When I saw there were a new set of rules I though I had to swallow something I said in my former post, but I see this is not the case ;).
Now, after a skip reading of them (mostly changes, marked on green), my first impressions:
Most are clarifications and redacting, nice to have them.
SRUs: I’ll talk latter about them, as they deserve their own post...
Political actions (not a new thing):
I see changing the # of war rounds an overshoot. Being a simple action with a defense of 100 (so a final 10), anyone with a prestige of 8+ will have a nearly automatic success, and needing a full PA is, IMHO, excessive. I’d handle as increased SU cost to try.
Settlements:
TL: the initial TL is far too low. Assuming a country with TL 9.4 tries to build a colony, this colony will be TL 4.7. Assuming he builds the first heavy industry when it has 10-100 people, it will be 4.9, not enough to build even anything but roads and farming and mining facilities. And to build SUs locally you need TL 5.5, so it would rarely (if at all) be possible until you’re TL 10+. This will (again) slow space development a lot.
I also see that the production for all mining and farming facilities has been lowered quite a lot (as the divisor has been increases by 5, before square rooting it). That means the first such facility produces now 2.5 times less than before...
As per Asteroid mining, I keep seeing unfair that it is all counted as a single hex for this divisor, making it quite less rich that any S sized world with the same Mining Potential, as the S sized world has more hexes and some of them increase MP. I keep suggesting other such facilities not modifying the production, as they can easily be AUs afar.
Of course, the orbital factory needs in RMUs have also been lowered (to half previous), but the heavy industry has not, so needing more mining facilities per each one needed before...
See that for SRU mining this means (assuming a roll of 10 and it’s the first mine in a size 10 world, so the maximum minable):
- Oil: (10+10) x 10 / 2.45 = 81.6 rounded down to 81
- Pai-leng: (10+10) x 0.5 / 2.45 = 4
- Tantalum: (10+10) x 0.1 / 2.45 = 0.8, rounded down to 0
So, how can one mine tantalum?
Armed forces:
The extra for foreign deployment seems right for me, as it is expensive to keep troops out of their bases.
So I think about the changes in the Orbital Assault ability, I guess representing the jump á la Starship Troopers or paratrooper like assault (if any of you is member of CotI board, I suggest you to read the thread on this link (specifically post #5)
http://www.travellerrpg.com/Co...owthread.php?t=38859 to see how I envision them in 2300AD), except for naval units. I can imagine ground troops so jumping, even AFVs being so thrown, but ships? I always thought that sending them to other worlds would be dismantled and to be assembled there...
I have dual thoughts about getting rid of security ability. While it was me who asked what advantage they have now, I thought its advantage now would be as modifier for political actions (mostly in calming people in uncontrolled countries). After all, it’s not the same to send soldiers than police (even militarized) to those spots, the army being more prone to live fire, while the police more to anti-riot tactics. BTW, I guess that’s why the French Gendarmerie lost this ability now...
As for the maintaining of the ratios at buying units, I see it as a PITA. My usual practice was to buy units as reserve (as they would be so in the turn of buying anyway) and then upgrade them next turns as needed. I keep advocating for the individual QR being rid of, as already told before.
I keep asking why are there two sets of combat value numbers in the Taillerand example:
quote:
French #1240: Veteran Spaceship:10/1/3/0:B:L:Alpha Centuari, Triania, Orbit: N/A: 20/3/4/0, carrying unit#455
According the example in building ships, it should be 10/3/6/0 (10 beams, 1 each, 1 missile, adds 3, and 3 fighters, adding 2 each). Which one is the correct, and what does the other one mean?
Spaceships:
While I see logical to use the mil-space for their movement, could this be delayed to the 2055 turn? I’d see quite odd to have the ships slower in next turn (maybe even not being able to accomplish the planned trips) without anything we can do this turn to fix it.