Campaign tech levels (research approach) - (was: FTFB: Scenerio + Q?'s)

You could use this for a research approach to campaign play. Players simply
allocate budget to research any fields they're interested in & when it reaches
the appropriate level, they get that advance (cumulative points, you don't
lose what you've already spent). As an option, the next advance is available
at double mass for the same
benefit (ie. you develop class-1 beams at 1 mass, class-2 beams are
available at 4 mass +2 mass for 6-arc fire).

The points are based on the home system (at the start) able to produce
about 100-200 pts/turn surplus (enough to build a frigate or small
destroyer in one turn.) If playing a slower advancement game, have players
start with a set amount of research that they can distribute (1000 points is
good) & change the ratio of available funds being used for research, depending
on the resource system you're using.

Construction Research:
0       Mass 40 hulls / Partial Streamlining
50 FTFB Hull armour
100     Mass 60 hulls / Full Streamlining
250     Mass 100 hulls / Basic Fighters
500     Mass 150 hulls / Heavy Fighters
750 Mass 200 hulls
1000    Super hulls (200+)

Energy Research:
0       PDS/Class-1
80      Class-2
150     Needle beams/Interceptor fighters (must have basic fighters)
300     Class-3
500     Pulse Torpedoes/Torpedo fighters (must have basic fighters)
750     Class-4+
1000 Wave Gun 1500 Nova Cannon

Kinetic Research: 0 Basic Missile (MT nuclear) 50 Sub Munition Packs
100     Minelayer/Minesweeper (subpac mines)
200 EMP Missile 300 Needle Missile 500 Ortillery 750 Salvo Missiles (Std) 1000
Salvo Missiles (ER)

Power Systems:
0       Thrust-2/Firecon
50      Thrust-4/FTL Drive
100     Energy Screen-1
250     Thrust-6/ADFC
500     Thrust-8/Energy Screen-2
800 Tender Drives 1000 Reflex Field 1500 Cloaking Field

'Neath Southern Skies
http://users.mcmedia.com.au/~denian/
*****
They seek him here, they seek him there; Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive, Pimpernel.
        - 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', Baroness Emma Orkzy

Oh this sound sooo cool! 8D

The only thing I can think of to improve it: Require a player to wait a turn
or two before receiving the advancement. This would slow down
mid-game
instant tech achievements. (ie: After a player controls a few worlds, he can
spend more on research, and still stay within the research%
limits...)

Or am I going off the deep end?

Donald Hosford

> "Robertson, Brendan" wrote:

> You could use this for a research approach to campaign play. Players

> Oh this sound sooo cool! 8D

I think that the solution is to make it a multi-step process to
implement the technology. First research it, as in the chart. Then refit
construction yards (a 1 or 2 month process), then begin construction or refits
on actual ships. If you place a maximum of how many construction points can be
allocated to an individual ship each turn, then fighters may be built in a
single turn, while larger ships have a natural slowdown. Another benefit is
that different shipyards have different capabilities.
Your home yards may have recently upgraded to building class-3 beams,
while
an outlying shipyard still can only build class-2.  So you prioritize
what gets built where, adding much more flavor. The same holds true for
repairs.  Maybe your ship/repair yard near the front lines can't handle
pulse torps - so if you want to repair a ship that has had it's pulse
torps destroyed, you might be forced to install something else, instead
(perhaps
your only p-torps yard has gotten toasted...)

Anyway, that's probably enough rambling for now.