The basic rules allow for standard space operations, but for wishing a little more complexity and excitement in their lives may use any of the following additional rules to spice up their games a little. Fuel: Every unit has a set amount of fuel that they carry. This fuel is used for manoeuvring. Every point of thrust uses 1 point of fuel. When a unit reaches 0 fuel, it may no longer use any thrust or fire laser weapons and is now simply floating at its previous velocity, awaiting rescue crews. Floating Map: Usually in SF3D games the map remains static and any unit that leaves it is out of the game. However, in space battles space units can fly all over the place and get chased down by other units. Because of this, some players may find the space map slightly restrictive. If you do find this, then you can use a floating map. What happens in this case is that if the combat starts shifting towards one end of the map, all the units can be moved back ten hexes. This should put the units back near the centre of the map giving more freedom for play. In addition, units can also be moved to side ten hexes if that would help. However, if this occurs, ALL units must be moved the specified amount of hexes, there can be no exceptions. Of course, this does bring up a couple of issues. The first is that there is no longer any chance of a unit exiting the map along a certain edge because that edge may keep shifting. In addition, moving the units on the map may cause some to drop off. When this happens, the following is assumed. If units 'drop off' the map because it is being floated, then they are considered to have exited the map as normal. If a unit is trying to escape to a particular edge and is being chased, then it can still escape but must have a lead of 25 hexes on the chasing units. Banana Boats and Transports: Banana Boats are designed to carry SAFS or other units into action. Each boat can carry 1-6 SAFS or equivalent suits, or 1 larger suit (Camel for example), or 1 space unit (Lunadiver Stingray, not Interceptor). These units are attached to the Banana Boat in pods and until released, may not use any of their weapons or equipment. Whilst automated, Banana Boats may manoeuvre as if they were a manned unit and have no restrictions placed on them. Releasing Pods: At the end of the Banana Boats movement, it may launch it's pods. These pods detach from the boat and keep the same heading and velocity as the Banana Boat before it's launch, however on the turn that the pod was launched it doesn't actually move, it stays in the same hex as the Banana Boat. The pods have no additional thrusters and thus can't alter their heading or velocity at all. Pods must be released in groups of three (or the first launch must be less than three if there are less than six but more than three pods present on the boat), and the pods may themselves be opened to release their contents on the turn that they are released from the boats. Released pods may be fired upon as normal units - see below for damage to them if they are hit. Space units do not follow this procedure, as they are not actually stored in pods - when released from the Banana Boat, they are actually released from the Boat and start the next turn with the same velocity as the Banana Boat. They may immediately fire their thrusters and fire weapons. Larger suits (such as the Camel), which don�t have an impact in space combat, are released as normal pods, but there is only one pod per boat. Releasing Units from Pods: Once a unit has been released from the Banana Boat, it is still in its pod and thus not able to move, fire weapons or use equipment. To do this, it must detach itself from the pod. This is very easy to do. At the end of the turn that the pod moved (or the turn that the pod was launched), the unit instead the pod can declare that it is being released. It doesn't move and cannot fire on the turn of release, but will gain the velocity and heading of the pod. On the next turn it may then manoeuvre and fire normally. Damage to Banana Boats and Pods: When a Banana Boat is hit, there is a chance that the pods attached might take the brunt of the damage instead of the boat itself. Whenever the boat is hit, roll 1d6. If there are three pods or less attached, then one of the pods will be hit on a roll of 1. If there are 4-6 pods attached, then they may be hit on a roll of 1-2. If a space unit of larger unit (like a Camel) is attached to the boat, then roll is always 1-2. If a pod is hit the occupant takes any damage instead of the boat. The pod will protect slightly, so the unit inside has a +1 Defence value (so an SAFS Fireball of 4B becomes 5B). All normal damage effects apply. Decoys: Decoys are launched from Banana Boats are designed to provide some additional protection for units being shielded by them. Decoys are not solely electronic warfare generators, but instead are physical units designed to look vaguely like the unit they are protecting. They are also very small, so a pod will contain a lot of them meaning that once launched, the cloud of decoys will remain in play and will not be destroyed. To gain protection from the cloud, a unit must be travelling at the same velocity and be in the same heading as the decoys. The decoys and shielded units must be launched either from the same Banana Boat or from differing boats which are in the same hex and with the same heading and velocity. When released from the pod, all units to be shielded must be released at the same time. This then will mean that the shield units and the decoys are all in the same hex with the same velocity and same heading. If the shielded unit doesn't do anything to disrupt this and thus drifts along at the same rate as the decoys, and if it doesn't use any equipment or fire weapons, then all enemy forces shooting at that shielded unit will be at a -3 to weapons fire. If the shield unit remains in the same hex but uses its thrusters, fires weapons or uses other equipment, then it will be at a -1 to be hit by weapons fire. A unit that doesn't start the turn in a decoy cloud may enter the cloud, and if it ends its turn there may gain the -1 modifier. Note that enemy or friendly units may enter the cloud and gain the modifier.