So Starship Combat: how does it work?

[CJR]

Bought High Guard and very pleased. Ordinary Traveller starship combat is something I am used to handling with pen and paper. Using the program is however going to be worthwhile if I can learn it. I have used the interface for D&D combat but for Traveller we seem to not use it as much in combat.

Can anyone talk me through the steps?

So we establish range and initiative. That i can do normally.

I add two ships to the SCT. I went for Annic Nova for pure nostalgia and a 400 ton System Defense ship

Now obviously Annic Nova has no manoeuvre drives and the SD craft has 6G thrust. So I add all 6 as a bonus to the pulse laser turret. The range is medium.

OK then I target. That works fine. My SD craft lets loose a volley of laser fire that scores a critical hit, then a second for cumulative damage. I just amend the damage box on Annic Nova manually. I assume I roll twice, once for each turret?

Both missiles miss.

Then I fire back with Annic Nova's rather awful beam lasers at -3. I somehow score a hit, and do 7 points damage. A little window appears on the system defence boat asking if i want to apply it?

Well a system defence boat has 13 points of crystaliron armour: however the armour is not listed in the armour line of the display. So I hit yes to see what happens: and just get an error message.

I am using FGU so might just be a bug in this or i may be doing it all wrong, but looks good.

Will High Guard eventually have ship design capacity and allow us to import builds to Spacecraft? That and Capital Ships combat would be handy for me but probably not many players. :)

Any way any advice on how to Starship Combat at core book level welcome. I enjoyed flipping through the ships etc but I own High Guard in hardback so looking mainly for the FGU specific aspects of the implementation. Very pleased to see this at last!

CJ x

[MadBeardMan]

Bought High Guard and very pleased. Ordinary Traveller starship combat is something I am used to handling with pen and paper. Using the program is however going to be worthwhile if I can learn it. I have used the interface for D&D combat but for Traveller we seem to not use it as much in combat.

Can anyone talk me through the steps?

So we establish range and initiative. That i can do normally.

I add two ships to the SCT. I went for Annic Nova for pure nostalgia and a 400 ton System Defense ship

Now obviously Annic Nova has no manoeuvre drives and the SD craft has 6G thrust. So I add all 6 as a bonus to the pulse laser turret. The range is medium.

OK then I target. That works fine. My SD craft lets loose a volley of laser fire that scores a critical hit, then a second for cumulative damage. I just amend the damage box on Annic Nova manually. I assume I roll twice, once for each turret?

Both missiles miss.

Then I fire back with Annic Nova's rather awful beam lasers at -3. I somehow score a hit, and do 7 points damage. A little window appears on the system defence boat asking if i want to apply it?

Well a system defence boat has 13 points of crystaliron armour: however the armour is not listed in the armour line of the display. So I hit yes to see what happens: and just get an error message.

I am using FGU so might just be a bug in this or i may be doing it all wrong, but looks good.

Will High Guard eventually have ship design capacity and allow us to import builds to Spacecraft? That and Capital Ships combat would be handy for me but probably not many players. :)

Any way any advice on how to Starship Combat at core book level welcome. I enjoyed flipping through the ships etc but I own High Guard in hardback so looking mainly for the FGU specific aspects of the implementation. Very pleased to see this at last!

CJ x

So far you're doing everything correct. However what error message do you get? Can I see that please as it should deduct armour.

The plan is to add as much as possible from High Guard over this release cycle. I do want a Ship Builder, I think the High Guard book is straightforward on paper but a bit tricky as some of the changes are mentioned in text, which is why I've added Traits for all the Weapons, much easier to code a trait than trying to parse a description!

Stick with it and keep posting. There's an update next week and I should have the 'Armour' section completed, and HG users may have access to Shields by then as well.

Cheers,
MBM

[CJR]

Am really enjoying playing around with this: High Guard is looking good! I have attached the error log I am getting, in the hope it helps. I will also attach a screenshot of the point in the battle we reached.

I had previously entered the Drinaxi Harrier: possibly that is causing issues?

cj x

[MadBeardMan]

Am really enjoying playing around with this: High Guard is looking good! I have attached the error log I am getting, in the hope it helps. I will also attach a screenshot of the point in the battle we reached.

I had previously entered the Drinaxi Harrier: possibly that is causing issues?

cj x

Hi Chap,

Awesome. Logs always help.

As for previously entered data, yea, could well be an issue. I have my own copy and had to modify it.

So let me look through these and see what can be done. I've recently (with a WOIN update) learned you can do data upgrades.

Cheers,
MBM

[CJR]

I assumed it might overwrite the previous data but seems not to have. Obviously i have not tried the Harrier.

I am now doing a Patrol Corvette vs a Gazelle Class. Should i have the Hull Damage extension loaded or not? :) That suddenly struck me as possibly the issue!

[demonsamurai]

I have a question too. How would one add the pilots skill DM to the ships attack roll? Just do it manually as if you were modifying an NPC stats?

Cheers.

[MadBeardMan]

I assumed it might overwrite the previous data but seems not to have. Obviously i have not tried the Harrier.

I am now doing a Patrol Corvette vs a Gazelle Class. Should i have the Hull Damage extension loaded or not? :) That suddenly struck me as possibly the issue!

No need for the Dull Damage extension as it's on the SCT the Hull Damage. I'll add it to the ship sheet though now as well come to think of it. The Extension may work, try it.

Cheers
MBM

[MadBeardMan]

I have a question too. How would one add the pilots skill DM to the ships attack roll? Just do it manually as if you were modifying an NPC stats?

Cheers.

The Desktop modifiers should all function. Pilot DM? Small ship with fixed mounts?

Cheers,
MBM

[demonsamurai]

Gotcha. So just add a relevant DM from the bottom of the page. Ta

[CJR]

The Desktop modifiers should all function. Pilot DM? Small ship with fixed mounts?

Cheers,
MBM

You add pilot skill Effect to a gunnery attack (or all not clear from rules) for one point of thrust assigned. You can subtract it as a negative DM evade to incoming fire once per point of thrust assigned? Is that correct?

I am not sure reading the rules if assigning a point to Gunnery for a stable fire platform adds to one turret or all weapons? Is there an errata for Mongoose Traveller 2 core rules anywhere? (The book not the FGU app).

I can see why this would be horrible to program!

CJ x

[CJR]

Apologies if my remarks are getting tedious!

I have discovered in FGU damage is not applied in the CST if you just target the ship and drag the dice to the dialogue box. What works perfectly is if you drag the damage dice to the ship you are targeting (just remember to deduct armour after until next update).

Playing with High Guard has made me read the MGT2 Core spaceship combat rules much more closely. Any hit with Effect 6+ is a crit and every 10% increment of Hull points taken (on ships under 1000 tons) adds another crit. Experience from Pirates of Drinax suggests range is crucial and high gunnery skill and a good fire control program can see a lightly armed Far Trader take out a Mercenary Cruiser with lucky rolls! :)

I have not even got to looking at the new weapons in High Guard yet but great to see so many ships and am really enjoying playing with it. Well done MBM!

[esmdev]

No need to apologize. MBM likes feedback and comments. He can't always do anything about everything but he does a good job on addressing things that he is able.

[demonsamurai]

Has anyone had any thoughts on incorporating a battlemap into space combat, or do you think its better to just run it from the starship combat tracker?

[Ramid]

@demonsamurai i use a map to give my players a visual idea

41899

[demonsamurai]

@Ramid, we used this one last time i found on a Traveller FB page 41901

But also i quite like this simpler one :41902

[Ramid]

Ooh that colour combat chart.looks.awesome!

[GregRex]

With Unity you can set the distance of your hexes from 1.5 meters to 1 km (or any other custom combo). Makes measuring pretty simple as seen in demonsamurai's picture.

[MadBeardMan]

With Unity you can set the distance of your hexes from 1.5 meters to 1 km (or any other custom combo). Makes measuring pretty simple as seen in demonsamurai's picture.

I've been told in FGU that they're working on a distance script, so that means maybe that using maps we can work out the distance in code!

Cheers,
MBM

[Sylvesr]

Bought High Guard and very pleased.

Can anyone talk me through the steps?

Travellers: This is my speculation as to how the new Space Combat goes step by step. I may well be wrong, and welcome other peoples experience.
I am operating FGU, MGT2E Core Ruleset v1.2.o.a, I have High Guard loaded and I have no mods active.

Two space ships are within range & detected one another (Role played using skills and standard FG roll process).

The ships decided to engage in combat while at medium range (no affect on to hit rolls).

Initiatives are rolled by the ship captains (role played by skills checks etc).

Ships begin maneuvers and both decide to close distance (to follow ships in space I imported an image of a tracking sheet I made).

The GM opens the Spacecraft Combat Tracker (SCT) and has both ships placed on the combat tracker (see accompanying graphic).

During role play the player’s ship’s crew target their Far Trader opponent. To represent this in FG on the SCT use the gunsight reticle, click and drag the reticle to the enemy ship to “target the ship” (this can also be role played by having the sensor operator or the gunner attempt a target lock skill roll a failed skill check results in no target lock this round).

First shot, make a “to hit” roll by opening the weapons feature (it is the small pistol icon). Then double click the small D20 symbol in the second to the last box. (NOTE: I am NOT sure how the gunner’s skills are accounted for from among the many crew members who may have the Gunner (turret) skill.

We assume the shots fired score a hit, and then double click the small D20 symbol in the damage box which is the last box on the right.

The SCT doesn’t automatically deduct damage to the hull. I have found that I just subtract the damage from the die roll and then manually change the damage number reducing it down.

That is as far as I have figured thing out.

I don’t know what the symbol of the two people represents nor how to manipulate their row.

I don’t know how to change the range setting

I don’t know if the player character’s skills are or will be incorporated into the SCT or if all their skills will remain manually calculated during space combat.

I look forward to comments from the league of fellow Travellers.

[Dalton Calford]

@Ramid, we used this one last time i found on a Traveller FB page 41901

But also i quite like this simpler one :41902

Do you have a link to the Traveller Page/Source for the color combat chart?
I would love to do that up for all my games

[MrWigggles]

I cant seem to figure out how to work the PC Spaceship. I figure out that I need to set it public for the players to see it. But they cant edit it. Is it meant to just be editable by the GM?

[CJR]

If it is in the Party Sheet it seems only GM can edit.

[MadBeardMan]

I cant seem to figure out how to work the PC Spaceship. I figure out that I need to set it public for the players to see it. But they cant edit it. Is it meant to just be editable by the GM?

There's no facility in FG for players to edit something that's not a PC sheet and only that player can edit it.... there's a work around with Party Sheets, but I don't yet understand that and how that's going to work. It's in the Starfinder ruleset but I don't play SFRPG.....

Cheers,
MBM

[MrWigggles]

Alrighty, thank you for the heads up.

[Sylvesr]

I cant seem to figure out how to work the PC Spaceship. I figure out that I need to set it public for the players to see it. But they cant edit it. Is it meant to just be editable by the GM?

I cant find the PC Spaceship. I tried dragging a ship to the party sheet and dragging a ship to parcels...nada. I think something is wrong in my FGU

[MrWigggles]

I cant find the PC Spaceship. I tried dragging a ship to the party sheet and dragging a ship to parcels...nada. I think something is wrong in my FGU

So go to the Library, and above the module selection, are those catagory selections. PC Spaceship is in there, and you can click a button to make it show up on the side bar.

[demonsamurai]

Sorry for the late reply mate, only just seen this. No afraid not, it was on the Traveller RPG Facebook page i think.

[CJR]

Before I report this as a bug I'm just checking its not just me. When the automatic damage is assigned in space ship combat critical hits work perfectly: except the critical level is always 1. (It should be total damage/10 round up?). So for example 35 points of damage (after armour) should do a type 4 critical assuming it is sufficient to cause a critical hit, is that correct? This is different to Sustained Damage where the Critical is 1, but any subsequent critical increases level by one is that right? {2022 Update is Severity is Effect -5].

I'm also not sure if Armour is subtracting from damage? I shall try a number of battles later and check. Sorry to be a pain, anyone else?