Starmada Nova Update

Just a small blurb - Cricket has recently pushed conversion rules from AE to Nova and alternate movement systems for Nova, available here and here respectively.

The conversion rules are the most interesting part, probably.

• Hulls are 1.5 times as large as they were in AE.  This is sensible, since all hits are now hull hits. 
• Shields degrade really quickly now...  worrisome.  Thrust ratings look the same as ever.
• Anti-fighter batteries are now real weapons range 3 and higher accuracy, though their firepower is still fairly low.  
• Boarding pods and teleporters are now included in the cost of marines, which suggests that marines will now serve as some kind of specialized short-range weapon.  This is neat, because now just putting defensive marines on your ships is no longer a thing (it was an annoying gamble in AE; you didn't want to get boarded and not have marines to defend, but people rarely boarded).  
• Carrier capacity is measured in flights, which appear to be equal in utility to one of the 50-point AE standard flights.  Bad news for the fighter jocks, perhaps...  though I'd also be very surprised if customized fighters disappeared entirely.  No mention of seekers or strikers specifically.
• Cloaking is confirmed!  O frabjous day!  
• Facets and screens are rolled into standard shields for the time being, though Cricket has mentioned on the forums that faceted at least will be in the ADB Armada sourcebooks.
• "Flotillas cannot be converted using these rules."  Never have I seen a happier sentence.  Well, maybe not never, but definitely rarely.
• Fire Control still exists, and probably serves its same purpose.
• Hyperdrive's still around.  No notes on function.
• Mines are also still in, but you get fewer of them.
• Point Defense is no longer a trait, being subsumed into ECM.  Same for Countermeasures.  Armor Plating has been converted to armor boxes on the hull track.
• Stealth is still a thing, but it was mentioned on the forum previously that it works like ECM, except that it can't be damaged, and is therefore more expensive.  None of that weird ranging stuff that it did in AE.

 Weapon conversion is pretty straightforward; not much in the way of surprises in terms of core stat conversions.  Some of the trait conversions are interesting, though.  Here's a list of traits we know are in, and the AE traits that they convert from, where they differ:

• Accurate (Anti-Fighter)
• Ballistic (Minimum Range)
• Carronade
• Catastrophic (oh boy)
• Double Damage (also comes from plain old high-damage weapons)
• Diffuse (Double Range Mods)
• Expendable (Ammo)
• Focused (Inverted Range Mods)
• Guided (No Range Mods)
• Piercing (one level of piercing for all your shieldbreaking needs; hooray!) 
• Proximity (Area Effect)
• Repeating  (I think Dan will actually fix Repeating this time, though)
• Scatter (Range-Based Foo traits)
• Slow (Slow-Firing)
• Telescopic (Inverted Range-Based Foo traits)
• Triple Damage (from DMG 4 and 5 weapons)
• Volatile (Variable Foo traits)

Weapon traits that we know are out, as they appear on the conversion list but don't convert into traits (just firepower modifiers):

• Continuing Damage
• Crew Killer
• Fire-Linked
• Increased Hits
• Increased Impact
• Halves and Ignores Shields (now are a multiplier to firepower and Piercing)
• No Hull Damage
• Non-Piercing
• Piercing +n (also a multiplier and Piercing)
• Starship-Exclusive

That's a pretty good list, there, of things that were problems in AE because they were either too good, so everyone abused them, or because they were pretty terrible, and so were a waste of page space.  Hope continues.

Looking at these traits, I should be able to convert the Eldar pretty handily; x1.5 hull, easy firepower conversion since most of my stuff was RoF1 IMP1 DAM1 anyways, ECM3 from Point Defense + Countermeasures, and Cloaking still in.  Sounds like a party.

As for the movement, three simple variants: Cinematic, Etheric, and Solar.  Cinematic is pretty much what we've been using.  Etheric is simple enough, and Solar looks very Eldar, and also very good for modeling naval engagement in the Age of Sail.  Huzzah!

But yeah...  the rate at which Cricket's been leaking material has increased again, which leads me to hope that it will actually be released soon.  Stay tuned.