[GZG] Tech tree for campaign play [long] [sec=UNCLASSIFIED]

Just started reading Steve Walmsley's Rigellian Empire Diary (from an old
VectorVerse discussion thread) combined with Simon White's new campaign, I've
decided to try reworking my old tech trees using a different methodology.
Basic premise is to use 10x pts cost of each system (smallest size of basic
system; ie without extra arcs) as the research cost of each system (stacking
into "tree" format).

The K-Gun and Plasmabolt trees seem very long, but appear comparable as
Kra'vak and phalons have a lot less systems to develop compared to human
fleets.

Items with an asterix are expanded arcs or stand-alone research and are
not "stacked" into the cost of the next advance.

***

Basic Construction (mass*10): (as per FTFB1 pg 12 classification)
100   Scout
160   Corvette
260   Frigate
360   Destroyer
500   Super Destroyer
600   Light Cruiser
700   Escort Cruiser
900   Heavy Cruiser
1100 Battlecruiser 1400 Battleship 1600 BattleDreadnought 1800 Dreadnought
2000 Supership (any mass)

Hull Type:
50   Fragile
100 Weak 150 Average 200 Strong 250 Super

Hull Armour:
20   1st Layer "Standard" Armour
60 2nd Layer "Shell" Armour 120 3rd Layer "Shell" Armour 200 4th Layer "Shell"
Armour

Normal Main Drive:
40   MD-1
80   MD-2
120  MD-3
160  MD-4
200  MD-5
240  MD-6
280  MD-7
320  MD-8

Advanced Main Drive:
60   MD-1
120  MD-2
180  MD-3
240  MD-4
300  MD-5
360  MD-6
420  MD-7
480  MD-8

FTL Drive: (partly based on old VV discussions)
10  Sublight FTL (Jump-1 equiv)
100 "standard" FTL (Jump-2 equiv)
150 Wormhole travel (natural) (approx Jump-10 depending on PSB/location)
200 "double rate" FTL (Jump-3 equiv)
300 "triple rate" FTL (Jump-4 equiv)
400 "quadruple rate" FTL (Jump-5 equiv)
500 Artificial Wormhole/Jumpgates (Jump-10 when built)

NB: Any ship can fit multiple FTL drives for an even greater strategic
speed.  This will need adjusting, depending on campaign needs/balance.
Possible campaign rule: Misjump on all "1's", #d6 = jump rating (so
Jump-3
rolls 3d6)

Electronics:
40   Fire Control
120 ADFC
+x   Advanced Sensors
+x   Superior Sensors
+x   ECM
*+x  Weasel Decoy
*+x  Area ECM

Screens:
90   Level-1 Screen
180  Level-2 Screen (redundant screens can be purchased)
380 Cloaking Field 980 Reflex Field

Beams:
30   PDS
60   Class-1 (6-arc)
120  Class-2 (3-arc)
*150 Class-2 (6-arc)
240  Class-3 (1-arc)
*270 Class-3 (multi-arc)
480  Class-4 (1-arc)
*540 Class-4 (multi-arc)

Advanced Energy Weapons:
60   Needle Beam
180  Pulse Torpedo (1-arc)
*210 Pulse Torpedo (multi-arc)
+x   Graser-1 (1-arc)
*+x  Graser-1 (multi-arc)
+x   Graser-2 (1-arc)
*+x  Graser-2 (multi-arc)
+600   Nova Cannon
+360   Wave Gun

Missile Tech:
30   Submunitions Pack
90   Std MT Missiles
210 SMR (std) *240 SMR (ER)
300  SML + magazine
*+30 *various Weapon Archive alternate missiles (cost is each type)
390 Ortillery
+x   Antimatter Missiles

Fighter Systems:
0    Cargo/Passenger Space
30   Hanger Bays
*50  Interface/Boarding shuttles
300 Fighter Bays 330 Standard Fighters (NB: damage type is based on weapon
tech)
*+30  Interceptor Fighters
*+40  Fast Fighters (requires MD-6)
*+40  Attack Fighters
*+40  Long Range Fighters
*+50  Heavy Fighters
*+60  Torpedo Fighters (requires Pulse Torpedoes)

K-Guns:
50   Scattergun
*50 MKP
130  K-1 (6-arc)
250  K-2 (1-arc)
*290 K-2 (2-arc)
450  K-3 (1-arc)
690  K-4 (1-arc)
1130 K-5 (1-arc)
1650 K-6 (1-arc)

Pulsar Batteries:
100  1-arc Pulsar
250  3-arc Pulsar
350  6-arc Pulsar

Plasmabolt Launchers:
300  PB-1 (Houserule: 6 mass)
550  PB-2 (Houserule: 11 mass)
750  PB-3 (Houserule: 15 mass)
1000 PB-4
1250 PB-5

Individual/unusual Items:
*60   Minelayer

*150 Minesweeper

*300 Phalon Vapour Shroud

Brendan 'Neath Southern Skies
http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernsk/

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Brendan wrote: (lots)

> Just started reading Steve Walmsley's Rigellian Empire Diary (from

Tech Trees are always a pain to sort out - balancing issues aside, you
need to first partition things into a sensible Tree, backup up by some
PSB. Though I like your divisions - good idea about the extra arcs. Not
convinved about the increasing costs of beams though.

Perhaps you could work it on a cumulative idea. So Beam 1 [6arc] is 30 TP, but
a Beam 2 [3arc] (the basic) is also 30 TP, ie the difference between class 2
and 1, not just absolute. crunches the beam tree down a lot though.

All this then of course depends on how common tech points are, but thats a
balancing issue, so ignore it and it'll go away.

It's good and I like it in principle. For our campaign we didn't want a
tech tree since everyone then starts out the same - we like the idea of
having vastly varied starting powers. Since it's a trust based game, we
'theme' our designs without enforcing a specific tech tree or set of
restrictions (eg. all my ships of the line (my beta fleet) are thrust 5, no
more no less).

Very interesting, I'll add it as an appendix someday if you don't mind.

Simon

I thought about not stacking developments and simply having the difference in
cost. The problem there was that it becomes very cheap to simply hit the
"best" weapons in each class without a lot of investment. This is exacerbated
between human and alien tech, as Kra'vak and Phalons really only have 2 weapon
trees each (3 with fighters) and humans have 4 (inc screens) (5 with
fighters). With alien tech *needing* larger weapons to increase effectiveness,
it should balance out the long-term investment needed.

Tech development is very basic; just spend the MCr on tech instead of ships.

Brendan 'Neath Southern Skies
http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernsk/

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