Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-87.8.24.239-20170806095559

Hi there!

Is there a formal definition of ability?

Are there subtypes of abilities (like ship's abilities, card's abilities, etc..)?

I ask this because with my playing group we had an interesting discussion on K4 Security Droid: we were debating if, when acquiring the target lock with K's4 ability, the player is allowed or not to accurately measure the range and gain informations from that.

Example: I move my ship and I try the K4's target lock. I search with the range ruler for the shortest distance between my ship and the enemy ship (and when doing this I can also check the firing arc!). I see that the enemy is at range 2 but that with a Barrel Roll I can short the distance at 1 and I can also adjust my position to have the best firing arc, so I get the lock and then I perform the Barrel Roll.

Is everything legal?

So, back to the first question..

In order to get the lock, the target ship must be at range 1-3, so I have to check and measure the range. The range is measured on the shortest distance. In order to find the shortest distance I can also indirectly check if the ship is in the firing arc while moving around my range ruler.

Regarding "Measuring Range", the 4.3.3 FAQ says that a player is allowed to check the range "When a player declares a ship's ability that requires another ship to be at certain range.."

So, is K4 a ship's ability? If it is a ship's ability, the previously described scenario is niffy but legal.

Otherwise, the player is not allowed to measure the range and then he cannot perform the lock!

Thanks for clarifying this! 