Topic: Is it finally over on Gamepsy?

[Magnum357]

Just curious about some things, like whether you are staying with the 8 empire/8 cartels layout or adding in some new races, and whether or not you plan to include only line and command ships, or perhaps the conjectural and non-warships. If we are talking about a new list to put some life into GSA, this might be it.

Well, first of all, the shiplist I'm working on is a lot like Firesoul's 4.0, but it will be a "no models" version to help out lower end systems and keep it simple to install.  This means there won't be any new races added, just the main 8 races (Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Mirak, Lyran, Hydran, Gorn, ISC) but the Pirate Cartels are going to be completely revamped.  Only 6 Pirate cartels will be present, two of the Pirate slots will occupy the LDR and WYN ships.  Think of this shiplist as a "variation" of 4.0, with some improvements in my opinion and only a faction of the number of ships compared to 4.0.

As for ships, the emphisis on this shiplist is to incourage the use of "main warships".  There won't be any "True Carriers" or "PF Tenders", but there will be a few auxilaries to cover some of this.  On GSA, I always kept hearing people complaining that they didn't like the use of carriers or tenders.  In this shiplist, carriers and tenders are there, but they are limited quite a bit so if you use them, you better bring your "A" game!  The only exception to this will be the Hydrans, as they need there fighters, but they will be limited to there "hybrid carriers" they won't have any "true carriers" (like the CAV).  I found quite a few fan-made ships on the internet that are used in SFB, so there are some whole new ships in the shiplist to make it more then just a variation of 4.0. 

ISC ships will be redone a bit.  I decided to take out the I-torps and just use rear firing F-torps. From what I understand, the I-torps never really worked right (especially for the AI).  Lots of people on GSA use ISC ships (sometimes nothing but ISC ships) because well... they are darn hard to fight against.  I'm trying to put a bit of balance to them so that they are powerful, but still not a game breaker.  Changing the I-torps helps this a bit for point balance, but I'm hoping other people might have suggestions on how to limit the ISC if possible.  I'm going to include "Early Years" ISC ships (as they are about equal in firepower as the other races CA) but I just found out that ADB has released a "Early Years Y2" module that includes what the early ISC ships looked like.  The Taldren Early Years ships are most likely not "official" so I'm not sure if I should stick with the Taldren ships or get this Y2 model.  From what I understand, the ISC began with "Double hull ships" (instead of the tri-hull ships we see later) that are in model Y2.  If anyone has any info about this module, it would help if I knew what these ships are lilke. 

Another balance to the shiplist is that all races will have Maulers, but they are limited to just tugs.  This is another problem with GSA games as people usually pick Romulan or Lyran BCH/DN's with maulers.  Most of the 4.0 maulers are not "offical" in SFB which I think is why people pick them as they are quite a powerful slug weapon.  According to SFB, all races did experiment with maulers, but most races didn't bother using them.  In SFC, the mauler is a bit more effective in fleet actions compared to SFB.  Limiting the Mauler to Tugs keeps this weapon system limited.  Most tugs have limited firepower so this will be somewhat like the use of carriers I described above, you better bring your "A" game if you want to use them.  So far, the only problem I can see with this is the Gorn Tugs.  There aft "bubble pod" would make shooting a mauler to the front impossible.  I could just simply set the Mauler to fire to the sides or rear, but I don't think SFC has narrow firing arcs in those dirctions, and I don't think you are allowed to fire a mauler to the side without shock rules.  Would anyone object to a Gorn mauler firing in a RA arc?? 

Anyway, that is just a few of the things you would see out of this shiplist.  I hope this helps answer a few questions for you  Roychipoqua_Mace.

[Roychipoqua_Mace]

Thank you Magnum, that was a very detailed response. I am really looking forward to the emphasis on main warships, and I like how you are limiting the maulers and ISC. 4.0 is awesome, but I won't miss the FHF and STL.

Thanks for the information.  I might track down a copy of OP.  Is this being played on Gamespy or another server?

No problem, OP is the most commonly played game both on GSA and on the Dynaverse campaign servers.

[Magnum357]

Thanks!  I will not miss some of the 4.0 ships either.  As a matter of fact, no ships will be included that suffer from shock rules in SFB (like the BCJ or Romulan Killer Hawk for example) since there is no shock rules in SFC.  Keep in mind though, even though this shiplist will only be a fraction of the number of ships compared to 4.0, there are still a lot of ships to do.  I got about 40 to 45% of the shiplist done so its going to take me some time to complete this.  This doesn't even include some testing.

[FA Frey XC]

Firesouls 4.0 is considered by many to be =the= shiplist=.

We here at XenoCorp put our a Hardcore shiplist, and was designed to more closely mimick the actual production line of ships used in SFB.

All of these are on the FTP.

And don't forget about SFC Direct! Dynaverse.Net's replacement for LameSpy!

Regards,