The Early Years
The Early Years is a concept developed by ADB, first published in Captain's Log #12 back in 1993. Expansions appeared in Subspace News (Hydrans), and Module P6 (Paravians). It suggested rules and ships to cover a period from five to nine decades before the usual SFB era -- this is Y80 to Y120 in the game timescale. The Early Years ships presented were basically downgraded versions of the original cruisers. They had less warp, less weapons, and less shields -- and more important, no overloads are allowed.
Other Sites:
- Mike West's Early Years Page
- Art Braun (aka NeghVar)'s Early Years Page
- James Jarvis' Sublight & SlowWarp Page
- Andy Palmer's Module Q Page
- Official Discussion BBS (for Early Years Playtest)
Rules and Background
The official Early Years playtest rules were published in CL#12. In general, they reduced the damage and power available. Phaser-2's replace phaser-1's as the standard ship weapon. Cruisers had only two heavy weapons, and no overloads.
-
Official Playtest Rules from CL#12, SSN, and P6
- Summary Sheet of the rules in CL#12
-
EY Tactical Intelligence Chart
- Ship Comparison table
- Timeline based on SFB and Star Trek
Ships
Below is a table of various Early Years SSD'ss that are available. It is separated into several columns. ``Official'' is for ships that approximate official playtest SSD's produced by ADB. ``Alternate'' are unofficial Early Years ships, often variants of the above. ``Conjectural'' are for unorthodox designs, perhaps conflicting with history or simply unusual.There is a separate race listed for warp-drive-using Romulans. These can be considered simulator-style conjectural ships. Alternatively, these could be from an alternate history where the Romulans defeated the Gorns in the `Warp War' of Y67.
Officially, publication of Module Y is being held up by the ``problem'' of the early Kzinti. The early CS published in CL#12 has no disruptors and four drone racks. With drones at speed 8, the only way the Kzin could get a hit is by either tractoring his opponent or a carefully timed volley at range zero. The result was that if the Kzin could get into such a position, he won as four heavy drones slammed onto the enemy. If he couldn't achieve this, he lost. This made Kzin battles very all-or-nothing chases without much hits.
Also, the Romulans have virtually no options. CL#12 gave that they were stuck with the unrefitted sublight ships. In short, they cannot maneuver, have no phasers, and cannot do the usual tricks with their plasma. Thus, playing them seems like a lot of sitting around -- the only question is when to fire your plasma and whether it is real or pseudo.
Ideas
As I see it, the primary lack in the Early Years rules is just more creative input. There are only a handful of ships which are restricted to fighting each other, and thus darn little variation.Personally, I would like to develop more stuff covering the spectrum of time from Y100 to Y150. Then the older ``Early'' ships could match up with the original, unrefitted designs -- just like the original designs mix with the later ``War'' designs.
To whit, some ideas:
- Doubling movement costs on all Early Years ships helps the Kzin
drones can get to their targets. It also makes sublight speeds a
bit more tolerable (though not much).
- Pre-warp stardrives for the Romulans which allows speed 2+
maneuvering. To fit with the history, the Warbird class
still needs to be viable in Y160 -- which can only travel
Faster-Than-Light in non-combat time.
As an idea: tactical stardrive works, but makes the ship more vulnerable -- like warp packs on PF's, but worse. It allows speeds perhaps up to 12. Early Romulan gunboats used this and relied on their cloak for defense - even so they could be reamed by phasers.
Then around Y120 (the end of the Early Years era) a means was found of targetting scanners on the stardrive signal, even through cloak. The stardrive ships' cloaks were made useless, and they were still much slower than the new ships which could go up to speed 31! Thus, the Romulans abandoned the stardrive packs and stuck with the Warbird classes.
- Obselete drone options: Reduce the power of the explosive
warhead to make the Kzin more playable -- and add ``new''
options for the loads:
- Explosive warheads are half strength: i.e. type-I drones do 6 damage, and type-IV drones do 12 damage.
- ``Stealth'' drones which cannot be seen by Early Years ships: effectively like moving mines. Later ships (with upgraded sensors) are able to see and fire at them normally.
- ``Flare'' drones which blind enemy sensors. Again, this effect is ineffective against more advanced sensors.
- National fleet ships for the Feds (distinct Andorian ships and
Alpha-Centauran ships, etc.) which were around prior to the
Unified Star Fleet.
- Race-specific cargo ships from before the ``standard'' freighter was introduced in Y120
Back to John's SFB Page
John H. Kim <jhkim@fnal.gov> Last modified: Thu Feb 7 14:37:57 2002
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