Alternative Threshold Arrays.

4 posts ยท Sep 12 2002 to Sep 17 2002

From: Adam Benedict Canning <dahak@d...>

Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 23:02:39 +0100

Subject: Alternative Threshold Arrays.

A point came up when looking at SBFS where the damage tracks can be of
differeing geometries dependant on technology [In that Criticals which are a
near equivalent to Threshold checks occur when you loose a row of hull, so a
ship with 10 rows of 2 hits has a tendancy to wreck much more than one with 2
rows of 10 hits, even though both cantake the same damage before loosing hull
integrity.].

As an alternative for an alien race having 7 rows rather than the
usual 4 and taking 6+ threshold checks at the end of each. Is that
balanced and can we work out how to fiddle that side of things to build
desiign philosopies into FT ships?

From: Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@t...>

Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 21:43:47 +0200

Subject: Re: Alternative Threshold Arrays.

> Adam Benedict Canning wrote:

> A point came up when looking at SBFS

"SFBS"?

> where the damage tracks can be of

See http://nift.firedrake.org/misc/WDA-Mods.htm , specifically the entry
"Variable number of hull rows". There is a cost for 6-row hulls though;
they're worth about 1xMass.

> As an alternative for an alien race having 7 rows rather than the

Whether or not a specific hull row/threshold number scheme can be
balanced depends mostly on how the synergy effects between armour, screens and
hull row lengths turn out. Generally speaking threshold schemes with large
number of checks appear to be easier to balance than schemes with few
threshold checks, but you have to work through the entire spectrum of screen
levels, armour levels, hull strength levels etc. to be reasonably sure.

In your particular example, you have the additional complication that the ship
will never ever suffer a Core System failure (since Core Systems
automatically survive checks if the threshold level is 6+) :-/

Regards,

From: Charles Taylor <charles.taylor@c...>

Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 22:33:31 +0100

Subject: Re: Alternative Threshold Arrays.

In message <5.1.0.14.1.20020916214309.00a47e80@d1o4.telia.com>
> Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com> wrote:

> Adam Benedict Canning wrote:
Starblazers Fleet Battle System - A space battle game set in the Space
Battleship Yamato/Starblazers universe.

Which reminds me of a question I forgot to ask Jon Tuffley over the
weekend :-( (ok, I'll e-mail to to him now)
> [quoted text omitted]
[snip rest of message]
> Regards,

From: Michael Llaneza <maserati@e...>

Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 19:29:47 -0700

Subject: Re: Alternative Threshold Arrays.

SFBS is almost on topic in it's own right. The mechanics differ in detail, and
the sequence of play alone is longer than the vector rules in FB2, but it's
just FT done differently, and with verbose rules.

It makes FT adaptions of SFBS ships easy, although you get huge ships if

you convert everything 1:1.

> Charles Taylor wrote:

> In message <5.1.0.14.1.20020916214309.00a47e80@d1o4.telia.com>