Battlegrinder wrote:6. It isn't clear in the rulebook if the WS limit is for how many weapons a ship can have, or how many it can fire on a given turn.
It's how many weapons a ship can have.
Battlegrinder wrote:7. This is more of a nitpick, but the I think the Armor stat could stand to be renamed as the Defense stat, since many factions use shields rather than actual armor to protect their ships.
I actually want to do that, but I felt like it would cause confusion for the Vanderheim players if I did it right before the battle.
Battlegrinder wrote:8. There's no Destroyer or Scout class, which seems like a fairly major oversight.
Not really. The classes are supposed to be general 'sizes' of ship; from there you can use the perks and flaws to create more specific designs. For instance a Destroyer could be a frigate with more weapons but a reduction in speed, while a Scout would be a frigate with fewer HP and weapons but more acceleration and an extra special ability.
Battlegrinder wrote:9. Likewise, It'd be nice to have some separate stats for super-capitals, maybe by splitting the current "mothership" class into two classes. One would be more in line with the Dreadnought style super-capital many players use, and the other might be more of a super-carrier (ideally, with the launch bay special ability tossed in for free).
I'm not sure about this. This is a skirmish-level game, intended to be much smaller scale than something like Dilanski's Epik Space. If a supercapital showed up in a Brikspace game, it would likely be the focus of an entire battle -- and in that case, it would be best to just make up rules for it on the fly. Angels, space stations, and AT fields aren't covered in these rules, but I use them anyway.
Battlegrinder wrote:6. My plan for the Rift Cannon (think of it as a weaponized Gate spell) is to give it a chance to bypass it's target's armor/shielding. The current plan is to have an extra roll after it scores a successful hit. On a 6, the target's armor is bypasses, and on a 1 (or a 1 and 2), something goes wrong and the cannon deals no damage. Does this sounds balanced/fair?
This sounds a little like a superweapon to me, since it's a special effect rather than straight damage. Also, what does "the target's armor is bypassed" mean? Does it mean the target takes one point of damage automatically? What about overkill? What happens if you roll something that is neither a six or a 1?
The 'superweapons' are a very new feature and are being playtested in Vanderheim, basically, so I'll probably tweak them after it's finished.
Battlegrinder wrote:7. The superweapon would work on a similar principle, but with 2 firing modes. Mode 1 would operate like the Spinal Mass Driver, and mode 2 would take the summoning aspect of the Gate spell and reverse it, effectively banishing the target into another dimension. My current ideas for balancing mode 2 is to have it take longer to charge up and to give the target a chance to resist (like rolling an opposed roll on a heroic feat). If anyone else has suggestions for this, I'd appreciate it.
This sounds like the sort of thing you'd design as a special effect rather than incorporating it into the rules. Also, regarding heroic feats: I tried heroic feats in brikspace in a chat battle and it didn't really work. It works in Bragspace because Brag builds individual bridges for all the ships and has the captains act out the feats, which can be entertaining even if the feats themselves are pretty basic.