I have a situation where the PCs were ambushed by pirates at a deep space fueling station, with no stellar bodies in the parsec. Two of their escort craft were reduced to zero hull using the Fleet Combat rules in Highguard for Mongoose 2e, and two pirate ships were likewise disabled with hits that took them both to zero hull. Given the Fleet Combat rules are very abbreviated, heavy damage from particle barbettes took down the ships quickly and I didn't apply each of the critical hits for sustained damage--I approximated with critical hits on a turret and life support systems for each of the PC's escort ships (400t Gazelles). The Core Rulebook talks about temporarily repairing critical hits and hull damage on p. 161. So far, so good. The hull damage gets particularly short shrift in my opinion:
Hull Damage: Each lost Hull point can be replaced with a Routine (6+) Mechanic check (1 hour, INT or EDU), consuming one ton of spare parts for every 10 Hull points repaired.
But what is the goal here for a field fix? Say the critical hits are repaired in x hours; vacc suits will still have air supply as they are typically good for 6 hours. Are the engineers trying to bring ships back to one hull point? How many hull points are needed to be maneuver and jump ready, assuming the drives can be brought back online? Similarly, could a ship that somehow restored power systems and drives be at zero hull points, could they maneuver/jump? If the jury rigs of a j-drive fails in a matter of hours, are these guys now doomed to fail mid-jump, with catastrophic consequences? I could see how distress signals in an inhabited, spacefaring TL system will eventually lead to help, but what about in an uninhabited system?--the PCs are (trying to) cross the Great Rift by using the fuel stations.
Right now these ships are basically dead in space and feverishly trying to bring life support and engines back online (and weapons if possible!). I'm surprised I can't seem to find more on how one recovers from starship combat and moves on. In the grognard old times, CT starship combat rules felt so complicated for my group that we seldom got into this very entertaining part of the game.
(There is also some fun boarding action underway, initiated before all these ships were disabled--longer story, but we know how to play that!)
If repairs cannot be enacted, all these crews will eventually run out of air with the power out.
Hull Damage: Each lost Hull point can be replaced with a Routine (6+) Mechanic check (1 hour, INT or EDU), consuming one ton of spare parts for every 10 Hull points repaired.
But what is the goal here for a field fix? Say the critical hits are repaired in x hours; vacc suits will still have air supply as they are typically good for 6 hours. Are the engineers trying to bring ships back to one hull point? How many hull points are needed to be maneuver and jump ready, assuming the drives can be brought back online? Similarly, could a ship that somehow restored power systems and drives be at zero hull points, could they maneuver/jump? If the jury rigs of a j-drive fails in a matter of hours, are these guys now doomed to fail mid-jump, with catastrophic consequences? I could see how distress signals in an inhabited, spacefaring TL system will eventually lead to help, but what about in an uninhabited system?--the PCs are (trying to) cross the Great Rift by using the fuel stations.
Right now these ships are basically dead in space and feverishly trying to bring life support and engines back online (and weapons if possible!). I'm surprised I can't seem to find more on how one recovers from starship combat and moves on. In the grognard old times, CT starship combat rules felt so complicated for my group that we seldom got into this very entertaining part of the game.
(There is also some fun boarding action underway, initiated before all these ships were disabled--longer story, but we know how to play that!)
If repairs cannot be enacted, all these crews will eventually run out of air with the power out.