Things that go BOOM in the night!

[Maximus Plasma]

OK here are my thoughts on minefields.
1. The cost should not exceed that of a frigate scout ship.
2. It would require a ship in the hex to lay a minefield.
3. It would take 3 full impulses to lay. {IE} 1 turn.
4. The damage from a minefield would be determined ,By a combination , of ship size, and random roll generator.
5. Possibility of damage. to be determined by combination of . {A} if the minefield. was entered blindly. Or {B} if it was attempting to be swept. Or{C} crossed even though it was known to be there before entering.They would have some sort of shield reinforcement in case they set a mine off.

OK now for some explaining . condition {A} blindly entering a minefield.
a fleet or ship moves into the hex containing a minefield without knowledge of it.
How you ask ,would you know if one was there? Well my thinking is a legendary science officer would detect a minefield at the 1 hex range.
Also a scout would detect at range 1. A scout with a legendary science officer would detect it a range 2!
A encounter warning is issued, just like running into a enemy fleet.
That brings us to both {B} and {C}.
For {B} a minefield may be swept/ cleared {IE} a pathway through it.
This could be accomplished by employing a legendary science officer to plot the field. That would take 1 full impulse.
Example the minefield is discovered on impulse 3 of turn 1. on impulse 1 of turn 2 the legendary officer plots the field. the fleet / ship then could cross the field on impulse 2 of turn 2. There would still be the possibility of damage but it would be at a greatly reduced odds on the random roll generator.
A possible. option to this rule would be if the legendary officer spent an entire turn plotting the field . It would then be considered Swept. Or safe to cross through.
This same option could be applied if the fleet had a scout.
If there is a science officer, on a scout ship the sweeping is 100% guaranteed.
With just 1 impulse of plotting. And since a legendary and scout combo . Detect at range 2 they could plot it on the impulse before they reach the field. It would not require stopping to plot, the ship could continue moving toward the field . So that makes for a sure way to avoid damage from fields.
Whew! now for {C} Crossing a field without sweeping but with knowledge of it. There would be a reduced chance of damage. and if there was damage the fleet would get to pick the ship which takes it. that is to say the lead ship or the guy out there with the stick and a prayer!

OK now i am not going to set the odds here and now or the amount of damage. lets have the group determine our actual odds and damage percents.
Or if this idea is even a worth trying. But the above was in my mind a attempt at adding a bit more realism to our game.

[Head Fur Shalafi]

sounds like a good start... one thing tho... rules for a legendary science officer anyone?... it's not SFB

[Maximus Plasma]

Well i figured a science officer fit the situation best, as he would be the most probable to detect any problems. with the sensors. Any other legendary oficers like capitans and wepons etc. really don't fit the need so to say. Now i can make up some odds for the detection/damage etc. but i wanted some feedback on the general idea first.

[DeathFrog]

Suggestion here on Legendary >>>>>>><<<<<<

Make it a Legendary Crew instead of just a Legendary Captain. Afterall, did not the whole crew be involved in what made things legendary? When a ship has been involved in 3 winning battles, the whole crew flew it, thus my reasoning.
This would encompase the Science officer, Engineer, Captain, Navigation, etc, for covering any additions to rules, such as proposed here.
BTW, I so far am happy with your thoughts on the minefield. I will probably need to read it a few more times but it looks solid.

[DeathFrog]

One addition to the rule would be to allow the fleet(race, whatever they are called at that time) that layed the minefield free passage through it, but at a 1 impulse hold in the hex. If they dont want to hold that impulse to traverse it properly, they could "Or{C} crossed even though it was known to be there before entering.They would have some sort of shield reinforcement in case they set a mine off."

[DeathFrog]

One other issue. Can a team "SELL" the information about the minefield to another team, so that other team can cross it easier?
My vote would be no selling of intel at all on this issue. Main reasons are:
1-no need to add rules about the sale
2-minefields are placed secretly, and should be kept that way
3-no hard feelings
and probably a few more.

may not affect the next campaign as it will be 2 sided only, but something we should tackle before it gets to be a problem

Now , one could argue all intel can be sold, for the right price. I like the idea of this too, which made my vote for not selling really hard to do. thoughts?

[Maximus Plasma]

one aspect i did not cover in {A} crossing it blind. Is that all the ships in the fleet crossing would be at danger. Much the same as a naval fleet was in ww2 or ww1.
As for D Flys suggestion of Freindly ships crossing the Feild i thought they would get free passage . as they most likely have the transponder codes to help cross mine fields. But so far the feed back is great keep it coming team! ;D

[Evil Spock]

My thoughts on this are that for a first time rules intro they are way to complicated.

KISS

1) Pay money lay a field

2) Ships not in your nation without an escorting ship, roll for chance of damage.

End of it, one table with modifiers, as many as you like.
There will have to be a second table as a ff will take much more overall damage than a DN.

There is nothing wrong with having modifiers to the roll, that is still simple. Adding new legendary officers rules ? Use legendary crew. Scouts, sure they modify the roll.

All of these other paragraphs of stuff is way too much.

No ref will enjoy dealing with all that extra stuff. Until you run a game you may not understand that.

Just my 2 cents.

Barry you effort and input into this new rule are greatly appreciated. If all players did this (or fixed broken ones like Dfly does), we would have one hell of a set of rules!

Keep up the good work

[DeathFrog]

the legendary crew ruling need only change about 4 words in the existing rules as we know them. It would simply replace legendary captain with legendary crew. All things that require someone legendary would then fit into that grouping. There would only be 1 legendary crew per team to start any campaign, and all others would have to earn it as per current rules.

[Evil Spock]

Yes that is a good ideal!

[Maximus Plasma]

OK , no problem with the legendary crew that works for me. As for "kiss"
Yes i agree. but what i was doing here. Is laying out the premise of minefields. Not the actual rules.
We can iron out the details of odds and such. After we discuss, the nature of of how, we wish to employ mines . Into our current rules.
More feed back Please! come on guys !

[DeathFrog]

I think there should be an addition of a part ruling stating that only 1 minefield/turn may be paid for and deployed.
Another thing that would make it more realistic is that once the minefield is paid for, it must remain at the base that built it until a ship comes along and loads it, to carry it to it's final destination. It would be loaded at no cost to impulses, but must be logged in the turns pages as to which ship has one aboard. Only 1 minefield/ship ruling as well. That ship could transfer it to another ship provided both are in the same hex, and it is PLOTTED. This would not take an impulse, just need be plotted. Reason for not taking an impulse is transporter facilities on both ships.

[Evil Spock]

And the reason for this rule (refering to tracking a mine field deployment, not the 1 a turn part) would be?

It adds a lot of tracking for the ref and paperwork for the players. The benifit is?

If it is to make it more challenging or hard for a player I understand that ideal, but a better way is to just make it more exspensive.

In my view non combat ships are doing this work, minelayers that we do not keep track of. Much like other auxilary ships, frieghters, transports etc.

What benifit Dfly do you see for the game in this ideal you have?

Once again I recommend keeping it very simple and if in later campaigns we wish to expand on the ideal that is fine.

For example the blockade rules started out much simpler, without any effort they rapidly got more complicated overnight. This will happen all on its own with minefields in no time at all.

The ideal you have of 1/turn is very simple and easily acceptable. The other harbingers more work for the ref and players.

[DeathFrog]

OK then. As it stands, if you take out what I wanted to add in, I can pay for a minefield for say turn 4, and drop it anywhere one of my ships may be at that time. So it magically appears on a ship some 12 Billion Kilometers away. Sounds very realistic doesn't it? Of course a minelayer or freighter could have just gotten over to that hex in the blink of an eye and given it to the ship that just spent 4 full turns to get there. OK I can follow that.

That is the main reason for my suggestion of an addition to the rules.

As it is we track what ship has what drones and fighters. How hard would it be to add a Minefield in spacedock(referring to the turn sheet, not the game itself)?

[Evil Spock]

That is a good point, deployment, I guess it makes sense.

Also lets say I mine my base, the enemy comes in makes his rolls against the minefield, fights destroys the base occupies the planet. what happens then?