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Starfire: Difference between revisions
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The game is now in its fifth edition.
Of particular interest is the fact that [[David Weber]], author of the ''[[
* ''Crusade'' (part of ''The Stars At War'')
* ''In Death Ground'' (part of ''The Stars At War'')
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* [[Achilles Heel]]: All starships have a 60 degree "blind spot" directly aft. If an enemy can work its way into a ship's blind spot, it can shoot all of its weapons at the ship and its target will be powerless to fire back.
* [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]]: When dealing with humans, the Vestrii (from ''Alkelda Dawn'') like to wear powered armor suits that make them look like humans -- often [[Distracted
* [[Antimatter]]: If nuclear missiles don't pack enough punch for your [[Space Navy]], you can upgrade their warheads to the antimatter variety, which (depending on the tech level and which rule revision you're playing with) can do anywhere from 2-5 times as much damage. Of course, having all that antimatter sitting in your starship's missile holds can be a tad dangerous....
* [[Armor-Piercing Attack]]: Lasers pierce (a limited, tech-determined number of) shields. Energy beams do the same with armour. Primary (force) beams skip armour ''and'' shields, but only do a single point of damage. ''Capital'' primary beams drop the "only do a single point of damage" bit, though they still do less damage than a standard capital-scale weapon would.
* [[The Battlestar]]: The first expansion published during the 1st Edition years, ''Starfire II'', introduced fighter carriers. Fighters are tiny, fragile, single-seat weapon platforms capable of flying faster and turning more sharply than a normal-sized starship. Their carriers mount their own weapons with which to defend themselves even if all their fighters are deployed. The Terrans, Orions<ref>[[Catfolk|cat aliens]]</ref>, and Ophiuchi<ref>bird aliens</ref> first encountered them when they ran into the Rigellians<ref>[[Everything's Worse
* [[Beam Spam]]: Take your pick -- laser beams, force beams, primary beams, energy beams, needle beams, ''capital'' force beams, capital primary beams, capital energy beams, ''second-generation'' capital force beams, nuclear-pumped X-ray lasers, heterodyne lasers, and don't even get me started on inertial sinks.
* [[Bug War]]: The Fourth Interstellar War.
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* [[Deflector Shields]]: A ship's shields behave like ablative armor, providing protection by collapsing. The more shields you install on a ship, however, the less room your ship will have for other systems. Higher tech levels have access to more expensive shields that provide more protection per hull-space.
** A starship's Ion Drive engines also produce a "Drive Field" around the ship, which no physical object can cross without being vaporized. Thus, nuclear missiles are programmed to detonate just ''before'' they reach their target's drive field -- and that separation distance at the moment of detonation means the target ship takes far less damage than it would if the missile had come into direct contact with it.
* [[Everything's Worse
* [[Fantastic Rank System]]: Nexus magazine #8 and #12 had articles on the militaries of the Khanate of Orion and Protectorate of Rigel, including their rank structure.
* [[FTL Travel]]: Of the "portal network" variety. Strategists measure the "distance" between star systems not in light-years or parsecs, but in how many warp-point hops it takes to get from one system to another. Strategic maps look more like the state diagrams of the old text-based adventure games than actual maps.
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* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Due to the presence of [[Point Defenseless|Point Defense]] systems on most units, damaging an enemy at long range requires you to inundate him with so many missiles he can't possibly stop them all.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: In 1st Edition, the surprise attack launched by the Rigellian Protectorate against the Khanate of Orion took place at ''Paurl Harbor''.
* [[Mobile Suit Human]]: The Vestriian encounter suit is ''supposed'' to be this, but they just can't seem to get the face right. Their suits sometimes make up for this with [[Distracted
* [[No Bulk Discounts]]: In 1st Edition, if your empire manufactured 2 or more identical starships, you got a 10% cost discount on all identical ships after the first. This encouraged players to create "classes" of ships, like real navies do. However, this rule was removed in 2nd Edition.
* [[Nuke'Em]]: Standard anti-starship missiles are all fitted with nuclear warheads. The only reason a starship can withstand so many hits from these missiles is that their engines' Drive Field prevents physical objects from coming into contact with the ship's hull -- so the missiles have to be programmed to detonate an instant ''before'' they reach the target's Drive Field.
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* [[To Serve Man]]: The Arachnids of the Fourth Interstellar War find humans a delicacy.
* [[Tractor Beam]]: A starship's tractor beams are a terrifying weapon, capable of yanking enemy units around like ragdolls and preventing them from dodging your weapons fire. As a consequence, the "shearing plane," which nullified ''all'' tractor beams used against a ship, was invented immediately after tractor beams first appeared on the battlefield.
** A variant called the "Presser Beam" also exists, which serves not to draw an enemy unit closer but to [[Exactly What It Says
** The Force Beam and Primary Beam were developed by using tractor technology to ''punch'' instead of push.
* [[
* [[We Will Spend Credits in
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** The aliens got their ideology from an isolated Terran expedition while the Terrans and Khanate were at war. When the aliens emerged into the galaxy, the Terrans and Khanate were on friendlier terms....
* [[Match Cut]]: In ''Crusade.'' ("... Redwing!")
* [[Military Science Fiction]]: [[Street Fighter (
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Certain select individuals have received "antigerone" treatments, which vastly extend their lifespans. Admiral Ivan, the main fleet commander during ''Crusade'', is still on active duty in ''In Death Ground'' nearly a century later.
* [[Unwanted False Faith]]: In the back story for ''Crusade'', a Terran starship crash-landed on an inhabited alien planet during the First Interstellar War, and its captain told the inhabitants there how the Khanate of Orion was the enemy. The aliens take his words as Divine Revelation, painting the Terrans as angels and the Orions as devils. So when, long after hostilities between the Terrans and Orions have ended, an Orion starship happens to poke its nose into their star system, they blast the "devils" to smithereens. To prove to the Orions that we're still friendly and prevent another war, the ''Terrans'' have to attack this alien race -- who, unwilling to give up their [[Cargo Cult]] beliefs, conclude that these new Terrans are "fallen" Terrans.
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