Dogfighting
Dogfighting
Here is a list of house rules that make the Alternity space vehicle combat system account for the dogfighting inherent in the Wing Commander Universe.
At the beginning of the ROUND, a pilot may do any and/or all of
the following without cost:
Gun links linkages;
Selected gun;
Selected missile;
Power distribution.
These actions are free at the beginning of the round following the assumption
that during the preceeding round the pilot has been adjusting controls to
achieve this but has also been flying at significant speeds and dogfighting.
To perform these DURING a round requires the pilot to expend a personal
action in the phase in which he wishes to do this. Expending 1 personal action
does allow the pilot to change any and all the above things during that
phase.
Initiative works as follows. Action checks are rolled to determine what phase personal actions may be used in. Furthermore, a ship's DRV modifier is applied to the pilot's Action check score as a step modifier. Actions check scores are noted, and in each phase the player with the best check may choose to move first or last, he has 3 sec to decide. Players must then move their ships, starting with player with Advantage (if he so chooses), then player with worst initiative up thru to best initiative. Each player has 3 seconds to move his ship. If he does not make a choice, his ship flies along its current facing at its current velocity. Once all ships have been moved in a phase, any ship with a target and an action to fire may do so. And as per Alternity rules, all attacks in a phase are applied simultaneously. Automated turrets attached to a ship may fire out of turn at anything which enters their field of fire. Furthermore, after initiative is rolled, but before any movement begins, pilot's may attempt to 'Jockey for Advantage' - ie, attempting to better a dismal initiative roll. By expending one of their personal actions available for the round, their quality of initiative improve by one step without penalty. If the pilot has no actions to spend but wishes to push the envelope, for every step increase in initiative, the pilot accrues a +1 step penalty to ALL rolls for the round, and must roll all piloting skill checks, even free ship maneuvers and routines.
Play occurs on a field with 5 levels of altitude. Guns may only be shot at targets 1 altitude level above or 1 altitude level below the attacker. Missiles may lock regardless of altitude, but must expend maneuvers to close the altitude distance. To change altitude 1 level requires the use of a Routine maneuver. To change altitude 2 levels requires the use of a Moderate maneuver. Using the Extreme maneuver Loop and Turn allows a ship to finish the maneuver on ANY altitude level desired.
If a character wishes to uses multiple personal actions in a single PHASE (and has them to spend, ie he has three actions but is going in Ordinary phase) he may spend his extras in Marginal, with a small penalty, the first is made at no penalty, and each additional action accrues a +2 step penalty. If a character wishes to attempt two separate actions while using a single personal action, the first action roll has a +2 step penalty, and the second a +4 step penalty, though only a single control die is used as the base score.
Whenever a ship starts a PHASE with 0 movement, it may make a free facing change. A ship currently engaging its Slide System may also make a free facing change per PHASE.
All ships may launch 1 Missile Decoy per round, FREE. In addition, if the ship has a DRV bonus (that means a negative number), divide that number by 2 and round down to get additional missile decoys that can be launched free per round. Then add the pilot's DEX resistance modifier as additional decoys that can be launched per round. Thus, a Pirahna (DRV -3) flown by a pilot with DEX of 11, gets 3 (1+(3/2=1)+1=3) free missile decoy launches per round. Additional actions spent to launch decoys grants the positive resistance modifier of the pilot as additional decoys FOR THAT ROUND ONLY (launchable any time after the action was used) with a minimum of 1 for pilots with no or negative res mods.
Afterburners obey maximum Acceleration limits for deceleration only, pushing the ship to Afterburn maximum in a given phase - afterburners are not settable at an intermediate speed. Afterburners must also be declared at the beginning of a PHASE. Engaging afterburners is considered a Routine maneuver, and one Routine maneuver may be made at the beginning of an afterburner phase as normal. Any maneuver attempted once afterburners are engaged is automatically considered Extreme.
Missiles enter play on the hex directly in front of the launching ship. An attempt to Missile Lock may be declared AT ANY TIME, regardless of whose turn it is, and DOES NOT require an action.
When firing linked guns, the worst accuracy and shortest range are used, but only one Attack roll is made. The DRV bonus or penalty of a ship is applied to Gun attack rolls. When firing a missile, use only the Missile's own DRV bonus or penalty - inital launch uses the pilot's skill score, later manuevers use the missile's inherent score. Missiles always use the most efficient maneuver to close with a target. During any phase when a enemy ship is within the player's fire arc, a Missile Lock may be attempted - if the target can be kept in the fire arc for the required Lock Time and still be in the fire arc at the beginning of the next PHASE, a full lock can be acheived and the missile launched.
When flying a ship, FREE maneuvers per round do NOT require a check of any sort. Routine maneuvers normally do not require a check in spacecraft, and Moderate and Extreme maneuvers remain as noted (+1 and +3 penalty respectively).
Components in a compartment are numbered, so that when a compartment takes mortal damage and fails a durability check, random components will be rolled to fail, until the total space used by components equals current mortal damage to compartment. If a component rolled is already offline, the next highest system fails. Furthermore, internal systems which take up no space are considered to equal 1 durability for tallying lost systems. If a given missile load is exhausted, the ship's computer automatically selects the next missile loadout LOWER on the list until it finds a load that still has missiles available.
By making a facing change, or using a manuever which changes facing of a ship, a ship may now 'face' a hex point. If a ship wishes to travel a straight line along hex points, it costs 2 points of movement to move to the next hex in the line.
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