 April 28, 2008 - 7:21pm | What is your understanding of albedo suits and screens. Do they absorb ALL the damage from a laser weapon or 1/2 the damage (1/2 the damage gets to the wearer)? If you have an original AD book, look at pg. 42 under Laser Pistol. Let me know what you find. |
 April 28, 2008 - 8:20pm | Gotcha, Larry! Look under the Albedo Suit definition in the Alpha Dawn book. Page 18. The Albedo suit absorbs up to 100 points of Laser damage. When it is hit by a laser, the damage is subtracted from the suit's total of 100 points. The suit is destroyed and does not protect the wearer after it has absorbed 100 points of laser damage. There you have it. Don't quit now... |
 April 28, 2008 - 8:37pm | Alpha Dawn: Albedo Screen. An albedo screen projects a silvery aura that absorbs laser damage. The aura completely surrounds the person wearing the screen. For every 5 points (or fraction of 5 points) absorbed, 1 SEU is drained from the power source. For example, absorbing 11 points of damage drains 3 SEU. The person wearing the screen will take no damage from lasers as long as the power holds out. A person can fire a laser weapon out of an albedo screen. I was always under the impression that they reflected all damage, or atleast as much as they had power or points remaining. Albedo Suit 1 for 1. Albedo Screen 1 SEU per 5 points. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
 April 29, 2008 - 1:22am | My impression was that albedo suits and screens stopped ½ the damage, up to their maximum limit, same as inertia suits and screens. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
April 29, 2008 - 6:38am | Skein is half damage, albedo is whole damage. I think it is a play balance situation - since many more weapons are covered by skein/inertia than by albedo. |
 April 29, 2008 - 7:21am | we always play it that your screen lasts as long as the SEU's last. My son's Vrusk always has a laser rifle blasting and a screen on. The power pack doesn't last long. let me know what you guys think of a regular game report from members: http://starfrontiers.us/node/3017 At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
April 29, 2008 - 7:25am | Nobody read pg 42? (pg 56 Remastered) Laser Pistol. A laser pistol is a large handgun. It fires a pulse of bright light. Laser pistols are commonly called blasters. A laser pistol has a dial that can be set from 1 to 10 to control how many SEU are fired by each shot. Each SEU fired causes 1d10 points of damage. For example, when the dial is set at 3, the shot uses 3 SEU and causes 3d10 points of damage. Players must tell the referee what setting they are using before rolling the dice to see if the shot hits. Laser pistols use 20 SEU clips but can be attached to beltpacks or powerpacks. An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers. Very interesting the authors of AD didn't put that in the description under albedo defenses. Albedo Suit. An albedo suit is made from a special shiny flexible material. It will reflect the damage from a laser attack. For each point of damage reflected, the suit takes 1 point of damage. When it has accumulated 100 points of damage or more, the suit becomes useless. My understanding: It will reflect damage, not ALL damage. For each point of damage reflected the suit takes 1 point of damage. Example: w00t suffers 2d10 Laser Damage, the NPC rolls 10. w00t's albedo suit takes 5 points of damage while w00t subtracts 5 points from his current STA. |
April 29, 2008 - 7:50am | Larry - That implies that it absorbs the whole thing. And again - this is a play balance issue. Gauss and Sonic fully absorb - because, unlike the ballistic weapons and melee - there are fewer weapons that those screens cover. Similarly, because of this narrow coverage of weaponry, albedo protection should fully absorb. |
April 29, 2008 - 8:31am | Brian, not to come off argumentative (I'm right, why argue? LOL  ) I would ask the same in the description of the Laser Pistol. I've searched around the net and found several posts indicating albedo only protects 1/2 damage. Of course this is interpretive of the reader.Bill and I have been playing that albedo defenses take ALL the damage. But our next session we will use 1/2 protection and see what happens. In fact I'm going to test out my Laser Sniper using 1/2 absorbed damage tonight and probably publish some errata for Issue 9. |
April 29, 2008 - 9:18am | Larry - you can be as argumentative as you want - I'm not Corjay. I see that as perfectly reasonable and good, regardless of other rules inconsistencies. Moreover, in play I have not experienced any problem with this interpretation, either - although I have always thought that the albedo screen was a little too powerful. But I have always taken care of screened opponents with grenades. Having a stunner or a zapgun on your hip holster is another way. The fact that screens don't work through spacesuits is also helpful. |
April 29, 2008 - 9:40am | The link is not cooperating with me, but someone check SF1 Planet of Mystery. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
April 29, 2008 - 9:43am | w00t grabs a piece of laser chalk and writes the following 5 times on the laserboard. An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers. An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers. An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers. An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers. An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers. ...but the chalkboard has an albedo screen. You can barley make out words on the laserboard... "An albedo suit or screen halves the damage from lasers." Brian is cry'in from fry'in in lawsuits after he sold albedo screens and suits to a little known race who lives in air whale territory.  |
 April 29, 2008 - 9:50am | Nothing new to add, just putting in my vote. I've always played that albedo defenses absorb all damage as well. Although I admit, I dont remember that little line on page 42. Probably just chalked it up to a cut and paste typo in the rules. i.e. they were on a roll writing up all the weapon descriptions and almost all the other weapons say suits and screens half the damage and they forgot to change it for the lasers. Or worse, it was correct and an editor was reading though the weapons descriptions and saw that all the others said half and changed the laser description thinking that the "blocks all" should have been "halves" so it matched all the other descriptions but didn't read the combat rules. Who knows? Since blasters are fairly common, you use up your defenses fairly quickly anyway so I dont see absorbing all damage as an issue. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
April 29, 2008 - 9:54am | The link is not cooperating with me, but someone check SF1 Planet of Mystery. VISUAL SCANNERS (Obviously Visible, Level 4): The visual scanners are cameras that continuously transmit television pictures to whoever is on duty in the Computer Room. The camera can "see" everything between the two arrows marking its location, out to a maximum distance of 20 meters. Each camera is protected by a jury-rigged albedo screen with 10 SEUs of power. Any damage not blocked by the albedo screen will destroy the camera. -- no specificity Air Whale pg 30 (snip) The crystals also store solar energy, and can fire two shots when direct sunlight is not available. An albedo screen or albedo suit will reduce damage suffered by half. Crystal focus sunlight into a beam much like a laser. -- not a laser but much like a laser Rum, I could not find what your speaking of the in sf.com HTML version, the PDF version nor the Remastered version.
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April 29, 2008 - 9:57am | Seems like you be outvoted Larry... The rules are inconsistent - AGAIN. What a shock. Aren't you used to this by now? I would say it's up to the ref as to how they want to do the protection - and this ref says 100% coverage. Keep in mind, of course, that shreds the suit all the faster... |
April 29, 2008 - 9:56am | Here are the exerpts from SF1: VISUAL SCANNERS (Obviously Visible, Level 4): The visual scanners are cameras that continuously transmit tele- vision pictures to whoever is on duty in the Computer Room. The camera can "see" everything between the two arrows marking its location, out to a maximum distance of 20 meters. Each camera is protected by a jury-rigged albedo screen with 10 SEUs of power. Any damage not blocked by the albedo screen will destroy the camera. ARMED SCANNERS (Obviously Visible, Level 5): These are cameras with laser rifles mounted on swivels. The cameras are identical to the VISUAL SCANNERS des- cribed above. The laser rifles hit on a roll of 60 or less and cause 5d10 points of damage. Their IM is 6. The lasers are powered by the main powerplant and have unlimited SEUs available. So for the visual scanners, it was only 10 SEU not 20 but it seems to imply that all damage is block by the screen until the 10 SEU's are used up and then the next point destroys the camera. If it was only blocking half the first shot would always destroy the camera (as long as you did 2 points of damage) so there would be no point in putting up the screen in the first place. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
April 29, 2008 - 9:58am | Seems like you be outvoted Larry... The rules are inconsistent - AGAIN. What a shock. Aren't you used to this by now? I would say it's up to the ref as to how they want to do the protection. My curosity circuits overloaded last night!  w00ty minds just want to know.  It seems most GM's play with FULL absorbed damage. Not a problem. I'm a tinker so I want to playtest with absorbing 1/2 damage and see what happens. Bill do you have the will to make your opinion known?  |
April 29, 2008 - 10:00am | we always play it that your screen lasts as long as the SEU's last. My son's Vrusk always has a laser rifle blasting and a screen on. The power pack doesn't last long. to clarify: we use the 1/2 damage rule. No limit on how long the screen works as long as your power pack holds up. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
April 29, 2008 - 10:23am | Rum, I could not find what your speaking of the in sf.com HTML version, the PDF version nor the Remastered version. Thanks for checking. I could only recall that the device had a screen. Wasnt as helpfull as I thought. Off topic: I can recall that part becuase the last time I gm'd it, a player spent awhile trying to tame one of the Rasties from the caves in Crash on Vulturnus. With some incredible rolls, he managed to tame one between the two modules. Long story short, all the pc's were unconscious, 2 pirates up, but close to dead, the Rastie killed them both. The pc's made it the official team mascot and took one of the camera screens and modified it to work on the critter. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
April 29, 2008 - 11:55am | Ridiculous that those little buggers had 75 STA... |
April 29, 2008 - 12:33pm | They weren't exactly little, the description gives their size as medium. Average size was 1 meter in length. 75 STA is not completely unreasonable if a little high. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
