The generic Trektards never stop coming

[Batman]

Which averages out to, guess what, 100?

[Surlethe]

Last time I'd heard average IQ was >80-<120

That looks like it'd be one standard devation. IIRC, 94% of people fall within those bounds. The mean is still 100, though.

[fnord]

Last time I'd heard average IQ was >80-<120

That looks like it'd be one standard devation. IIRC, 94% of people fall within those bounds. The mean is still 100, though.

Assuming a gaussian distribution, ~68% of the population is within 1 sigma of the mean. 2 sigma either side would capture ~ 95%.

The standard deviation of population doesn't appear to be constant across different IQ tests - IIRC, Stanford Binet 4th ed has a sigma of 16, while the Wechsler tests use 15, and the Cattel test uses 24.

[Surlethe]

Assuming a gaussian distribution, ~68% of the population is within 1 sigma of the mean. 2 sigma either side would capture ~ 95%.

The standard deviation of population doesn't appear to be constant across different IQ tests - IIRC, Stanford Binet 4th ed has a sigma of 16, while the Wechsler tests use 15, and the Cattel test uses 24.

Ah, thanks for the corrections.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

As for...

And, of course, what's to stop them from slapping a PD system on their ships that doesn't result in the torp's explosion increasing.

Starfleet Battles has this - in 'Star Fleet Command: Orion Pirates' it's a rapid fire turreted hypervelocity projectile weapon that looks exactly like a Phalanx installation/gatling gun firing tracers when it shoots down incoming missiles. But then SFB also has drones, missile cruisers, missile spam and many other things that don't seem to have occurred to the canon writers.

Orion Pirates has lots of point defence weapons, the most basic actually setting the phasers to point defence, which works most effectively against missiles (Which can also be held at bay with defensive tractor beams), and less so against fighers and plasma torpedoes (which have the same dissipation-over-range flaw as seen in 'Balance of Terror'.)

The AMD you mention is exactly that, it fires upon missiles, but also is effective against fighters (and seems to fire in a farily wide spread, which seems logical when up against lightly-armoured fighters or unarmoured missiles (neither of which move extremely quick).

There's also the defensive plasma weapon that fires small plasma torps at incoming missiles (I'm not sure if it also works on fighters), and finally the Expanding Sphere Generator, which is exactly what it says and when active completely blocks missiles and can be used to ram enemy ships.

On the flip side, with all the AMD tech about, they brought in MIRVS (which don't separate at very close range).

All this is set in the era of the Undiscovered Country. A pity none of these devices made it into canon, and worse, they were ditched in SFC III in favour of a few of the special weapons from either Armada game (post-TNG/DS9/VOY Era) and not the cooler ones either

[Stark]

The SFB verse is clearly separate from regular ST. The rapid-fire phasers were just a natural response to the oldfashioned missile spam of SFB (hilariously the most powerful ST ships in SFB games are those with missiles, due to the poor AI). SFC 3 ditching it all for simplified nonsense was certianly crap, though.

Is the sphere generator the Lyran thing? I found that really hard to use effectively.

[Starglider]

My house full of students used to play deathmatch SFC and SFCII regularly when I was a student, but that's 5 years back now.

Is the sphere generator the Lyran thing? I found that really hard to use effectively.

Yes. It was extremely effective against missiles and pretty effective for ramming (the trick was to set it on minimum range and leave it there, the longer ranges were mostly worthless), though not so much as a full Romulan plasma torpedo alpha strike. I was actually banned from using the Killerhawk class ships because I owned so many Federation scows with them (one guy never played anything but Fed ships, preferably Connies and Excelsiors). Definitely the second coolest ship in the game, gotta love that Romulan feather patterning:

[EnterpriseSovereign]

My house full of students used to play deathmatch SFC and SFCII regularly when I was a student, but that's 5 years back now.

Is the sphere generator the Lyran thing? I found that really hard to use effectively.

Yes. It was extremely effective against missiles and pretty effective for ramming (the trick was to set it on minimum range and leave it there, the longer ranges were mostly worthless), though not so much as a full Romulan plasma torpedo alpha strike. I was actually banned from using the Killerhawk class ships because I owned so many Federation scows with them (one guy never played anything but Fed ships, preferably Connies and Excelsiors). Definitely the second coolest ship in the game, gotta love that Romulan feather patterning:

I love Orion Pirates, each race gains 10 advanced ships: 3 advanced frigates, 3 advanced destroyers, 1 advanced heavy cruiser and 3 advanced battlecruisers. (the advanced ships not only had the new weapons, but those that belonged to races that use plasma torpedoes had enough power generation not to be crippled by the high energy requirements, so they could actually both move and charge weapons)

(It was with 2 advanced ISC destroyers and one advanced fast cruiser that I took down 3 Romulan Dreadnoughts, never thougt I'd win that one )

I found that the only really effective Connie was the CAD+, as it had 7 missile racks (Though I love the Mirak with all their missiles, even if the AI ships waste a lot of missiles on the light cruisers and end up running out versus the dreadnoughts)

One thing that is really effective is the Wild Weasel shuttle, as when properly timed could ruin a plasma captain's day, and to a lesser extent those with missiles too.

[Starglider]

I love Orion Pirates, each race gains 10 advanced ships: 3 advanced frigates, 3 advanced destroyers, 1 advanced heavy cruiser and 3 advanced battlecruisers.

The extra options and systems in OP were nice, but the x-ships were kinda wanky and pointless. They just had the stats cranked up a few points so that they could fight conventional ships one size step up, and I didn't like the models that much. OTOH the alien alliance (Interstellar Concordium - 'Federation on steroids' type of people) had interesting weapons (butt ugly ships though, not even in an impressively brutal way like the Gorn).

but those that belonged to races that use plasma torpedoes had enough power generation not to be crippled by the high energy requirements, so they could actually both move and charge weapons

But that's the whole point of plasma weapons! Devastating, but you had to be tactically adept to use them or the other players would kill you while you recharge!

(It was with 2 advanced ISC destroyers and one advanced fast cruiser that I took down 3 Romulan Dreadnoughts, never thougt I'd win that one )

Most of the dreadnoughts seemed to be not worth the points for some reason, either a battlecruiser or a battleship was generally a better choice.

I found that the only really effective Connie was the CAD+

The only Federation ship I really liked was the Yamato class battleship.



Nice design (despite being an Excelsior/Miranda kitbash; gotta love those under-and-over torpedo rollbars) and backstory. The Miranda was ok, though mainly because I've been cheering for it since I first saw The Wrath of Khan

(Though I love the Mirak with all their missiles, even if the AI ships waste a lot of missiles on the light cruisers and end up running out versus the dreadnoughts)

Blah. Missile spam gets boring after a while and it's tactically inflexible.

One thing that is really effective is the Wild Weasel shuttle, as when properly timed could ruin a plasma captain's day, and to a lesser extent those with missiles too.

This is what the 'fake plasma' option (and slightly staggered firing on your alpha strikes) is for.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I love Orion Pirates, each race gains 10 advanced ships: 3 advanced frigates, 3 advanced destroyers, 1 advanced heavy cruiser and 3 advanced battlecruisers.


The extra options and systems in OP were nice, but the x-ships were kinda wanky and pointless. They just had the stats cranked up a few points so that they could fight conventional ships one size step up, and I didn't like the models that much. OTOH the alien alliance (Interstellar Concordium - 'Federation on steroids' type of people) had interesting weapons (butt ugly ships though, not even in an impressively brutal way like the Gorn).

I agree their ships are ugly, funny thing is, in SFC:OP, the major races don't fight the ISC (every race, when you play as them is 'on friendly terms' with the ISC). That got annoying, as while I was playing as the Federation and I'd fought through Romulan Space to get to them, only to be told I wouldn't fight them (gutted as I wanted to use my Federation XCBs and the Heavy Photons on them).

Generally, when I get a new ship, I'd get the best in the class, like the Excelsior-class battlecruisers, or the 'heavy dreadnought'

The only unique weapon the ISC has, IIRC is the plasmatic pulsar device, but their X-ships only carry them on their biggest ships. (I'm still getting to grips with that weapon

but those that belonged to races that use plasma torpedoes had enough power generation not to be crippled by the high energy requirements, so they could actually both move and charge weapons


But that's the whole point of plasma weapons! Devastating, but you had to be tactically adept to use them or the other players would kill you while you recharge!

Personally, that's why I didn't like playing as either the Gorn or Romulans because of that, with that weakness overcome I found I could actually do the 'convoy raid' and 'surprise reversed' missions, being speed-dependent, but each to their own.

Quote:
(It was with 2 advanced ISC destroyers and one advanced fast cruiser that I took down 3 Romulan Dreadnoughts, never thougt I'd win that one )


Most of the dreadnoughts seemed to be not worth the points for some reason, either a battlecruiser or a battleship was generally a better choice.

I found that the Advanced battlecruisers can take down dreadnoughts (second only to battleships), I noticed that there's a huge gulf betweeen the DN's and the BBs.

Quote:
I found that the only really effective Connie was the CAD+


The only Federation ship I really liked was the Yamato class battleship.

Yeah, the Federation's battleship is their only battleship, as opposed to say the Klingons which had several battleship variants. I love the missile complement the Yamato has, only one fewer missile rack than the Mirak Battleship, though I felt the 8-2 forward torpedo bias was skewed, I felt 7-3 would be better.

Nice design (despite being an Excelsior/Miranda kitbash; gotta love those under-and-over torpedo rollbars) and backstory. The Miranda was ok, though mainly because I've been cheering for it since I first saw The Wrath of Khan

I never took to the Miranda variants, I often upgraded straight from the frigate I started with (When starting in the advanced era, I actually took down an Orion heavy cruiser with my plasma frigate, took a while to recharge my plasma-Fs all the time) to a CAD+ (Not CAD, and certainly not CAD-R) )

Quote:
(Though I love the Mirak with all their missiles, even if the AI ships waste a lot of missiles on the light cruisers and end up running out versus the dreadnoughts)


Blah. Missile spam gets boring after a while and it's tactically inflexible.

Managing the missile ships was tough, the only way I could overcome that was to directly control the one with the most missiles, and juggling the fire orders for the other ships to make sure I put the most missiles into the dreadnoughts and heavy cruisers first

This is what the 'fake plasma' option (and slightly staggered firing on your alpha strikes) is for.

I usually get in close and fire at the enemy ship head-on to maximise the plasma effectiveness, but I don't stagger my missiles because although it makes them harder to take out with mines and the like, it means the enemy ship's AMDs have an easier time of it.

When I play as the Hydrans, I have trouble using fighters effectively, I never know when it's time to recall the fighters to repair and rearm, it'd be soo much easier if they came in automatically

[OmegaGuy]

Wasn't the Yamato in Klingon Academy?

[Starglider]

Wasn't the Yamato in Klingon Academy?

As well, yes. It still rocked. Two assault phasers FTW.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Wasn't the Yamato in Klingon Academy?

As well, yes. It still rocked. Two assault phasers FTW.

Being both from Interplay at the same time, most of the ships from SFC were also in Klingon Academy, and vice-versa, though their weapon loadouts were different; in SFC Yamato had 10 photons, in KA it had 4 Photons+2 assault phasers. (By contrast, the Klingon battleship had 4 heavy photons and 1 assault phaser, and the Romulan version had 4 plasma torpedoes and no assault phasers). Interestingly, in KA the Feds had a second battleship which had 6 photons and a QCB weapon (a type of tractor beam that causes damage).

A pity that a couple of the weapons that appeared in KA (like the assault phaser and the antimatter projector that the Klingon dreadnought had) did not make it into the other games.

[General Trelane (Retired)]

The SFB verse is clearly separate from regular ST.

Yes, quite. Steven Cole and his Amarillo Design Bureau (sheesh, what pretentiousness!) spent years fighting a Paramount copyright-infringement lawsuit over the original SFB board game. He eventually lost, but very clearly all these wanky weapons were at best considered fan fiction. Even with the fallout deal resulting in Paramount licensing, this has never been and should never be considered remotely canon.

The best summary of SFB (board game version) is that the winner would invariably be the one that could fire the biggest salvo of rules. While I enjoyed it for a couple of years, I ditched it in disgust at Cole's idiocy and never-ending errata. . .oops, I mean, 'addenda'. And don't get me started on the Nexus periodical!