Steve Osmanski's notes for "A Sky Full of Ships"
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Ah, Google has cached them. Here they are in summary:
Technological Level. ASFoS TL = [Traveller TL]/2 - 3.
Jump Fuel. "Fuel" boxes are evenly distributed, dedicated hull boxes.
Battle Riders. Battle riders get a 20% cost benefit from not having a jump drive.
Battle Tenders are designed by allowing as many "unused" hull boxes as needed to hold all the battle riders the designer wishes. They don't count for weapons or damage control parties, and only count as .25 a hull box for cost.
Battle tenders may launch all their carried riders in one turn, but may only recover 1/3rd their assigned riders per turn.
Asteroid Monitors get a cost modifier of -30%. Buffered monitors automatically have a hull toughness of 4 and gain the ability to have a hull toughness rating of 3xTL maximum. The ship designer must still pay for the additional hull toughness above 4 as normal.
Defenses. Maximum hull toughness is limited to 2 x TL, and maximum shielding is limited to 1 x TL, but each level of shielding only costs 10%, and each increase in hull toughness above 3 only costs 5%.
Primary/secondary batteries.
There is no limit to the number of primary/secondary batteries that a ship may have in TRAVELLER. But primary/secondary batteries are organized differently and recorded differently on the Ship Display. First decide on the total number of primary and secondary weapons as in the normal game. Then those weapons are organized in "batteries." Each battery has a maximum strength (number of weapons that may be allocated) of 4xTL. Batteries must all have the same strength.
These batteries are recorded at the bottom of the Ship Display in the following format:
Primary batteries: NxY Secondary batteries: NxY
...where N is the number of batteries and Y is the strength of each battery.
Once the batteries are organized, they are assigned to the weapons boxes of the Ship Display. In TRAVELLER-ASFoS it is weapon batteries that are lost as the ship is damaged, not individual weapons. So in the Primary weapons boxes each arc will show the number of primary batteries that can fire into that arc, while the secondary weapons box will show the number of secondary batteries remaining to the ship.
Example: A TL4 TRAVELLER-ASFoS vessel has 13 hull boxes not used by special weapons or fighters, giving it a maximum of 52 primary/secondary weapons. The ship designer decides to split this up as:
Three primary batteries of strength 12: 3x12
Two secondary batteries of strength 8: 2x8
He assigns one primary battery to the front arc, one to the left arc and one to the right arc, and the two secondary batteries are recorded in the secondary weapons box.
Combat with primary/secondary batteries.
Players may fire all a ship's primary and secondary batteries in a turn. Ships may fire on as many targets as they have batteries (plus special weapons). All the primary batteries in one arc may fire at the same target or at different targets. If multiple batteries (primary or secondary) fire on the same target, their strengths are =not= added together but are rolled separately. Ships of hull size 7 or larger may not fire more than half their secondary batteries on any one target.
Designer's note: These changes reduce the damage a ship takes from any one battery and creates a battle of attrition. This is how TRAVELLER combat typically works. However, the changes in the special weapons rules will make up for this, somewhat.
SPECIAL WEAPONS
Spinal Mounts. Mass Drivers are the Meson Gun Spines, and Plasma Cannons are the Particle Accelerator Spines.
Firing arcs for special weapons. Missile batteries may be mounted to fire into any arc, but spinal mounts can only fire into the front or rear arcs, not to either side.
Superweapons. If designers allocate more than one hull box to Meson Guns or Particle Accelerators, those hull boxes must be used to make a superweapon of that type. If a ship has multiple missile batteries and a Spinal mount, the Spinal mount is assumed to be lost when half the ship's weapon boxes have been destroyed. All other special weapons losses before and after that are taken from the missile batteries.
In simple language, a ship can only have one spinal mount, and it is destroyed when half of the weapons boxes are destroyed.
Missiles. Missiles work as they do in regular ASFoS, except that there are no missile superweapons and if multiple missile packs attack one target at once, their strengths are =not= added together. Each missile pack rolls individually on the Combat table.
Meson Guns (ASFoS' Mass Drivers). Meson Guns only count the target's Shields as part of its Defense Factor when determining the column to use on the Combat Table. So a regular Meson Gun that hit a target with a DF of 6(10) would roll on the 2-1 column of the Combat table (Meson Gun strength of 8 vs. Shields of 4).
Designer's note: In TRAVELLER-ASFoS, special weapons are the way to quickly kill enemy warships. All major warships carry special weapons and their use is critical to winning battles.
Fighters. Fighters come in two varieties, the standard fighter and the heavy/slow fighter. These behave just as in the regular ASFoS rules, with the following exceptions.
* All fighters have a maximum vector change of 6" per fighter movement subphase, regardless of tech level or type of fighter.
* Fighters attacking a ship at range 0 may =not= combine their attack strengths together. Each fighter squadron must roll on the Combat table individually. Secondary batteries firing on attacking fighters must attack each fighter squadron individually as well. Multiple secondary batteries may not add their strengths together to fire on one fighter squadron, nor may a single secondary battery fire on more than one fighter squadron at one time.
* Standard fighters may launch one pack of missiles just as if they carried a missile bay special weapon. They may only do this once per sortie, and after they launch their missiles they must return aboard ship and remain there one turn before they can relaunch with another pack of missiles to use.
* Heavy/slow fighters may launch missiles just like standard fighters and are assumed to have the same ammo limit as a regular shipboard missile battery (unlimited unless using a house rule).
Technological Level. ASFoS TL = [Traveller TL]/2 - 3.
Jump Fuel. "Fuel" boxes are evenly distributed, dedicated hull boxes.
Battle Riders. Battle riders get a 20% cost benefit from not having a jump drive.
Battle Tenders are designed by allowing as many "unused" hull boxes as needed to hold all the battle riders the designer wishes. They don't count for weapons or damage control parties, and only count as .25 a hull box for cost.
Battle tenders may launch all their carried riders in one turn, but may only recover 1/3rd their assigned riders per turn.
Asteroid Monitors get a cost modifier of -30%. Buffered monitors automatically have a hull toughness of 4 and gain the ability to have a hull toughness rating of 3xTL maximum. The ship designer must still pay for the additional hull toughness above 4 as normal.
Defenses. Maximum hull toughness is limited to 2 x TL, and maximum shielding is limited to 1 x TL, but each level of shielding only costs 10%, and each increase in hull toughness above 3 only costs 5%.
Primary/secondary batteries.
There is no limit to the number of primary/secondary batteries that a ship may have in TRAVELLER. But primary/secondary batteries are organized differently and recorded differently on the Ship Display. First decide on the total number of primary and secondary weapons as in the normal game. Then those weapons are organized in "batteries." Each battery has a maximum strength (number of weapons that may be allocated) of 4xTL. Batteries must all have the same strength.
These batteries are recorded at the bottom of the Ship Display in the following format:
Primary batteries: NxY Secondary batteries: NxY
...where N is the number of batteries and Y is the strength of each battery.
Once the batteries are organized, they are assigned to the weapons boxes of the Ship Display. In TRAVELLER-ASFoS it is weapon batteries that are lost as the ship is damaged, not individual weapons. So in the Primary weapons boxes each arc will show the number of primary batteries that can fire into that arc, while the secondary weapons box will show the number of secondary batteries remaining to the ship.
Example: A TL4 TRAVELLER-ASFoS vessel has 13 hull boxes not used by special weapons or fighters, giving it a maximum of 52 primary/secondary weapons. The ship designer decides to split this up as:
Three primary batteries of strength 12: 3x12
Two secondary batteries of strength 8: 2x8
He assigns one primary battery to the front arc, one to the left arc and one to the right arc, and the two secondary batteries are recorded in the secondary weapons box.
Combat with primary/secondary batteries.
Players may fire all a ship's primary and secondary batteries in a turn. Ships may fire on as many targets as they have batteries (plus special weapons). All the primary batteries in one arc may fire at the same target or at different targets. If multiple batteries (primary or secondary) fire on the same target, their strengths are =not= added together but are rolled separately. Ships of hull size 7 or larger may not fire more than half their secondary batteries on any one target.
Designer's note: These changes reduce the damage a ship takes from any one battery and creates a battle of attrition. This is how TRAVELLER combat typically works. However, the changes in the special weapons rules will make up for this, somewhat.
SPECIAL WEAPONS
Spinal Mounts. Mass Drivers are the Meson Gun Spines, and Plasma Cannons are the Particle Accelerator Spines.
Firing arcs for special weapons. Missile batteries may be mounted to fire into any arc, but spinal mounts can only fire into the front or rear arcs, not to either side.
Superweapons. If designers allocate more than one hull box to Meson Guns or Particle Accelerators, those hull boxes must be used to make a superweapon of that type. If a ship has multiple missile batteries and a Spinal mount, the Spinal mount is assumed to be lost when half the ship's weapon boxes have been destroyed. All other special weapons losses before and after that are taken from the missile batteries.
In simple language, a ship can only have one spinal mount, and it is destroyed when half of the weapons boxes are destroyed.
Missiles. Missiles work as they do in regular ASFoS, except that there are no missile superweapons and if multiple missile packs attack one target at once, their strengths are =not= added together. Each missile pack rolls individually on the Combat table.
Meson Guns (ASFoS' Mass Drivers). Meson Guns only count the target's Shields as part of its Defense Factor when determining the column to use on the Combat Table. So a regular Meson Gun that hit a target with a DF of 6(10) would roll on the 2-1 column of the Combat table (Meson Gun strength of 8 vs. Shields of 4).
Designer's note: In TRAVELLER-ASFoS, special weapons are the way to quickly kill enemy warships. All major warships carry special weapons and their use is critical to winning battles.
Fighters. Fighters come in two varieties, the standard fighter and the heavy/slow fighter. These behave just as in the regular ASFoS rules, with the following exceptions.
* All fighters have a maximum vector change of 6" per fighter movement subphase, regardless of tech level or type of fighter.
* Fighters attacking a ship at range 0 may =not= combine their attack strengths together. Each fighter squadron must roll on the Combat table individually. Secondary batteries firing on attacking fighters must attack each fighter squadron individually as well. Multiple secondary batteries may not add their strengths together to fire on one fighter squadron, nor may a single secondary battery fire on more than one fighter squadron at one time.
* Standard fighters may launch one pack of missiles just as if they carried a missile bay special weapon. They may only do this once per sortie, and after they launch their missiles they must return aboard ship and remain there one turn before they can relaunch with another pack of missiles to use.
* Heavy/slow fighters may launch missiles just like standard fighters and are assumed to have the same ammo limit as a regular shipboard missile battery (unlimited unless using a house rule).
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