StarForge

StarForge is the StarGods unit creation system. It takes longer to create your list of units, as you need to do a few simple math equations for each one, but it makes for a quicker play experience once you're finished and ready to go. It lists stats for units in more Roleplaying Game 'attribute' format, which is fast to read and simple to work with. It is also designed to be referenced using the Wiki, relieving clutter on the board and making combat easier to run.

The mechanics of StarForge removes 'base value', or 'basic cost'. Hitpoints are replaced by a hull size attribute that also governs how many specials you can equip the unit with, it's Hyperspeed and Stealth ratings, and a few other things. Basic attack is now a purchased value, along with improved attack. Active defenses are now considered a standard component due to their omnipresent general utility, but the number of defenses you add to your vessel is up to you. The special attributes operate the same way as before, except the maximum number of special attribute points you can purchase is limited by the hull size. A larger unit can equip more.

Before diving into this, make sure you've read over the summary in the StarGods entry, just to make things clear. It would also be helpful to figure out what kind of units you're going to want to be making. A spaceforce of light and agile starfighters? A lumbering army of Mud Golems? It's all straightforwards once started, but having an idea where you're going helps keep stuff organized.

Creating a Unit

The Bare Bones

The StarForge system has a few specialized terms to help keep the various numbers of importance seperate, and provide players with an unambigious environment in which to develop their units. Before you're able to make use of the system and understand what's going on, you are going to need to understand a lexicon of terms and get a grip on some of the core mechanics of the game.

The easiest way to start making units is with a template. Templates do more than guide your choices though, they also provide a basis for displaying your information in a reasonable, understandable format. Below is an entire unit sheet template in Wiki format, ready to be copied and pasted into your personal TalkPage OOB. Entries in Blue are completely mandatory, and no unit may be cleared for play without values given to all of those catagories. Entries in white are strongly suggested, but optional.

The Orange entries are skillsets and mission profiles that you don't need to do anything with at all, and are considered more advanced ship design elements. If you're just starting out, leave those alone for now, or erase that entire section completely. A unit without any special points at all needn't even include those rows of the table, and your editable copy of the table will have that section seperated by several empty spaces, to show you what you can remove.

Unit Name and Designation

Unit Special Abilities

- UNIT SIZE: The Unit Size	O-Rating Total Offense Value	D-Rating Total Defense Value	M-Rating Total Movement Value	E-Rating Total Evasion Value
- UNIT COST: Total Cost
* ATTRIBUTE VALUES
- UNIT FLUFF SECTION	This is an optional section designed for physical descriptions of the unit, roleplayed information of interest, service histories, or personal observations. Give your units a bit of character and help them stand out from the crowd!
* SKILL VALUES	+Offense	+Siege	+Interdict	+Intel
- SIZE USED: Total +Value

As you can see, things aren't really all that complex. Below your unit designations are some pictures denoting what, if any, your Special Abilities are. Along the left side are entries for referencing the unit's cost and size, which otherwise doubles as hitpoints. The center columns have pictures to make it even more clear what they are. You have attack and defense stats, along with a movement speed and an evasion stat. These are all considered your Basic Attributes, and are the core statistics of your unit. These stats do most of the heavy lifting. The numbers next to the pictures will be the Ratings you compute, while the numbers under them will be the total Value of the stat, for your reference, and so people can check your math.

You might not know what the difference between a Rating or a Value is yet, or how a spaceship can have a Skill or how a Goblin can have an Interdiction or Siege ability. A rundown on the basic terms and rules of the system are below in the Bare Bones section, and a big long list of special abilities is further down the list.

Math and Mechanics

Let's cover all the math you're going to need to complete your unit sheet. Once you're done with this, you've basically solved most of the complex math of a StarGods game. Think of it as front-loaded effort. Hard now, easy later.

• Cost: Total Unit Cost is the Values of a unit added to a size cost number.

Terms and Meanings

Size: The size of a unit is a general term referring to unit volume, the length or mass of a starship, or the height and bulk of a minotaur. Dense targets like Borg Cubes and Dwarfs should use larger size ratings than their actual dimensions would suggest, as Size also doubles as Hitpoints, carrying capacity for skillset equipment, and is a primary modifier for the Basic Attribute Ratings. Sizes generally range between 1 and 100. However, 50 is generally the maximum unit size, with sizes of 50+ being extremely large and unusual combatants.

Cost: The cost of the unit is the price you pay in Production to field a single unit of this type. Games that also include an upkeep system will make unit cost the primary reference for a unit's upkeep costs, typically ranging between 20 and 40 percent of the actual unit's worth. Price is computed based on the total value of all Attributes, Skills, and additional Abilities. Computing unit price is listed in Mechanics.

Value: The value of an attribute or skill is the amount of production points you've spent improving it. The value of a unit is the total amount of all these investments. Even though the combat effect of basic attributes are based on their Ratings, the cost of building or developing the unit is based on the total Value investment you've made, not the effectiveness. Skills, which are not adjusted to ratings, are only listed as values, and thus provide a benefit equal to their cost.

Rating: The rating of an attribute means the adjusted value of it, the number you use in combat to determine effectiveness. Ratings are generally based on size, with larger units getting their attack and defense ratings adjusted upwards and their movement and evasion ratings adjusted down. Small units work the opposite way, making it difficult to make a battleship-destroying fighterjet but also difficult to craft a nimble dreadnaught. It is possible though, for enough cost. Skills are not rated, but Basic Attributes are. The math for determining how to rate your vessels is in Mechanics.

Skill: The types of attributes covered by Skills are add-ons, things which are not dependant on the size of the unit in any way to operate at full effectiveness. The term skill is somewhat of a misnomer though, as in an STGOD these will generally be considered specialzed equipment, but highly trained crews would apply as well. They are listed in Value format, and provide a flat bonus for a flat investment.

Attribute: The Basic Attributes of a unit are the mundane, fundamental abilities it has--how hard it hits, how fast it flies, what kind of armor it wears, that sort of thing. These are average combat statistics of all critters and creations. Attributes can have as many points invested into them as the player desires, and before the unit is finalized you adjust their Value to a Rating, which is the number you use in combat.

Ability: There are a few things that an army needs done that a normal stat or skill wouldn't accurately cover with any sense, and these get rolled into a catagory of abilities. As these are potentially of of great military use, they will indeed raise the cost of a unit, but they do not take up space Size in the process. They have a flat cost as well, and often accompany special rules.

Abilities, Attributes and Skills

Special Abilities

Special Abilities refers to the special physical characteristics of the unit that distinguish it from others, be it a Barbarian Axeman or a Guided Missile Destroyer. Generally they refer to specific missions the unit is capable of accomplishing, and you are going to be nearly required to include at least one unit with each of these Abilities. A unit with Subterfuge, for example, is the only one ready and able to provide deep recon of the enemy, and you can't do without a unit capable of Command!

Several of these require large size, but consume no actual unit equipment capacity, so you are encouraged to create armed combat support units rather than disposable 'ability box' units. Abilities can also be stacked, but be aware that extremely expensive multiple-ability units are likely to become high profile targets.

For a list of Abilities, see the StarForge sub-page.

Command

The the brains of the operation, this Command unit has all the specialized doodads to prove it. Command units are also considered flag-carriers of your army or navy, and automatically gain bonuses to their attributes to make them more than damage magnets. You need these to handle the organizational needs of multimillion warship fleets or maintain good situational awareness across an entire army of dragon knights. These aren't necessary to a combat chain of command, but there are certain negative effects to fighting without them, or losing them mid-step.

Transport

Capable of hauling massive amounts of extra weight, this unit also operates as a Transport. The cargo carried by a transport can range from trade goods to well armed invasion forces, and on more than one occasion one has been mislabeled as the other, much to the amusement of all. Military transports are not required to participate in combat (they can choose to stop and wait while combatants go ahead), but armed ones make effective blockade runners and have a lot of useful roleplay purposes.

Subterfuge

Often laughed at by the other units until someone wakes up with a dagger in their back, Subterfuge employed by this unit makes it the first one to strike in any situation. So long as the unit does nothing besides wait and actively employ subterfuge, it cannot be targetted for attack. You are able to stop and become visible at any time you choose, but you may not then go back to hiding. Once you are visible, you are required to stay that way for the duration of combat. You may not even travel between territories or attempt to flee while employing subterfuge.

The beneficial effect is that units with subterfuge always enter combat with an Ambush, even when they delay their first attack for several turns. They also may not be Ambushed for any reason, except by another unit with active subterfuge. If it comes down to a pair of hidden units fighting each other, the first one to "break cover" (and cease being a hidden unit) can be ambushed by the other. Logically, damage dealt to a fleet is never dealt to ships actively using Subterfuge to hide, but they may not avoid damage once they've left hiding.

Basic Unit Attributes

Basic Attributes equate the ship's fundamental abilities, and are notable because they are listed as ratings instead of absolute values, and are unrestricted by hull size (see above). This means you can invest as many points into these attributes as you wish, and that their final value is determined by a modifier--usually hull size. Using ratings for these attributes allows for different sizes of ships to have their own natural advantages and disadvantages, and makes ship design more fair and more sensible. The only limiting factor to making a frigate with the firepower of a battleship is cost, which is based on the point investment and not the final rating. For this reason, trying to create frigates with battleship firepower can be far more expensive than creating an actual battleship.

Firepower

Your firepower rating is amount of basic Damage this ship adds to the fleet. Firepower ratings favor larger vessels. Your entire fleet's firepower rating is added up into a single Firepower Pool when determining the amount of damage inflicted on an enemy.

Defense

Your defense rating is the amount of basic Damage this ship shields the fleet from. Defense ratings favor large vessels. Your entire fleet's Defense rating is added up into a single Defense Modifier, which is subtracted from an enemy Firepower Pool when determining how much damage you must assign to your fleet.

• Determining the Value: +N points of D soaks N x .25 points of damage per turn, allowing you to ignore it entirely. In some situations this may stop an enemy from being able to damage you with conventional attacks whatsoever. +D also reduces enemy C3 effectiveness, forcing an enemy to have a greater fleetwide +C3 rating than your +D rating before they can gain specific details about your fleet. Points of +Dmay be destroyed instead of hitpoints, no other special attribute may take the place of hitpoints.
• Attribtue Interactions: D reduces damage you take from conventional attack, and is tallied fleetwide, not individually. This may lead to odd situations, such as a 50 point ship massacring a 40+10D with several turns to spare, but the real advantage of +D is in screening friendly vessels. Furthermore the ability to selectively reduce your own levels of +D in leiu of hitpoints makes them a far superior defensive option.

Evasion

Your evasion rating is the combined benefits of maneuverability, firing profile and sensor camouflage the ship has. Evasion ratings favor small vessels. Evasion is an individual attribute, and does not affect others. Evasion ratings do not mask the presence of ships or disguise Hyperspace travel, but do make individual vessels more difficult to track and achieve a firing solution for.

• Determining the Value: The value of Stealth decreases based on the overall size of the vessel. Stealth systems are not counted when determining the overall size of the vessel. In plain terms, your Stealth Rating is equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall non-stealth vessel size, and then added to the automatic +1 Stealth Rating all ships have. A 40+10S vessel would have, therefore, a stealth rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). To compute a vessel's Stealth Rating, use the following calculation:

+S divided by (One Tenth Total Ship Cost besides Stealth) +1 Basic Stealth = Stealth Rating

• Attribtue Interactions: Because all ships have a +1 Stealth Rating, a fleet with no C3 equipped vessels would be unable to locate an enemy force from long range if they chose to 'run silent.' If an enemy has a vessel with C3 rating equal or greater to your Stealth Rating, you may be located and targetted as normal. All planets are considered to have a C3 rating of +1. Stealthed ships are only Stealthed when inert, though they may enter and exit Hyperspace while stealthed. Interdiction equipment may also be operated while stealthed, but short range scanners would detect the origin of the field and allow the ship to be targetted.

Hyperspeed

Hyperspeed is the faster-than-light movement speed of the ship. Hyperspeed ratings favor small vessels. Hyperspeed is an individual attribute, and does not affect others. Hyperspeed ratings do not benefit speed in realspace.

Hyperdrives determine your speed in Hyperspace, and also the ease at which you can be yanked into realspace and attacked by someone with Interdiction equipment. Like Stealth, Hyperspeed Ratings scale to favor smaller vessels, and use the same calculation for determining the rating. The rating is also used as a speed modifier for strategic map movement, generally interperted as a multiplier. A 40+10H ship would move 350% of normal movement speed, while a ship with no additional hyperdrives moves 100% of normal movement speed as determined by their natural +1 Hyperspeed Rating. It is possible to operate Interdiction fields and Hyperdrives at the same time, though reduce your Hyperspeed Rating by a value equal to +I when determining your movement speed.

• Determining the Value: The value of Hyperdrives decreases based on the overall size of the vessel, like with Stealth. Hyperdrive systems are not counted when determining the overall size of the vessel. In plain terms, your Hyperspeed Rating is equal to +N divided by one tenth the cost of the overall non-hyperdrive vessel size, and then added to the automatic +1 Hyperspeed all ships have. A 40+10H vessel would have, therefore, a hyperspeed rating of +3.5, or ((10/4)+1). To compute a vessel's Hyperspeed Rating, use the following calculation:

+H divided by (One Tenth Total Ship Cost besides Hyperdrives) +1 Basic Hyperspeed = Hyperspeed Rating

• Attribtue Interactions: Hyperspeed Rating directly relates to your Strategic movement speed. If an enemy has a vessel with I rating equal or greater to your Hyperspeed Rating, you may be interdicted and forced into a tactical battle, starting with weapons offline and within firing range. All planets are considered to have an I rating of +1. The higher your Hyperspeed Rating, the fewer losses you are expected to take when fleeing a combat zone.

Skills and Specializations

Unlike Basic Attributes, points spent in Special Attributes are given absolute values instead of ratings, meaning that the effect you gain from them is equal to the amount you've spent on them. These are often considered to be flat bonuses to the ship. The maximum amount invested into ship Special Attributes is limited by the vessel's hull size. Special Attributes usually reflect specialized equipment that function without regard to the size of the vessel.

Electronics

Points of Electronics are advanced sensors, communications and electronics warfare packages.

• Determining the Value: +N points of C3 can reveal an equal or lesser Stealth Rating on short and long range sensors. Furthermore, asking for detailed information about an enemy fleet (numbers, makeup, presence of specific classes or notable ships) often requires you to have at positive adjusted C3 value.
• Attribtue Interactions: C3 has decreased function against fleets with Active Defenses running. You cannot scan a fleet or detect stealthed ships if your C3 rating does not exceed the other fleet's Active Defenses. Stealthed ships may not run Active Defenses themselves, but can travel along with those that do. All planets are considered to have a C3 rating of +1.

Improved Offensives

Points of Improved Offensives are powerful, accurate, or exotic technologies optimized for ship to ship combat.

Improved Offensives allow a vessel to target specific enemy ships and penetrade defenses, unlike basic attack, which is assigned by the defender Each point of +O counts for less than actual attack points, doing 10% of their total value rather than 25%, so a +10 deals a single 1 point of damage to the enemy. However, these values are tallied fleetwide and then assigned by attacker's choice. Furthermore, damage done by Improved Offensives is never soaked by Active Defenses and never strikes anything but the intended target. Damage done from Improved Offensives is dealt directly to Hitpoints. Avoid making too literal demands with +O values, as such specificity should not be a reason to abandon roleplayed damage. Improved Offensives do not benefit ground invasion. Despite what the numbers would say, these are not merely sniping weak weapons, it's just that making them do greater levels of damage than normal would make them too potent. Improved Offensives are the difference between railcannons that fire nuclear shells and marine striketeams that infiltrate enemy ships and plant nuclear payloads in the enemy reactor cores. Same damage, better placement.

• Determining the Value: +N points of O deal .1 damage per point, and assigned by attackers to targets of their choosing. Damage from +O is never soaked by the enemy Active Defenses and cannot be misdirected by the defender. This is not an excuse to abandon Roleplay, and this damage should be bartered for and bargained with as normal, just with the understanding it allows for specific targets to be chosen. It also acts as a disincentive to abuse +D.
• Attribtue Interactions: O interacts nearly not at all with the enemy, and nothing adds or reduces the effectiveness of Improved Offensives.

Siege Weaponry

Points of Siege Weaponry cover a generalized catagory of superior ground attack technology suitable for breaching largescale defenses.

• Abbreviation: B
• Determining the Value: +N points of B count for 5 points of Fleet Weight for the purposes of sieging a world, invading surfaces and harassing planetary defenses. It has no other function and cannot be used in combat.
• Attribtue Interactions: B is only used when attacking the ground, but has a wide range of applications there. Depending on which of the optional ground rules are in play, this may be an extremely strong or an extremely limited attribute, but remember that the best defense against a strong ground invasion force is a strong space defense fleet. Bombardment modifiers cannot hurt a protected world.

Interdiction

Points of Interdiction are Hyperspace dampening technologies designed to slow an active superluminal drive enough to eject the ship into realspace.

Interdiction equipment acts like flypaper to slow down Hyperspace vessels, trapping enemies that have equal or lesser Hyperspeed Ratings than your best +I. Interdiction fields do not stack. A vessel slowed down completely is shunted back into realspace and cannot easily escape again, taking either heavy losses or taking many turns to escape. The field does not extend far on a tactical map or strategic map, and vessels that slip into an Interdiction field always appear with weapons offline and within targetting range, allowing an enemy the first strike. Destroying the Interdicting vessel will cause the field to terminate instantly.

• Abbreviation: I
• Determining the Value: +N points of I can halt an equal or lesser Hyperspeed Rating on the strategic or tactical map. Ships capable of flying through the field may enter combat along with the trapped ships, but arrive just as powered down as their slower allies. Attempting to escape an Interdiction field causes you to take extra damage that turn, rather than the 50% you normally would take for escaping, or may require you to spend several additional turns activating Hyperdrives. Work it out with your opponent.
• Attribtue Interactions: I technically reduces all enemy Hyperspeed Ratings by a value equal to +N Interdiction. Ships are literally slowed back to sublight speed by Interdiction gear. It is possible to enter Hyperspace while running Interdiction equipment as well, but you reduce the Hyperspeed Rating of your own fleet by the same amount as an enemy. Friendly ships reduced to +0 Hyperspeed Rating cannot enter Hyperspace at all.

Junkyard

This ship is equipped with a Subspace Traversal Caterpillar Drive, otherwise known as a Cloaking Device. These experimental Hyperdrives were utter failures at moving things, but the unique energy-vanishing properties of Subspace made it useful when you wanted to hide something, such as a Starship.

Cloaked vessels may not take any action other than Roleplayed slower-than-light movement. Vessels cannot travel in Hyperspace while cloaked, but can cloak instantly upon leaving Hyperspace. Cloaking Devices can be deactivated instantly at any time, but attempting to activate a cloak during combat takes several turns during which you can take no other action. The exact number of turns is not important, as anyone attempting to enter Subspace in combat can easily be destroyed by even a single fighter-launched Subspace Charge, and this is very nearly certain to happen.

Numbers	Alphabet	Dates	Currency	Unsortable
1	Z	02-02-2004	5.00	This
2	y	13-apr-2005		Column
3	X	17.aug.2006	6.50	Is
4	w	01.Jan.2005	4.20	Unsortable
5	V	05/12/2006	7.15	See?
Total: 15			Total: 29.55

Offense and Defense: These are two paired attributes concerning damage dealt and damage absorbed. Defense directly reduces the damage your fleet takes from enemy Offense ratings by it's own full value. These are added up into Pools as according to the StarGods rules, so it's more important to have a fleet with a high number of combined Offense and Defense Ratings than it is to have each unit with a high Rating. The actual losses an army or fleet takes in combat is left up to the players, but these provide a good basis for bargaining. Combat rules are contained in StarGods itself.

Movement: The movement speed of a unit has nothing to do with it's agility or it's peak running speed, this is purely a strategic travel speed. Your movement rating shows how many grid squares you can move the unit per movement phase, which is a somewhat arbitrary measure of time. In FTGOD games, movement may often be hindered by unfamiliar or poor terrain.

Evasion: The evasion rating of a unit gives a rough estimate of the amount of enemy fire that must be expended to even hit the target at all. When a unit is singled out attack, each turn it is able to ignore it's Evasion Rating in damage. Expend more than that amount though and you're able to land hits. In this way, Evasion acts as a damage threshold that must be surpassed before the volume of attacks overwhelms the unit. This allows small units to become potentially aggrivating opponents without crossing into Defense's territory as a damage reducer.