Federation Commander

USS Enterprise wrote: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.

It would probably not unbalance anything.

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.)

As I mention above, the Romulan and Gorn BBs have (I believe) two Pl-R. When the Gorn DNT (Torpedo Dreadnought) is introduced, it will have two Pl-R.

EDIT: Duh! The Romulan Vulture has two Pl-R, too. It is in a Communique and Briefing #2.

And what is an M Torp?

It is an X-technology weapon that is a half-step between a Pl-S and Pl-R. It does a maximum of 40 points of damage (rather than the 30 of the Pl-S or 50 of the Pl-R). It is only seen on X-technology cruisers.

Is there a reason why the M isn't used on normal ships (Both from a gameplay perspective and a SFU "Logical" reason.

USS Enterprise wrote:Is there a reason why the M isn't used on normal ships (Both from a gameplay perspective and a SFU "Logical" reason.

Because that is how it works.

Seriously, though, the Pl-M is a chunk of X-technology. As such, it is only used by X-technology ships. Just like batteries that hold three points of power, photons that can be armed in a single turn, phasers that can fire two Ph-3 shots, the Pl-M is X-technology and is therefore restricted to such in its deployment.

Ah...

It does sort of make sense to have that Gap between that massive PL R and Average sized PL S.

Another Question. Do the Romulans use the PL G at all?

The Romulans used Pl-Gs a lot prior to the refits that led to Pl-S mounts on their ships - you see them in Briefing 2.

Some of their smaller ships can't use Pl-S torps at all, and so depend on Pl-Gs instead.

Oh, and the Vulture dreadnought is also a 2-Pl-R ship... but unlike the Gorn DNT, is not quite so good at making the most of them.

Why not?

The Vulture is a warp-refitted sub-light dreadnought. Like most refitted Romulan sublight ships, it has a small hull and lacks power. (If you look at the War Eagle, it can't even travel at 24+1 all turn!) By contrast, the Gorn DNT is a modern dreadnought, it's got enough power to fly at battle speed and still arm those two bad boys! It's also a tough ship, like all Gorn ships, so it can fly into the hottest part of the fight and survive.

Ah. I see. Thanks.

I'd imagine things might get messy if a Gorn DN tried to slug it out with a Trobrin DSN, though...

USS Enterprise wrote:Another Question. Do the Romulans use the PL G at all?

Yes but as with the Gorn they are usually mounted on Destroyer Sized Ships since these units can not handle the "shock" of firing a larger Plasma Torpedo.

Going off memory here I am pretty sure the Battlehawk has 2 Type G Torpedoes. Units not yet in the FedCom unit that use the Type G are the Leader Variant of the Skyhawk and the KF5C. (Both mount 1G and 2Fs I think.)

Also as a side note there was a scinerio in SFB where the first DDL was assigned to the Klingon Border where she tangled with a pretty imfamous D6 and won mainly because nobody mounts a Plasma Torpedos on Fed Ships. I think the designer notes mentioned that since the armament of the Fed DD was to be a Suprise there were a couple of different Options to use sorta like the Orion Weapon Options. If I remember correct the 4 Photons were replaced with either 2Gs and 2Fs, or 1S and 2Fs, or 2Ss or 1R this same kind of arrangment probably could be applied to a Fed CA but if I was to replace the Fed Drone Rack with anything I would use a Plasma D Rack (RH) since it is a similar weapon system.[/b]

I think all the questions got answered before I got here.

Feds don't have a CA with plasma. Maybe I'll add one in SFB Module R12. There is no reason they can't have one, they just don't.

Feds do not use plasma G, S, or R.

A Fed CA would at most replace two photon with plasma-F. It could replace all four, but the Feds just won't do that. They love their photons. The drone rack on a CA is different than the drone rack on a BCG, and cannot be replaced by a plasma-F. It could be replaced by a plasma-D with RH arcs, but who would want it?

No ship has more than two plasma-Rs. The things are just too big for all but the biggest ships (battleships). The only dreadnoughts with two Rs are the one Gorn DNT (used for starbase attacks, it had to give up a LOT to carry it, somebody might want to put that on the "what ships do you want" topic) and the Vulture (which also gives up a lot to carry them).

I think a Plasma CA makes sense.

Yeah, the all 4 Photons was just a random idea.

Just to me though, but when adding all that Plasma, why not remove the Drone? Maybe switch out 2 Plasma D's for 1 drone (If the Feds could have PL D's.

Why can't the Drone Rack for the Feds be replaced with a PL F?

I don't get, well the Feds need more plasmas,
IMO this does more to push people away from SFB and FC than draws them in,

Empires are what they are because of their weapons, ship designs etc
Bad enough Empire x,y and z have to have something because a and b have it ---

Wouldn't hurt for Mr Enterprise to learn to use whats available before he jumps off into Never Neverland for crap that does nothing but drive off real players ---

Doesn't the SFB version of the DNT have 3 R-torps?
Not sure if there is a fed-comm version yet, so that might be where the disconnect is.

USS Enterprise wrote:Just to me though, but when adding all that Plasma, why not remove the Drone? Maybe switch out 2 Plasma D's for 1 drone (If the Feds could have PL D's.

Why can't the Drone Rack for the Feds be replaced with a PL F?

Because it doesn't fit with how the drone rack on the Fed CA is presented. The drone rack is a design modification that intentionally takes advantage of the drone rack's 360 nature. When you replace the drone, you don't get to also move the drone somewhere nicer. You replace it where it is at. The BCF gets FP arcs out of its plasma because the drones it replaced were conveniently located. Federation refit drone racks are pretty much put in the back of the ship, meaning it would have a rear arc. Also, the Federation refit drone rack is really meant as a defensive system, which means it would logically be replaced with a Pl-D, not a Pl-F.

Federation Commander ships are not intended to all be Orions, where the main weapons are all switchable and configurable. The ships were designed with certain weapons in mind, and are built to use those weapons. That is why you are getting resistance on this. People fail to see the point and fail to see the gain.