Override space playtest rules

Use separate space profiles for aerospace fighters, DropShips, Small Craft, JumpShips, WarShips and stations. Conventional fighters are atmosphere-only and have no space profile. Existing ground/atmospheric cards and company accounting are unchanged.

One space turn is 60 seconds. Use the book’s space map and distance scale, not ground inches. Keep velocity, thrust and facing separate. Six ground turns pass during one space turn when resolving orbital/ground interaction.

Capital armor: divide each native capital armor facing by 4, round half up; zero stays zero. Structural-integrity boxes: divide native SI by 3 and round half up, minimum one for positive SI. Retain native SI separately for thrust-stress/control rules: converted damage boxes are not a new thrust limit.

Direct-fire bays: add the eligible native attack values, including fractions, then divide by 3 and round up once. Preserve bay boundaries, classes, ammunition and firing arcs. Four NL45s have 18 native capital AV and become 6 Override capital damage; do not truncate 4.5 to 4 per laser.

Capital and standard values remain explicitly labeled. One Override capital point equals ten Override standard points. Never add a capital bay and a standard bay as though they used the same scale. The printed all-band AV totals are reference totals; at a given distance, determine the eligible contribution of each mount from its detailed range row before rounding.

DropShips remain standard-scale targets. Their space armor uses native armor divided by 4, rounded half up; space SI uses native SI divided by 3, rounded half up with a minimum of one for positive SI. Keep native SI for control/thrust-stress checks. Existing ground-action DropShip cards are unchanged. Small Craft SI remains native under the current playtest rules.

Against a DropShip, multiply capital-scale Override damage by ten before applying it to standard-scale armor and SI. Against a capital target, standard-scale DropShip damage uses per-facing ten-point carry. A capital weapon bay or missile does not change the scale of the carrying DropShip. Retain applicable capital-weapon targeting restrictions and declared modes.

Use the book’s class movement order or advanced initiative option, selected before the scenario. Maintain the expanded aerospace phases and their special docking, launch and capital-missile timing.

Track thrust in six directions. Cancel opposing components, then consolidate equal oblique components into the intervening direction until at most two adjacent vectors remain. Track facing independently. Apply the book’s turning, yaw, end-over and control-roll costs; do not replace velocity with walking/running movement.

JumpShips with station-keeping drives accumulate 0.2 thrust per turn. A facing-change turn cannot also add thrust or change velocity. Preserve unused accumulated thrust. Stations do not change position tactically; their rotation rules differ between civilian and military stations. WarShips use their actual safe/maximum thrust.

For high-speed closing engagements, use the detection/initial maneuver, capital missile, meeting engagement and end phases from the book. Record approach velocity, geometry and launch times; range bands alone do not replace this encounter sequence.

WarShips have six armor facings but eight weapon arcs: left and right broadsides are weapon locations, not extra armor pools. Resolve hit location and critical system using the appropriate nose/aft/side table. Do not use the watercraft vehicle hit table for space ships.

Against a capital target, record sub-capital hits in standard-point carry separately for each struck facing. At ten points, cross off one capital armor point and retain any remainder. Carry persists across turns and never transfers to another facing. Once that facing has no armor, whole points pass to the single SI pool; its remaining carry still belongs to the struck facing.

Assess critical eligibility using this attack’s damage only. Older carry cannot increase the attack’s critical damage evidence. Preserve the book’s maximum-damage-threshold restriction for bays, based on the strongest contributing weapon, and the critical table’s distinct effects. Resolve native threshold/weapon comparisons in native units before converting damage; do not compare an Override number to an unconverted native threshold.

Keep avionics, control/CIC, sensors, engines, left/right thrusters, life support, crew, bay weapons, doors/collars, fuel, grav decks, K-F and sail effects distinct. A disabled K-F drive prevents jumping; it does not automatically destroy the ship. Destruction and survival outcomes do not post campaign results or kill saved characters automatically.

Variable damage thresholds, if used, refer to the native-armor damage record required by that optional rule. The simplified Override armor boxes alone cannot reconstruct a precise native remaining-armor value after rounding. Keep that native record alongside the card when this option is enabled.

Retain the Large Craft zero-net-heat firing budget: select only bays whose native heat fits the available dissipation after critical effects. Printed Override heat uses native heat divided by 5, rounded after summing the bay; for a close budget comparison use the native heat rows to avoid creating extra cooling through rounding.

Mixed bays retain per-weapon ranges and range-dependent AV. Sum only weapons eligible at the current range, then convert. Rear-mounted weapons stay in their rear arc. Bracketing and anti-aerospace capital laser modes remain declared modes, with the book’s attack/AV adjustments applied before conversion.

Do not infer a selected munition or alternate mode from a launcher name. AR10 sheets list the carried warhead options; select one and use its actual native damage, range/mode rules and ammunition expenditure. Nuclear, screen, tele-operated, one-shot and special-ammunition effects use their own source rules, not the direct-fire damage formula alone.

Capital missile damage uses Override M dice, not a second Strategic Operations cluster-damage roll. After determining which missiles/attack value survive interception, divide the surviving native salvo AV by 3 and round up to determine the maximum Override damage.

Playtest capital missile profile: zero automatic damage, M equal to the ceiling of maximum Override damage divided by 3, with that maximum shown in parentheses. Roll one d6 per M: 1, 2 or 3 adds that many damage; 4, 5 or 6 adds zero. Cap the total at the printed maximum. Split the result into two-point groups and one final one-point group if needed; resolve their locations independently.

Retain bearings-only launch information, preprogrammed waypoints and tele-operated control as distinct modes. Record launch turn, velocity/course, target/waypoints, control link and interception windows. A launch without a direct firing solution does not become an ordinary direct-fire attack merely because the damage uses M dice.

Use the source point-defense/interception rules with native missile armor and native defensive values to determine what survives. Pay the native ammunition and heat costs, observe arcs and the rule’s engagement limits, then build the surviving salvo’s M profile. Do not also apply a second cluster-damage roll or an extra flat AMS reduction to the same interception.

Standard-scale weapons retain their standard label. The bay sheets show their source AV and range data; guidance, Artemis, Narc, ECM and mode-specific modifiers must be applied before choosing the final missile profile. A printed baseline is not a declaration of special ammunition.

Standard missiles use reviewed Override weapon profiles where available. Otherwise use the explicitly marked space-AV playtest profile. Apply ammunition, Streak confirmation and current-condition effects before combining eligible surviving mounts.

Distinguish detecting an object from obtaining a firing solution. Use active radar, passive optical/thermal detection, ESM, drive plumes, emergence waves and jump signatures as separate source detection modes. Record when the target was detected and whether it remains in sensor range.

Apply the book’s class-dependent sensor ranges, detection checks, sensor damage and ECM/ECCM rules. Probes and naval comm-scanner suites modify only the detection types the source rules specify. Civilian craft do not inherit military ESM merely because they are large.

Maintain large-craft sensor shadows and the effects of relative geometry. A detected but untargetable object can be eligible for a bearings-only capital missile launch without being eligible for direct fire. Keep hidden contacts and GM information on separate records rather than printing them on player cards.

Support both individual aerospace fighter profiles and squadrons. A squadron has at most six fighters; split larger forces. Preserve each fighter’s identity, source design, armor, skill, fuel, heat and critical state. Pair fighters of the same chassis, allowing different variants/configurations as the book permits.

Squadron movement uses the slowest active fighter’s thrust, the lowest native SI and the least remaining fuel. Average active pilot Gunnery/Piloting and round down. Recalculate after losses, splitting, damage or incomplete launch/recovery; do not keep a destroyed fighter’s weapons or heat capacity.

Keep Nose, Wing and Aft weapon identity for each fighter; squadron front/aft firing arcs follow the book. Group only identical weapon types in the same squadron arc and preserve their per-fighter quantities. Forward wing weapons and rear wing weapons cannot silently merge. Wing weapon criticals halve the affected fighter’s wing contribution on the first hit and remove it on the second; nose/aft weapon criticals remove that fighter’s corresponding contribution.

Use the squadron hit-allocation/fatal-threshold rules, not a single invulnerable pooled hull. Record each fighter’s capital armor and fatal threshold separately. Convert the capital armor with the approved armor divisor; native fatal checks and native threshold evidence remain separate from the converted display.

Launch/recovery is limited by actual saved bays, working doors, docking conditions and the source control checks. Only fighters actually launched and present contribute. If four of six fighters launch, the active squadron has four until the others join. External stores must meet the source squadron compatibility rules and remain attached to individual carriers until expended.

Use docking/grappling orientation, relative velocity, collars, doors and control modifiers from the source rules. Being adjacent does not automatically dock two ships. Retain the selected facing while boarding or transferring units.

Boarding, crew evacuation, lifeboats and escape pods use their own movement and survival checks. Preserve actual crew, passengers, marines and escape capacity. Orbital insertion and ground units on a hull use their source vacuum/zero-g restrictions and timing.

Jump calculations, charging, jump range, sail status, K-F integrity and lithium-fusion availability remain separate from tactical hull SI. Use the source hyperspace checks and campaign travel workflow; a printed card does not move a campaign or close/pay a contract.

Orbital bombardment, satellites/defense facilities, fuel logistics and construction are scenario modules using the cited source rules. The release reads existing MegaMek designs; it is not a replacement construction editor and does not fabricate unsupported satellite or installation designs.