Wednesday, October 29, 2003 As empires begin to encounter each other and forge diplomatic relations, the question come up-- "Can I trade technology with my allies?" The short answer is "no." You can't simply give another empire technology. The long answer is "sort of." You may freely trade examples of technology for others to study. In some cases (eg. speed-12 upgrade for speed-8 drones, or longer-ranged disruptors), this will require minimal study. In other cases (eg. plasma for non-plasma races), this will take a long time. A good rule-of-thumb to figure out what it would be like is-- "Will this result in a non-historical configuration on my ships?" If yes, it will probably cost a lot of time and EP to complete, and will likely result in weapons that operate as if they were fired by a Poor crew. Ships are similarly restricted. If you capture another player's ship, it must be retrofitted to match your own technology or operate as if it has a Poor crew. Converting a ship to your tech takes one turn, and may be done at any full repair facility (SB, YDK, Construction Dock, or FRD). There are rules for what systems are replaced with other systems in the Captain's Logs, and may be browsed at my house. Orions are a wildcard. You may freely give them any technology, tech advances, and ships in return for anything you agree on. They have their own rules for what they can trade in return. Thu, 17 Jun 2004 Captured and purchased ships may be converted to your service by any unit that can perform a Conversion. It takes one turn, and costs 1/4 the EPV of the resulting unit. Refits not already installed on the ship are not included in this calculation, but may be added concurrently using the standard refit rules. The Brothers of the Anarchist rules in the Captain's Logs will be used for ships that don't have an SSD already published. Conversion may be performed simultaneously with an overhaul. In this case, the overhaul's cost is based on the resulting unit's EPV and the conversion costs 1/8 instead of 1/4. Always round fractions up after all other calculations are complete. These rules also apply when un-converting a ship (or converting an already converted ship). The resulting ship is always based on the original design, regardless of modifications by previous owners. Fri, 18 Jun 2004 Converting Foreign Ships (take two) No actual rules have been changed except for the time required and the additon of the "retrofiting dock." The term "converted" has been changed to "retrofitted" to prevent confusion with converting ships to their more standard variants. The GM recommends a large construction dock for the retrofitting dock, but it _is_ your choice. :) ------------ One non-specialised construction dock at your primary shipyard is upgraded (for free) to serve as a retrofitting dock for purchased or captured ships. It is the _only_ dock which may retrofit a foreign-built ship to your technology. No other may be used. When not retrofitting ships, it may be used as a standard construction dock of its size. If you wish, this update may be applied to a dock planned but not yet built, but later upgrades will take one turn to complete. Captured and purchased ships may be retrofitted to your service by your retrofitting dock at your primary shipyard. It costs 1/4 the EPV of the resulting unit. Refits not already installed on the ship are not included in this calculation, but may be added concurrently using the standard refit rules. The Brothers of the Anarchist rules in the Captain's Logs will be used for ships that don't have an SSD already published. Any Tug may retrofit a captured base. Mobile bases and smaller may be retrofitted in place by a Tug or FRD, or they may be taken back to the retrofitting dock. A retrofitted base is identical to its equivalent base in your fleet. The time needed to retrofit a unit is as follows: Size Class 4: 3 impulses Size Class 3: 6 impulses Size Class 2: 9 impulses Permanent Base: 1 full turn Retrofits may be performed simultaneously with an overhaul. In this case, the overhaul's cost is based on the resulting unit's EPV and the retrofit costs 1/8 instead of 1/4. Always round fractions up after all other calculations are complete. These rules also apply when retrofitting an already retrofitted ship. The resulting ship is always based on the original design, regardless of modifications by previous owners. Fri, 18 Jun 2004 Maintaining Foreign Ships There are many cases in which a foreign-built ship may need repairs at one of your repair facilities. These rules cover the procedures. All repairs (including overhauls and refilling of self-repair capabilities, but not self-repair itself) of foreign ship designs cost 3x the standard repair cost. If a ship has been retrofitted to your technology, repairs are reduced to 2x the standard repair cost. Repairing one of your ships sold to someone else and retrofitted with their technology as well as bizzare ships that are wacky combinations of different ships (Tholian TK5, Orion OK6, etc.) all fit under this category. Refits on a foreign ship cost double, resulting in a 4x cost if applied alone. Ships converted to your service cost normal for refit purposes. For any multiplier: calculate the total number of Repair Points needed, apply the multiplier, round up, and use that to calculate the EP cost. For example, a ship that needs 72 Repair Points would normally cost 8EP to repair. Since it's a foreign ship, it would cost 22EP (216 Repair Points). Middle Years permanent bases may be modified to repair foreign-built ships at a reduced cost. This costs 100EP for a Base Station, 150EP for a Battle Station, and 200EP for a Starbase. Increase the cost by 50EP for an X-base. This takes one turn. If the base is upgraded, the difference in modification costs must be paid or the base loses its modifications. A maximum of two modified bases may be in operation at any one time. As long as these bases are in an unbroken supply chain and a Trade Route exists between your empire and the empire who built the ships, they may repair the ships as if they were one category lower (3x => 2x => normal). FRDs that are within the supply radius of a modified base count as part of that base for this purpose. Base modifications are specific to a single race's ships (ie. you can modify a base to repair Hydran-built ships). Multiple modifications may be performed in order to support more than one race's ships, and do not count toward the 2-base limit. Every player's primary shipyard (your homeworld unless otherwise specified by the GM) is upgraded for free at this time to service foreign ships. It operates under the same rules as the modified bases, save for at two points: - FRDs may only repair at the reduced price if they are located at the shipyard. - All races' ships may be repaired at the reduced cost.