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Quick question regarding something that I can't seem to find in the rules.

SotG indicates that missiles or torpedoes can be fire linked. But it doesn't really say what the effects of fire linking these types of weapons are. Does fire linking these weapons allow two attacks at once? Do you roll atk twice? Or do you roll atk once and apply damage from two hits on a hit? I'm just not sure how this is supposed to be handled.

Thanks in advance for any help!

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aka Jim Jedi-Scramble

Quoting from the Saga Edition Core Rulebook: "The galaxy is a dangerous place (p. 143)...bad things happen sometimes. (p.246)"

Fire-linking increase the damage input: +1d10 for 2 fire-linked missile/torpedo launchers, and +2d10 for 4 fire-linked launchers. If you fire-link blaster or laser cannons you can also auto-fire them, but yeah the idea of fire-linked missiles is simply damage increase in exchange for an increase in ammo output.
Details are on SotG 45 and the table on page 47.

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Saga Edition Resources:
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SE Official FAQ Compilation - SE Official Errata & Clarifications - Jedi Counseling 105 to 115

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Okay. That makes sense. So then if blasters (for instance) are fire linked, they deal more damage, but incur a -5 autofire penalty. If proton torpedoes are fire linked, they consume more ammo, deal more damage, but do not incur the autofire penalty. Is this correct?

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aka Jim Jedi-Scramble

Quoting from the Saga Edition Core Rulebook: "The galaxy is a dangerous place (p. 143)...bad things happen sometimes. (p.246)"

Fire-linked torpedoes are poorly defined in SAGA. The way I treat them when I see it is that you may "link" tubes (normally two in fighters) and make one attack that does +1d10 damage (x multiplier) but uses additional ammo for the linked tubes. An X-Wing carries six torpedoes and could make six attacks with them before running out of ammo BUT if it chooses to use the fire link option its torpedo damage goes up to 10d10x2 but each attack consumes two round allowing for only three attacks.

With blaster/lasers having "fire-linked" weapons is essentially saying you have a weapon system with multiple outputs. The only difference between a quad-cannon and a fire-linked 4 cannon is that one costs more while the other takes up more space. Generally they all go off as one shot and deal the listed damage (bigger link means more damage) but they can also be used for autofire purposes. When set for autofire damage doesn't change but you would take that -5 penalty.

I need to get to work now but I hope that helps.

Basically. But just note that you don't need to use fire-linked blasters on the autofire setting; fire-linking simply gives you the option of autofire (if you didn't already have it) while also increasing your damage output by the stated amounts whether or not you use the weapons in autofire mode.

Unless you're facing a Yuuzhan Vong spacecraft, you probably have little to no use for autofire at a starship scale, but it's still nice to have the option from time to time.

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Saga Edition Resources:
My Google Docs Character Record Sheet
SE Official FAQ Compilation - SE Official Errata & Clarifications - Jedi Counseling 105 to 115

Edge of the Empire Resources: Beta Updates, crib sheets, and other goodies

The X-Wing's laser system is generally assumed to be a fire-linked (4) medium laser canon which produces 6d10x2 in base damage as is autofire capable. Now you always get that damage but the attack mode should be switchable. In "single fire mode" you don't take the penalty but you also hit just one target. In autofire mode you do take the autofire penalty but now get to hit an area if used in character scale or take advantage of certain autofire feats (I'm looking at BURST FIRE here!!) in starships scale.

Not true; an autofire attack at starship scale targets only one vehicle, but it still has all the other effects of autofire, including half damage on a miss.

That's the usual reason you're turning it on. For example, an X-wing against TIE fighters -- 6d10x2 averages 66 damage on a hit, but it takes 70 damage to kill a TIE. So if you hit one and fail to kill it, it will likely be damaged badly enough that even scoring half on a miss on your next turn will almost guarantee a kill.


How so? It seems pretty clear from the chart on SOTG p47. Fire linked 2 gives you +1d10 damage and (per the text) consumes two shots. Autofire doesn't apply to missiles.

Hence my saying, "it's still nice to have the option from time to time." The problem with autofire in space combat is that the majority of Reflex Defenses are so low that it doesn't make any sense to use autofire. For example, the TIE Fighter has a Reflex Defense of 15. Autofire has a minimum attack roll of 10 to get the half damage effect, and it incurs a -5 penalty, so you're gonna have to roll an effective 15 for your attack anyway. And in your example, the TIE Fighter in question would actually be a step down the CT so you'd only have to hit a Ref Def of 14. So in that case and in many other, autofire just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Now for higher-Dex fighters, some of those guys (like the TIE/In and the X-Wing) will have a higher Reflex Defense and so autofire can be justified.

I also forgot to mention Burst Fire, which StevenO pointed out. Excellent choice for a pilot with a decent attack bonus.

Autofire is also nice for shooting down errant missiles (if they've locked onto you, missed, but are then coming around for another hit) and even incoming missiles (if you've readied an action). Missiles are much harder to hit than most starships (Ref Def 30), but autofire can take care of that problem, since they only have 10 hp.

And of course there are other situational uses for autofire, for example if you have talents (Squad Actions, Controlled Burst, Improved Suppression Fire) or feats (Autofire Assault, Blaster Barrage, Flood of Fire*, and of course Burst Fire) that improve your autofiring expertise. So yeah, autofire can be useful in the right circumstances or with the right character builds, but in most circumstances and against the vast majority of ships you're probably just going to want to focus on actually hitting them for full damage.

*This is excellent against Ace Pilots who improve their Reflex Defense with stacking Dodge bonuses.

_________________
Saga Edition Resources:
My Google Docs Character Record Sheet
SE Official FAQ Compilation - SE Official Errata & Clarifications - Jedi Counseling 105 to 115

Edge of the Empire Resources: Beta Updates, crib sheets, and other goodies

OK, fair enough. I didn't really look at the reflex defense, but I see your point.

EXCEPT when heroic characters are piloting the ship. I've got 3 level 12 jedi knights piloting the Eta-2 fighter (high-defense variant), and it now has a whopping Ref 28! (as opposed to the standard Ref 20). They are going to be TOUGH to hit. I think I'll be using autofire, missiles, and torpedos.

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Saga Edition RPG resource documents & reference tools:
Compiled files of all resource documents & reference tools- NPCs, character sheets, DoD, Saga Index to all feats, talents, species, weapons, etc, Star Wars web enhancements

True that

My PCs normally fly around in a freighter, so they're normally better protected with the +12 or +13 armor bonus than they would be with their heroic levels. But man, being a high level character in a fighter is awesome.

_________________
Saga Edition Resources:
My Google Docs Character Record Sheet
SE Official FAQ Compilation - SE Official Errata & Clarifications - Jedi Counseling 105 to 115

Edge of the Empire Resources: Beta Updates, crib sheets, and other goodies

I've seen a lot of debate on that topic. I'm not too against allowing autofire to be used against a single target at starship scales (which then bring in that penalty) but you need to realize that it doesn't always help a lot. As already mentioned you still need to hit REF 10 with your penalty to deal half damage and but often times your average damage is actually going to be a lot better just shooting at the target outright; I seem to recall the "break even" point was when you are shooting at a REF 20 target and there aren't a lot of those unless you're looking at heroes.

The other issue when shooting with autofire is that even if you only deal "half-damage" from a miss all of that damage still gets filtered through SR and DR. The X-Wing's lasers average 66 points of damage on a hit and you need to hit a TIE for 70 to kill it outright (60 hp + 10 DR) so you don't quite do that; but if you hit it for half damage only 23 of the 33 points get through (meaning you still need to do 37 damage to it) but you have also failed to overcome it's DT. If you through shields into the mix the damage that would get through is even less and you run a much greater risk of ALL of your damage being absorbed by shield; I usually consider anything less then SR 40 as "bonus hitpoints" because most weapon shots will overcome them but here you aren't going to overcome them with your autofire attacks.

On the topic of using autofire against heroes I'll just point out that the Evasion talent DOES work at starship scale. The Ace Pilot also has a talent that can do the same thing once you read the errata. I will say that high level characters in fighters can lead to some insane REF Defense BUT they still only have so many hp before the ship falls apart while critical hits can happen.
Ok but look at the SotG entry for X-Wings. It mentions "fire-link (proton torpedoes)" under atk options but then fails to mention just how that willl work. Can we say it links four torpedoes in one shot or must we assume it is just two? Is the damage listed done using fire-linked or not? This is what I mean when I say fire-linked torpedoes are poorly defined in SAGA because it doesn't elaborate on their use in the various ship entries. I guess I don't pay enough attention but do the ships in later books ever mention fire-linked torpedoes and then fail to say what that means?

Just to make sure, area attacks work the same in starship scale, right? If a starship has a starship-scale autofire attack, then it can deal damage to multiple starships. For ex, the concussion missile on a droid tri-fighter (Core page 181) deals 8d10x2, 4-sq splash. That means the area attack affects all targets within 4sq of the targeted starship. Right?

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Saga Edition RPG resource documents & reference tools:
Compiled files of all resource documents & reference tools- NPCs, character sheets, DoD, Saga Index to all feats, talents, species, weapons, etc, Star Wars web enhancements

My knowledge of the subject would say yes. I'm positive they work the same way. I've gone back over both Core and SotG, and neither say otherwise, far as I can tell.

No. Splash and area effects ONLY affect a single target in starship scale, UNLESS the weapon specifically states it works at starship scale as well (and those are VERY few and far between).

But if you are firing these weapons against targets at character scale, the normal area attack rules take effect.

Take a look at page 173 of the Core Rulebook.

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