quite sure the Feds didn't even have a G. When I asked about the R's (And was purposely stretching) I meant every race.

Could there hypothetically be made a ship by replacing x4 Photon and x1 Drone rack with x5 Plasma F on the Fed CA? Would this be unbalancing?

On a related note, what is the biggest ISC Plasma Torp in SFB, and is this the same as FC will be?

Nerroth · Post by **Nerroth** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:29 pm

It's not exactly common to find a ship, or indeed any kind of unit, that can handle even 2 plasma-Rs, let alone 4!

*tries to remember if Romulan starbases can have Pl-Rs, and if so how many...*

EDIT: TL12 ISC ships max out at Plasma-S, though ISC X-ships can have Plasma-M torps (not yet in FC).

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:33 pm

USS Enterprise wrote:Could there hypothetically be made a ship by replacing x4 Photon and x1 Drone rack with x5 Plasma F on the Fed CA? Would this be unbalancing?

You can hypothetically make any ship you want.

A CA with 5xPl-F (or any other plasma heavy armament) will not be introduced into the game. The Feds "wouldn't do it", and I doubt Steve would be interested in it. Weapons are not "interchangable"; the ships are designed for the weapons they have, and crossing weapons can have many unintended side effects.

Would it be unbalancing? Well, with 4xPl-F FP and 1xPl-F RP, I doubt it. There are plenty of other ships that would still outgun it. It would definitely not fly like a Fed.

So, if you want to play with such a ship in your group, please do. Just don't expect such a ship to be published anywhere.

USS Enterprise · Post by **USS Enterprise** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:38 pm

I wasn't talking about publication, just a hypothetical "Modification," so to say for one game. I did not expect its publication, nor was that my desire. My question was if such a ship could work.

As for explaining it..., there's always a prototype.

What vessel has the most PL R's? (Not talking 'bout the Feds anymore, but anyone, I know the Feds have PL F's only.)

And what is an M Torp?

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:40 pm

Missed this post.

USS Enterprise wrote:So, do the Klinks have a Plasma Armed Ship?

No. Unlike the Federation, the Klingons never experimented with plasma. In fact, even when "provided" with three Sparrowhawks, they converted the ships to use disruptors and drones.

Do the Feds have a PL G or Better.

No. The Feds only use Pl-F, and that very rarely.

Do the Klingons ever use a cloak?

No. The only empires that use a cloak are the Romulans and the Orions. Quite frankly, given the use characteristics of the disruptor weapon, the Klingons wouldn't want to use a cloak.

Does any race have 4 or more Plasma R on a single vessel?

No. The Romulan and Gorn heavy bases use Pl-R (I think the BATS has three, and the SB has six). The Gorn DNT (which is not in Federation Commander yet) has two. I think the Gorn and Romulan BBs have two. The most any other ship has is a single Pl-R.