[Enpeze]

Originally Posted by soltakss

I've always wanted to treat Starship Combat very simply.

Having played and loathed Traveller and played Ringworld, I am not that experienced in Sci Fi games, but ...

What do Starships do in combat?

They move.

They shoot.

They get shot at.

They damage other Starships.

They take damage themselves.

One bugs out or one gets destroyed/disabled/boarded/whatever.

Now, what do people do in combat?

They move.
They shoot.
They get shot at.
They damage other people.
They get damaged themselves.
One runs away or gets wounded/disabled/killed/captured.

Can anyone see the similarity?

I'd treat Starship combat the same as normal combat.

Starships have locations, AP and HP. They have weapons that do damage. They have forcefields that absorb damage.

Sure, there are extra things to think about. You might be able to do Precise Attacks and target particular subsystems (Drives/Weapons/Life Support) you might even have to have rules for what happens if the hull in penetrated, with air leaks and so on. You'd certainly have rules on the number of charges a weapon has, recharge rates, batteries, how much power a ship has and how much can be fed into shields/weapons.

But, when it comes down to it, you have someone with 60% Pilot Starship, someone with 55% Starship Blaster, a Blaster doing 1D10 damage and a Starship with 6 point Hull and 10 HP in every location. The opponent can't dodge a Blaster but can dodge a Quantum Torpedo using his Pilot Starship. Some Starships might have modifiers, one might be Manouverable and give +20% to Pilot Starship for dodges, another might be Tough and have extra APs, another might have resealable skin or whatever.

Anything a lot more complicated than that is going way too far, in my opinion.

I think you are right. But one thing you forgot IMO: sensors. To "see" another ship or not is a matter of life and death in some space opera settings. This could be modelled like spot hidden skill or on the resistance table. (eg. sensor power 23 vs. ECM 20 or so)