Thanks for the pointer to the hull size thread: good stuff. Derk Groeneveld
comment's re watching over systems with smaller vessels is cruical as are
David Griffin comments re small ships getting out of the
way. Interestingly, this matches with Age-of-sail uses of cruiser where
communication/travel seems very similar, as well as the "honourable"
tactic
of not firing on low-rate ships unless they're threatening you.
Whilst there appears to be an issue given the hull size costs, in that
bigger ships seem to pay less _proportionally_ per weapon system than
smaller ships*, there is also an issue with the weapons costs/damage
themselves: is there any other "stuff" on the comparative weapons costs,
especially as regards smaller ships?
*(e.g. assume a B3-2arc of 5 MASS and 15 points: the actual NPV cost for
being able to fit that weapon is 5 PLUS the 15 cost of weapon consuming that
space (20 pts)).
> Tim Bancroft wrote:
> Thanks for the pointer to the hull size thread: good stuff. Derk
tactic
> of not firing on low-rate ships unless they're threatening you.
The hull size fix isn't necessary if you play campaigns, since that's where
all the small-ship tasks appear - patrol duties, convoy escorting,
scouting ahead of the battle fleet etc.
It is only in one-off battles where the hull size fix is needed, and
even then it is only really needed if you want to give the players a reason to
bring any small ships to the battle instead of pouring all their points into
one or a few gigantic capital ships. Historically, of course, small
wet-navy ships tended to stay out of battles between capital ships if
they
had a chance :-/
> Whilst there appears to be an issue given the hull size costs, in that
Er, no. Bigger ships pay *exactly the same* per weapon system than smaller
ships do, but for several reasons they get *more use* out of said weapons
before being destroyed than the small ships do.
> *(e.g. assume a B3-2arc of 5 MASS and 15 points: the actual NPV cost
No, the actual NPV cost for being able to fit that weapon is: 5 for the basic
hull structure 15 for the cost of the weapon
2*5*(1/(1-(0.1+Thrust/20))-1) for the engines propelling the weapon
through
normal- and hyper-space respectively (assuming human-style engines and
an
FTL-capable ship; Kra'Vak ships pay more, system defence boats pay
less), and
1*5*(1/(1-(0.1+Thrust/20))-1) for the hull structure containing those
engines.
For an FTL-capable thrust-4 ship, this adds up to a grand total of 26-27
pts depending a on how the overall fractions get rounded. For a thrust-6
ship it is 30 pts, etc. :-/
Regards,