[FT] Tech Levels

From: <aebrain@austarmetro.com.au>

> The most simple way of dealing with Tech Levels is to keep points

Which could be split into research lines (Beams, Kguns, Drives, Screens,
Sensors etc) easily enough if you don't mind doing the math

I really like Alan (right?) Brain's Tech level idea. If it was posted before,
I hadn't seen it. It allows you to keep everything balanced in FT with minimal
tweaking. Its even simpler than my tech level concept, which I'm (of course)
partial to. My concept was variation of the MU. If "standard tech" MU's are 1
inch, Low tech would be 2 cm. High tech would be 3 cm. Costs scale with the
difference in MU size, and the MU scale of a given tech level applies for
muvement, weapon range, etc. I have a simple formula on the NIFT page
somewhere.

Both of these don't require any fiddling with systems or making any thing tech
level specific. Both systems are scalable, meaning you could use "FB standard"
if all your ships are of a given tech level, regardless of the era.

The most simple way of dealing with Tech Levels is to keep points costs the
same, but decrease the effective mass.

So the (obsolete) Battleship "Ginormous", actual mass 100, might have the same
effective mass and points costs as a "Furious" class medium cruiser, or even a
Tacoma class destroyer. If you consider costs as being primarily for
play-
balance, then it's exactly right. If you consider them as being economic
costs, just figure that the old stuff is all amortised. You can't build any
new ones for the same cost, but the old infrastructure (spare parts stocks,
slipways etc) is all paid for already.

I've posted this idea before on the list. It didn't exactly receive an
enthusiastic reception, but it does have the virtue of simplicity and play
balance. For campaigns spread over several generations, where TL is constantly
changing, the best way would be to keep costs per mass the same, and then
start from say 3.0 x FT2 Mass per system through to 0.5 or so, with each TL
representing a 0.25 ( or 0.1 or whatever) change. And the easiest way of doing
this would be to design your ship using FB2 as normal, then multiply the mass
and cost by the appropriate factor.