Federation Commander

Hi all -- I love the simplicity of FC. And being an old SFB player, I can see appeal of the whole BoM thing. However, the thought of all those SFB concepts being dragged into FC would defeat the whole purpose of a streamlined game. So how about this-- has anyone thought of retro-fitting SFB with FC ideas? Namely damage allocation, pay-as-you-go allocation,
free movement, fleet scale..etc? It might be kind of cool, and it seems like it would be less work.

My understanding is that some folks have done just that, but that the die-hard SFB loyalists cry foul when talking about doing it "officially".

It's all peripheral for me, as (more than likely) I'll never play SFB again. It's just a source of raw material for FC and ACTA:SF for me nowadays.

There is an article in a recent Captain's Log detailing how you can use FC ship cards in SFB.

Other than that, forget it. Such ideas have actually been floated in the past, but the reaction by SFB adherents was so negative those ideas have been boxed, taped, locked, shelved, and then the shelves were hidden. It just isn't going to happen.

Sorry.

Call us heretics, but we have tried that to see if it could be done.

And free movement is the SFB standard.

We've done pay-as-you go EA (it works, but it's more FC wiht different ships than SFB with FC concepts)

We've done the Fed Comm DAC in SFB. As long as the players are willing to be reasonable about hits that could be scored on systems that aren't list on the FC DAC - it works, but it does skew the results a little. A true FC style DAC for SFB needs to be created to make it work.

Haven't tried Fleet Scale ships in SFB, yet... but that's an intriguing idea.

Gotta go.
Some brown-srited guys from the SFB police are pounding on the door!

Fleet scale ships in SFB would be like those cadet ships in the SFB cadet game.

Conceptually, using Fleet Scale in SFB would not be an issue. They are, quite simply, just smaller ships. The only real issue I can see would be dealing with some of the resultant movement rates, but even that isn't that bad.

I just don't see that many people being interested enough in them to figure out fleet scale SSDs.

The guys already said everything I'd have said. SFB people do not want FC concepts in SFB. Fleet scale would work find but almost nobody cares.

Wasn't this what "Star Fleet Revolutions" was supposed to be?

I was sorry to see that concept dropped.

Mike, the feedback to that was so negative that the trial balloon sank under the jillions of arrows shot into it.

Jean wrote:Mike, the feedback to that was so negative that the trial balloon sank under the jillions of arrows shot into it.

...an increase in weight with a concomitant loss of lift. Aerodynamically, not good.

To the OP, its a great idea imho, but sadly that ship has sailed. SFB players see *any* FC-style changes as a threat to their 'fiddly bits' (in more ways then one it seems given how resistant they have been to date).

Best I can suggest is make your own FC-style changes to SFB under house rules and run with it and do take hope, there are players out there that really like SFB that want it streamlined. Flexible players are out there.

To OP - FYI, the posts about the Revolutionary Edition are still there on the BBS if you are interested in seeing what was talked about. They are under "Star Fleet Battles/New Product Development/SFB Revolutionary Edition"

The one thing in FedCmdr that I would like to see in SFB is the ability to do unplotted speed changes to a lower speed. Right now, you can pay reserve-warp power out of the batteries to go faster, but there's no way to slow down (save for emergency deceleration).

I also miss the option of changing speed in mid turn; it can make for some interesting options. As it would be available to all sides it should not cause a game balance problem.

The problem my veteran SFB friends had with FedCom was bridging to the sub pulse system. they were constantly trying to commit fire when they couldn't and we're inevitably always out of position when they could fire. Though everyone liked other elements of the game it was very frustrating experience.

New players i've introduced to the game obviously had no such issue and had a very favorable impression of the game.