RedRom
Lieutenant Junior Grade
1 eleven mark 14 Towards the Neutral Zone and Home
Posts: 66
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Post by RedRom on Jan 1, 2021 13:26:05 GMT -7
Hello everyone, just a quick question. Does anybody know what the cost is to arm the Romulan RPL-5? Thanks.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jan 1, 2021 16:10:26 GMT -7
Hello everyone, just a quick question. Does anybody know what the cost is to arm the Romulan RPL-5? Thanks. Where are you getting the RPL-5 resignation from, RedRom ? The updated Construction Manual available for download on Bryan Jeckos' site only gives an additional RPL-4 over the original three FASA weapons. fasaststcs.com/index.php/construction/There ARE new weapons called Plasma Bolt weapons, RPT-1 to RPT-5, all 4 points to arm. They each have different ranges and damage values, and no listed damage charts, so presumably not spreading like the original FASA weapons in damage blocks of 5, and therefore more like heavy torpedoes. |
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RedRom
Lieutenant Junior Grade
1 eleven mark 14 Towards the Neutral Zone and Home
Posts: 66
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Post by RedRom on Jan 1, 2021 19:21:58 GMT -7
Hello everyone, just a quick question. Does anybody know what the cost is to arm the Romulan RPL-5? Thanks. Where are you getting the RPL-5 resignation from, RedRom ? The updated Construction Manual available for download on Bryan Jeckos' site only gives an additional RPL-4 over the original three FASA weapons. fasaststcs.com/index.php/construction/There ARE new weapons called Plasma Bolt weapons, RPT-1 to RPT-5, all 4 points to arm. They each have different ranges and damage values, and no listed damage charts, so presumably not spreading like the original FASA weapons in damage blocks of 5, and therefore more like heavy torpedoes. Thanks for the link. I will check that out. I am getting the chart here www.ststcsolda.space/romulans/romulan_plasma_chart.html I think Brad Torgenson came up With it. The links are embedded in the ship stats. |
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Post by trynda1701 on Jan 2, 2021 5:55:08 GMT -7
Where are you getting the RPL-5 resignation from, RedRom ? The updated Construction Manual available for download on Bryan Jeckos' site only gives an additional RPL-4 over the original three FASA weapons. fasaststcs.com/index.php/construction/There ARE new weapons called Plasma Bolt weapons, RPT-1 to RPT-5, all 4 points to arm. They each have different ranges and damage values, and no listed damage charts, so presumably not spreading like the original FASA weapons in damage blocks of 5, and therefore more like heavy torpedoes. Thanks for the link. I will check that out. I am getting the chart here www.ststcsolda.space/romulans/romulan_plasma_chart.html I think Brad Torgenson came up With it. The links are embedded in the ship stats. Ah right, gotcha. I've had a look at the bigger ships on Brads' online database, can't find any with his version of the RPL-5. The addition V-30 Winged Defender models that he designed have his RPL-4, which says is 13 points to arm, with the link to the charts you gave. Can anyone else see any ships with Brads' RPL-5 that I've missed? |
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Post by tinker on Jan 2, 2021 7:36:08 GMT -7
It looks way too over the top to me. 40 points of damage at close range?
No thanks.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jan 2, 2021 10:40:49 GMT -7
It looks way too over the top to me. 40 points of damage at close range? No thanks. It's only 8 points max damage over the RPL-2, although it keeps high damage over MUCH longer range. If I was still making regular ship designs, it would have to be Romulan vessels in the so-called "Lost Era" between the end of Star Trek VI and the TNG era. Which means you might only see it in regular battle AFTER the Romulans reappear over the Neutral Zone in Season 1 of TNG, unless you had fought some version of the combat which kept the Romulans busy for sixty years! The TV show never really explained that one, except the mention of the Romulan massacre of the Khitomer outpost, plus their attack on the Enterprise-C! I suspect tinker, you MIGHT have used it on your balanced TNG era ships, with your extrapolated designs that don't break the FASA game system.  |
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Post by tinker on Jan 2, 2021 16:17:25 GMT -7
I suspect tinker, you MIGHT have used it on your balanced TNG era ships, with your extrapolated designs that don't break the FASA game system. Nope. I actually use the RPL-3 the most and the RPL-4 shows up on just one model of one design: the T'varo Bird of Prey. Understand that the Romulan plasma weapons have a range of damage of 20-32 points in the original game. The latest model has reduced damage, but maintains that damage over range and takes less power to arm. If I were to introduce my own "RPL-4", I would have it use the RL-2 chart but use a better Firing Chart and lower power to arm. If I were to introduce one that inflicted more damage, I don't think I would have cranked it all the way up to 40. Understand, one of the basic mechanics of the game is that the shields provide only marginal protection - otherwise the games would take 30 or more turns to complete like SFB. |
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Post by thescreamingswede on Jan 2, 2021 16:56:16 GMT -7
The shield rules as written are rather difficult to get a realistic feel of what was seen on screen the way the were developed regardless, but 40 points isn't too hard to extrapolate. I agree for TMP and earlier it is overpowered but for TNG larger capital ships should be able to withstand most of it. Granted, it makes one wonder though just how powerful V-Ger's Plasma bolt was in The Motion Picture.
I ran both Brad's RPL-4 and RPL-5 damage charts through my WDF calculator and came up with a WDF of 13.7 for the RPL-4, assuming the 18 hex range is using Chart T. That's actually the same as the book's RPL-2. I've always wondered why the RPL-3's damage curve ended at 15 though. LOL
His RPL-5 though tops out at 27.4 WDF! Assuming of course that the 24 hex range is Chart Y. That's more than the entire WDF of most ships! I agree with Tinker in though and would probably not use the RPL-5 in any subsequent designs.
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Post by trynda1701 on Jan 2, 2021 18:23:00 GMT -7
tinkerNo problem. I remember how you explained how you got ship designs for TNG era to work without overpowering the original game system in your Klingon/Romulan TNG Ship Recognition Manual thread in the 'Gaming' sub-board. thescreamingswedeYeah, that RPL-5 WDF figure is high! It would be mitigated slightly if a player uses house rules for modified shield rules in their game, which is, of course, not what tinker wanted in his TNG project.
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Post by tinker on Jan 5, 2021 6:33:30 GMT -7
The shield rules as written are rather difficult to get a realistic feel of what was seen on screen the way the were developed regardless, but 40 points isn't too hard to extrapolate. I agree for TMP and earlier it is overpowered but for TNG larger capital ships should be able to withstand most of it. Granted, it makes one wonder though just how powerful V-Ger's Plasma bolt was in The Motion Picture. The Simulator is a game that have NEVER reflected what we saw on the small or big screen. When FASA introduced the ships for TNG, their shield strength remained consistent with the earlier ships - the Excelsior still had the best shields in the game at 20 while the Galaxy-class had shields that powered to 16. In the First Year Update, this was increased to a very modest 23 - not a giant leap as many fans have proposed. This is necessary to preserve the game mechanics. One consequence of absurd shield strengths is that smaller ships are then unable to inflict any damage at all on the larger ones - this does not reflect what we see in the ST universe (for those who use such arguments) and isn't very sporting in the game. Likewise, the weapons need to be tempered as well or the game becomes slow and cumbersome. This is why photon torpedoes maxed out at 20 points in the game and we didn't see an increase until the First Year Update - but then the number of torpedoes was reduced. That is why I was hesitant to use the RPL-4 at all but I felt it needed representation so I placed it on a very small and relatively weak ship. It typically doesn't get more than one or two opportunities to use it. I would never mount it on a D'deridex. While the RPL-3 uses Firing Chart T, the weapon has a maximum range is what I always figured. I think your calculator is off, the RPL-4 should have a far superior WDF compared to the RPL-2. EDIT: Never Mind, it seems my version of the RPL-4 has different damage than the one posted here. That is a bit scary. |
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Post by thescreamingswede on Jan 6, 2021 2:01:46 GMT -7
When I devised the calculator I ran it against every weapon in the book. I found a +/-.02 margin of error over 1% of all the hard copy published weapons. Ironically, my calculator puts the RPL-3 at 14.04 WDF. If the margin of error is taken into account it should be around 14.0 or 14.1. I also found a discrepancy with the Federation FACs; the WDF of the accelerator cannons being higher than printed. Since my calculator doesn't take into account power to arm values, the discrepancy might be from that, but the other Romulan Plasma weapons fall into the margin of error I listed earlier.
Either way, the RPL-5 is one of those weapons that would make a great RPG set piece, but a rather unbalancing standard weapon for regular skirmish use.
As a side note observation, the Romulan weapons have a second WDF listed for use with cloaking devices, however none of the Klingon weapons have that option. When I have built Klingon vessels that utilize the cloaking device, I've always multiplied the WDF of the mounted weapons by 1.5 to mimic the modifier seen on Romulan weapons.
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Post by tinker on Jan 6, 2021 6:28:16 GMT -7
As a side note observation, the Romulan weapons have a second WDF listed for use with cloaking devices, however none of the Klingon weapons have that option. When I have built Klingon vessels that utilize the cloaking device, I've always multiplied the WDF of the mounted weapons by 1.5 to mimic the modifier seen on Romulan weapons. I had two theories on that: 1) FASA decided that the WDF for cloaking ships needed bumped up when printing the Romulan SRM - which came after the Klingon one. 2) It only applies to the Romulans because their cloaking devices are much more power efficient. Unfortunately, it never occurred to me to ask Sam Lewis why this was when he came to visit our college. |
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Post by thescreamingswede on Jan 11, 2021 0:52:43 GMT -7
As a side note observation, the Romulan weapons have a second WDF listed for use with cloaking devices, however none of the Klingon weapons have that option. When I have built Klingon vessels that utilize the cloaking device, I've always multiplied the WDF of the mounted weapons by 1.5 to mimic the modifier seen on Romulan weapons. I had two theories on that: 1) FASA decided that the WDF for cloaking ships needed bumped up when printing the Romulan SRM - which came after the Klingon one. 2) It only applies to the Romulans because their cloaking devices are much more power efficient. Unfortunately, it never occurred to me to ask Sam Lewis why this was when he came to visit our college. I would probably go with option one and the modifier was an afterthought. While true the Klingon cloaking devices eat up a huge portion of the power output for an average Klingon ship and leaving very little in the way of power to weapons, Romulan vessels with nominal power output that is eaten up by the efficient cloak system would suffer the same problem. For example the V-27 Type 2 generates 52 power and carries a cloaking device that requires 38 points to activate, leaving 14 points to power up other systems while cloaked. The Klingon L-42 on the other hand generates 55 power but requires only 32 points to activate the cloak, leaving 23 points for other systems while cloaked. This would seem to contradict the premise that the modifier would only apply to the Romulans due to their more efficient cloaking systems and there is no in game rule stating that Romulan cloaking systems receive any extra perks over the Klingon versions. In any case, without the modifier cloaked Klingon's can sure pack a whallop. |
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Post by Meteo Ascension on Jan 15, 2021 22:08:32 GMT -7
Where are you getting the RPL-5 resignation from, RedRom ? The updated Construction Manual available for download on Bryan Jeckos' site only gives an additional RPL-4 over the original three FASA weapons. fasaststcs.com/index.php/construction/There ARE new weapons called Plasma Bolt weapons, RPT-1 to RPT-5, all 4 points to arm. They each have different ranges and damage values, and no listed damage charts, so presumably not spreading like the original FASA weapons in damage blocks of 5, and therefore more like heavy torpedoes. Thanks for the link. I will check that out. I am getting the chart here www.ststcsolda.space/romulans/romulan_plasma_chart.html I think Brad Torgenson came up With it. The links are embedded in the ship stats. I have an RPL-5, it's a TNG weapon that uses Firing Chart N and does 26 Max, decreasing with distance. |
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